Pending Storm; Pending Doom

A quick scan of the weather headlines late on Thursday afternoon: a “Nor’easter” storm going through rapid escalation, know as “Bombogenisis”, looks ready to hit New England tomorrow with rain, snow and hurricane force wind gusts. Now it is Sunday, and many small and midsize businesses along the northeastern coast are wondering when, or if, they […]

The QuickBooks Hosting Challenge

QuickBooks is the leading accounting package for small business. And yet, many businesses cannot run QuickBooks Online, the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) version. Whether the online versions lack industry-specific features you need, or you have integrated third party tools/add-ons, staying with an on-premise version of QuickBooks remains the best solution for your business. As you move to […]

G Suite Business Upgrade Incentives

Through June 30, 2018, you can upgrade from G Suite Basic to G Suite Business and save up to 33%. To qualify, you must: Running G Suite Basic with at least 1 user (no minimum user limit) Upgrade before June 3o, 2018 If you are on an annual commitment plan, you can upgrade during your […]

Driving G Suite Upgrades

G Suite Business is the recommended G Suite subscription for most small and midsize businesses. Many of our clients have upgraded already, so we asked them what is driving them to make the move. In no particular order, our clients tell us that with G Suite Business, you get: Better File Services Team Drives gives […]

The Best WiFi Solutions for Small Business

Businesses depend on WiFi service. From employee laptops, tablets, and phones, to visitors in conference rooms, having the best WiFi for your small business is a critical component of your network infrastructure. And yet, for many small businesses, WiFi performance and reliability degrade over time. Most WiFi installations start with a focus on coverage — […]

The Last Mile: Internet Access in the Age of Cloud

Internet access has changed radically in the past half decade. With greater availability of broadband service from cable providers, small and midsize businesses are no longer limited by legacy wide area network technologies offered by traditional telephone providers. The cost of service has also plummeted.  In our area, we have gone from paying $500 per […]

Rules, Regulations, and Results

For Small and Midsize Enterprises (SMEs), the regulatory landscape remains in a perpetual state of flux with changes originating at the Federal, state, and local levels. While some rules and regulations can severely impact your business’ operations, and profitability, many create requirements that you can easily satisfy at a nominal cost. Three regulations with upcoming […]

What is a MCSP?

As noted in our recent post, Moving Cloud Gets Real, many small and midsize businesses are approaching the tipping point between on-premise and cloud service. When (not if) you reach this point, how you manage and support your IT will change, and you will begin to wonder what a managed cloud service provider can do […]

Buy, Lease, DaaS, or BYOD?: Which Option is Right for Your Business

As we noted in our last blog post, Moving Cloud Gets Real, small and midsize businesses like yours are reaching the tipping point where cloud solutions outweigh those running on-site. When this happens, you need to decide if/when you move your remaining on-premise systems to cloud infrastructure. As you do, you face the question about […]

Moving Cloud Gets Real

Cloud Computing is reaching a tipping point for small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) as the number and value of cloud-based applications and systems surpasses those running on site. Beyond email, SMBs use Software-as-a-Service solutions for customer relationship management, operations, finance, customer service, and vendor/supply chain management. SMBs want better integration between SaaS solutions and custom-built […]

Pumpkin Spice Cloud Solutions

It doesn’t just happen. It seems to become a bigger and bigger thing over time. More feel like they are missing out. More try to join in. Many see an opportunity and try to ride the perceived popularity. And many get turned off because of personal taste or even just to buck the trend. Such […]

Does Team Drives + Drive File Stream = File Server?

Last month, Google (finally) released Drive File Stream. Unlike the Drive Sync Client it replaces, Drive File Stream provides “mapped drive” access to files in Drive. In doing so, you can browse, search, and use Drive like you would any mapped drive through Windows File Explorer and Finder on Macs. By mapping and using a […]

Picking the Right Google Drive Client

Today is the day that Google makes Drive File Stream generally available to all G Suite users. As of December 11, 2017, Google will fully deprecate and end support for the old Google Drive Client that has, up until now, provided users with the ability to sync and share files between Drive and their devices. […]

The Curse and Blessing of Office 365 Licensing

If you ask IT pros about Office 365 licensing, they are likely to roll their eyes. If you ask which license is right for you, the conversation will likely start with a heavy sigh. Microsoft has 6 primary Office 365 license options for business, several add-ons, a number of special-purpose licenses, and over a dozen […]

The Email and Web Browser Protections You Need

A decade ago, the big problem with email was SPAM.  Unwanted messages pushing “healthy pills” and cell phone deals inundated our mailboxes and clogged our Internet connections.  At times, over 90% of all email traffic reaching our local servers was unwanted junk. We fought back and, for a long time, won the battle with updated […]

How you Work Influences Which Cloud Platform is Best for You

Both G Suite (Google Apps) and Microsoft Office 365 provide cloud productivity tools and a foundation for a productive cloud ecosystem. Several factors influence which cloud is best for you. Having discussed culture clash and line of business apps in past posts, I want to focus on how you — and your team — work. […]

SMBs Benefit from Office 365 Business Premium Enhancements

Office 365 Business Premium is a comprehensive productivity suite designed to help businesses streamline their operations and increase their efficiency. This cloud-based infrastructure service from Microsoft offers a range of powerful tools and applications that can help teams collaborate, communicate, and work more effectively. With features like email hosting, file sharing, online meetings, and more, […]

Team Drives Launches for G Suite Business, Enterprise, & Education

Most file storage solutions weren’t built to handle the explosion of files that are now created and shared in the cloud — because they were initially designed for individuals, not teams. With this amount of shared data, admins need more controls to keep their data safe and teams need to feel confident working together. Team […]

Which Cloud? Let Your “Line of Business” Apps Be Your Guide

Should your CRM, ERP, or Warehousing system guide which email service you use? Yes, and here’s why … Many SMBs think of Office 365 and G Suite (formerly Google Apps) as an email service or collaboration tools for emails, files, and chats. Both Office 365 and G Suite are, however, collaboration suites focused on individual and […]