The Weather Report
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Intel Hybrid Cloud Partners Left Out to Dry
MSP’s and IT companies often find comfort in large vendor products and solutions. For some it is name recognition, while others it’s that happy feeling they get knowing the company has been in business for many years. Intel is one of those companies that gives you the warm and fuzzies every time they attend [...]
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Are Canned Responses Good or Bad for Business?
Canned or automatically generated responses are one of the most common ways that businesses introduce automation into their process. For customers this practice has become expected, however it can also lead to frustration. A canned response can be described as a general response that is sent out based on an action. One of the [...]
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Is Social Media Activity Good for Business?
Social Media if used correctly can be a tremendous tool for engaging with customers and building relationships. At the same time, it can also be a productivity burden and potential business threat if not managed and monitored properly. Many companies have implemented new social media policies to curb employee productivity issues and to get [...]
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Is Managed Services Making You Money?
Have you ever taken all of your Managed services costs; RMM, remote and onsite tech hours, various subscriptions, outsourced management, and any other associated managed services costs, and compared those to your managed services revenues? This, not so simple undertaking, may reveal things aren’t as great as we might expect in the world of managed [...]
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I almost can afford a Share of Apple Stock
Apple stock continues to fall amongst speculation of another bad quarter from the Cupertino Company. Shareholders continued a sell off, which had the stock see a low of $398.11 during trading today. Investors have been watching related companies and chip makers tied to apple products and are seeing revenues from these companies missing their [...]
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What To Do and Not to Do at an IT Conference
IT conferences, tradeshows, and workshops can provide a great place for education, information, and networking for participants. In order to get the most value and ROI out of any event, there are a few definite Do’s and Do Not’s when attending. Do Take Lots of Business Cards: It is surprising the amount of people [...]
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It’s All Microsoft’s Fault!
Image source: www.wpcentral.com The media is overrun today with news stories about the significant decline (11-14%) in PC sales. Most of the headlines and stories would have you believing that this is all due to the recent release and lack of excitement over the Windows 8 platform. Well media, as much as I would [...]
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Low Tech Thieves are a Major IT Security Risk
Much of the news lately has been around high tech security risks, DDoS, attacks, hackers, and personal data breaches. These security issues have reached large and small businesses alike and have wreaked havoc for consumers caught in the middle. A seemingly low-tech threat is surfacing with a recent news story. Vudu, which is a [...]
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Is Break Fix Dead?
It seems like for so many years IT businesses were led to believe that the break fix business was a thing of the past. I witnessed many companies change their models and completely eliminate break fix business from their portfolio of services. In a perfect world this may have been a great scenario, but [...]
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Has the Channel Changed?
The answer to the question of “Has the Channel Changed”; is yes it absolutely has. There are fewer vendors, fewer VAR’s, there is less wining and dining, less MDF funds, and less events and tradeshows to attend. Now this all may sound bleak, but the reality is that this has created more time for [...]
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DDoS Attacks are the new Form of Corporate Protest
DDoS attacks are on the rise, which is apparent by recent high profile news stories that have highlighted the attacks and their effects on businesses and customers. An attack in Europe on the anti-spam evangelist group Spamhaus is currently underway and being called the largest DDoS attack in history. Recent attacks have been on corporations [...]
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Friday Confessional
Well if you know me very well or you read my articles, you may have gotten the feeling that I am not the biggest Microsoft fan. Though Microsoft has been a big part of my life in technology, especially having worked for a number of hardware companies and now software, they have held for me [...]
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When to Upgrade and When to Wait
For many IT businesses software upgrades are a normal part of the day-to-day job functions they perform for clients. This can be operating systems, line of business applications (LOB’s), accounting software, and just about any kind of business productivity suite. A big part of an IT solution company’s business is based around researching, testing and [...]
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Opposite World: Apple Revenues Up Stock Down Microsoft Profits Down Stock Goes Up
In what seems pretty unexplainable, investors are having some pretty interesting reactions to the latest numbers being released by tech companies. Apple has once again posted record earnings, though they didn’t quite meet analyst expectations, the company is still sitting pretty on a hefty sum of cash. Apple today had one of its worst single [...]
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Apple Sinks below $500 on iPhone Slowdown
2013 hasn’t been too good to Apple the company that ended 2012 as the most valuable company in history. Apple has had a number of high profile issues that has been impacting its stock and overall value. Trading on the stock today saw it take a dip to $485.92 finally ending the day at $506.09. [...]
