Google is giving people an early Christmas present this year with the launch of several third-party add-ons for Gmail. This might not be the most exciting news from the technology giant, but as with the majority of its new feature launches, you can expect them to make life much easier.

Google’s focus is on productivity services that are already connected to email systems one way or another. This is why they have partnered with Asana, Dialpad, DocuSign (coming soon), Hire (by Google), Intuit QuickBooks, ProsperWorks, RingCentral, Smartsheet, Streak, Trello, and Wrike for their first set of native extensions.

What are some features can you expect?

While each add-on’s capabilities are slightly different, what they have in common is functionality that allows you to track various tasks right from the Gmail interface.

For instance, Gmail users will be able to view tasks and track their progress right from their inboxes when they receive emails from other Asana users. The Trello add-on allows you to turn emails into actionable tasks where you’ll be able to comment and move cards without having to switch to Trello itself. And the RingCentral add-on will let you make outbound calls and view and send SMS messages right from your inbox.

What’s more, these integrations work in the mobile Gmail app on Android, too. Google is currently working with Apple to bring these add-ons to iOS and they should be available soon.

How to install these add-ons

Just head over to G Suite Marketplace and download any extension you want. Then, those add-ons will be visible on the right sidepane of your Gmail interface. Unfortunately, they aren’t available in Inbox by Gmail (Google’s other email client) just yet.

However, Google has made it easy for developers to create customized add-ons for their company with guidelines you can find here.

With the introduction of Gmail add-ons, it’s exciting to see what other integrations are in store for businesses in 2018. But until then, if you have any questions about how you can use the web and cloud technology to your business's advantage, just give us a call.

The post New add-ons for Gmail! appeared first on Complete Technology Resources, Inc..

Google is giving people an early Christmas present this year with the launch of several third-party add-ons for Gmail. This might not be the most exciting news from the technology giant, but as with the majority of its new feature launches, you can expect them to make life much easier.

Google’s focus is on productivity services that are already connected to email systems one way or another. This is why they have partnered with Asana, Dialpad, DocuSign (coming soon), Hire (by Google), Intuit QuickBooks, ProsperWorks, RingCentral, Smartsheet, Streak, Trello, and Wrike for their first set of native extensions.

What are some features can you expect?

While each add-on’s capabilities are slightly different, what they have in common is functionality that allows you to track various tasks right from the Gmail interface.

For instance, Gmail users will be able to view tasks and track their progress right from their inboxes when they receive emails from other Asana users. The Trello add-on allows you to turn emails into actionable tasks where you’ll be able to comment and move cards without having to switch to Trello itself. And the RingCentral add-on will let you make outbound calls and view and send SMS messages right from your inbox.

What’s more, these integrations work in the mobile Gmail app on Android, too. Google is currently working with Apple to bring these add-ons to iOS and they should be available soon.

How to install these add-ons

Just head over to G Suite Marketplace and download any extension you want. Then, those add-ons will be visible on the right sidepane of your Gmail interface. Unfortunately, they aren’t available in Inbox by Gmail (Google’s other email client) just yet.

However, Google has made it easy for developers to create customized add-ons for their company with guidelines you can find here.

With the introduction of Gmail add-ons, it’s exciting to see what other integrations are in store for businesses in 2018. But until then, if you have any questions about how you can use the web and cloud technology to your business's advantage, just give us a call.

The post New add-ons for Gmail! appeared first on Complete Technology Resources, Inc..

You might not be interested in learning about IT, and we don’t blame you, you didn’t start your business to master the ins and outs of servers. But whether you like it or not, your business relies heavily on technology to survive. This is why there are certain aspects of IT that you can’t afford to ignore and IAM is one of them.

What is IAM?

Identity and access management is a system that secures, stores, and manages user identities and access privileges. It ensures that users are who they say they are and will grant access to applications and resources only if they have the permission to use them.

Some of the most common IAM solutions include single sign-on (SSO), multi-factor authentication (MFA), and access management, all of which can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud.

Why is it so important?

Modern technology enables businesses to be more agile and efficient than ever before. For instance, the cloud lets your employees work from anywhere at anytime on any device. However, this means that your workforce has moved beyond the protections of on-premise security.

That’s why you need to embrace another security solution, one that focuses on identity rather than physical or network security, which is exactly what IAM was designed for. It makes sure that your employees, customers, and partners are who they say they are and are only able to access the resources they need, nothing more. And that’s just scratching the surface on how IAM can benefit your company.

Centralize access control

Too much access to certain systems are risky and too little can hamper productivity and frustrate users. IAM strikes the perfect balance by letting you set centralized policies for the right access privileges. For example, you can deny your design team access to the accounting system while granting it to your CFO.

Each user’s role and attribute can be used to determine which resources they’re allowed to access and to what extent. This not only offers better security but also more flexibility and ease of management.

Lower chances of data breaches

With SSO and MFA, your employees will no longer have to remember multiple passwords. Instead, they’ll be able to prove their identity using evidence-based authorization such as answering a personal question that only they would know. IAM also comes equipped with advanced encryption tools to protect sensitive data and so reduces the risk of compromised user credentials.

Improve user experience

Customers today interact with your company across multiple channels, whether in the cloud or via third-party applications. This is where IAM helps provide a better experience through SSO, self-service capabilities, and unified customer profiles that makes communication processes quick and easy.

Your employees, on the other hand, will be able to access the information they need securely and conveniently no matter where they are. This means productivity will no longer be confined to their office table.

Achieve regulatory compliance

Businesses today must meet the constantly changing regulatory requirements concerning data access governance and privacy management. IAM was designed with just that in mind and provides control over who can access data and how it can be used and shared.

Reduce IT costs

IAM automates and standardizes many aspects of identity, authentication, and authorization management. This means you’ll be able to minimize significant labor costs associated with keeping your business environment secure.

Identity and access management solution equips you with much-needed security without compromising on usability and convenience. To operate in today’s digital business environment, it’s not a matter of “if” but “when” you’ll adopt IAM within your company.

If you’re looking to enhance company-wide security, whether with IAM or other solutions, why not give us a call? We’re sure we can help.

The post Why your business need IAM appeared first on Complete Technology Resources, Inc..

If the phrase “virtualization technology” either stresses you out or puts you to sleep, this article is for you. We’re going to explain once and for all how this emerging trend works and how small businesses can take advantage of it.

What is the core concept of virtualization?

By virtualizing any of the items below, you can trick software into recognizing hardware when none actually exists. The easiest way to explain this is with examples from the most common type of this technology: hardware virtualization.

• If you had one high-powered computer processor, virtualization would allow you to split it up and run four separate operating systems (Windows, Apple OS, etc.), each seemingly running on a standalone, low-powered processor.
• Conversely, virtualization could also be used to connect four high-powered processors to create what your operating system would recognize as one ultra-fast piece of hardware.

This technology can be applied in a number of ways to create opportunities for more efficient resource utilization and cost savings.

Desktop virtualization

Sometimes referred to as cloud desktops, this form of virtualization grants you access to a fully functioning computer that you access via a local network or the internet. Somewhere, a server has allocated a portion of its hardware resources for your virtual desktop. With a keyboard, monitor, mouse, and extremely low-end computer, you can connect to this virtual desktop and utilize all the processing power and storage the server has set aside for it.

Application virtualization

By installing a program on a server hard drive, your employee workstations can use their computing resources to run the program, but restrict data from being stored on their hard drives. The program and the documents it creates will never leave the server hard drive, making it much harder for hackers to compromise them.

With more advanced virtualization solutions, your server can also allocate the computing resources necessary to run the program, meaning your workstations are merely a window to your server.

Storage virtualization

Similar to hardware virtualization, this strategy makes it easy to organize how your data is stored. In addition to combining hard drives across several computers into a massive virtual drive, storage virtualization also stores data based on how important it is. Frequently used documents are saved to your fastest drives and can be automatically backed up to the cloud.

Network virtualization

If your office has more than 10 workstations, it makes sense to consider network virtualization, which allows you to separate vulnerable devices. For example, if you had one server that handles a lot of web traffic and another that stored sensitive documents, you might want to connect them to different networks to avoid a cross contamination. Network virtualization would allow you to do that without buying any new hardware!

Even with our simplified explanations, virtualization is still a complicated subject. Rather than try to figure it out in a few hundred words, give us a call and we’ll show you in person!

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