Leapfrog 
If your company is merging with or acquiring another company, consolidating IT infrastructure is key to your success. Do it well and you leverage the best of both worlds without downtime. Do it not-so-well and you can torpedo the transition and maybe even the business objectives. Integrating IT systems is complicated but with a good …
May 2017: Companies are spending massive amounts of money figuring out how to stop hackers from infiltrating their businesses. And they’re spending most of it on the latest tools, firewalls, intrusion-prevention systems, and antivirus software. On the other hand, cybercriminals are spending most of their efforts on the non-technical end — figuring out how to …
May 2017: Now that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) can collect and sell your browsing history, what you do online can be a lot less private. Fortunately, using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a super-easy way to mask your identity online and keep your browser history private, as well as boost security. Free options are …
Updated for May 2017 (Originally posted December 2014): Do you run any part of your business in the cloud — maybe Office 365, Salesforce.com, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), payroll or voice calling? How about email? The more you have in the cloud, the more you need a working internet connection. You need your employees productive …
April 2017: Don’t let overuse of the phrase “IT trusted advisor” keep you from having one — a real one. Recent events, including the massive CIA data dump and the Amazon Web Services outage that took down hundreds of thousands of websites, prove something very important — the IT stakes are higher now than ever …
April 2017: Don’t be paranoid — chances are slim you’re being watched through a camera on your phone, computer, TV or baby monitor. But you certainly could be! Cameras connected to the internet are part of the worldwide web of wired and wireless networks. The fact that you can livestream your vacation and monitor your …
Updated for April 2017 (Originally posted March 2015): Fiber-optics is the fastest way to get your Internet and TV — it blows the bits off of cable and DSL. You used to only find it in big-city, high-density office buildings but not anymore. Little by little, fiber is coming to neighborhoods across the US. Google …
March 2017: Does your company have a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for IT? If not, then it’s missing out on the single most effective way to see how well your IT is performing so you can make the improvements you need. Defining your IT metrics also defines something else — your commitment to …
March 2017: Even worse than doing your taxes is finding out someone beat you to it — and got your refund. Tax return fraud is still in the billions of dollars each year, which means it can affect you. Anyone who has your Social Security Number (SSN) can put you at risk, and this includes …
March 20117: If you like to upgrade your phone when new ones come out, the four leading carriers and Apple offer upgrade programs that cut typical two-year upgrade times by half or less —plus there’s no two-year contract. The concept is simple: you buy the phone and pay for it over time. When you’re ready …
