Posted by Jim Van on October 14, 2011 under entrepreneur, eOffice, mobility, portability, small business | 
Last post, I explained why I selected the iPad for use here at Logicomm for our day-to-day functions. It’s a terrific device, and while tablets don’t quite replace the full-featured laptops and 
workstations that still power our back office, as a device for use in client interactions, particularly in the field, it can’t be beat…at least not yet. Read more of this article »
Posted by Jim Van on October 7, 2011 under entrepreneur, eOffice, mobility, portability, small business |
Since the original iPad was released in spring of 2010, many of us have discussed its potential as a business tool. Originally released as a ‘rich man’s toy’, most people considered it more of a large-screen iPhone at the beginning. But, as with most things on this platform, applications have made a difference.
The platform is the key
One of the beauties of owning an iOS (apples’ mobile device operating system) powered device is the availability of apps of every type, and the imagination of users. About a year after the iPhone was first released, for example, there were over 70,000 apps, tiny programs that enable a user to perform tasks ranging from chats, reading news, to communicating and exchanging data with computers, in its App Store. Currently, or at least at last count, there were over a quarter-million Apps, with several thousand added every day. Read more of this article »
Posted by Jim Van on September 23, 2011 under business continuity, data security, disaster recovery, security, small business |
The Remote (Online) backup industry is exploding. As with any ‘explosion’, there’s almost always a bubble (remember the dot com bubble? We’d prefer not to…it’s embarrasing). In any bubble, there are plenty of ‘experts’ selling their services, some of whom are experts, and some of whom will move on to the next big thing as soon as this bubble deflates.
Unfortunately, many businesses lack the knowledge about remote backup to ask the right questions of prospective suppliers. With hundreds of companies offering remote backup, it’s challenging to choose the right provider with whom one can entrust the company’s critical business data. Here are some minimal criteria that all providers should meet. If a prospective vendor doesn’t meet all of them, you might consider moving on and looking at another: Read more of this article »
Posted by Jim Van on September 16, 2011 under business continuity, data security, disaster recovery, security, small business |
The Difference Between Home and Business Online Backup Plans
I’m not sure about you, but my inbox is full of online backup offers for as low as $6/mo to backup up to 50gb of my data. Yipee! Just three years ago, the same amount of data backup would’ve cost me north of $75/month. Prices have really fallen. Or have they? Read more of this article »
Posted by Jim Van on September 14, 2011 under entrepreneur, small business |
Last Monday. we held the first monthly meeting of the Providence Entrepreneurs Meetup Group for the 2011/2012 season at the Cafe at Whole Foods in University Heights, Providence. This is a monthly get together that varies in size from a handful to a couple of dozen members who get together to network and share stories. While the meetup itself was interesting, the communications I had with members who couldn’t make the meetup was even more interesting. A clear majority of them talked about strategy in this economy. Read more of this article »
Posted by Jim Van on September 9, 2011 under business continuity, disaster recovery, entrepreneur, eOffice, small business |
In our line of business, we see a lot of systems and networks. Sadly, about 70% of them aren’t backed up regularly, including about 20% that aren’t backed up at all! But there are the 30% who do perform regular backups, and the variety of methods is astounding, ranging from backing up to a local ‘thumb’ drive, an external hard drive, CD/DVDs, and good old-fashioned tape. Some even use our recommended method of remote online backups.
Whatever method you use, effective backups require a couple of key components: Read more of this article »
Posted by Jim Van on August 30, 2011 under entrepreneur, eOffice, small business |
A couple of posts back, I started to discuss ‘freemium’ software, software that is free to the user, in exchange for either information, advertising, or a bit of both. I’d like to run through ten really good applications that every windows user should own:
SECURITY: AVG anti-virus suite has been around almost as long as Norton and McAfee, but is not nearly as well-known, due to a less-pronounced distribution model. While Norton and/or McAfee (and now Trend) comes pre-installed on many new systems as trialware, AVG requires that you: a. find it and b. download and install it. That shouldn’t stop you from taking advantage of one of the best anti-virus applications around, for free. Read more of this article »
Posted by Jim Van on August 19, 2011 under data security, eOffice, mobility, portability, security, small business |
We continue our focus on security with this week’s post: Mobile Security.
Read more of this article »
Posted by Jim Van on August 12, 2011 under data security, mobility, portability, security, small business |
Last post, I focused on three simple steps everyone should take to improve their computer and network security tenfold. But there’s more… Read more of this article »
Posted by Jim Van on August 5, 2011 under data security, eOffice, security, small business |
I was recently asked to write a piece concerning small business network security. Regular readers of this blog may observe that security is often a topic here. There’s a reason for that: a recent study by Comcast, no small player in providing internet services to small businesses, found that a shocking 74% of respondents had some sort of security ‘incident’ over the past year. Here’s how to keep your business out of that group: Read more of this article »
workstations that still power our back office, as a device for use in client interactions, particularly in the field, it can’t be beat…at least not yet. Read more of this article »