Professional Services Help Schools Manage Google Drive for Education

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google drive
With Google’s (GOOG) announcement of Google Drive for Education, schools using Google Apps for Education will have unlimited Drive storage and the Vault archive/ediscovery service for free.  To help schools deploy, configure, and use Vault successfully, Cumulus Global (www.cumuluglobaleducation.com) today announced an expansion of its Vault EDU Services. Cumulus Global’s Vault EDU Services are a set of professional services designed and priced for schools and districts.

Vault EDU Services include:

  • Service Activation
    • Best practice settings and configuration
    • Matching configuration and retention periods to policies and regulations
    • Ensuring data is not improperly removed
  • Admin Training
    • A 1:1 session focused on configuration, search, and discovery
  • Vault Support
    • Assistance with investigative matters
    • Execution of discovery with affidavits for chain of custody

“Having deployed Vault for hundreds of schools and districts, we understand the importance of proper setup and configuration”, stated Falcon.  “And since eDiscovery is a feature that tends to be used occasionally and as-needed, we can help ensure searches and matters are handled effectively.” Vault EDU Services are part of Cumulus Global’s expanding range of services for K-12 education.

Schools can learn more at http://www.cumulusglobaleducation.com/deploy.

 

About Cumulus Global and our Solutions for Education Cumulus Global is Cloud Solutions Provider and a Google Apps Premier Reseller, helping small and mid-size businesses, non-profits, governments, and educational institutions move from in-house systems to cloud computing solutions. Our solutions for education, http://www.cumulusglobaleducation.com, help schools Deploy cloud solutions, Gear Up their technology, and Transform the learning process.

 

Google Drive for Education: A Game Changing Upgrade for Schools

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google drive

With Google’s announcement of Google Drive for Education, Google is bringing the power of Google Apps Unlimited to schools for free.

With Google Drive for Education, schools
and districts get:

  • Google Apps for Education
    • All of the email, communication, and collaboration features you know and love
  • Unlimited Drive
    • Infinite storage to encourage content development and collaboration
  • Google Apps Vault
    • Archive and discovery of all Gmail and, in the near future, Drive content
  • Audit Capabilities
    • Administrative rights and tools to track usage
  • Advanced Controls
    • Tools to add more visibility and control for domain administrators

We have more information about Drive for Education here, as well as answers to the most frequently asked questions.

How eBay Can Destroy Your Business

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eBay is putting your business at risk … and not in the way you might think.

This is not about lost productivity, eBay stores, or your merchant account. This is about eBay letting hackers attack your computers.  This is about hackers using eBay to steal usernames and passwords, employee data, and customer data.

As reported by ComputerWorld, eBay is under attack by security professionals for allowing “active content” in ads, which allows hackers to create listings and fake pages with malicious code.  Over 100 eBay listings have already been found to include malicious code designed to steal usernames and passwords.  Many of these listings were hijacked from sellers with 100% ratings and years of successful sales, creating a false sense of trust.

Employees shopping during their lunch break can unwittingly open up your corporate network to hackers, enabling theft of personal and customer information.

While eBay promises to monitor and assess the situation, one simple fact remains:

Even trusted web sites from major corporations can be compromised and pose a threat to your data … and your business.

While preventing people from using the Internet is an option, it is not a realistic option in today’s world.  Active protection is your best option.  Web filtering solutions not only block known malware sites, these services examine the code, content, and behavior of sites for malicious activities like those embedded in the corrupted eBay listings.  Combined with solid endpoint/user protection, you can defend your staff, your data, and your business from attack and data loss.

Web filtering solutions cost less than $3.50 per user per month with an annual contract. Please contact us to learn more or request a quote.

Click these links to learn more about Security Threats and Web-based Malware.

 

 

Beware of Marketplace Apps on the Move

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Last week, Google announced that the Google Apps Marketplace was open for business to all Google Apps users, not just administrators.

While this move opens up a wide range of personal productivity applications to Google Apps users, it is not without risks.

  • Your users can now commit you to paid apps and services that you may not want as part of your environment.
  • Apps may require permissions to data in your Google Apps environment that needs to be, or you want to be, private and secure.
  • Not all apps are from well-known vendors.

As we have written in the past, third party apps can present a risk to your data and your business.  And while Bring-Your-Own-App (BYOA) can be beneficial to staff efficiency and effectiveness, Google Apps administrators should careful and should understand the security health of the domain.

As such, consider turning off marketplace access to all users.  (Customers with a support plan: Ask us and we will do this for you).

We also recommend that you consider a Google Apps Security Health Check (special offer through Sept 30th) to ensure that Marketplace, mobile, and other third party apps are not already posing a risk.

If your current Google Apps reseller is not providing guidance on best practices, security and other important issues, contact us.  We would love to have you join us as a client. 

 

 

 

Cumulus Global Tops CRN Fast Growth 150

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CRN Fast Growth 150
Cumulus Global Ranks #1 Among Elite Group of Fastest Growing Solution Providers in the IT Channel

 

Westborough, MA, September 15, 2014 – Cumulus Global, Cloud Solutions for Small and Mid-Size Enterprises, announced today that it has been named to top of the CRN Fast Growth 150 list with a two-year growth rate exceeding 680%. The Fast Growth 150 list recognizes the fastest growing IT Service providers over a two-year period, based on gross revenue from calendar year 2011 through calendar year 2013.  Cumulus Global, and other solution providers on the Fast Growth 150, have demonstrated exceptional business finesse in order to thrive despite a turbulent IT economy.

“The solution providers recognized in CRN’s Fast Growth 150 list have successfully navigated the industry’s economic upheaval and have adapted their businesses and grown despite the significant changes that evolving technologies like cloud computing, collaboration and mobility have created in the IT space,” said Robert Faletra, CEO of The Channel Company, publisher of CRN.  “These organizations are some of the most successful solution providers in business today, and it is our pleasure to recognize them for their accomplishments and draw attention to them as leaders in today’s IT channel.”

Cumulus Global’s growth stems from its growing range of cloud-based services and its expansion into new arenas, including the K-12 education and local government markets. The firm recently launched a website specific to its K-12 education offerings and services, at www.cumulusglobaleducation.com.

“We are honored by the recognition from CRN as we continue to innovate and grow”, stated Cumulus Global CEO Allen Falcon. “This growth would not be possible without our dedicated team, great vendor partners, and customers that see the value in the services we deliver.”

For small and mid-size businesses, Cumulus Global offers solutions that leverage Google Apps for Work as a business infrastructure. Using Google Apps for Work as a platform, Cumulus Global integrates advanced services to meet customers’ needs beyond email and calendars, including managed and secure file services, business and regulatory compliance, voice/video conferencing, and cloud-based or hosted line of business applications.  The company also offers a range of cloud and hosted solutions for data protection and data loss prevention.

Highlights on the Fast Growth 150 list are featured in the October issue of CRN and can be viewed online at www.crn.com.

The CRN Fast Growth 150 recognition follows Cumulus Global’s ranking at 349 on the 2014 Inc. 500 list of fastest growing private companies in America, and the company’s receiving the Boston Business Journal Pacesetter Award as the 5th Fastest Growing Provide Company in Massachusetts.

About The Channel Company

The Channel Company is the channel community’s trusted authority for growth and innovation, with established brands including CRN, XChange Events, IPED, and SharedVue. For more than three decades, we have leveraged our proven and leading-edge platforms to deliver prescriptive sales and marketing solutions for the technology channel. The Channel Company provides Communication, Recruitment, Engagement, Enablement, Demand Generation and Intelligence services to drive technology partnerships. Learn more at www.thechannelcompany.com.

 

11 Great YouTube Channels for Teachers

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As headlined in the Sept 11th edition of our very own Education Resource Daily,  this article from Educational Technology and Mobile Learning highlights some great resources for teachers.

 

 

The Google Apps / Gmail Breach That Isn’t

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News over the past few days that hackers have posted almost 5 million email addresses and passwords on an online forum has caught the media’s attention in large part because about 4.7 million of the addresses appear to be gmail accounts.

This is NOT, however, a breach of Gmail or Google Apps.  

The information appears to be from other sites and sources for which users provide their email address as their login.  In fact, several people that have found their address on the list report that the information is not their login information for Gmail or Google Apps.  As reported by Mashable, your risk is low.

Given it is not a Google Apps or Gmail breach, are you at risk?

Maybe!  Google has already analyzed the list and found some users that may be using their Google account password for other sites.  Google has notified these users and is forcing them to change their passwords. For the bigger picture:

If you use the same username/email address and password for all of your services, and one service is breached, then you are at risk of hackers gaining access to some or all of your services.

If a service is breached and you have granted the service access to your Google Apps environment, your data may be at risk.

Recommended Actions

Step One:  It is not easy, but avoid using the same password for multiple services, sites, or accounts.  And don’t write passwords down to remember them.

Step Two:  Be careful when and how you allow services to connect with one another.  For example, LinkedIn needs your gmail.com password if you are going to import contacts. While this may be safe to do, other services may not be as trustworthy.

Step Three:  Read and understand security permissions when you install apps on your mobile devices.  Many apps recognize and request access to other apps and services already on your phone.  Human nature is to say “grant” or “allow” without reading or fully understanding the implications, risks, or the trustworthiness of the app’s creators.

Note for Businesses, Governments, and Schools running Google Apps: Users installing 3rd party apps, particularly on cell phones, may be granting access to data stored in Google Apps.  To see if you have a risk, we offer a Google Apps Security Health Check that will document access rights and evaluate your level or risk, if any.  

Click Here for Information

 

5 Security Threats SMBs Should Not Overlook: Malicious Web Sites

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Security Puzzle
As more services move into the cloud, users bring their own apps to their work environment, and we see more integration and interconnect between systems, the nature security risks and threats are changing.  

This blog series looks at some of these threats, why the should be of concern to SMBs, and how SMBs can mitigate the risks.

Many small and mid-size business owners look past security threats in the belief that their businesses do not have trade secrets or other information coveted by hackers.  This view is naive.  Small businesses are ripe for attack because they often have personal, credit, or medical information about their customers and their employees.

Your business may at risk even if you are not a deliberate target. Hackers and thieves cast wide nets to capture personal information for identity theft. For identity theft, your business IT is no different than home computers.

Many businesses respond that they have security in place.  A well managed firewall, a big name malware suite that updates periodically, and spam/virus protection for their email service.

Unfortunately, users are 20 times more likely to suffer a malware attack from a corrupted web site or a phishing attempt then through the “traditional” means of email and file transfers. While traditional malware tools may catch these types of attacks, web-based malware often behaves more like acceptable code.  The recent outbreak of “crypto locker” malware, which encrypts your data and holds it for ransom, is an example of just how ineffective traditional malware prevention alone can be.

The overlooked solution to closing the web-enabled malware threat is known and simple: web filtering.  Web filters not only track sites known to be risky, insecure, or containing malware, they analyze web traffic and behavior in real-time, identifying sites that may be compromised, including those hacked without the site owner’s knowledge.

For most SMBs, adding web filtering to the ecosystem is an affordable increase in IT spending, typically less than $3.00 per employee per month.   Given that a single malware event can take 20 to 60 hours to mitigate at a cost of thousands of dollars, web filtering is a value-add component for most IT ecosystems.

Cumulus Global can assist in selecting a web filtering solution for your business.  Please contact us, or complete the form below, for more information.