Suffolk Computer Consultants, Inc. Blog

What would you think if I told you that you could break your smartphone by setting the wrong picture as its background? Well, you had better start thinking it, as a photograph has been discovered that has precisely that effect when it is set as the wallpaper. Let’s unwrap this admittedly crazy story to get a better handle on the situation.

Voice over Internet Protocol has been one of the most dynamically growing products in all of information technology. Today, over 30 percent of businesses are using VoIP, and that number is growing fast. VoIP presents some extraordinary benefits for businesses that do business internationally. Today, we’ll take a look at VoIP’s trends and how it can be an effective investment for your company.

The small business has been really hit hard recently.  With around one-sixth of the workforce working online because of the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses have been doing some hand wringing about their future IT investments. Do you keep your computing resource onsite or do you look to the cloud to fill in? Today, we will take a look at this very question.

For the small business owner, this has to go down as one of the most challenging periods in recent memory. Many of the more fortunate businesses have shifted their operations remotely as stay-at-home orders were in place with varying degrees of success. Regardless of where your business is in relation to normal, you’ll always be looking for solutions that will both reduce costs and bring more dynamic functionality to your business. One such solution is hosted VoIP.

The influence of COVID-19 has permeated through most aspects of daily life, from the way we live, communicate, work, and for many, the way we learn. As schools must remain closed for now, that is not to say that the learning process will necessarily be suspended for all. Many institutions already have the necessary tools in place to continue their students’ education in the form of remote learning, but for many, this is uncharted territory.

The typical business network will contain quite a few critical assets that need to be protected, which means that you need to seriously consider anything you add to that network. Take the wireless network that your business uses--how secure is it, and how well does it work? Well, we have a few ways that you can ensure that the answer to both these questions is “well.”

A global pandemic is about one of the worst situations that humans can endure. It has an effect on every person. The CDC is recommending that everyone practice what is called ‘social distancing.’ The unfortunate result of this policy is that many businesses lose access to their onsite workforce. Provided that you are set up to allow your staff to work remotely, you can avoid losing huge swaths of productivity. Today we will discuss some of the considerations and the technology you will need to make this strategy work for you.

Virtual reality was once the “next big thing.” As predictions for VR were made over the decades, it showed great promise to be a truly ground changing technology for businesses to adopt, especially for remote work. So… what happened? 

Big data, or massive data sets that can be used to make inferences and reveal patterns, has become an increasingly important part of modern business and can be leveraged in many different ways. There are a few different options for storing this data available, which the use case for the data will dictate. Here, we’ll evaluate whether a “data lake” or a “data warehouse” would better suit your needs.

When you have a problem with your computer and you reach out for help, the first thing you will probably be asked is, “have you turned it off and turned it back on?” This is not because the technician is lazy, it is because a lot of problems can be fixed by rebooting your computer. Do you need to shut down or simply restart your computer? It might surprise you that turning your computer off and restarting it actually accomplishes different things. Today, we’ll discuss the difference. 

If you are a regular reader of this blog, or if you’ve seen our blogs on social media, you’ve probably seen that we discuss data backup regularly. Some of you have a dedicated data backup platform that routinely works to keep your business safe from data loss. Some of you don’t, and need one. Today, we’ll talk a little bit about why it’s such a big deal. 

Have you received text messages from businesses? You are definitely not alone. Today’s businesses, looking for even the slightest advantage have begun using SMS messaging to push their products and services on potential customers. This strategy is more or less as effective as other forms of marketing that target people’s personal accounts. The problem with text-based marketing is that the phone numbers that people get messages from often change and seem very much like spam. 

To make any business decision, you must weigh the pros and the cons of your options. This includes when you may be considering managed services as your support method. As we are admittedly biased in favor of you adopting managed services, we wanted to review just a few ways a managed service agreement can help you optimize some critical business considerations.

While blockchain technologies may have entered the public awareness thanks to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, this is far from the technology’s only application. We wanted to take a few minutes and explore how the blockchain’s features promise many benefits to established and emerging industries.

Some of the best technologies blend in with everyday life. For example, smart speakers are designed in a way to be both functional and inconspicuous. Conversely, some technology that you may have dismissed initially can present some serious benefits for your company. One of those technologies is the digital sign. 

Most companies lean pretty heavily on their technology. They typically invest in tried-and-true technology solutions to cover their operational problems, while trying to find innovative tools that return higher yields on their investments. For 2020, there are a few trends most SMBs are going to want to take head on. They include:

When you consider all that the typical workstation has to endure (potentially grubby hands poking at it all day, crumbs, sneezes, you get the idea), there is little wonder that our devices can get so dirty. Here, we’ll be discussing how to properly clean your device.

As the data that you store on your business’ computers is valuable, it is inherently a desirable target to cybercriminals and scammers alike. This means that it is in your best interest to have comprehensive protections in place to protect this data from their activities. Let’s go over exactly what a firewall is, and how they make up a critical portion of your business’ defenses.

Upgrading your business’ technology can be extraordinarily expensive. If you’ve been using the same desktops for years, but don't necessarily have the money to upgrade your whole business’ IT, an option that you can consider is deploying a hosted desktop. Today, we will define exactly what a hosted desktop is, and why it is a good solution for companies that are in a bind. 

Virtual assistants are everywhere. Either a device can be controlled with them, or it has the assistant built into it natively, and they are now common in the home and the office alike. In fact, their daily use in the workplace has been predicted by Gartner to reach 25 percent by 2021.