ATECH MSP Blog

Held from Sunday, January 5 to Friday, January 10, 2020, this year’s Consumer Electronics Show took place in Las Vegas, Nevada. This event is an annual opportunity for startups and major companies alike to showcase their newest consumer-focused products. However, this year’s show has many security experts expressing sincere and legitimate concerns.

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:

There has been a lot made about business network security over the past couple of years. One variable you often hear about is the danger that businesses face from the prevalence of employee-downloaded software on their network. This is what we call Shadow IT, and it can be a real problem. Conversely, under the right circumstances it can be a clear benefit too. Today, we’ll take a look at Shadow IT.

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.

As the holiday season we just survived shows us, new technology can be a really popular topic, especially for consumers. Businesses, on the other hand, have a lot of their excitement tempered by how much of a risk new tech presents - something could just as easily be a game-changer for their operations as it could prove to be a major source of problems that ultimately creates huge issues.

The Internet has made it possible to purchase goods and services so easily that we need new people to blame when we don’t have those purchases in hand in less than 72 hours. The speed in which shipping is capable nowadays is the result of superior logistics. If your business is beginning to utilize ecommerce, or if it has trouble with the costs associated with the distribution of your goods, a fleet management system could be the solution to your problems. 

Many business owners like to crunch the numbers in order to fully understand where their hard-earned money is going. Essential business communication tools are just one of the things that are under your expense's category. However, phone service is dwindling across the globe, much in part due to the benefits associated with VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol. 

It wasn’t too long ago that in order for business technology to be fixed, or to undergo general maintenance, it either needed to be brought to a specialist’s location or for the specialist to come to yours. Nowadays, this isn’t so much the case. As we continue our blog series on the benefits offered by a managed service provider, let’s consider the support options available.

I’m sure you’re familiar with those neat images that can look like multiple things at once - there’s the one with two faces that is somehow also a vase, the rabbit that is also a duck, and many other examples. Sometimes, our technology can seem to be the same way - take IT security and IT compliance. While these two considerations are definitely related, as they both contribute to risk mitigation, they are not the same thing.

In today's technology dependent world, smartphones play a critical role. How much do you really know about these devices? Sure, the devices haven’t changed a whole lot in the past decade, but what has changed? Today, we take a look at how smartphone batteries have evolved, and what we will see in the future. 

Not all that long ago, green technologies were known as such for two reasons: yes, they were beneficial to the environment, but they also came at great expense to the businesses leveraging them. This has recently changed. Now, businesses are seeing plenty of reasons to go green, from increased customer appreciation for conservation efforts and, yes, even cost savings.

When searching for value within blockchain, you do not have to look hard nor far. Blockchain’s incorruptibility encourages other potential uses in the tech community. Today we will take a look into what blockchain technology is as well as other ways we can utilize this technology. 

Information, and the transmission of it, has advanced by vast amounts since our ancestors first carved shapes into cave walls to record their hunts. Nowadays, information can be shared much more efficiently, thanks to a technology known as RFID, or Radio Frequency Identification. Here, we’ll discuss this technology and its common business-friendly uses.

In the previous parts of this computer buying guide, we discussed how to determine the specifications for your desired PC, including CPU, RAM, storage, and display options. In this final part, we’ll cover some ideas that didn’t quite fit into the previous parts.

With several emerging technologies threatening to change the way that we look at the world, we live in a very exciting time. One of the most intriguing technologies is called blockchain. What was once looked upon as a technology that had no practical application is now beginning to be looked at as the answer to some of the most pressing security issues facing 21st-century technology users. Let’s take a look at blockchain.

Today’s businesses are much more flexible in how they can hold meetings, thanks to the development of conferencing solutions. Using these solutions, many organizations have experienced operational benefits. Today, we’ll go over the considerations around selecting your business’ conferencing solution.

It seems that wireless power has fully upgraded from the electric toothbrush to our other electronics. This technology, known as near-field induction charging, has taken off… but it is still limited in the fact that the device has to be in contact with the charger. For now, at least.

One industry that is particularly well-known for its technology troubles is healthcare. It has the unique issue of trying to make the jump to digital after having been a strictly paper-based industry for a long time. Electronic Health Records, or EHR, have provided this opportunity to providers that want to update their practices to match those of 2019.

When a business utilizes its technology properly, the chances of it yielding positive results improve. That being said, technology isn’t a priority for every single business out there. There are some business owners out there that don’t prioritize the latest technology releases, and that’s perfectly fine, as long as the organization doesn’t let it hold them back from greatness.

March is Women’s History Month. Historically, there have been many industries where women haven’t traditionally played a role. Fortunately, roles are changing, and with the use of technology today’s workforce has become more inclusive and dynamic.