8
Jun, 2022
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Are You Budgeting Enough for Security?

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Cyberattacks have caused many millions of dollars worth of damage to businesses over the past several years, so it makes sense that your business should invest in its cybersecurity to mitigate these damages. That said, there is only so much you can invest into your cybersecurity budget, as you have to factor in other parts of your business, too. Today, we want to share with you three ways you can invest in cybersecurity initiatives that won’t completely break your bank.

Many organizations hire a CISO, or Chief Information Security Officer, to handle the management of their cybersecurity budget and the general security management for IT resources. This individual might operate under the CIO, but they have the chief responsibility to ensure that the cybersecurity budget is allocated as the business sees fit. Here are four tips you should keep in mind when finding your CISO.

Identifying Your Organization’s Digital Strengths and Weaknesses

Most IT implementations are rooted in an understanding of your infrastructure’s strengths and weaknesses. In order to get the most out of your IT capital, it helps to know just what needs to be addressed and where you can benefit the most. You might be shocked by how much an audit can help with this process. Some of the common issues suffered by small businesses include:

  • Business continuity plans: Businesses don’t always have contingency plans in place for the worst-case scenarios, especially for their IT systems. If they’re not careful, downtime could become a serious problem in the event of a disaster.
  • Phishing and cybersecurity training: With the threat landscape constantly changing, you’ll want to make training your staff a priority. Phishing attacks are the top way malware spreads across systems.
  • Cybersecurity insurance: Cybersecurity insurance does exist, and it can help to protect against data loss and cyberattacks.

A comprehensive security audit can help your business address the many challenges it might face moving forward.

Aligning Your Security to Support Your Business

Certain investments might be practical, but they also need to suit your business’ specific needs. Security spending is something that can be justified as long as risks can be managed appropriately. To this end, you should invest in solutions that provide a return on your investment over the long term such as risk mitigation, regulatory compliance, and solutions that also boost productivity and efficiency, such as automation. This can justify the expenses associated with automated security processes.

Onboard Solid Contributors

The final piece of the puzzle involves building a strategy that requires investments be made in your IT infrastructure. Whether you are trying to hire new employees or bring in professionals to help train your existing workforce, investing in the people power of your business will always be fruitful. The more your employees understand about the role they play in securing your business, the easier it will be to keep your organization safe.

Network security doesn’t have to be challenging. If you make informed decisions about your security investments, you can remain confident that your organization will be making the right decisions moving forward. To learn more about how NuTech Services can fit into your IT decision-making process, reach out to our professional technicians and consultants at 810.230.9455.

2
May, 2022
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Predicting Cloud Costs Isn’t as Challenging as You Might Think

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There is no denying the versatility that technology like the cloud can provide, but it often comes with hidden costs that might affect its cost-to-benefit ratio for your organization. Here are some of these hidden costs, as well as what you can do to minimize the impact they have on your bottom line.

Some of these different expenses may impact the fees associated with the cloud provider, while others might affect your ability to implement a cloud and host it yourself. Let’s take a look at these costs to see what your options are.

How Does a Cloud Provider Set Fees?

It helps to have a baseline understanding of how a provider sets its fees. They are based on the three primary costs of a cloud service provider:

  • Computing Costs – How much has the provider invested in the hardware needed to maintain their cloud, as well as the operating system running on that hardware? Based on the client company’s usage, the cloud provider will need to have the appropriate hardware.
  • Networking Costs – In addition to the investment into the hardware that builds up its network, a cloud provider also needs to maintain it over time. This will incur costs over time.
  • Storage Costs – Finally, the cloud provider also needs to cover their own operational costs, in terms of the storage media needed to support their clients’ needs, while also expanding their existing storage to meet their clients’ demands.

While this might seem like a lot to take in, it’s important to consider what your own on-premises infrastructure might cost. There are the capital costs to acquire the required equipment and licenses, as well as the operational costs of powering and maintaining the infrastructure, and that’s not even mentioning the IT staff responsible for managing it. Additionally, downtime could create indirect costs for your business.

A solid frame of reference for the costs of on-premise computing is to multiply the cost of the actual upgrade by three, as every dollar invested will come with an extra two dollars of management and maintenance.

Compared to the costs of managing your own technology, working with a cloud provider is actually beneficial in several ways.

However, This is Not to Say There Aren’t Hidden Expenses with Some Cloud Providers

The cloud is great for several reasons, but you also need to consider the trade-offs of using it. For example, some of the cloud’s costs are not financial. You might sacrifice a lot of time while migrating between cloud providers, and if you need your data while you are in the process of migrating it, you might be in trouble.

Migrating to the Cloud is Easier with Help from the Experts

Thankfully, you can make it less difficult and complicated by working with professionals like those at NuTech Services. We are happy to help you with the process of data migration, cloud implementation, or whatever else you happen to need to make a smooth transition to the cloud. To learn more about what we can do for your business, reach out to us at 810.230.9455.

8
Apr, 2022
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The Cloud Makes Critical IT More Affordable

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Cloud technology has changed the way we do business, and it has provided countless opportunities for companies to achieve their wildest dreams. Granted, different businesses will use the cloud in different ways, but one fact remains the same: it makes financial sense to implement the cloud, no matter what type of business you are. Let’s go over some of the benefits.

Money Isn’t All the Same

When it comes to breaking down your business’ finances, there is more than one way to categorize them. Here is how you might typically look at investments for your company:

  • Capital expenditures: A capital expenditure is one that is typically quite high, and it is usually a one-time investment that can be used for many years to come. That said, it’s not really planned or budgeted for (although it should be).
  • Fixed-expense expenditures: These are predictable expenses for something which expires in the short term. For example, you might pay for advertisements or Software as a Service. The price will be independent of your sales, and the intent is usually to result in a sale down the line.
  • Costs of goods sold (COGS) expenditures: These expenses are directed proportionally to the revenue your business generates; the higher your COGS, the more money you are bringing in. This assumes that the ratios between COGS and revenue are low.

How These Expenses Relate to the Cloud

If we assume that you need a new data center, you might look at options for building one on-premises. While doing so might incur large sums of capital expenditures, it’s a one-time expense for its construction and maintenance, along with the costs associated with its upkeep. On the other hand, if you were to outsource management of a cloud solution to a managed service provider, it would be a fixed-expense model, as you are paying for a monthly fee that can be terminated or adjusted at any time as you see fit. Basically, you have to look at it in terms of what your organization wants and needs, particularly if you think flexibility and scalability will play into your cloud solution in the future.

NuTech Services can help your organization make these tough calls regarding the cloud. To learn more about what we can do for your business, reach out to us at 810.230.9455.

22
Oct, 2021
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Employers and Employees are Split on Returning to the Office

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Let me ask you a question: if you haven’t already gone back to the office full-time, are you looking forward to the opportunity? Research has shown that your answer probably depends quite strongly on whether you are the boss or the employee. Let’s explore this phenomenon.

Executives Want Back to the Office About Three Times as Much as Their Employees Do

This statement—based on research conducted by surveying 10,000 knowledge workers across Australia, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States—is just the tip of the iceberg. Looking into the numbers, 76 percent of employees indicated that they didn’t want to return to full-time office hours. The executives included in the survey held the opposite opinion, as 68 percent want in-office work to once again become the norm. 59 percent of bosses indicated that they plan to pull employees in for at least the majority of the workweek.

For context, another survey reported that 62 percent of US employees will be returning to the office at least some of the time… 34 percent being displeased with this fact. What’s more, a not insignificant 17 percent of workers are at least likely to seek out alternative employment should they be forced to come back into the office.

What Employees Really Want

According to the first set of research we’ve cited, workers want to see some increased flexibility in where (and when) they work… at rates of 76 percent and 93 percent, respectively.

This is for a variety of reasons. In addition to understandable health considerations, there are other life concerns that working from home can help alleviate. Child care costs are more or less eliminated, in terms of supervision, and the hassle and expenses associated with the daily commute are gone as well. There are a lot of ways that working from home helps the worker save money.

Plus, there are the obvious personal benefits to consider as well. Less time spent either at the office or commuting to and from work means that there is more time left to be spent with family or on personal endeavors. Not many people are expected to happily give these things up.

What Can an Employer Do?

One option: give all employees raises for returning to the office, as this will help offset the costs that working from home helped alleviate. Of course, not every company is in the position to do that, so there are alternative options that an employer can adopt.

For instance, instead of making the black-and-white choice of in-house or remote operations, modern businesses can adopt a hybrid strategy. By enabling employees to work from home so many days out of each week, you can confirm your employees are engaged while also allowing them to choose the work pattern that works best for them. This is the approach that many major companies are taking, and it is one that the right technology can make very accessible. We can help you put the needed infrastructure and solutions in place to take this more hybridized approach as well. Give us a call at 810.230.9455 today to learn more about what goes into such a strategy.

12
Mar, 2021
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Examining the FCC’s Efforts to Fix Internet Access in the US

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Internet connectivity is an increasingly important component to a business’ capabilities in this day and age, as well as all the more crucial to an individual’s everyday life. However, with financial difficulties restricting this access for many, the Federal Communications Commission has stepped in. With a $50 subsidy being made available to low-income homes each month, this situation warrants a closer look.

On Thursday, February 25, the FCC unanimously adopted a program that would discount broadband internet service to low-income households by up to $50 each month ($75 for those on tribal lands) and a one-time discount of $100 on a computer or tablet, utilizing $3.2 billion of the $900 billion coronavirus relief package that Congress approved back in December.

This has been shown to be a prescient need, as the average bill for stand-alone broadband service (calculated by the Wall Street Journal) totals about $66 per month. Unfortunately, this fee is too expensive for many, even without the additional challenges presented by the pandemic.

Eligible households include those that are already participating in pandemic relief or low-income Internet programs, households eligible for free or reduced lunch meals, Medicaid and SNAP recipients, Pell Grant recipients, and the recently unemployed. This program is set to be opened sometime in the next few months.

However, there are a few potential issues surrounding this situation—first, the limited funds allotted to a massive pool of eligible households. With 117 million households being made eligible, the $3.2 billion won’t last all that long… and once it dries up, so will the program.

This isn’t the end of the problem by any stretch, either. Millions of families across the country currently lack any form of broadband access, creating a serious problem as the pandemic has forced many schools and workplaces into remote operations. This problem is likely even bigger than figures would suggest.

Here’s why: while the official total released by the Federal Communications Commission estimates that 18 million people lack reliable connections to the Internet from their home, the methods used to count these households can easily skew the data. In order for a ZIP code to be seen as broadband-compatible, just one household within that block has to have Internet service. Considering that remote areas have census blocks that can stretch hundreds of square miles, this measurement seems to be woefully inadequate.

Hopefully, these measures are the first few steps toward a more equitable and accessible quality of Internet service, as the need for it has finally been made clear.

What do you think? Is this the measure that people need right now, or is it too little for too few? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

20
Apr, 2020
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How to Trim Your IT Support Expenses (But Keep Your IT)

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When a budget comes into play, it is important to remember that there are a few ways that you can adjust it beyond eliminating line items. For instance, you can instead optimize some of the most egregious financial requirements your technology has–its support costs–by translating the unpredictably variable costs you likely deal with now for your support, to the much more sustainable agreement that a managed service provider will operate through.

Let’s go over some of the ways that an MSP can help reduce your support costs, while still providing better support than the alternative.

Where Support Costs Build Up

Take a moment and consider why technology costs tend to rise so rapidly once an issue is discovered.

  • The technology itself could be expensive to repair or replace.
  • The repair fee will likely include fees and travel costs in addition to the cost of the service itself.
  • The repair is likely only focused on fixing the immediate problem, without considering if it will recur or if the fix itself will cause further problems down the road, leading to repeat visits.
  • If an issue does happen, you have to call in the technician for them to come and actually fix the problem. This all takes a lot of time, before the repair even takes place, which itself can take a large amount of billable time as well. So, in addition to paying for the travel time for the tech to get there and the time they spend solving the issue, you are also incurring costs through missed productivity.
  • It is next to impossible to predict these kinds of expenses when trying to budget out your year, as you can never know when you may be surprised. If you set aside too little, you could drain your budget long before you planned.

Of course, this is assuming that you would call a regular tech support company and that you didn’t have a managed service agreement with an MSP. Most of the above issues can be resolved much more efficiently (and cost-efficiently) through a managed approach, as we’ll demonstrate:

How MSPs Ease These Budgetary Challenges

Let’s go through the reasons we went through before, that would typically lead to swelling costs and exceeded budgets. This time, however, we’ll assume that you’re leaning on an MSP for your IT assistance and support.

  • While the technology could be expensive for others to procure, the MSP likely has developed a relationship with vendors who can provide them with more affordable solutions.
  • Many problems can actually be resolved remotely, as the MSP takes full advantage of. This means that travel costs are usually unnecessary, and anything that falls within the agreement with the MSP is covered by a consistent monthly fee.
  • In addition to fixing the problem at hand, the MSP uses their access and vantage point to identify the root cause of the issue. This means that the issue itself is resolved, preventing future intervention from becoming necessary.
  • Your MSP will also monitor your technology for these kinds of issues, using special tools that alert them of inconsistencies and errors. Since they use remote access to do so, they can even find potential problems and proactively fix them. Even if an on-site visit is required, it may be included in the agreement, as well. As a result, your team can return to work–and therefore productivity–that much quicker.
  • With a recurring and inclusive fee for these services, budgeting for a managed service provider is a relative breeze. Any changes you need to make (like if you add more employees to further boost your productivity) can easily be incorporated into your monthly fee, keeping costs in check.

Interested in finding out more? Reach out to our team and ask about what other benefits working with us can bring! Call 810.230.9455 today.

27
Dec, 2019
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Print More Intelligently with Print Management

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Once upon a time, the printer was absolutely crucial for business to be conducted properly, but nowadays, the use of digital solutions has greatly reduced the need of printing things in greater volumes. However, this is not to say that printing is not still an important facet of your business to manage. Here, we’ll examine how print management can help a business do so.

Business Printing

In the past, businesses greatly relied on the use of their printers, but it really can’t be said that this use is particularly monitored, even now. As a matter of fact, a survey conducted by Buyer’s Laboratory suggests that a full 90 percent of companies (yes, nine-zero) don’t keep track of their printing costs – a number that can regularly add up to over five percent of a business’ total revenue. If this seems high, take a moment to consider the different expenses that contribute to this total.

Naturally, you have to consider the resources you need in order to use a printer. You need the requisite paper and ink, but not many people would think to include the electrical costs of keeping the printer in operation. You also need to take the time (about 15 percent of it) that your IT department spends dealing with printer-related issues and the 23 percent of help desk calls that are made in regard to these issues.

This all impacts your operational budget, and there’s a chance that you weren’t even aware of it.

What Can Be Done?

For starters, you need to begin tracking your printing costs, as it will be beneficial to find out how much of your budget is potentially being eaten away by unneeded spending there. Secondly, you should implement a print management solution to make it easier to continue this tracking in the future.

In order to really get the most out of your print management solution, you should have a strategy that allows you to do so. By granting you with greater insights into your printing, you can figure out ways to minimize or eliminate excessive costs, without negatively impacting the accessibility of printed materials.

When considering your options for a print management platform, we recommend that you look for the following features:

  • Comprehensive Assessments – As we said, many organizations don’t use any tools to keep track of their printing costs. This tool in particular will give you a better idea of how much is being printed, where it is being printed from, and when your devices are due for maintenance.
  • Print Management – A print management platform can provide you with precise controls over how your printers can be used.
  • Paper-to-Digital Conversions – By transferring your printed resources into digital ones, you can evaluate the value that they provide when printed and better optimize your printing costs.
  • Better Security – It stands to reason that your data security can improve when you have more control over this data. Hard copies inherently mean that you have less control, and a greater risk of a security issue.
  • Tracking Capabilities – By tracking how much is being printed, you can help optimize your costs through implementing certain controls, like user limitations on how much can be printed in a set amount of time.
  • Setting Print Policies – You can set up resource-saving policies like enforcing double-sided printing and establishing print quotas to prevent users from abusing the office printer.

If your business’ documents are resulting in excessive costs, reach out to our IT experts today! NuTech Services can help you keep your printing under control. Call 810.230.9455 to learn more.

6
Dec, 2019
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What to Include in a BYOD Policy

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A Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy is something that many organizations have adopted, for a few good reasons: employee satisfaction, cost savings, and productivity boosts included. However, it’s crucial that you don’t just assume that you can adopt a policy like BYOD without establishing some ground rules that your employees need to abide by.

Here, we’ll go over a few topics that your BYOD rules need to address.

Password Practices and Other Security

It’s hardly a secret that some people utilize lax passwords – especially on their personal devices, where there isn’t an IT department establishing policies to help ensure password strength. According to Pew Research Center, 28 percent of smartphone owners don’t use a screen lock. Obviously, this isn’t something that can be allowed in the business setting.

So, if your employees are going to use their personal devices to access business resources, you need to have a policy that their devices are set to lock after a certain period of inactivity, and require some form of authentication to unlock. Furthermore, the device should further lock down if an incorrect authentication code is input so many times.

Your policy should also include any required security solutions you plan to utilize as part of your mobile monitoring and management toolset. All devices should have antivirus installed, along with mobile device management and unified endpoint management solutions.

Provisioning and Network Security

Provisioning a personal device that is going to be used for company work helps to ensure a few things. Not only does it help to make sure that productivity applications are configured properly, it also helps to boost your security. Furthermore, your network needs to allow your employees’ devices to access the business network – not just a guest network you have set up. Of course, there should be procedures and safeguards in place to ensure that this is done securely.

Tracking, Remote Access, and Data Wiping

Accidents happen, and devices can be lost – and sometimes, stolen. Furthermore, any device that is attached to a company network and has accessed illegal content could possibly leave the company liable – especially if this content was accessed via the company network. Your IT team should have the capability to monitor what websites and content each device included in a BYOD strategy has accessed, as well as to remotely access these devices to help ensure their security should they wind up missing. It also helps if they can implement updates to work solutions and security measures.

If worse comes to worse, it is beneficial to be able to delete all of a device’s data remotely – that way, even if it is stolen, your data won’t be at risk for as long. This also comes in handy if an employee is ever to leave your employ and you want to make sure they no longer have your data (or access to it).

BYOD can offer significant benefits to any organization. To learn more about putting a policy in place at your business, give NuTech Services a call at 810.230.9455.

28
Aug, 2019
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Tip of the Week: How to Get the Most from Your IT Budget

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As any business owner knows too well, a budget is a very finite thing – and this can seem to be doubly the case when trying to budget for your business’ technology. Fortunately, there are also a few ways that technology can help you save some capital. Here, we’re offering some tips to help you reduce the financial toll of your business’ IT.

Leverage Automation

Answer me this: would you rather pay your staff to accomplish their responsibilities, or pay the same amount to have them work just as hard but only accomplish half as much?

That’s what I thought.

Automated solutions and processes can make your business far more efficient than it would be otherwise, simply because it makes it so your staff doesn’t have to take care of rote responsibilities and can instead focus on capital-generating endeavors. As a result, you can streamline how your dollars are spent, making more for a relatively small investment.

Ditch the Landline

Let’s face facts… all technology follows the same trajectory: it starts as an invention, is innovated upon, becomes the established norm, and is eventually phased out by the next invention. Alexander Graham Bell’s patent for the telephone is almost 150 years old – suggesting that it is high time for the next innovation to step into the fold.

In a large way, it already has, with Voice over Internet Protocol. VoIP leverages your business’ Internet connection to place calls, meaning you no longer have to pay the telephone company for service. Furthermore, it is far easier (and cheaper) to expand a VoIP solution, making it an even better option for a growing business.

Invest Wisely

When selecting a solution, there’s a lot to be said about seeking out a bargain. However, you need to lean more towards frugality, and less towards being miserly. A solution that you may have gotten for a considerable discount, but ultimately costs you three times its worth in maintenance and repairs can barely be called a solution at all. Furthermore, cheaper devices are often cheaper because the manufacturers skimped on key aspects, like performance, security, and durability. The same can often be said of emerging technologies – it is better to be late jumping on the bandwagon than it is to be in the front row when the whole thing crashes.

NuTech Services is here to guide you as you outfit your business with the technology solutions it needs for success. Give us a call at 810.230.9455 to talk to our seasoned professionals.

14
Sep, 2018
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Budgeting for IT Can Benefit Your Business’ Bottom Line

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Your business depends on a budget to come out in the black at the end of the fiscal year, and the way you invest that budget will have a considerable impact. As you create this budget, your IT needs to be one of your top considerations – after all, it is what effectively powers the modern business. Here, we’ll discuss how diligently incorporating your IT into your budget can help your business be more successful down the line.

How to Approach Your IT Spending
When determining an IT budget, perspective is an important part of the process. It can be tempting to view your IT as just another cost of doing business, but it really is more than that. Your technology (and the state it is in) has ramifications that spread to your entire business, so if it is lacking, everything will be. Employee morale will suffer, your productivity will slow, and your incoming cash flow will falter.

After all, an IT budget needs to account for a lot. There are the costs associated with acquiring and subsequently upgrading your information technology, as well as training your staff to properly leverage these solutions. However, a good IT budget will also account for the odd inconveniences that will require some financial spending to resolve. Furthermore, with your budget in mind as a reference, explore some of your options as far as cost-savings go… are you paying for more resources than you need? Are you leaving money on the table anywhere when those funds could be used more effectively contributing to another goal? While information technology is hugely helpful when leveraged properly, it can become a financial burden if over-invested (or even under-invested) in.

This is how you should actually consider your IT budget: an investment. While some of it will be classified as a business expense, much of your spending will be into endeavors that help your business, either by increasing efficiency or reducing waste. Either way, your IT can be used to put your company in a better financial situation.

Encouraging Financial Well-Being with an IT Budget
If you’re unsure of how to proceed with budgeting your IT, we’ve compiled a handy list of things you should (and shouldn’t) do during the process.

  • Have a set budget for your IT. In order for your business to be able to utilize the caliber of technology solutions it needs for success, you need to put forward the investment into those solutions.
  • Invest in business-enhancing solutions. Whether you’re boosting your internal productivity or fortifying your business against threats that could keep you from conducting business as usual, your IT budget should be spent in ways that directly benefit your operations.
  • Don’t shoot from the hip. Like we alluded to above, if you aren’t investing in your IT solutions correctly, you could find yourself in a worse spot than before. It is crucial that you go about investing in your IT strategically, directing funds to where they are needed and where they will help you to generate more revenue.

Alexa von Tobel, CEO of LearnVest.com, said, “We all have pretty much similar dreams, and at the root of all those dreams is being able to be in control of your money.” We agree, which is why we’re dedicated to providing you with the most value in our IT services without emptying your coffers. To learn more about the easily-budgetable services that we have to offer, reach out to us at 810.230.9455.

11
May, 2018
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Is Your Cloud Solution Actually a Money Pit?

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The cloud has proven to be an extremely useful tool for the modern business. Not only does it provide anywhere-anytime access to applications, processing, storage, et al; it also delivers those products as a service, allowing you to budget for recurring costs rather than major upfront ones. This provides your organization with functional, supported, and secure computing environments that eliminate a lot of the support costs that traditional computing environments require. It sounds like a perfect scenario for small and large businesses alike, but things aren’t always what they seem, as a lot of cloud users have found that they have incurred several hidden costs by using cloud platforms. Today, we take a look at these hidden costs.

A study from Research In Action polled 468 CIOs about their cloud usage and the costs associated with them. Many admitted that cloud investment was one of the largest expenses their organization would have from a technology point of view. The study went on to find that while a majority of CIOs considered the “hidden” costs of this technology, much of the concern is alleviated by the reputation of their vendors. Some of the potential problems they considered include:

  • Having to put forth more effort to properly manage vendors, and their corresponding Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
  • Bottlenecking and the impact poor cloud performance could have on brand perception, productivity, and customer support.
  • The increased cost of solving complex problems inside cloud environments.

Are these concerns justified? Sure, but they are hard to measure. Many businesses just haven’t developed a system to properly quantify the perceived loss in revenue tied to cloud inefficiency. In fact, most companies don’t have updated, automated methods in use to track and manage their cloud performance.

Costs of Scalability
Many organizations also run into cloud cost overruns when dealing with the scale of their cloud platforms. Costs associated with over-provisioning (buying too much), under-provisioning (buying too little), management, and administration of cloud hosted environments present costs that may not look significant up front, but over time can have negative effects on the overall profitability of a business. Understanding the amount of space/processing you’ll need to meet your organization’s needs is almost always going to be a fluid situation, but understanding how they affect your business’ bottom line is crucial to mitigate unwanted monetary responsibilities or cost overruns associated with the cloud platforms you utilize.

Going Too Far
Cloud platforms are nice, but you don’t have to look much further than your personal situation to see how the ease of use these platforms provide can get expensive pretty quick. For the individual, costs add up quick thanks to cloud-based streaming media and other platforms that come in a subscription model. You’ve got Netflix, Spotify, Hulu, and many, many more that are relatively cheap. Microsoft Office 365 is exceptionally useful and affordable, providing unparalleled value for about any computer user. The more you subscribe to, the more costs add up, which is why you’ll want to design, and stick to a dedicated plan to avoid overextending yourself, or your organization.

Utility computing in the cloud, whether it be applications, storage, processing, or some other form, is extraordinarily valuable, but only if you understand how to avoid paying more than you should for your cloud assets. The knowledgeable technicians at NuTech Services can help you come up with cloud deployment strategy, while also helping you avoid cost overruns typically associated with these assets. Call us today at 810.230.9455 to learn more.

14
Feb, 2015

5 Tips for Saving Money on your IT

Saving a little on your technology can go a long ways, but cutting too many corners can lead to additional problems and expensive downtime. Here are a few ways you can cut costs without creating long term issues.

Don’t be Afraid to Replace

Got an older PC that’s causing you a lot of issues? Older technology is typically more expensive to run, and after a while, it’s cheaper to simply buy a new desktop than it is to continue pouring money into something that always seems broken. It’s a great time to buy workstations, and if things are tight you can even buy refurbished desktops to keep costs low.

Enforce Energy Efficiency

If you reduce the amount of energy your technology uses each day, your utility bill from the electric company will decrease as well. Switching to LCD monitors (if you are still using old CRT dinosaurs), and enforcing company-wide policies to turn off monitors or put workstations to sleep at night can make a big difference.

Stop Dealing with Vendors

You hired your employees to work, not sit on the phone with a PC manufacturer because your hard drive crashed. Businesses waste money by paying employees to go around in circles with vendor tech support all the time. IT firms like NuTech Services build relationships with vendors and are able to get things done faster. This means issues get resolved quickly and your employees don’t need to deal with less-than-helpful support.

Stop Paying your Phone Bill

Yes, you heard us right. Cease paying your phone company by switching over to a VoIP solution instead. Small businesses save up to 80% on their telephone communication expenses, so the investment pays for itself quickly. Many VoIP systems allow your users to take their phone and use it anywhere, giving you increased flexibility and functionality.

Get Proactive Monitoring and Maintenance

Nearly all day-to-day IT issues can be completely prevented with just a little bit of maintenance. NuTech Services offers these services to our clients, reducing the amount of downtime they experience. Traditional computer support only fix computer issues when they arise. NuTech Services provides proactive monitoring and maintenance to ensure fewer issues plague your business.

11
Feb, 2015
computer memory

Slow Computer? Increase your memory to boost computer Speeds

computer memorySometimes when your workstation feels bogged down, a relatively cheap and simply hardware update can make a huge difference in performance. Adding more RAM (Random Access Memory, often just referred to as memory) can be a game changer for your bogged down PC.

There are several factors that contribute to the speed of a PC. Let’s very briefly break these down:

CPU/Processor

The CPU handles all of calculations a computer performs. These days consumer-class CPUs handle billions and even trillions of instructions per second. While dated processors can greatly influence the actual speed of a computer, if your PC is fairly new (as in 1 or 2 years old, and possibly older for higher end builds) it’s likely not bottlenecking your performance. Today, CPUs are equipped with two, four, or even more cores, which means the CPU can handle an more calculations exponentially and consume less electricity.

RAM/Memory

Random Access Memory is basically the short-term memory of your computer. While your computer is loading and running applications, they get stored in the RAM. The RAM is much faster than the hard drive, so your computer doesn’t need to spin it’s wheels looking for specific files and parts of applications. The more RAM you have, the more “stuff” that can be stored in it. The faster your RAM, the faster your computer can sift through the data that gets temporarily pushed into it. Once your RAM is full, your computer will depend on the hard drive to retrieve information, and that’s where things get sluggish. Once you stop running a program, it will remove itself from the RAM to free up some space for everything else running.

Hard Drive

The hard drive is the storage device of a computer. For extremely high-end PCs, the hard drive is the bottleneck. Hard drives, when compared to RAM, are very slow to access and write information. Once your computer needs to rely on your hard drive heavily for RAM, things are going to start getting bogged down. While it’s great that your PC can rely on your hard drive in this way for those times it needs some extra memory, it is likely this is the slowdown. Unfortunately, because hard drives are mechanical and have moving parts, there’s limitations to how fast science can make them perform. There are costly solid-state drives, but as a performance-improving factor on a standard workstation, typically solid state drives aren’t the cost-effective answer.

Of course, there are software factors as well. Malware and Spyware can bog down your system, and after a lot of use, temporary files can bog things down. Before upgrading hardware, you’ll want to have a technician run a quick evaluation on your PC – it’s possible a little cleanup can make all the difference in the world.

Otherwise, the next step is upgrading the RAM. RAM is usually relatively cheap, even to double or triple your existing RAM with faster, higher performance memory. Often the cost of the new RAM itself will be between $50 and $100, and more than likely less than that, and that’s for a substantial increase, but it depends on your PC.

Is your computer running slow? Does it get bogged down by the time you have all of your day-to-day applications open? Contact us at 810.230.9455 for a quick evaluation to see if a simple, cost-effective upgrade will help you perform your job more effectively.