ATECH MSP Blog

Computing is based on data - manipulating it, accumulating it, and transferring it. These transfers have names that most will find familiar: uploads and downloads. In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at these activities, and how they present themselves during regular business use.

Technology is omnipresent in this day and age. You can’t drive down the street without seeing a tween walking along staring into his/her smartphone, the fitness-minded person running with wireless headphones, or your car telling you that you have a new message. Nowhere is this tech explosion more visible than in your wallet. Today, we will take a look at two relatively new, and widely utilized technologies, and how you can keep them from costing you an arm and a leg.

Athletics are a time-honored tradition, both for athletes and spectators. As time has passed, these bouts of physical skill and prowess have gradually adopted some technological aspects to improve the experience of the game for all. Now, smart technology has a key position on almost any playing field. Let’s review some of the ways that sports have improved through the adoption of technology.

When there is a need to create a presentation, one solution is common enough that its name has become synonymous with the presentation itself: PowerPoint. Not only does this Microsoft Office staple have plenty of features for a user to leverage, it also provides a considerable amount of shortcuts and time-saving tricks. This week’s tip will dive into some of these tricks.

How often have you thought about how much money your printer is eating? Today’s blog will help your organization save as much money as possible on printing costs so that you can cut down on the waste your business suffers from. It all starts with calculating the individual cost of each of your pages.

Have you ever heard the phrase zero-day threat? Basically, they are the scariest threats out there, because they are unaddressed and unresolved by the software developer, all while being actively exploited in the wild. This effectively gives the developer zero days to address the issue before it becomes a problem. Today, one of the most dangerous threats of the zero-day variety takes advantage of a weakness in Internet Explorer - but there is now a patch for it.

One of the biggest benefits to professional work in recent years has to be the Wi-Fi signal. This simple concept - what if we could connect to a network without a wire - has changed how and where work can be done… assuming, of course, that the connection works. For today’s tip, we’ll go over how to optimize your Wi-Fi signals.

Data security isn’t a matter to be taken lightly, as too many businesses have found out the hard way. Unfortunately, there are far too many simple ways to correct common security issues - enough that it’s foolish not to do so. We’ll review a few ways to fix security issues, after discussing one of, if not the, most egregious security failings in modern history.

The world is unfortunately familiar with the concept of terrorism, the use of fear and menace to intimidate those opposed to your views, beliefs, or goals. However, others may not be as familiar with the concept of cyberterrorism, beyond seeing it on television. For today’s blog, we’ll examine cyberterrorism to gain a better understanding of its methods, and how to protect yourself from it.

For our Tech Terms, we sometimes dig into the inner workings of your computer or other technology hardware, but sometimes we like to dig into details of new or emerging technology that’s taking the industry by storm. Today, we’re doing just that by discussing what a blockchain is and how it works.

There’s no denying that the numbers on an IT invoice can be intimidating, to say the least. However, when making important decisions about your IT, you need to also look deeper than the numbers, to what you are actually going to gain by making one investment over another. This is the difference between comparing cost and comparing value.

Twitter is recommending that all 336 million users change their passwords as soon as possible due to the discovery of an internal security flaw. While the issue has been fixed and no data breach seems to have taken place, Twitter is clearly taking this situation seriously.

From Anakin being the possession of Watto the Toydarian junk dealer in the Phantom Menace--to Luke, Han, Leia, and Chewy being stuck warding off the Dianoga inside a trash compactor in the first Death Star in the original--to Rey picking junk off the crashed Star Destroyer and selling them to the Crolute Unkar Plutt on Jakku in The Force Awakens--Star Wars lore is filled with junk technology. If the back room of your business is starting to look like Watto’s shop, you may need to adjust your disposal strategies.

Paper is expensive, but it’s not like you didn’t know that already. In addition to the costs that frivolous paper usage can have to your business, there’s also the environmental impact to consider. Making a few changes around the office can help to reduce your dependence on paper to conduct business, as we’ll review in this week’s tip!

Ever since its announcement, Android’s latest operating system, 8.0 Oreo, has been making waves in the industry. So far, however, only select devices have the opportunity to use it. This doesn’t mean that you can’t take the opportunity to prepare for it, though. Here are some of the most important things to know about Android 8.0 Oreo, as well as Android 8.1. But first, let’s take a look at how much Android 8.0 is currently being used.

Anyone that has lost their smartphone knows it is a rather traumatic experience. Not only is your entire life on the phone, likely so is your work. With smartphones becoming a major part of doing business, and their use for business purposes, a lost device can cause major headaches. Today, we will go over some strategies you can implement to mitigate the damage if/when you or one of your employees loses a device with sensitive company information on it.

It doesn’t matter how large your company is, or how much information technology that you have to maintain and collect, keeping it organized can be challenging. With any company with a lot of different and important operations, it’s crucial that you have processes put into place that documents where and how each of your moving parts is being used. To this end, having a way to inventory your technology can be helpful for keeping track of where your devices, and more importantly, your data is.

Wireless charging is a true conundrum. Sure, it’s a brilliant idea. On the surface, there are no drawbacks. No more charging cords or adapters, unless you count the one that will always be plugged into the wall. Today we take a look at wireless charging, why it hasn’t taken over yet, and future options that will let us really charge our devices wirelessly. 

Social media was created with the intent of staying in touch with others, but it comes with nasty repercussions. It comes at significant risk to both your personal and professional security. How can you make sure that your social media usage isn’t putting your organization at risk of compromisation or worse? The first thing that you want to take into account is awareness.

If there’s one piece of computer hardware that almost everyone knows about, it would have to be the hard drive. However, it is not so easy to say that everyone knows what it does, how it works, or even the differences between the two types. That’s why we’re exploring hard drives for this week’s Tech Term!