More and more businesses are turning to managed service providers (MSPs) to handle the complex IT solutions required to stay competitive in today’s marketplace. However, some still view the MSP as the guy who fixes the computers when they go down. The role of the MSP has evolved since the days of the single consultant who would come in and reconnect the printer or remove a virus from your computer. 

Real user monitoring (RUM) and application performance monitoring (APM) are two different but related methods of IT monitoring that share a goal: improved application performance. In this guide, we’ll break down the differences between RUM and APM, how each of them work, and their typical purposes. I’ll also explain how RUM and APM can complement ... Read moreRUM vs. APM – How They Work and Where’s the Difference

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Depending on the success of your audit trail program, creating an audit trail for your data log can either be a benign part of company protocol or a major nuisance. Several industries, from health care to finance to public works, require detailed reporting of data logs through an audit trail. When your company’s data is ... Read moreOracle Audit Log Best Practices for 2019

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NetFlow is a network protocol that collects information about your network’s IP traffic and monitors network traffic activity. It stands out from other network protocols for its ability to generate insights particular to application flows. Analyzing the data collected through NetFlow enables you to gain a picture of the flow and volume of traffic on ... Read moreWhat Is NetFlow? Best NetFlow Analyzer Software 2019

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If you’re looking for software to ping multiple IP addresses, then you might need a ping sweep tool. But finding the right tool to ping a range of IP addresses can be tricky. The market is bursting with tools and software, each with its own advantages and disadvantages, and the technical jargon can be confusing, ... Read moreWhat Is Ping Sweep? Best Tools to Ping IP Range 2019

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Different IT infrastructure monitoring tools are designed to offer visibility into particular aspects of your overall IT system, including applications, servers, logs, and more. The overall quality of these tools can vary, from excellent products built for business use to more limited open-source software. Their alerting capabilities vary as well, with tools offering a range ... Read moreAlerting Tools for IT Infrastructure

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Oracle databases are an integral part of modern technological infrastructure, and they provide the backbone for how many companies house their data and process online transactions. Because so much of an organization’s important or sensitive information is stored in databases, they’re valuable targets for cyberattacks and hacking attempts. Considering how the costs of data breaches ... Read moreOracle Database Security Best Practices for 2019

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With an increasing number of programming languages in circulation, the range of application monitoring tools is growing. This guide will specifically address Hypertext Preprocessor, better known as PHP, and the key features and advantages of some of the best PHP performance tools available. Before reviewing the PHP performance tools, let’s first take a look at ... Read more7 Tools for Best PHP Performance

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With the continuous growth in demand on network resources, having a finely tuned and well-functioning network is vital for business operations. The increasing use of high-energy applications can strain your bandwidth, pushing your network to the limits and significantly affecting its performance. Improving and optimizing your network bandwidth isn’t easy, and companies often end up ... Read more10 Steps to Improve Network Bandwidth + 12 Best Network Software

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Consumers have been curious about the benefits of using multi-monitor displays for years now, and according to some studies, using dual or multiple monitors can increase a user’s productivity by up to 30% or more. The ability to see multiple applications at once, or to more easily drag and drop files between finder windows, may ... Read moreBest Multi-Monitor Support Tools for Mac and Windows Remote Sessions

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Any IT specialist knows the importance of switch port management. Your company can see quick benefits when you start monitoring your switch ports to increase network efficiency, including savings in time, money, and energy. Switch port monitoring also provides critical protection against security threats. Although network switches generally have LED lights to signal their status ... Read moreBest Network Switch Port Monitoring Software

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It’s extremely frustrating when you lose the data on your personal computer. Yet as annoying and time-consuming as this type of data loss is, it is nothing compared to losses that could be suffered by a business that has no IT disaster recovery plan in place. In fact, for a business, such a loss could mean the beginning of the end; more than 90 percent of businesses that lost their data for more than 10 days filed bankruptcy within one year of the data loss. 

In any company, network users must be both authenticated and authorized before they can access parts of the system capable of leading to security breaches. The process of gaining authorization is called access control. In this guide, I discuss the two main methods for managing access control for your systems—role-based access control (RBAC) and attribute-based ... Read moreRBAC vs. ABAC: What’s the Difference?

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With Windows Active Directory, a range of different account types can be set up with the necessary permissions, access, and roles. These include service accounts, which are intended for use when installing applications or services on the operating system. Common types of Active Directory service accounts include built-in local user accounts, domain user accounts, managed ... Read moreTop 10 Active Directory Service Accounts Best Practices in 2019

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If we’ve learned nothing else about cybercriminal organizations over the last few years, we know for certain these folks are experts on Microsoft security. They’re no longer simply opportunistically gaining access to your network; instead, they’re leveraging known vulnerabilities in operating systems and applications and using the very network they’ve compromised to assist them in finding their intended target ... Read more4 Ways Cyberattackers Take Advantage of Mismanaged Permissions

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Active Directory is essentially a registry containing all the information about a network, including users, groups, computers and printers, and servers. Each of these things, whether physical or virtual, is considered an “object” in Active Directory, and has various attributes assigned to it, such as a name, number, or group membership. Active Directory is used ... Read moreTop 6 Active Directory Security Groups Best Practices in 2019

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Node.js is an open-source, JavaScript-built platform developed in 2009 to help quickly build scalable network applications. It’s a server-side system that’s highly economical, being both productive and lightweight. As a non-blocking IO model that’s event-centric and driven, it’s well-suited to applications that are data-intensive and run at a multi-device level. Node.js offers a large library ... Read more7 Tools and Extensions for Node.js Optimization

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Ruby is a common programming language, ranked among the most popular in the world for tech startups, alongside Java, Python, SQL, and PHP. Many well-known applications and websites are built on Ruby, including Airbnb, Twitter, Kickstarter, CafePress, and Github. Ruby is an object-oriented language developed in the mid-1990s by Japanese creator Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto. Matz ... Read more5 Ruby Tools and Extensions You Should Know

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Docker is a multipurpose tool that can replicate many functions of a virtual machine with less of the hassle. Because Docker operates using virtual software packages (called “containers”) running from the same software kernel, Docker can help you reduce storage overhead while deepening the complex functions of your server. Using Docker can instantly allow for ... Read moreTop Monitoring and Optimization Tools for Docker

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The core of your organization’s security stance is built on a massive number of individual permissions to both on-premises and cloud-based resources. With the increase in cyberattacks, concerns around insider threats, and the growing need to meet multiple compliance mandates centered around data security of various types of data, it seems like permissions should be ... Read more3 Reasons Why IT Isn’t Managing Permissions (Even Though They Should)

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IT teams know the stakes are high for system monitoring. It’s not an overstatement to say tracking the health, performance, and security of the many IT components throughout your environment is crucial if you hope to ensure the overall organization stays operational and secure. When businesses don’t invest in the right solutions for measuring system ... Read moreBest System Monitoring Software in 2019

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Virtual machines, or VMs, are becoming increasingly common in enterprise infrastructures, joining physical computers, printers, and database servers on the network. Their uses include application development and testing, storage, operating system flexibility, and workspace duplication. The challenges when dealing with VMs are complex, as they can use resources in different ways than physical machines and ... Read moreBest VM Performance Monitoring Tools 2019

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Since almost everything we own is connected to the internet, it’s time to take another look at cybersecurity. The nature of cybersecurity threats has changed since the early years of the web: cybercriminals are getting more sophisticated and less obvious. According to the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, in 2018, 74% of data breaches were ... Read moreWhat Is Threat Intelligence? Definition and Types

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When it comes to choosing a partner for managed IT services, companies may run into issues finding the right partner because of the overwhelming amount of noise in the local Boston market. There are a number of companies fighting for market share, and with the global market share expected to rise to 296.38 billion dollars by the year 2023, you can expect even more companies to start vying for your business. 

To think that IT security is only a problem reserved for large enterprises is to put your business at a serious disadvantage. In fact, more and more small to medium-sized organizations are investing more in IT security because they understand that they are at risk. According to the 2018 State of Cybersecurity in Small and Medium Size Businesses study published by Ponemon, 67 percent of respondents experienced a cyberattack in the year 2018, and 58 percent of those attacks resulted in a data breach. 

 IT security remains a challenge for organizations of all sizes, but there are steps you can take to reduce the risks. Adhering to these three key IT security strategy pillars is the first step you should take. 

Since the early days of the computer virus, cybersecurity professionals have developed new ways to address the threat landscape. However, just as the good guys find new ways to defend against these attacks, the threat actors responsible are also evolving their methods to bypass these security controls. 

When you are vetting a new vendor, there are certain questions that you need answered before you do business with them. Although these questions differ based on the service or product you are purchasing, the vetting process itself is no different whether you are looking for IT services in Boston, the northeast, or anywhere else in the country. There are specific questions that you should ask to make sure that whoever you choose as a managed services provider for your business’s IT is a match for your individual needs. At a very minimum, any IT services provider should be able to answer the following questions for you. 

Recently, one of our clients expressed concern because they noticed that personal information was showing on users’ profile cards in Office 365. This information included users’ home addresses and personal phone numbers, among other information. 

No one should be surprised that when systems go down, businesses lose money. What might be surprising is just how much money is lost because of downtime. According to Forbes, businesses averaged a loss of $100,000 for one hour of downtime in 2017. A small business in the Boston area may not lose numbers like that, but any amount of loss could have devastating effects. For this reason alone, many small to medium-sized businesses turn to managed IT services. Managed service providers (MSPs) provide your business with a talented and experienced team of IT professionals who offer around-the-clock coverage to help prevent system outages from causing your business to lose money.

In 2017, The Economist made the statement that data had surpassed oil as the world’s most valuable resource. This statement came 11 years after mathematician Clive Humbly said, “Data is the new oil,” and echoed others who have also made comparisons to show just how important and valuable a company’s data is. 

Data loss can cost a business operational downtime, lost sales, and unexpected expenses to get the data back. Many data loss incidents are the result of cyberattacks, which can expose your business to other vulnerabilities. 

According to Spiceworks’ 2019 State of IT Report, 58 percent of companies that were surveyed expect to increase their IT budget from last year. An additional 27 percent expect no change in their budget, and only 7 percent expect the amount they have to spend this year to decrease. 

More organizations are realizing the benefits of using cloud storage services for their data. The embrace of cloud storage for data is so dramatic that in the most recent Cisco Global Cloud Index, it was predicted that by 2021, cloud data centers will process 94 percent of all workloads.

Virtualization technology is nothing new. Popularized in the early 2000s, the technology that virtualization is built upon actually dates back to the 1960s, when IBM aimed to increase the efficiency of computers through time-sharing. 

Time-sharing, a process of sharing computing resources, laid the groundwork for modern-day virtualization where resources from a single computer are divided into multiple virtual machines. For example, a single server may be split into three separate servers, each one utilizing a third of the CPU, storage, and other resources.  However, modern-day virtualization allows for much more than that. Hypervisors, the software that enables virtualization, help organizations rely on virtualization for data, desktops, servers, operating systems, and network functions.

When it comes to creating and deploying web applications and platforms, Java is one of the most widely-used programming languages. Although Java is based on C and C++ syntax, developers use it because it allows them to adopt and deploy their code to nearly any platform or machine, regardless of operating system or architecture. Because ... Read moreJava Performance Monitoring and Optimization Tools

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Virtualization is a process for users to create multiple simulated environments within one piece of hardware. Instead of using multiple pieces of hardware to run more than one operating system, virtualization creates a type of virtual barrier—called a hypervisor—to separate digital functions normally requiring multiple physical units. Essentially, virtualization uses software to act as hardware. ... Read moreWhat Is Server Virtualization? 2019 Guide for Server Virtualization

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Whether you’re running an instance of open-source MySQL or Microsoft SQL Server, you need to be certain you have robust, high-quality security measures in place. This is extremely important for preventing malicious access to your database, particularly if sensitive or personal data is stored on your servers. In this article, I cover the essential SQL ... Read moreSQL Server Security Best Practices for 2019

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Knowing the state of your network and server health is incredibly important for techs who want to optimize performance. Without insights into how your servers are performing, you increase the odds of encountering pesky software bugs or potential bottlenecks. That’s why it’s important to develop proactive server monitoring practices. Monitoring servers can be a tedious ... Read moreWindows Server Monitoring and Optimization Tools You Should Know (and Use)

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It can be hard to keep on top of all the software on your computer, especially if every time you open a program it tells you it needs updating. Luckily, you can install a software updater to manage this process for you. The importance of software updaters is twofold: first, they make sure you’re using ... Read more2019 Best Software Updater

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Active Directory (AD) is a battle-tested software many company administrators use as a standard remedy for concerns about outsider access to data. But within AD, there are many types of security protocols to choose from. What if I don’t want to enable email access to my users, but instead I want my users to securely ... Read moreHow to Create a Security Group in Active Directory

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Keeping your network safe from intrusion is one of the most vital parts of system and network administration and security. If your network is penetrated by a malicious attacker, it can lead to massive losses for your company, including potential downtime, data breaches, and loss of customer trust. An intrusion detection system (IDS) is a ... Read moreWhat Is an Intrusion Detection System? Latest Types and Tools

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When you make a credit card transaction, the last thing you want to think about is your data getting stolen. Fortunately, credit card companies put several measures in place to make sure this doesn’t happen. For businesses dealing with customer payments, PCI DSS compliance measures are a simple and necessary step in making sure customer ... Read moreUltimate Guide to PCI DSS Compliance Requirements in 2019

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Even when we have the best of intentions and work hard to keep our systems protected, human beings are fallible. Hackers know this, which can lead to the creation of elaborate and convincing ploys used to trick your end users into divulging credentials, allowing hackers access to your systems. For this reason, it’s essential for ... Read more8 Best HIDS Tools—Host-Based Intrusion Detection Systems

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This Wireshark tutorial will teach you everything you need to know about how to start using Wireshark to get the most out of your network. I’m going to cover this software from start to finish, all the way from downloading the application to accessing advanced features. You’ll learn the ins and outs of analyzing packets, ... Read moreHow to Use Wireshark – Wireshark Network Monitor Tutorial

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