MSPNetworks Blog

While your business might last into the near future, your IT is more challenging to upkeep and preserve over time. You’ll have to consider reworking and restructuring your infrastructure to ensure that it stands the test of time. Let’s review some warning signs that it might be time to do just that.

Unfortunately, technology is just a tool. It can do so much for your business, but there are times when your technology is getting older and it stymies the amount that you can produce. This degradation can have a stark effect on your organizational productivity from downtime, cost, and more. Let’s look at how you can identify variables that tell when your technology has to be replaced.

We know that implementing new technologies can be expensive and time consuming. It can hurt productivity in the short term and can be problematic for longer stretches if it isn’t remedied. This adds stress to an organization. This is why it is crucial that you know how to confront aging technology. 

How Can You Tell It’s Time for an Upgrade?

If you don’t know how to tell it's time for an upgrade, look for the following signs: 

Your Systems Slow Down

One of the telltale signs that you are going to need to buck up and invest in new technology is when your current systems start slowing. Applications might take longer to load, or they might just fail. Programs may not install and system resources may be eaten up by seemingly small processes. 

You Are Dealing with Significant Downtime

Everyone knows that downtime is costly. It’s worse than that I’m afraid. It’s extraordinarily costly and serves to keep employees disengaged with their work. If downtime is causing massive swaths of waste for your business, it is already past time to start shopping for new technology. 

Too Much Inefficiency

Even if your computing systems aren’t critically failing, they can be inefficient. If you can’t deploy new communication and collaboration tools, or the ones you have sputter and give employees a hard time, you probably need to start thinking about refreshing your technology. 

New Software is Incompatible

Software developers are always working on new updates, features, and patches to ensure that their products work for businesses. If you are using hardware that doesn’t run a certain type of upgraded software, or if you are using legacy software for things, you need a plan to upgrade. 

Your Customers Are Questioning Their Commitment to Your Product

No sign is more telling that you need to make some changes than an obvious loss of revenue. Obviously technology isn’t the only reason customers will fail to continue to do business with your company, but a lack of innovation is often cited by consumers as reasons to go shopping. One study found that 9-out-of-10 customers would consider shopping around if the company they traditionally did business with had poor technology. 

Let Go of Old Technology

If you would like to learn more about getting a much-needed technology upgrade at a price that you can afford, give the IT professionals at MSPNetworks a call today at (516) 403-9001.

Updating your technology is one business task that needs to happen if you want to optimize your operations. Some companies, however, still rely on legacy systems that could be holding them back from peak performance. It’s difficult to update legacy systems without comprehensive IT knowledge and proficiency, which is why you have us!

Defining Legacy Systems

When discussing legacy systems, it’s important to remember that the definition extends beyond “old.” Legacy refers to the fact that the technology is holding your company back, preventing it from growing or adapting to new circumstances. In many cases, the software is incompatible with the rest of your infrastructure and often does more harm than good by remaining on your infrastructure.

Sometimes the legacy system might even lack appropriate support and maintenance, something which impacts your ability to add it to new systems or improve your user experience.

All of this said, legacy systems are critical for many companies, so the updates are no less necessary for these organizations. This is why legacy systems need to be modernized, which is the act of replacing them with a solution that offers a better value proposition.

How Should You Approach Your Legacy System Modernization?

Legacy systems modernization requires that you follow these simple practices:

• Consider more than just your system: How will your employees and processes be impacted by this change to your infrastructure? Be sure to keep them in the loop to optimize your modernization’s chances of being successful. Be sure to spend some time with your employees to discuss the challenges they might need help addressing throughout the process, as well as what might need to be done moving forward.
• Take your time: There’s no need to jump on the modernization train for ALL of your technology all at once. If you don’t focus on specific parts of your infrastructure one at a time, you risk spreading yourself too thin. Plus, it’s easier to tackle one thing at a time so as not to disrupt all of your processes.
• Identify and address issues with technology: Be sure to consider the many issues your business faces, then implement technology to address them. Business technology solutions are so advanced these days that there is a solution for just about any issue your organization could face.
• Think about simplicity and agility: Finally, it’s critical that you plan your process out so that there is a level of flexibility packed into it. It could save you a considerable amount of time and resources moving forward.

It’s inevitable that your technology will “age out,” so to speak, but you don’t have to helplessly stand by while it happens. Get in touch with MSPNetworks today to determine what you need to do to resolve your company’s legacy technology challenges.

With Microsoft announcing that the Windows 11 release is right around the corner, most users will be looking to upgrade to hardware that supports it. This is a topic for another day. As we approach the Windows 11 launch, Microsoft is gearing up to retire one of its most controversial (and ultimately innovative) operating systems to date, Windows 8.1. Today, we thought we’d talk a little bit about the mixed bag Windows 8.1 is and how it will be important to move off of the software by January 2023.

Windows 8.1 is Only Kind of Windows 8

Windows 8 premiered in August of 2012. Microsoft was trying to make a name for itself in the mobile market and their new OS was described as “metro”. It was for use on touchscreen devices and PCs, but the initial rollout had a lot of people confused. In fact, many reverted to Windows 7, a more traditional form of Windows OS. As time went on, Microsoft was frustrated that their new OS, which came with a lot of criticism, wasn’t catching on so they decided to make a major update in 2013 that added in a lot of the features that people have come to expect from their Windows operating system, such as a start menu. This update, called Windows 8.1 has been the working version of Windows 8 for the past eight years.

The initial version of Windows 8 had its end-of-support date on January 12, 2016, thereby ending all support for that version of the OS. Since Windows 8.1 was more popular, Microsoft set an end-of-life date in January 2023. The hugely popular Windows 10 was released two years after the Windows 8.1 update, and most people took advantage of the free upgrade so as it stands today only about 3.5 percent of all PCs run Windows 8.1, which is why there hasn’t been a major campaign to alert users like there was when they were getting ready to retire Windows 7 at the beginning of 2020. 

What You Need to Know

If you do currently run Windows 8.1 on your device, you should think about upgrading it to Windows 10 now; or you can wait, and if your hardware can take it, upgrade to Windows 11 when it starts to roll out later in 2021 and early in 2022. Either way, it is smart to have a plan to upgrade away from Windows 8.1 before January 2023 as it will no longer be supported by Microsoft.

Why Is It Important to Only Use Supported Software?

Each new iteration of the Windows OS comes with significant security updates and features designed to quell the almost limitless problems that are out there in today’s connected computing environment. If you continue to utilize software that isn’t regularly updated and supported by a team of developers, you will absolutely find that there are exploitable vulnerabilities that emerge. This can especially be a big problem for any business or organization that stores sensitive information, but it will likely be a problem for any user still using an unsupported version of their operating system.

The IT professionals at MSPNetworks can make it easy for your organization to upgrade to a continuously supported version of any software you are using. We can also provide solutions for companies looking to utilize legacy systems that aren’t actively supported. If you would like to talk to one of our IT professionals about getting the software support you need, contact us today at (516) 403-9001.

While Google Search has become eponymous for “online search”, the company has not stopped innovating upon the capabilities of the service. Most recently (as of this writing, of course) one improvement that the company is making is to give more content a bit more context before a user clicks through to a potential threat.

Let’s go into what this new update will look like on your Search results pages.

The Google Page Widget

With its rollout beginning on February 2nd, your Google Searches via a desktop, mobile device, and the Android mobile app probably now offer a small widget that provides a look at the website each result directs to.

Here’s how it will purportedly work:

You will soon notice (if they haven’t already caught your attention) small three-dot menus appearing next to your search results. These menus, if clicked, will give you more information into the website the result has pulled up.

This information will include things like a blurb about the website the link directs to—if available, coming from Wikipedia, and if not, based on Google’s own analysis when the site was indexed—as well as whether the website offers a secure HTTPS protocol connection and if a link is an ad.

Here, for example, is what appears when you check the link for Facebook:

From this, we can see that Google has confirmed that the connection to the website is secured, helping to protect our data, and that the link the user has inquired about was the result of their search, not placed there as an advertisement.

Moving forward, this utility may be able to help your users make more secure choices when browsing their search results. If you have access to it, we encourage you to explore it a little more yourself—and, if you’re ever concerned about how secure your business’ IT choices have been, to reach out to MSPNetworks at (516) 403-9001 for an assessment.

The curious thing about information technology is that, while it improves as any other technology would, the environment can accelerate the various changes made to it at various rates. As a result, knowing when your business needs to upgrade its technology isn’t always so cut-and-dry. To help, we’re sharing a few clear indicators that hint that the time has come.

Your IT Team is Always Busy

Or, more specifically, they are always scrambling to fix problems as they pop up. Older technology is prone to issues like this (and others, as we will get into). So, if your internal team is always chasing down problems, or you’ve been calling in the local IT guy almost every day, it will be more helpful to upgrade your technology. More up-to-date solutions will be less susceptible to these kinds of difficulties, so the costs saved in maintenance and remediation will likely offset the financial burden of an upgrade.

Your Employees are Frustrated and Default to Using Workarounds

One of the most reassuring things about most job processes is the fact that there is a process at all, so if your technology no longer allows your set processes to be followed, how do you think your employees will react to it? They aren’t going to be happy, that’s for sure, and in order to accomplish what they are responsible for, they might resort to finding their own, less efficient (and less secure) methods to complete their objectives… methods that might be laden with problems. Improved tools can eliminate this need by providing a set, company-approved and secure process for employees to follow.

Your Technology Runs Reeeeaaaally Sloooooooowly

Speaking of things that frustrate your users, slow technology is perhaps public enemy number one in the office. Whether workstations are taking too long to boot up, the Internet connection is flaky, you deal with slow application load times, or too many other examples to list here, lagginess is generally best resolved by a replacement. This is very closely related to our next warning sign…

...You’re Feeling Financial Strains

It’s simple math, really. If each task takes longer to complete, fewer tasks can be completed throughout the day, which usually translates to reduced revenue overall. At the same time, your employees will still be paid their usual wage, meaning that you’re spending the same amount of money to generate less income. It doesn’t take an economics degree to see that this isn’t good.

Investing in an upgrade can help you improve your productivity, which gives you the potential to generate increased amounts of revenue. So, instead of working for less money, you have the chance to see some significant returns from your investment.

You’re More Vulnerable to Cyberattacks

Here’s the worst of it: as technology improves, so do the cyberattacks that bad actors will use to undermine it. By using older technology, you are effectively welcoming cybercriminals to attack you--especially if your tools have passed their end of support date. Updating your software, whether it’s your security solution or the productivity tools you rely on, helps to reinforce your overall security by reducing a particularly potent weakness.

So, when all is said and done, keeping up on your IT upgrades is a bit of a no-brainer. For more information on whether or not you need to upgrade your IT, or assistance in doing so, reach out to MSPNetworks! Our professionals are just a call to (516) 403-9001 away.

Windows 7 is only days away from being officially retired by Microsoft. The software company has done all it can to try to educate users about the end of the OS, which has its last support update on January 14, 2020, but won’t be getting any more. As of this writing there are still nearly 25 percent of computers running Windows 7. Let’s take a look at why it is imperative that you upgrade or find a solution to get out from under the Windows 7 OS. 

The first thing you should know is that when the end of life date passes, the software will still be completely functional. It’s not as if it will fail to load on your computer, but what will happen, however, is that it will not get another software patch or update. Over time, this could cause a whole slew of negative situations. Among them, networks that the Windows 7 computer is connected to will not be secure. That could cause some very real problems. 

Of course, you could take your Windows 7 systems offline, or quarantine them behind another firewall, but there is nothing you can do that will be safe over a prolonged amount of time. You will be breached, and any new vulnerabilities will become large holes in your computing infrastructure. You may not think you can afford to upgrade away from Windows 7, but you sure cannot afford to be left without support from Microsoft. 

So, What Are the Options?

Currently, you have several options, even now, that can keep your business out of the line of fire, so to speak. These include:

Upgrade systems to Windows 10 

This is the obvious one. By upgrading to Windows 10, you are sure to get the security patches and other updates needed to keep your business out of harm's way. Since the minimum specifications that it takes to run Windows 10 aren’t much more than it takes to run Windows 7, it seems like a solid plan to upgrade if you can. Here are the specs your computer will need:

• Processor - 1 GHZ or faster
• RAM - 1 GB for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit
• Hard disk space - 16 GB for 32-bit or 20 GB for 64-bit
• Graphics card - DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver
• Display - 800 x 600 resolution

All told, most computers that were running Windows 7 can run Windows 10. Above are the minimum specifications, so if you have a computer with this hardware profile, you shouldn’t expect the Windows 10 OS to run fast.  If you are going to go this route, we recommend that every Windows 10 workstation have some type of 2 GHz dual-core processor, 4-to-8 GB of RAM, and at least a 160 GB hard drive.

Replace Hardware Systems

If you have some money burning a hole in your pocket, or if you can get some good terms on a lease, this may be the easiest way to move past Windows 7. You would have all new hardware which would come with Windows 10 installed. It may take some time to configure your new hardware with your line-of-business software, but at least you would get regular Windows 10 updates. 

Virtualize and Use a Thin Client

You can repurpose your old hardware to act as thin clients. This may take some capital to do since you would have to virtualize your data and applications, but it might just be an option for your organization. Since you have a severely limited timeline, it may be impossible to ensure that your data is protected before the deadline. 

Microsoft is offering a service called Microsoft 365 that could make this transition a little easier. For a flat rate billed per user, you can get Windows 10, Office 365 with a terabyte of OneDrive cloud storage, and dynamic security software that can be accessed through any Internet browser. If you have teams of workers that only need access to productivity software, you could do much worse than this cloud-based option. 

No matter how you go about doing it, you have to get out from under Windows 7 now. Call our IT experts today at (516) 403-9001 if you would like help going through your options. 

Windows 7 is only days away from being officially retired by Microsoft. The software company has done all it can to try to educate users about the end of the OS, which has its last support update on January 14, 2020, but won’t be getting any more. As of this writing there are still nearly 25 percent of computers running Windows 7. Let’s take a look at why it is imperative that you upgrade or find a solution to get out from under the Windows 7 OS. 

The first thing you should know is that when the end of life date passes, the software will still be completely functional. It’s not as if it will fail to load on your computer, but what will happen, however, is that it will not get another software patch or update. Over time, this could cause a whole slew of negative situations. Among them, networks that the Windows 7 computer is connected to will not be secure. That could cause some very real problems. 

Of course, you could take your Windows 7 systems offline, or quarantine them behind another firewall, but there is nothing you can do that will be safe over a prolonged amount of time. You will be breached, and any new vulnerabilities will become large holes in your computing infrastructure. You may not think you can afford to upgrade away from Windows 7, but you sure cannot afford to be left without support from Microsoft. 

So, What Are the Options?

Currently, you have several options, even now, that can keep your business out of the line of fire, so to speak. These include:

Upgrade systems to Windows 10 

This is the obvious one. By upgrading to Windows 10, you are sure to get the security patches and other updates needed to keep your business out of harm's way. Since the minimum specifications that it takes to run Windows 10 aren’t much more than it takes to run Windows 7, it seems like a solid plan to upgrade if you can. Here are the specs your computer will need:

• Processor - 1 GHZ or faster
• RAM - 1 GB for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit
• Hard disk space - 16 GB for 32-bit or 20 GB for 64-bit
• Graphics card - DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver
• Display - 800 x 600 resolution

All told, most computers that were running Windows 7 can run Windows 10. Above are the minimum specifications, so if you have a computer with this hardware profile, you shouldn’t expect the Windows 10 OS to run fast.  If you are going to go this route, we recommend that every Windows 10 workstation have some type of 2 GHz dual-core processor, 4-to-8 GB of RAM, and at least a 160 GB hard drive.

Replace Hardware Systems

If you have some money burning a hole in your pocket, or if you can get some good terms on a lease, this may be the easiest way to move past Windows 7. You would have all new hardware which would come with Windows 10 installed. It may take some time to configure your new hardware with your line-of-business software, but at least you would get regular Windows 10 updates. 

Virtualize and Use a Thin Client

You can repurpose your old hardware to act as thin clients. This may take some capital to do since you would have to virtualize your data and applications, but it might just be an option for your organization. Since you have a severely limited timeline, it may be impossible to ensure that your data is protected before the deadline. 

Microsoft is offering a service called Microsoft 365 that could make this transition a little easier. For a flat rate billed per user, you can get Windows 10, Office 365 with a terabyte of OneDrive cloud storage, and dynamic security software that can be accessed through any Internet browser. If you have teams of workers that only need access to productivity software, you could do much worse than this cloud-based option. 

No matter how you go about doing it, you have to get out from under Windows 7 now. Call our IT experts today at (516) 403-9001 if you would like help going through your options. 

A business’ IT solutions aren’t the kind of thing that you can worry about once and never touch again - this is why manufacturers and developers are always sending out upgrades. However, you also need to have a strategy ready before you go to implement these upgrades. For this week’s tip, we’ll review how to put this strategy together.

Step 1: Determining What Needs an Upgrade, and Why

Naturally, the first step to any upgrade process is identifying that an upgrade is necessary. When a component of your business network requires an upgrade, it will generally be for at least one of three reasons:

• You want your solutions to have an increased capacity or range.
• You want to improve the security of your business and its resources.
• You want an increase in your business’ productivity, with less maintenance required.

If a part of your infrastructure could facilitate any (or all) of these objectives if it was upgraded, it’s probably a good idea to do so. That means that you need to start the next step.

Step 2: Planning and Preparing for Your Upgrade

A technology upgrade isn’t something that can be done on a whim. If you want yours to be successful, you need to have done your due diligence ahead of time. You will want to make sure that your network can support this upgrade in its current state, and any other considerations that come up.

As you’re preparing for the upgrade, you also need to consider any potential negative ramifications that it could have on your users. Will this upgrade be a lengthy one, and will that cause a lengthy interruption to your business’ processes? Proactively considering this will allow you to make plans to decrease the impact of these circumstances. For instance, if an upgrade is projected to create a lengthy interruption, it may be wiser to have it implemented after hours, when your resources are less likely to be called for.

Step 3: Protecting Yourself

While your upgrade will ideally run smoothly and not cause any issues, it is better to be prepared for an unideal situation. This is why an upgrade absolutely should be preceded by a comprehensive backup. With a backup taken, any issues that your upgrade may incur can be easily mitigated - so while you won’t have gained anything, your losses will be minimized.

MSPNetworks can help you manage your technology, ensuring that your upgrade processes are done correctly. Reach out to us at (516) 403-9001 to learn more!

Microsoft is coming to the end of its support for the wildly popular Windows 7 operating system, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t make a contingency plan for those organizations that haven’t yet made the jump to new systems. It just won’t be cheap. We’ll break down the upcoming Windows 7 end of life event, and how Microsoft is offering an olive branch of sorts to organizations that simply haven’t upgraded away from this OS.

Background

Windows 7 was the most popular operating system the company known for its operating systems has ever had. More PCs ran Windows 7 than any other OS in history. To tell you just how popular it was, Windows 10 (Microsoft’s current OS) was launched in July of 2015, and was immediately offered to users running Windows 7 and 8.1 for free. That deal came and went, and despite all Microsoft’s efforts to get more people upgraded to Windows 10, it took until December of 2018 for Windows 10 to pass Windows 7 in number of users. Windows 10 is now running on over 700 million devices.

This push was a long time in the making; and, still, Windows 7 is running on over 600 million devices as of this writing. With end of support coming in January of 2020, Windows 7 still is run by over 30 percent of the devices in the world. As a result, there are people and organizations that simply will not be able to upgrade away from Windows 7. Regularly, this would be a moment of major trepidation for companies, especially. Unsupported software of any kind is a major problem, but with an operating system doing a lot of the heavy lifting, it is integral that an OS is running the most up-to-date security software.

Windows 7 Extended Security

For those organizations that, for whatever reason, can’t stop using Windows 7, Microsoft has your back. Noting the immense amount of PCs still running the OS under a year from its EOL date, Microsoft has made available Windows 7 Extended Security Updates. This program will add support through January 2023, giving these organizations a lot more time to figure out their next move.

The kicker is, that it is expensive. The add-on support will be sold per-device in one-year increments, with costs expected to double each year. To cover a single Windows 7 PC for three years would run about $175 if the company is already a Windows 10 Enterprise or Microsoft 365 Enterprise customer. If it isn’t (and doesn’t plan on becoming one), it will cost $350 per Windows 7 system. There are also additional fees for organizations that need to jump into coverage in years two or three.

Your Options

Your options are pretty simple. Either ante up and upgrade to Windows 10, or ante up on extended support. Microsoft offers Windows 10 options for all types of organizations. Today Microsoft makes this easier than ever. The professional consultants at MSPNetworks can help you acquire and maintain any software solution you need for your business. We can deliver the on-premise or cloud-hosted solutions needed to get your business’ IT assets protected and routinely upgraded. Call us today at (516) 403-9001 for more information.

Even if we’d like it to last forever, business technology can’t possibly do so for a number of reasons. Due to the fact that businesses and their technology are constantly upgrading and changing, it’s almost a certainty that you’ll have to upgrade your technology at some point, whether it reaches its end-of-life event or just simply becomes obsolete for your organization. In fact, failing to update your infrastructure from time to time can have serious negative side-effects for your business.

We’ll show you why solutions eventually reach their EOL and how to handle this event when it arrives.

Why Do Services and Solutions Have an End-of-Life?
All good things must come to an end. For example, you probably can’t remember the last time you used an actual rotary phone (if ever), and there’s a very good reason we don’t carve messages in stone or drive horse-and-buggies around anymore--there are better, more efficient options for these solutions. While they may have been game-changing for the time they existed, there was always an effort to improve and innovate. This process continues for as long as people can dream of making better business decisions and improving their operations. After all, if there’s one thing that all businesses can agree on, it’s that faster and more efficient solutions are better than old, outdated ones.

Technology in general has improved substantially over the past several decades. Computers that used to fill up entire rooms are now dwarfed in power by the devices we carry with us in our pockets. Of course, this change was gradual and occurred over a rather long period of time. The same level of change can be seen in automobiles. The first automobile was built in 1885 by Karl Benz, but it took another 15 years to introduce a proper steering wheel and 24 years for the addition of a radio. 1958 saw the addition of the seatbelt, but it wasn’t until 1970 that it became a front-seat requirement. Considering just how far vehicles have come in this span of time--driving themselves, connecting to space radio services, and warning drivers if doors or seatbelts aren’t used properly--it’s quite easy to see just how out-of-date a revolutionary (at the time) vehicle like the one Benz produced is in today’s society. The same aspect can be applied to business technology.

How to Approach Your Business’ IT
You don’t always have to wait until the end-of-life event for your technology to upgrade it. We recommend taking the following steps for replacing your IT:

• Evaluation: Take a look at your business’ IT from a big-picture perspective. How does your business want to make progress? Is your technology able to meet this progress? An inventory system for your technology helps considerably in this regard, and it can help you keep track of which upgrades are coming when.
• Emphasis: Once you know where your business wants to be in the near future, you need to take micro-steps in the right direction. If the budget exists for this, then you need to consider which equipment should be prioritized, as well as whether or not you can afford them. Consider how many opportunities are being missed due to the upgrade not being done, as well as how close the system’s EOL is. There might even be a warranty on it that is preventing your business from reaching a specific goal.
• Execution: Once you’ve figured out what your greatest needs are and how you can afford them, you’ll have to put your plans into motion. This might mean completing the upgrade process in its entirely or separating it into portions.

MSPNetworks can help your business implement the right technology at the right time. To learn more, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.