ThrottleNet

Managed IT services, support and cybersecurity

Handling Employee Access

Managed Network

According to a recent study done by Ivanti, in many cases, network access is not always removed when an employee is terminated or leaves the company. This can cause concerns with the high risk of both data theft, and sabotage.

Many times, previous employees of a company take sensitive data from the previous employer to a new employer and conduct malicious attacks once they are terminated. With regard to new employee onboarding, approximately 85% reported not having access to all the proper resources needed to complete their work when first joining the company.

Access Rights

Compliance with employee’s access rights also can cause trouble with the on-boarding or off-boarding process of a company. Access rights to secured data and applications tend to take a while to be removed, leaving the terminated employee left with what has the potential to be sensitive data. Changes of access rights also tend to be slow to apply, if they are applied at all. This can make it difficult for new employees getting their daily tasks completed.

When a group of individuals was asked if they knew a former employee that still has access to company systems, over 50 percent said yes. This leads to risks of data leakage, cyberattacks through unmanaged accounts, and malicious data theft. Some of the reported causes of these IT issues were due to poorly defined processes, such as automation problems and a lack of resources.

Helpful Tips to Avoid Any Issues

  1. Make sure your company has a specific process to handle employee changes, such as when employees are terminated, leave the company, or are newly hired
  2. Document workstation requirements
  3. Develop a detailed process for handling security access to internal systems to ensure the process is as timely as possible
  4. Partner with IT professionals who can provide you and your company the resources and processes you need to avoid any issues

Working with IT professionals can make your life much easier when dealing with new and old employees. ThrottleNet can help ensure your company’s sensitive data isn’t going to be taken with the employee being terminated. Contact ThrottleNet today to keep your company’s data and applications secured!

ThrottleNet is known to offer high quality IT support, while also being a well-rounded team of experts that are there to help you and your business the most effective way possible. ThrottleNet’s full-time IT department is fast, friendly, and fixes tough issues with ease. Some IT service companies today don’t offer the support needed for businesses to run smoothly. ThrottleNet doesn’t just set you up, instead we support you throughout, and do it very well.

ThrottleNet’s Attentive & Helpful Team

Your IT support service should be properly staffed. This includes many trained employees that have the ability to handle any questions that clients might have. ThrottleNet can address the major problems initially, and then proceed with fixing the issues of lower priority efficiently. The team at ThrottleNet are able to provide solutions just as fast as issues emerge.

This is what our clients have to say:

“We LOVE ThrottleNet! We called with a computer problem and your team immediately resolved the issues, were prompt and very friendly. We have never had this type of experience with any other computer company we have worked with in the past. We are relieved that another vet recommended ThrottleNet to the Bridgeton Animal Hospital. You guys are the best!” – Dr. Kay Tung, Veterinarian at Bridgeton Animal Hospital

IT Support When You Need It

Do you feel like you tend to wait awhile for IT support? If there is one thing that is definite in any business, it is that they all need IT support that is reliable. Many complaints from clients show how their previous IT support service is slow. This can undoubtedly impact your business’s functionality and slow down daily activities.

ThrottleNet fixes problems rapidly, while also doing a good job. Just look to see what our clients are saying:

“ThrottleNet makes IT completely hassle free. Their proactive approach to network efficiency and security is integral to our achievement in the B2B marketplace. Delivering leading-edge online storefronts for enterprise-level businesses is at the heart of our print and marketing solutions. Therefore, a stable network and reliable connectivity is vital to the success of our business. Their cloud mail and backup solution has mitigated any risk of data loss and ensured we’ll always have access to our clients’ digital assets and files.”

“Ultimately, ThrottleNet’s quick response and expertise has been crucial in supporting our infrastructure at RBO PrintLogistix.” – Jim Riley, CEO & President of RBO PrtingLogistix

Qualified at Fixing IT

The team of specialists at ThrottleNet thinks through tough problems. Sometimes, missing the tiniest details can create a whole different problem. With almost two decades worth of exceptional experience, ThrottleNet has the resources, knowledge, and experience that you are in need of. ThrottleNet is known for its knowledgeable and friendly team, that is always ready to provide solutions to your IT issues.

Here is a glimpse of some of our client’s reviews:

“Thanks to the knowledgeable support team at ThrottleNet, our network is running faster and more efficient than ever before. I can trust them to resolve technical issues that might otherwise get in the way of running my business.” – Dr. Richard Goldberg from St. Louis Orthodontic Group

“I wanted to reiterate how happy we here at Condominium Property Management are with ThrottleNet. Several employees have seen immediate and dramatic improvements in their computers’ boot times. Instead of waiting 20 to 30 minutes to boot, our computers now boot up in about one minute. They also set up a Web backup for us, which is something we’ve discussed for a long time, but never implemented. We look forward to a long relationship with ThrottleNet.” – Jane Oliver, President of Condominium Property Management

Start Your ThrottleNet IT Experience

Are you in need of an IT support service that will be there to fix problems when you need it most? ThrottleNet is happy to help with all things IT related. Give us a call today to set up a consultation and see how we are the best option for your business.

In video three of our TNtv 3Qs series on Microsoft Azure services, ThrottleNet’s Sales Director, Chris Montgomery, and Cloud Services Manager, Aaron Oliver, discussed the process of migrating from your current storage software system to Azure. Migrating to Azure services is actually quite simple, whether you make a complete transition or take a more gradual approach.

Azure Pt 3 – The How and Why from ThrottleNet, Inc. on Vimeo.

How Does Transitioning to Azure Work?

Azure transitions are very flexible. You can choose to gradually move to Azure’s cloud, migrating individual services or servers at a time, or make a complete transition all at once. Important services and servers can be moved to Azure’s cloud storage while others can be kept on-site.

Azure also allows you the option to create a virtual network with a VPN connection. VPN stands for virtual private network. Virtual private networks provide you with a secure connection to other networks over the internet. With the ability of creating a virtual network, businesses can permit either a service provider network or a data center to make changes to your networking structure in order to make it the most efficient without needing changes in physical hardware connections.

How Should I Begin the Transition to Azure?

Users who make the transition to Azure will still connect to the same applications and services they were previously. Many users that make the switch begin by decommissioning file servers and moving to Azure’s Active Directory. Businesses decommission file servers when either removing a server permanently or combining existing servers.

Azure’s Active Directory, also known as Azure AD, is a data storage service that can be accessed by the cloud on your mobile device. Azure Active Directory allows employees sign in to access both external resources, such as the Azure portal, and internal resources, such as apps within your corporate network. Azure AD users tend to include IT admins, app developers, and subscribers of Microsoft 365, Azure, and Dynamics CRM Online. As subscribers, users automatically have the option to begin to manage access to the integrated apps within the cloud storage.

What are the Benefits of using Azure?

Azure users have access to choose which individual applications to move to the cloud, where some might not require servers at all. Benefits of making the switch to Azure includes reduction in capital expenditures, and server maintenance costs, removal of warranty renewals, and reduction in data center hosting costs. Additionally, businesses can be better protected while using Azure. Azure increases server security, allows you to meet compliance requirements, improves scalability, and generally, has you pay for what you need and not for what you might not be using.

Make the Move to Azure with ThrottleNet

If you’re in need of some help with your company’s storage software, contact ThrottleNet today! ThrottleNet specializes in IT management and security systems, providing businesses and organizations with a full-time IT department. To get the information you’re looking for, reach out today to get the help you need from our experts.

Understanding your RPO and RTO in Disaster Recovery

In: Managed Network By

How much downtime can your business handle? Disaster means different things to different people, and different businesses have different risk levels and different tolerance for risk. The boilerplate statistics around failing to recover from a largescale data loss aren’t on your side. It’s said that 60% of companies who lose their data are no longer a company within six months.

When getting started with setting up a disaster recovery plan, your business must understand its RPO – Recovery Point Objective and RTO – Recovery Time Objective.

By setting these goals, businesses will fully understand their tolerance for risk and have a clear roadmap towards restoring operations to normal levels.

What is RTO?

Recovery time objective is simply the time your business needs to recover for a disaster. Ideally, your RTO is somewhere around a few minutes, but it could be thought of in hours, days or even weeks.

While time is money for any organization, larger companies – especially those in finance or retail strive for a much shorter RTO given the ROI associated with each hour of the day. Take Apple for instance. They make $869,000 in profit every second. For some small businesses, losing a few minutes here or there probably won’t dig significantly into profits – but a few days? Sure.

 What is RPO?

Recovery point objective is the process of determining how much data you can afford to lose and knowing how often your data should be backed up. During Prime Day, Amazon has come close to closing 500 sales per second. Losing minutes or even hours would not only result in lost profit, but a huge set of missing data. Because of this, companies like Amazon must backup more consistently than smaller companies who may only be inconvenienced by similar downtime.

Of course, a tighter window on RPO means a higher cost disaster recovery solution is necessary to meet the objective and ensure business is always running smoothly.

How Should These Objectives Be Built into a DRP?

RTO and RPO do not have to be universal to every aspect of your business. Email for example, can have a different RTO/RPO than a server that houses all your ecommerce transactions. A successful disaster recovery plan will outline specific RTO/RPO for all aspects of your operations.

To properly assess RTO/RPO, understand each business function and ask yourself, how much time or data can we afford to lose if these systems went down?

By taking this approach, your business will be prepared for single-system failures just as well as a largescale disaster.

Be Prepared with ThrottleNet

As St. Louis disaster recovery experts, ThrottleNet can help your company set the foundation for a quick recovery if downtime were to ever occur. By proactively monitoring your network, we aim to ensure you never have to use your plan.

Contact us today for a free, no-obligation network assessment.

 

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    Assessing Your IT Resources: How to Find the Right Solution for Your Business

    In: Managed Network By

    Information technology is a vital component of business operations that can be approached several different ways. Unfortunately, finding the level of talent needed to appropriately operate an IT department is becoming harder for executives to find and maintain.

    Consider that 60% of managers have increased their IT payroll budget to secure a specific person to meet their IT needs. In the technology sector, the playing field is heavily tilted towards qualified applicants over your company, and that can lead to making difficult and sometimes uncomfortable decisions that affect your bottom line.

    There are three ways to approach your IT resource needs. You can either hire a full-time IT professional or a team to dedicate themselves to your technology or processes, a consultant to step in and set the foundation or an outsourced third-party vendor to fully-manage all aspects of your IT.

    There are positive reasonings behind all three options, but one sticks out as a true winner for small businesses.

    Hiring an IT Person May Make Sense

    When you have a full-time IT person, you should feel that this resource has a personal connection to your business and commits themselves as an exclusive resource in managing your network infrastructure and addressing your security concerns.

    If properly motivated, a full-time employee becomes an integral part of your company culture and delivers proven results time-and-time again. If you’re working with a team of IT professionals, you have the flexibility to hire junior-level employees at a cheaper cost and train them up to be the guy in the future.

    This person should know your network better than anyone because they live and breathe it every day.
    Sometimes, a Consultant Is Necessary

    Hiring temporary employees who may or may not catch on full-time may make sense in the short-to-medium term to help complete projects on a timeline or help your technology get off the ground if you’re just getting started. A contract employee can help your company complete a project and temporarily re-allocate internal resources to focus on other needs within your organization.

    While hiring consultants may make sense for your business, understand that these employees may be less engaged than someone who knows they have a job secured long-term. Competition is fierce within typical IT staffing agencies, and these firms always take a cut from your consultant’s salary. These employees may demand more salary knowing that their benefits package won’t match that of a full-time employee.

    Third Party IT Firms Can Make the Most Sense for Small Business

    We understand the appeal of having IT staffers on payroll, but for most smaller organizations, it just doesn’t make sense.

    Third-party vendors can be just as dedicated to your business as a full-time employee, and have the capability to manage your IT at a project level or take on every aspect of your technology, including end-user support, network protection, risk mitigation and long-term planning.

    When you partner with an IT company, you receive a defined statement of work and are allowed a full understanding of project costs and know exactly what you’re getting for your money.

    A third-party technology vendor takes on a shared risk for any issues that may arise during the engagement, providing peace of mind that is impossible to achieve when you trust an individual or internal team to manage your technology.

    When technology is managed internally, deadlines can be misinterpreted or flat out ignored if something else comes up. Outside IT companies treat deadlines as deadlines, and ensure that projects are completed on time and on-budget without excuses.

    Find the Right IT Company for Your Needs

    If you find yourself going back-and forth on if an outsider’s perspective is valuable for your bottom line and is right for your technology, we would love to chat and help put your mind at ease.

    As one of St. Louis’ oldest and most trusted technology vendors, ThrottleNet has the experience and expertise to handle virtually any network situation in any industry no matter how large or small your business is.

    Contact us today to receive a free network assessment, and learn the difference a third-party can make in managing your technology.

     

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      Is Your IT Infrastructure Falling Behind? Here are the Warning Signs to Look Out For

      In: Managed Network By

      Every company wants to get a grip on their technology, but is your infrastructure on the same page as you are?

      Technology and threats designed to compromise it are both rapidly evolving, and your team needs to ensure that its infrastructure keeps pace.

      Too often, companies get complacent with the status-quo, failing to update and patch software, integrate new cloud technologies or ignoring end-user issues that have become commonplace over time.

      When your technology falls too far behind, it’s important to properly detect the warning signs that may arise and develop a plan to correct your deficiencies.

      IS your IT in need of a refresh? If any of these five signs are consistently popping up, it may be.

      A Sharp Increase in Help Desk Calls

      Are your end users becoming needier with each passing day? It may seem that way, but their unified voice could be indication of a larger issue.

      Of course, help desk calls will typically see a spike if your company rolls out a new tool that not everyone is familiar with, but if no new changes have been made and users are routinely having issues with existing hardware or software, that’s a telltale sign that something is wrong.

      Failures & Outages are Becoming More Common

      Your hardware and software should always be on, unless a crippling event occurs – in which case, a plan should be in place to quickly restore operations to normal. Eventually, even trusted infrastructure can start to fail if not properly cared for. You can’t set it and forget it. Failing infrastructure can cripple productivity and profitability.
      Your Employees Are Going Behind Your Back

      If your company is unwilling or hasn’t had the time to adapt new software technology, your employees may resort to shadow IT and download tools they need to be more productive without permission. Shadow IT is an issue because it can open up security loopholes, but a rise in shadow IT can be a reflection of your poor willingness to adapt.

      Your Department Isn’t Appealing to Job Applicants

      You’re looking to grow your IT department and the perfect candidate won’t bite because they are experienced with much more sophisticated systems. To them, your IT department seems either: boring, below them or like a complete cluster they’re unwilling to work on. If you have trouble filling roles and are offering a competitive package ask yourself – why?

      New Initiatives are Scrapped Due to Your Infrastructure

      You want to adapt new technology such as IoT or machine learning, but your existing infrastructure can’t handle it. You spend the time researching and attempting to implement new technologies but at the end of the day the project gets scrapped.

      Turn to An Expert to Assess Your Technology

      Is your network not doing enough to keep up with the day-to-day demands of business? Is it preventing you from taking a giant leap forward? Let ThrottleNet help develop a customized solution for your business. Contact us today for a free, no-obligation network assessment.

       

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