How to Store Technology During Employee Turnover

two computer monitors sitting on top of a wooden desk

Even in small companies, turnover can be a frequent issue and any laptops or tablets you provide for employee use can go days or weeks in between owners. Developing a standard procedure to store technology doesn’t only help keep them secure; it helps keep them in good condition physically.

What steps should you take when storing the devices?

  • Store them on racks or shelves that allow for ventilation. Even if the devices aren’t in use, you don’t want to crowd them together. Some devices may be accidentally stored in sleep mode and continue to generate heat. Ventilation also helps prevent a build-up of moisture in or around the device: it’s impossible to completely dehumidify the air, but ventilation will certainly help.
  • Keep the closet or storage room insulated. This may be tricky to do if you’re renting office space, but even placing an insulation blanket over a cabinet full of laptops and tablets can help regulate the temperature. Rapid temperature fluctuations are dangerous for technology, and the temperature shifts between an increasingly chilly office at night and the heater coming on in the morning can damage your devices.
  • Let your IT service know. If your IT service company is handling your company’s licenses, they need to know to change access, switch over licenses, and deactivate accounts. They can also do a sweep of the device’s files to make sure no unusual activity occurred during a former employee’s last few days of work.

More and more companies are providing work devices for their employees, and if your company chooses to invest in that hardware it’s important to make sure it stays well-protected and functional for as many years as possible. Go to Bluewater Technologies to see what we can do to keep all of your technology safe.

3 Reasons to Automate Computer Security

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Protecting your network and business data is usually a constant struggle between convenience and security, especially when it comes to manual behaviors. The best tool you have against that is automation, and a managed IT support services can provide precisely that. Here are three ways automation can keep your systems more secure:

  • You can automate requirements for employees to change their passwords every 90 days. Even the best passwords occasionally need to be changed. Even though we all know this, it’s far too easy to just keep using the same passwords, even across multiple portals. Request your IT representative automates password changes every so often and see if they can add a feature that prevents the recycling of old passwords.
  • Get malware prevention software that protects all aspects of your system. Free and inexpensive security software is missing key areas of protection in order to persuade customers to use a premium version. But a managed IT service can use programs that automatically screen everything from websites to network connections. Even internal and external email attachments.
  • Automatically track your licenses. Most programs are becoming subscription-based, which means each of your employees gets an individual door into the protected sites. Ask your IT company about the best ways to automate tracking for licenses (or ask if they handle user accounts). So don’t leave former employees with access and don’t pay for inactive licenses you may have forgotten about.

Automation is the key to progressing faster and faster. The less time you have to devote to tracking the details of administration and IT, the more time you can spend on your business goals. 

Contact Bluwater Technologies to get started.

The Money Savings in Multi-Tenancy: Backup as a Service

a person using a laptop on a wooden table

Money Savings

Data backup as a third-party service is one of the most common data recovery elements for new and growing businesses. This isn’t just because using third parties to handle administrative matters and business tasks not related to your central product is becoming more and more popular as a business practice; it’s because cloud-based storage and data recovery can be complicated, and the risks of making a mistake and not backing up everything pose too high a cost. But one of the most valuable aspects of getting storage as a service is that you’re paying for the services you need instead of an oversized infrastructure. This means money savings for you and your organization.

How does multi-tenancy equal money savings on data storage?

Imagine the typical downtown office space. A small company might rent part of a floor, while a middle or growing business might rent a whole floor and, provided business is good, add another to their rental agreement. Even if that company keeps growing and adding floors full of salespeople and customer support reps, it will be a long time before they take up the whole building. They wouldn’t buy the building and then slowly start to fill part of it up; they’ll just keep renting what they need and then evaluate their options once the company gets large enough for them to reconsider.

Data storage is the exact same situation. While you’re a small or mid-sized company, you don’t need a whole storage array of servers and data recovery systems. You just need a small part of one, and even as the size of your data grows, it will be a long time before your provider has to dedicate an entire array just for your company. While data backup as a service does cost a monthly ‘rent,’ that rent is only for the services you need instead of an entire over-sized infrastructure for services you don’t.

Data backup keeps companies safe, and more and more businesses rely on data backup to keep their businesses thriving. Data backup as a service does that even better by giving your company access to resources and storage options without the high upfront costs and required know-how of DIY data storage. Find a plan that works best for your business with Bluwater Technologies here.

Simple But Effective Computer Tip – Shut Down Your Computer

a man sitting at a desk using a laptop computer

With all the newer gadgets such as tablets, smartphones, personal laptops, and the like, it is often tempting to keep them in sleep mode when not in use.  However, when it comes to using computer equipment on the job, there are some fairly compelling reasons why a nightly shutdown of work-related equipment is a good habit to acquire.  In this post, we will discuss some of the highlights as to why sleep mode is not always ideal. Check out this simple but effective computer tip.

Effective Computer Tip

Computer Processes

Especially with legacy software, there are processes running in the background even when an application is not even open.  Over time, a PC’s memory can get bogged down with all these rogue processes and issues that begin to occur such as computer crashes, operating system lags, and programs that freeze up.  By shutting down your work computer every night, it gives your computer and its memory a clean slate for the next morning.  This reduces program issues and speeds up productivity levels.

Save on Electricity

Rare are the offices that only consist of one or two computers.  Many offices have quite a few PCs and their fair share of printers as well.  It might not save an office much money if they only have one or two PCs to shut down every night, but companies who have more than that will notice significant savings in their electric bill if the entire office shuts down their equipment at night and on weekends.

The average PC uses anywhere from 80 to 250 watts.  If your local utility company charges a modest 12 cents per kWh, then assuming 250 watts for a PC, a company will pay over $20 a month in electricity costs to keep just one PC running 24/7.  Multiply these figures by the number of PCs in your office, add a few printers and some tablets and the total can be quite significant.

Save on Wear and Tear

The cooling fans installed to keep the power supply and CPU from overheating will get a break if users shut down their PC every night and they will last longer.  In addition, although no one should have such a messy workstation that it potentially is a fire hazard, it certainly is possible.  Some users in cramped quarters tend to stack paper, file folders, and other paraphernalia in and around their computers.  Talk to any computer repair person and they will probably have a story about someone who had a PC go up in smoke because their cooling fan overheated.  Having office staff get into the habit of shutting down their equipment every night reduces the chances of fire.

For more information on computer tips to help you work smarter and safer, please contact us.

IT Tips For Your Fort Lauderdale Business

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Everyone loves technology, right? This is especially true when it is working the way it is supposed to. It does not matter how advanced your company’s equipment is, there will still be a chance that your equipment can be breached. Computers are constantly being hacked, someone can steal a cell phone, and data can be changed. As the technological equipment gets smarter, the thieves also get smarter. Here are some IT tips for your Fort Lauderdale business.

Fort Lauderdale Business

Data thieves are not the only issues you need to think about when you are using computers. You can lose critical information during unexpected events, including the following:

  • Computer failure
  • Corruption of hard drives
  • Accidentally unplugging a device
  • Forgetting to save an important file

As the owner of a business, you will be held responsible for customer data and employee data. You cannot afford to lose any of this data. Fortunately, there are ways for you to always keep that information safe and secure.

  • Always remember to back up your data
  • Invest your money in equipment that will allow you to improve the overall operations of your business, while protecting employee and customer data
  • Utilize the services of an IT support company, even if you do have an incredible IT support employee on your payroll
  • Before you make any big upgrades to your equipment, you should weigh all your options so you can determine what computer systems and other equipment will be a perfect fit for your company.
  • Introduce a policy that includes internet safety tips that your employees should know

You want to make sure your data is safe at all times. If you can keep customer and employee data safe, they will have a significant amount of trust in your business. If you would like more information on small business safety tips, or if you would like more information on our services, contact us today.