Blog

From rescue buyout to rapid growth for Llandudno IT company

A leading IT company is on cloud nine after growing its workforce and increasing turnover every year since a rescue buyout.

And things are set to get even better for the team at Risc IT Solutions in Llandudno, as they look to take on three new staff and target a possible acquisition in a bid to further extend their footprint across the UK.

Top Tips for Secure Passwords

2017 was littered with cyberattacks, hacks and data breaches. We witnessed the Petya/NotPetya attack that caused Chernobyl’s radiation levels to be monitored manually, to the NHS WannaCry attack that impacted over 7000 appointments, right through to Uber who paid $100,000 to the hackers to delete the breached data and keep quiet. 2018 has not yet been littered with huge scale attacks like last year – let’s hope it stays that way too!

Post-GDPR Spam: what to do if you’re still receiving spam email.

The General Data Protection Regulation is a hefty 88 page outcome of 4 years of EU deliberation that’s designed to give people more control over their data. Because of GDPR, companies can no longer hold people’s data without their explicit consent and they can no longer contact people with marketing emails unless they’ve explicitly opted in.

Migrate to Office 365 with SkyKick

One of the biggest reasons companies hesitate to move to Office 365 is because of the email migration process. Typically, migration to Office 365 involves pre-configuration, connectivity testing, and many other steps; it can be a long, tedious and often complex process for tech teams. It needn’t be this way though. SkyKick Migration automates most of this process, eliminating the barrier that many companies face.

The Business Benefits of Office 365 Backup

We all know that backing up your physical machines is essential but many businesses that move to Office 365 do not realise that they need to backup their Cloud-based data. The Cloud might not be subject to the same physical threats as servers and laptops, but it is subject to the same human threats. Surprisingly 32% of companies lose data in the Cloud, 75% of this is due to human error.

What is Azure Information Protection?

With GDPR at the forefront of our minds, businesses, now more than ever, are engaging with data protection and cybersecurity. With encryption and permissions settings being a key part of the regulation, one product which we recommend is Azure Information Protection (AIP). This is available within Office 365 as a bolt on or as standard with the more comprehensive plans.

What is SkyKick Backup?

Organisations are adopting Cloud-based services now more than ever before. Our reliance on Exchange, OneDrive and SharePoint in particular for day to day business operations means that backing up this Cloud-based data is now as important as backing up your physical machines.

SkyKick Cloud Backup provides total security for your Office 365 data, enabling easy restoration of your valuable information in an event of data loss.

What is VIA Hosted Skype for Business?

Skype for Business is increasingly becoming an integral part of business communications. Instant Messaging (IM), conference calls, and availability status ease communication between colleagues and clients.

Whilst Skype for Business on its own is a great product, VIA Hosted Skype for Business expands on this by integrating new features and technologies, taking it to another level to offer a complete Unified Comms as a Service (UCaaS) solution.

All eyes are on GDPR, but don't forget about NIS

With all the buzz around GDPR, another important piece of legislation seems to have taken a back seat. Just like GDPR, the EU’s Network and Information Systems (NIS) Directive will also come into force in May. Rather than focussing on the protection of personal identifiable data like GDPR, the NIS directive sets out to improve the security of network and information systems across the UK, with a focus on essential services which could potentially cause significant damage to the economy, society, and individuals’ welfare if disrupted.

Preparing for GDPR

GDPR comes into force throughout the UK and the rest of the EU on 25^th May 2018. There’s less than three months to go and businesses are still unprepared. Worryingly, 15% of UK IT Professionals have no plans to prepare for GDPR before the ever-encroaching deadline hits, which is not ideal.

There’s lots of confusion around GDPR: what it means, who it affects, etc. This blog will clear up any confusion whilst laying out some practical steps you can follow to help you towards being compliant.

7 Reasons to move to the Cloud

Increased flexibility, scalability, collaboration, security and changing payment terms from upfront to monthly - there are many reasons why businesses are moving to the Cloud. Here's our top 7 reasons why you should move to the Cloud.

What is Microsoft EM+S?

Doing business today often means working from anywhere on any device with ease. Unfortunately, doing this exposes your business data to more risk, simply because there’s more ways to access it. With the Enterprise Mobility and Security Suite (EM+S) from Microsoft, your business is protected through a combination of five different products which together provide a complete security package.

Office 365 vs Home & Business

The evolution of the cloud has brought many business benefits. These include additional security, increased mobility of your workforce and something which can’t be overlooked – increased cashflow. This is due to its model of monthly subscriptions which are flexible to match the increase (or decrease) of your staff and company’s growth.

Backup vs. Disaster Recovery

Backup is essential for all businesses. Backup ensures that you can restore your data in an event of data loss and continue with business as usual. However, in an event where you have lost the very thing you need to restore your data to, you will need a full system recovery. Here we’ll explain the difference between the two.

Windows 10: The Launch of Windows as a Service

Unlike the regular product and feature updates we receive from Microsoft, people get nervous when changing operating systems. This has now all changed with the launch of Windows as a Service (Windows 10 Enterprise), previously only available to large enterprises. Although there are a whole host of additional features and benefits compared to Windows 10 Pro, there are two main differences: the building and deployment, and the payment model.

2017 Cyber Review

2017 has been quite a year for Cyberattacks; we’ve had some of the worst attacks and data breaches in history. For this blog, we thought we’d do a roundup of the year and look at 2017’s cyberattacks.

Being Digitally Unsavvy is Costing Businesses

Lloyd’s Bank Digital Index has recently revealed that around 1.6 million businesses in Britain are in the ‘digital slow lane’. Twice as many organisations are developing digital skills now than when the index started in 2014, but despite this, 41% of businesses in the UK are still not digitally savvy and lack basic digital skills.

Cybersecurity in Post-Brexit Britain

Negotiations for Brexit are well and truly underway; the Government’s ‘Brexit team’ have now had their sixth meeting with their EU counterparts. Progress is certainly expected to be slow however, with a five-year timeframe being anticipated rather than the original two-year one. Regardless of whether you voted remain, leave, or not at all, we can all agree on one thing – there’s going to be a huge amount of change.

Why you should backup

Data backup is one of the most important aspects of IT but is often overlooked. By ‘Backing up’ you make a copy of your most important files which can then be used to restore them if the original file is lost, damaged or infected.

File syncing is not the same as Backup

More and more people are embracing ‘The Cloud’ to store their files. This might be Dropbox, Onedrive, Google Drive, SkyDrive, Amazon Cloud, or any of the other file syncing services out there. File syncing services have a lot of value and are very handy.