When most people think of Disaster Recovery, the idea of Virtualization is likely far from mind. However, these two IT services are more closely related than the average business owner thinks. Virtualization can actually serve as Disaster Recovery Solution. Here’s a breakdown of how it does just that, and a few pointers to keep in mind if you decide to use Virtualization to backup your systems.

As opposed to tape backups, Virtualization reduces recovery time in the event of a disaster. While tape backups can be reliable, using them to fully restore your system after a backup can be an excruciatingly long process. In fact, it can take up to two days to do just that. Think of all the business you could lose in those two days. Think of all the lost money in salaries you’ll pay out out to employees who aren’t working. Simply put, Virtualization is much quicker than tape backups when it comes to Disaster Recovery. Your entire system can be restored in four hours or less. How does this happen? Well, instead of rebuilding your servers, operating systems and applications separately, they exist safely off-site and can be brought back online via your virtual backup.

While the speed of virtualized backups might sound alluring, there are a few key points you should be aware of before moving forward. Here’s what you need to think about:

• Critical data - where do you want your critical data to be stored? Do you want it stored on tapes? Disk technologies? Or on your virtualized servers? Perhaps it’s best to spread your risk by backing up your critical data to multiple sources because, frankly, your business depends on this data. Regardless, find out what critical data you need to operate your organization and devise a plan to back it up as you see fit.
• Data to be backed up - Whether or not you decide to store your critical data on your virtual machines, figure out what data and assets you do want stored on them. Then designate specific virtualized servers to store these assets. In case a disaster does happen, you’ll know immediately where your backups live, and can retrieve your data quickly and get your business up and running again fast.
• Systems to be virtualized - Just as your business has critical data, you also have critical applications. Some of these may include email, Microsoft Office, and applications or software developed in house. Whether or not these applications qualify as critical for your business, identify the ones that do and focus your disaster recovery efforts on them. Like your data and servers, applications can all be virtualized and then safely stored off-site.

If you choose Virtualization as part of your Disaster Recovery solution, make sure your backups are monitored regularly so they’re up-to-date in the event of a disaster. And besides Disaster Recovery, there are many other benefits to Virtualization. Your business can reduce the amount of servers and other hardware in your office, lower your electricity costs, and save money in the process. Consider Disaster Recovery as a nice bonus that’s included with these benefits.

Curious to learn how else Virtualization can benefit your business? Interested in a dedicated Disaster Recovery solution? Call us today and discover how our experts can protect your organization and save you money.

Make no mistake, healthcare costs are rising. For business owners who are generous enough to offer their employees insurance, this is undoubtedly a cause for concern. And you may wonder, is there any way to protect your employees and not go bankrupt in the process? Wearable technologies may be the answer. Here’s what you need to know about utilizing them in the workplace.

Last year the retail giant Target offered both free and discounted versions of the activity tracker, Fitbit, to their staff of over 300,000. To incentivize employees to use the device, they grouped staff into teams and held a month long competition to see which team logged the most steps. The winning team was then given a million dollars to donate to their favorite charity. This is just one example of the growing number of businesses using wearable technologies to encourage employee fitness.

The CEO of Fitbit, James Park, is well aware of wearable technologies potential in the business sector. In an interview he said, “The cost of a Fitbit device and the associated services is very small compared to the savings from a healthier employee population.”

This practice of offering incentives to exercise is known as gamification, and retail providers are not the only type of businesses to get in on the action. Two US health insurance providers are now offering customers discounts on their premiums if they wear an activity tracker to monitor their progress on accomplishing health goals. So how does it work? If an employee takes 10,000 steps a day, for example, they could earn $1.25 towards their health insurance. If they perform even more activity or exercise, they could reduce their premiums to $1,400 a year.

Incentives to exercise aren’t the only way wearables can help employees improve their health. Depending on the type of wearable worn, everything from blood sugar levels, to heart rate and sleep patterns can be tracked. So if your employee visits a clinic because their symptoms are flaring up again, a doctor can use the info tracked on the wearable to explain why. This can make it easier for both doctor and patient to resolve the health problem.

Controversy

While it may sound like utilizing wearable technology in the workplace is a no brainer, this matter is not without controversy: tracking employee activity raises the question of privacy.

As more and more businesses discover the value of big data, it’s more likely that information tracked by wearables can be exploited. One technology consultant, Barbara Duck, notes that tracking health information can lead to insurers assigning a score to your physical activity and health, and selling that information. Insurers could then use this information to charge consumers outrageous fees.

While this is just the beginning of wearable technology being used in the workplace, it’s too early to tell how privacy will be affected in the long run. As of right now it looks like wearables will be a growing trend in the future. And they’re certainly worth considering as they can reduce the costs of employee insurance and create a healthier, more productive staff. If you’d like to learn more about wearable or other healthcare related technology, get in touch. We’re happy to share our expertise.

You probably love your Android tablet. It can be a handy tool that allows you to communicate and get work done on the go. But what if this same beneficial tool was actually hurting your business? Yes, it’s possible. Like all electronic devices, your Android tablet has the power to severely disrupt your sleep. And as a business owner, this can have a dramatic effect on the growth and success of your organization. Here’s what you can do to prevent this.

Don’t use it before bed

It’s been widely recognized that the blue light emitted from screens and mobile devices can disrupt sleep, suppressing your body’s melatonin levels (the hormone that induces sleep). Because of this and the distractions your tablet produces, it’s best to avoid using it a half hour before bed. However, if this isn’t possible here are a few tips to prevent your device from causing sleep disruption.

Silence distractions with Google Chrome’s Reader Mode

Reading before bed can be an effective way to induce sleep. However, if you’re using your tablet to browse the Internet, you’re often exposed to ads which are sometimes loud and flashy. Just as you’re nodding off, one of these ads could startle you awake and out of slumber mode. So what can you do?

Google Chrome’s Reader Mode can eliminate unnecessary ads and images, placing an emphasis on the text. To activate Reader Mode, type chrome://flags into your navigation bar, scroll down till you find Reader Mode triggering and choose Always from the menu. The next time you launch a page on Chrome, click on the banner that appears at the bottom of the page that reads Make page mobile-friendly. And just like that your text will be highlighted and ads eliminated.

Prevent disturbances

If you’re letting emails, calls and text messages wake you up in the middle of the night, then you are missing an obvious way to get a better sleep. Enter the Do Not Disturb setting. This will shut out all of these nightly annoyances so you can unplug from the world and focus on doing something important for yourself - getting a good night’s rest.

To turn on Do Not Disturb, open Settings > Sound and Notification. Then click on Do Not Disturb. From here you can choose which contacts can get through to you while you’re in dreamland.

Dim your device

While Android tablet doesn’t have a built in feature to adjust the amount of blue light emitted, there are apps that can help you easily adjust the filter opacity, which enables your screen to be less bright. The free app Screen Dimmer is one option you can try.

Monitor your sleeping habits

Do you constantly wake up at night unsure as to the reason why? Are you sleeping better or worse on nights when you consume certain food or alcohol? Or do you sleep better on the days you exercise? If you’re unsure of these answers, there’s an app for it. Using a motion sensor and sound recording, SleepBot will monitor your sleeping habits to help you discover which nights you sleep best. Then you can try to recreate those conditions to resolve your sleep issues.

No matter your business, sleep is vital to your success. We hope these five tips will help you get the sound sleep you desire. If you’re curious to learn more about how the Android tablet can improve your life and business, give us a call.

For many business owners, calculating the return on investment of a new technology purchase can be tricky. Some may not even see the value of calculating it, and therefore skip this step. This, however, can be a costly mistake to your business because if your technology isn’t saving you money, it’s costing you. Here are some tips to help you understand technology ROI and how to calculate it.

ROI basics

What does it mean to have a positive return on investment? It’s pretty simple. A positive ROI means the results a technology produces are greater than or equal to the amount of time and money invested. Obviously you want a positive ROI, but when is the right time to consider it? Should it be before or after you make a technology purchase? The answer is both. Before purchasing, you want to carefully consider whether a technology service or product is worth your money. Then months after you’ve implemented it, you should analyze whether or not you made a good investment. Doing this enables you to learn from your mistakes (if you made one) and make a wiser technology purchase next time.

Also, don’t forget to look at your technology currently in use. Ask yourself, is your technology simply keeping the lights on? Or is it providing a solid foundation for your business to grow? If the answer is the former, there are likely better options out there worth trying.

How to calculate ROI

When calculating ROI, it doesn’t have to be perfect. Here is a simple formula to get you started.

ROI = net gain/cost Example: You spend $100 and make $150. Your net gain is $50 ROI = 50/100 = 50%

If you’ve yet to purchase a service or new equipment, you obviously don’t know how much profit it will generate. So you’ll have to do a bit of guesswork and estimation. It’s also important to consider some intangibles. Think about the productivity costs of staff time, disruption, and frustration (because most of us don’t work effectively when frustrated). Let’s take staff time for example. How much time will your staff save if you implement a Managed Services solution? With your employees no longer having to put out IT fires daily, what if your entire staff saves 50 hours a week because of it? How much does that add up to in saved salary expense? It’s important here not just to think about the savings in time, but also what your staff could be doing with those extra 50 hours. They could put those hours towards marketing or growing your business. And that alone could make up for the costs of the technology investment itself.

Intangibles don’t just apply to saving time, frustration and disruptions, but also the costs of implementing the new technology. For example, how much time will be required to train your staff on the new technology? What’s the cost of that? Also, how much time will it take to migrate from your old system to the new one? You should consider all of these when estimating your ROI.

Lastly, don’t forget to consider the unique circumstance of subscription purchases. Since you are usually paying these on a monthly basis, it can be a bit tricky to add up real costs. That’s why it’s important to use a timeline for these. For example, if you subscribe to software as a service, what’s the cost of that plan over the course of one year or five? How much money will you save over that time span?

What’s the benefit?

Besides the staffing example mentioned above, consider how a technology investment can create new revenue streams. For example, an investment in VoIP opens up an opportunity to offer video consulting to clients in parts of the country (or even world) that would normally be out of reach. This obviously leads to a new revenue stream and increased profits. So ask yourself, can the technology you’re considering create new revenue streams?

Next steps

Before making a technology purchase, it’s wise to talk with both management and end users about your decision. If you fail to consult your end users before implementation, they may disagree with your decision and therefore take longer to adapt or even rebel against it. Checking with them beforehand gives them a chance to offer valuable feedback on how it will be used in the trenches, and will get them onboard with the technology if you implement it. As for your management team, they can be a valuable resource to bounce ideas off of and gain insights about the technology you may have overlooked.

Lastly, ROI does not need to be calculated for every purchase. If you need to buy something small, like a new keyboard, just go and buy it. Save your ROI calculations for much larger investments that can have a dramatic impact on your business.

If you need help determining the ROI of a potential technology investment, feel free to give us a call for a chat. Our experts can help you determine the true benefits of a given technology and help you make a wise investment.