MSPNetworks Blog

Artificial intelligence has always been an intriguing concept, from the works of Isaac Asimov to the initial work at Dartmouth College in the 1950s. Nowadays, many of the technologies that we rely on each day incorporate some version of artificial intelligence… and more progress is made each day. Of course, for all its benefits, artificial intelligence can also create some problems for businesses.

Let’s explore these advantages and disadvantages, shall we?

A Brief Definition of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is more or less what it sounds like. Rather than having a computer system that relies on human input and foresight, artificially intelligent systems are trained to recognize patterns and potential outcomes in data and are given the prerogative to act on the insights it gleans, improving its success record over time as it does so. If you’ve heard of machine learning or witnessed image recognition processes taking place, that’s AI at work. 

As you might imagine, the term “AI” covers a variety of technologies and has an equally wide variety of applications to business processes. This is primarily where AI shows its benefits.

Advantages of Business AI

Let’s review some of the primary advantages that AI can offer a business.

• Business Pattern Optimization - When you consider all the data that your business generates in even a day, the thought of analyzing this data to find patterns, opportunities, or inefficiencies to resolve is understandably daunting. AI can handle this analysis, delivering predictions that can help improve a pretty comprehensive list of business concerns, like maximizing revenue growths, condensing sales cycles, and generating improved returns-on-investment.
• Cost Reduction - Artificial intelligence lends itself to automation, which means that the cost and/or labor-intensive tasks that your team currently performs might be able to be completed automatically. Not only can this help reduce costs, it can help you generate revenues by freeing your team to work on other tasks. Speaking of which...
• Revenue Increases - In addition to allowing you to improve your processes in terms of your human resources, AI can help you identify new opportunities to bring in capital by gleaning additional insights from your collected data. Furthermore, AI can be used to optimize many external processes, helping make your marketing activities that much more effective.

Of course, there are a few drawbacks to AI that need to be addressed and mitigated. 

Disadvantages of Business AI

Let’s break down some of these drawbacks:

• Fear and Misunderstanding - We’re all too familiar with the reputation that AI has been given by pop culture. Heck, even Asimov wrote about the potential dangers that AI could present. It is either something to be feared or the deus ex machina that can solve any and all problems. Neither is the case. In reality, AI has definitive limits that prevent it from solving all of our problems or accomplishing world subjugation.
• The Data Required - Any automated system is only going to perform as well as the data it is referencing allows it to… and AI needs a lot of data before it can accomplish anything. On top of that, it needs to be the right data, organized properly. This alone can be a big hurdle for a business.
• How to Explain It - Some artificially intelligent systems don’t exactly give the user a full picture of how it came to its conclusions. While this might be fine if all goes as planned, it can create a real calamity when the system makes a mistake and there’s no way to figure out why.

So, Is AI a Good Tool for Businesses?

In a lot of ways, yes… so long as you understand its limits and put forth the effort needed to set it (and by extension, yourself) up for success.

MSPNetworks can help you manage the technology your business’ processes rely on, automating what we can (and properly) so that your team can accomplish as much as they can. Find out more by calling (516) 403-9001 today.

Most businesses nowadays require a server in order to operate properly, but these critical pieces of infrastructure aren’t immune to issues. Here, we’ll go over a few common reasons that you may experience a server crash.

Age

Frankly, the server might just be getting old. Server hardware tends to have a lifespan of somewhere between four-and-six, some companies replace it sooner, and some try to stretch it out for as long as they can. When the end of this time approaches, the best way to avoid expensive issues is to replace it, as trying to push much further could wind up costing your business more in the form of downtime and disruption.

Equipment Failure

On top of your server, you have the other components in your infrastructure that, if they are having an issue themselves, can share that issue with the server and cause difficulties. Oftentimes, simply rebooting these components is enough to resolve your server’s problem… but if the issue persists, try calling MSPNetworks for assistance.

Environmental Issues

Despite their size, servers are extremely vulnerable to the conditions around them. Too much heat, too much humidity, too little airflow, too much dust and grime, too much (or not enough) electricity being supplied to it; all of these scenarios could impact how well (or if) your server functions.

There are many ways to help mitigate these kinds of issues, like installing uninterruptible power supplies to enable the server to power down safely in the event of an electrical outage, or proper ventilation, fans, and other climate-control assistance to help keep things clean.

Of course, these aren’t the only reasons that a server might encounter problems… there are plenty more problems out that can have a marked effect on your company’s IT. MSPNetworks is here to help you diagnose and deal with them all. To learn more about what we can do for your business, reach out to us today at (516) 403-9001.

A full week into the new year, have you resolved to make any improvements to your business? In light of all the resolutions that may (or may not) have been broken by now, we decided to share a few resolutions you could put into place to improve your business and its processes.

Make S.M.A.R.T.er Goals

I know, I know… it isn’t as though you don’t already have goals for your business to reach, whatever they may be. However, not all goals are set equally - there are ways that you can improve your likelihood of reaching them. One way is to follow the S.M.A.R.T. methodology, which means that all of your goals are made to be:

• Specific
• Measureable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Timely

To make sense of this, let’s create a S.M.A.R.T. goal here. To do so, we’ll assume you want to see more revenue come in. To make this more specific, let’s specify where that revenue should come from - perhaps recurring services. To make sure your progress is measurable, you want to set a few concrete values, as these are easier to measure and track. For our case, let’s say that you want to increase the number of people signed on to your recurring services by a total of 15 percent within the next month.

Now, ask yourself, is this goal an attainable one, under typical circumstances? While there is nothing wrong with being expeditious, you need to make sure that you aren’t sending yourself on a fool’s errand at the same time. So, let’s pretend that, in this scenario, you see a natural sign-on/conversion rate of about three percent for these services each month, and can increase that to five or six percent if you push them. That means that a goal of 15 percent is pretty much doomed for failure. As a result, we should adjust this goal to signing on 15 percent more in the next three months.

Furthermore, your goal needs to be relevant to your business’ ongoing success. Does the service you are pushing increase your profits, or does it make your other tasks simpler to accomplish? You should focus, first and foremost, on goals that benefit the business and/or its processes. Finally, and hearkening back to the selection of three months over one month, you need all of your initiatives to have a timely end. Otherwise, you won’t be as motivated to strive for success - you’ll probably get there someday, after all - and really, what kind of goal is that?

Motivate Your Team by Improving Your Culture

Not all business growth can necessarily be measured in mathematical terms. However, this other growth can have an impact on the benchmarks that you might first think to measure - such as generated revenue, employee retention, or productivity - as well as provide clearly visible benefits to your business. Basically, by making the workplace a place where people are happy to work, you can make progress toward these goals as a natural side effect,

To accomplish this, have your employees chime in and share what might make them feel more energized and enthused to come to work - and then try to act on it. By working to motivate everyone, you help lift up the culture of the entire workplace - as well as create an environment that attracts many prospects to join your team.

Strengthen Your Business Relationships

While many business owners might dream of becoming the next huge, global business, there are certain disadvantages to becoming one. For instance, when managing a colossal business like that - despite what many advertisements may say - the tendency is to make everything as impersonal as possible, mostly out of practical necessity. The thing is, many clients are looking for a personalized experience, the relationship that a smaller provider can provide. Building relationships like these can be the difference between you getting their business, and the conglomerates getting it. 

Are there any resolutions that you’ve made for your business this year? Share them in the comments, and don’t forget that we’re here to help with any of your technology needs to give you the best chance of accomplishing them! For more information, give us a call at (516) 403-9001.

Today is the first day of the third decade of the 21st century. For some, it’s just another year, but for others it seems almost impossible that we’ve reached this point without floating cars and manned missions to Jupiter. Fifty years ago, some of the technology that is used in the course of doing business was simply fiction or conjecture. We thought it would be neat to take a look at some of the technological changes made since 1970.

Using our time machine, we want to travel through time to identify some technologies that have been invented in the past 50 years. The microchip (microprocessor) was invented in 1959, so that doesn’t quite fit the criteria of our list. Multi-location networking was also a thing as the ARPANET had just rolled out the year before. These technologies were the predecessors for some of the best tech we’ve seen developed over the past 50 years.

We start in the 1970s... 

1970s

Like most of society, the technology world was changing rapidly in the early 1970s. In quick succession, computing went from something that businesses and individuals only thought of in passing to a revolution that could change the world. New technologies that we would laugh at today were just reaching the market. Here is a brief list of some of the technologies that debuted in the 1970s:

• Automated Teller Machine (ATM) - Introduced automated banking.
• Intel 1103 memory chip - It was the first memory chip produced by Intel that introduced their dynamic random-access memory (DRAM). 
• Intel 4004 microprocessor - Intel also released the very first microprocessor.
• Email - The first emails were introduced and sent over the ARPANET.
• Xerox Laser Printer - The Xerox 9700, the first laser printer was developed.
• SuperPaint - The first computer used for digital imaging manipulation was introduced.
• Mobile Networking - ARPA developed the first wireless network out of a van in San Francisco and tested out early versions of VoIP. 
• The First Cell Phone - Motorola introduced the cell phone in 1973.
• Groundwork for the Internet - European researchers created “networks of networks” in a process called internetworking.
• Local Area Networks (LAN) - Using ethernet, Xerox created the first commercial LAN. IBM and Datapoint also introduced solutions.
• First Mass Storage - IBM introduces their 3850 mass storage system. It stored up to 236 GB of data. 
• Business Networks Expand - Packet-switched business networks like CompuServe, Telenet, and Tymnet are introduced, connecting business terminals to servers. 
• PC Wars - Apple’s first commercial personal computer, the Apple II was released in 1977 as were the Commodore PET, and the Tandy/Radio Shack PC called the TRS-80. 
• LaserDisc - The forerunner to the CD, DVD, and Blu-Ray disk, the LaserDisk was expensive, but offered superior audio and visual quality than the tape-based systems of the time. 
• WordStar - One of the most popular word processors of the early PC age. 
• Introduction of Online Services - Services such as MicroNet (also known as CompuServe Information Service) and The Source started what could be described as a precursor to the Internet. These services provided early versions of what you would find with AOL and Prodigy in the early 90s. 
• Business PCs - VisiCalc, a software that automated the recalculation of spreadsheets effectively turned the growing PC market into a business PC market overnight. 
• The First Malware - In 1979 the first Internet worm was created as a way to search for idle processors on the ARPANET. 

1980s

After the immense amount of technological invention in the 1970s, innovation was the name of the game going forward. In the 1980s, many of the systems that were lauded as revolutionary got a new look, and many of the technologies expanded, especially for businesses. Here are some of the computing technologies that were introduced--or improved upon--in the 1980s:

• 3½-inch Floppy Disk Drive - There was a 5½-inch disk drive, there was a 3-inch, 3¼-inch, and the 3.9-inch floppy drive, but Sony developed the 3½-inch drive that Hewlett-Packard started putting in their PCs. It quickly grew to become the standard. 
• Hard Disk Drive for Microcomputers - Seagate Technology’s ST506 was the first hard disk drive created for microcomputers. The drive held 5 MB of data, five times your average floppy disk. 
• Business Workstations - Both Apollo and Sun Microsystems created hardware that would run resource-intensive graphics programs used for engineering and scientific research. 
• MS-DOS - Microsoft Disk Operating System, or MS-DOS, was released for IBM computers. 
• Lotus 1-2-3 - The first software suite that offered a word processor, spreadsheet program, and a database. It helped businesses get the tools they needed in one single software suite. 
• Apple Lisa - The first personal computer that came with a functioning graphical user interface (GUI).
• Bernoulli Box - The Bernoulli Box was the first hard drive that was removable. Disks ranged from 5MB to 230MB.
• CD-ROM - The CD was already catching on in the mid-1980s when the CD-ROM, a construct that could store 550MB of data caught on and was the standard for years to come.  
• Apple Macintosh - Apple’s Macintosh was the first mainstream mouse-driven computer, that came equipped with several applications that set the standard for personal computing of the time including MacWrite (first to use WYSIWYG) and MacPaint, which was the first mouse-based drawing program. 
• Flash Memory - Flash memory, which can be quickly erased and written over several times was invented in a Toshiba lab.
• PC Limited - Michael Dell dropped out of school to focus on a business where he built IBM-compatible computers from stock components. It soon became one of the most successful computer retailers in the world. 
• The Internet - U.S. Internet protocols are improved by the formation of NSFNET, the last step in what would become the Internet. 
• GSM Standard - Setting a standard for mobile networks, and introducing text messaging, the mobile revolution started in the late 1980s in Europe. 
• Computer Fraud and Abuse Act - The result from Robert T. Morris sent a nondestructive worm through the new Internet causing major damage. He was tried and convicted and had to serve community service for hacking the Internet.
• Macintosh Portable - It may not have sold well or been a success by any measure, but it did start computer manufacturers in their quest to build portable computers; something most users today completely appreciate. 

1990s

The 1990s saw a complete shift in the way that people used technology. Businesses, schools, and home users increased their use of computing technology and the growth of the Internet, which brought with it extreme prosperity followed by a crash that threatened the economies of some of the most technologically-savvy countries in the world. Here is a look at some of the technologies introduced in the 1990s.

• High Performance Computing and Communication Act - The U.S. Congress created the National Information Infrastructure that spent nearly a billion dollars on various networking initiatives that were aimed at improving commercial and individual access to the Internet. 
• NSF Lifts Internet Restrictions - Soon after the National Science Foundation (NSF), the entity that oversaw the modern Internet, removed its restrictions, giving businesses and individuals access to Internet-based materials. At this time the Internet service provider (ISP) is introduced as well.
• JPEG - The JPEG compression standard for images was introduced. 
• Solid State Drive - The first commercially available solid-state drive was introduced by SunDisk (today SanDisk).
• Personal Data Assistant - Before there was Siri and the Google Assistant, there were devices that aimed to help people keep organized. Apple’s Newton and Palm’s Pilot are two examples of mobile computing platforms aimed to help users.
• Intel Releases Pentium - Pentium was the fifth generation of the “x86” line of microprocessors. The new processors made programs run faster as multi-instructional computing became more necessary. 
• Microsoft Windows NT - It was the first 32-bit version of Windows, making it a powerful option for IBM and IBM-compatible machines. 
• Mosaic - The first true Internet browser, it had provided users a new level of access to Internet resources. 
• The First Online Ads - As people started to join the “world wide web” en masse, online ads were a rare occurrence. As you know, today, the Internet is one large billboard.
• CompactFlash - SanDisk introduced flash disks which were then incorporated into many consumer and professional electronic devices. 
• Zip Disk - Understanding the need for more data storage, Iomega introduced the Zip Disk that provided users the ability to get 100MB of storage on a disk not much bigger than the standard 3.5-inch disks that had become standard. Over time Zip drives could store up to 2GB before the technology became antiquated.
• Browser wars - Half of Mosaic's team broke off and started Netscape, while Microsoft used the source code of the Mosaic browser to create their Internet Explorer browser. The two browsers went head-to-head. Netscape thrived for a short time, but since IE was shipped with every Windows OS, it was hard for them to compete. Today, Microsoft has scrapped IE and features the Edge browser, while Netscape failed and became the basis for Mozilla’s Firefox browser that is still popular today. 
• The ThinkPad 701C - Manufacturers had been trying to make a laptop computer for several years, but the ThinkPad 701 gave users a full desktop experience in a portable machine. 
• Java - Sun Microsystems introduced Java, which let a program run on any system, opening up development for modern PCs from just the major players in computing. The language JavaScript was developed at the same time, but stands independently despite sharing the same handle. 
• Online Services - AOL, Prodigy, and CompuServe had been the major players for much of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, giving users a “walled garden” experience of the web, but with the development of Microsoft Network (MSN) it opened up the web much more to the end user.
• Windows 95 - The first modern OS that focused on an Internet-connected experience. It also introduced the concept of plug and play, a great innovation for allowing peripherals to connect without having to initiate setup from a driver disk. 
• CD-RW - An optical disk used for data storage and could be written and written over several hundred times; a feature not many people actually took advantage of.
• Visual Studio - Programming new software became big business and essential to the sustainability of new web-based platforms. Visual Studio 97 helped push this along. 
• Digital Millennium Copyright Act - A law passed by the U.S. congress that began to crack down on the sharing of copyrighted intellectual property over the Internet.
• Wi-Fi - The establishment of Wi-Fi expanded the ability for computers to access networks and the Internet without wires.

2000s

As the millennium approached there were fears that the software developed wouldn’t work when the calendar changed. Millions of dollars were spent ensuring the world wouldn’t stop. After Y2K (as it was called), the 2000s would produce some of the most amazing technology the world had ever seen; and, would change the way people look at the world, forever. Let’s take a look at the list:

• The Camera Phone - Japanese manufacturer SoftBank introduced the first cellular phone with a built-in camera. 
• USB Flash Drive - The USB flash drive, jump drive, or memory stick was just a way for people to take data on the go, but it has turned out to be the basis of many other technologies as well. 
• BitTorrent - A peer-to-peer file sharing service that allows users to upload and download files, typically media. It has seen controversy as lawyers of the music and movie industry have claimed that BitTorrent facilitates the theft of their clients’ intellectual property. 
• iTunes - iTunes introduced the sale of new music through a digital medium. Unlike the peer-to-peer sharing, iTunes was set up as a store for music. 
• Myspace - Myspace might not have been the first or the largest social network, but it was the most important in the early 2000s. Facebook soon entered the market and is now one of the world’s most important and divisive companies. 
• Google - Google’s IPO was a seminal moment for the Internet as we know it. Already a popular search engine, Google cracked the code for how to monetize search results online. Today, it is one of the largest, and most lucrative companies in all of tech.
• AWS Cloud Services - The retail giant Amazon launched its Amazon Web Services providing companies the computing hardware they need in the cloud. Services like Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure followed. 
• Netflix - A streaming movie service that has changed the way people look at media. 
• Apple iPhone - In what was one of the most important technology inventions in decades, Apple released the iPhone, which may have not been the first smartphone, but it sure seems like it was.
• Bitcoin - The first cryptocurrency was the result of a blockchain created by a person (or people) that goes/go by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Releasing the source code as open-source software has resulted in thousands of other cryptocurrencies, as well as many innovations using the blockchain ledger technology.
• BDR - Before backup and disaster recovery, there was mostly tape. When the cloud-based network-attached storage solutions came to be, businesses had a better solution to protect their data. 

2010s

The more that technology was innovated upon, the less was going into developing new technology. After the launch of the iPhone, there was a definite trend in the way that people began to look at their tech. If it wasn’t mobile or simple to use, it had no function. Let’s take a look at how those ideas came to pass in the 2010s:

• IBM’s Watson - The world was introduced to Watson when the AI defeated some of the very best humans at Jeopardy! Unfortunately, that is the end of lots of people’s exposure to Watson. Watson has subsequently been used in several fields to improve efficiency, education, cooperation and more. 
• Apple iPad - Just as they did with the iPhone, a few years later Apple introduced the iPad. The tablet computer that was completely touchscreen and used the same App store found on the iPhone was the beginning of one of the largest consumer electronics booms since the advent of the TV. 
• Adobe Creative Cloud - Just as Amazon Web Services and Azure provide virtual hardware services, Software as a Service (SaaS) started to expand rapidly at the beginning of the last decade. One title (of the many) was Adobe Creative Cloud, which gives users access to all the creative Adobe software through a monthly subscription service. 
• Arab Spring Protests - For the first time in human history, social media became the center of a series of organized protests that resulted in regime change, election transparency, and more. 
• Spotify - A music streaming service competes directly with other streaming services like Google Play Music, iTunes, and more. This Netflix-style model is proving to be a huge selling point for users.
• The Internet of Things - Smart devices started popping up quickly and with exponential growth now find themselves almost everywhere. 
• Virtual Assistants - Using AI, the development of Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, Amazon’s Alexa, and Google’s Google Assistant have started integrating technology into moment-to-moment situations.
• Ransomware - A devastating strain of malware that locks down a user’s files and demands a ransom payment. It has affected millions of users, thousands of businesses, and some municipalities.
• Net Neutrality and Its Repeal - Trying to find an equitable arrangement on who controls the Internet has been nothing but contentious over the past decade. As it stands today the ISPs hold the power, but for much of the past decade the FCC did. Stay tuned.

Technology has come a long way in the past 50 years, and it will be interesting to see where it goes in the next 50. Is there anything we missed? If so, share it with us in the comments section below. Happy New Year!