Managed Network

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.

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.

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.

Time and money are extremely important for startups trying to make it in today’s business environment. As an entrepreneur trying to prove an idea to the world, you don’t have time to handle IT yourself and don’t have the money to hire a CIO who will command a 6-figure salary and several weeks of vacation.

Because hiring internally isn’t always ideal or feasible for the cost-conscious, hands-on business owner or investor, many see incredible value in outsourced managed services providers (MSPs) to ensure their IT is working just as hard as they are.

In the hot St. Louis startup scene, your business needs a competitive advantage. Outsourcing critical IT functions may be the answer. Below are several reasons why bootstrapping startups in the St. Louis area should turn to a Managed Network provider to keep their IT in check.

Managed Services are Scalable

The hope is that your startup isn’t always a startup. When you land that big account, win Shark Tank or see sales naturally increase from years of hard work, your need for IT support or cloud storage will grow faster than you can keep up with. This is a good problem to have, but you want to keep growing and any time spent away from your core competencies can slow down your momentum – plus, new physical servers are expensive.

A Managed services provider works on a fixed monthly fee, and can easily and affordably add more storage without wasting your resources.

Managed Services Provide Global Support Around the Clock

Most startups don’t have the capability to provide staff with live 24/7 support and we can’t blame them. A quality MSP will offer around-the-clock monitoring of your network and all connected devices, and will be available whenever you need them to troubleshoot critical issues that may arise.

Managed Services Provide Expert Advise

Your job is to be an expert in your products or services and not in IT. An MSP allows you to focus on your core competencies, grow your product and deliver value to your customers. ThrottleNet’s Managed Network plan includes a Virtual CIO, who assists with the strategic planning aspects of IT. This is an incredibly valuable asset to have for a growing business.

And now for the two most obvious benefits of an MSP for your startup:

Managed Services Providers Save Startups TIME

Partnering with an outside vendor to provide IT support allows your internal team to focus on its core processes, and perhaps more importantly, reduces your stress by ensuring that everything in relation to your technology is under control. Some of the most common services that an MSP can offer include:

• Ensuring network connectivity
• Improving and managing security
• Integrating messaging and collaboration software
• Handling software licensing agreements
• Break/fix and other desktop management services
• Database administration
• Third-party vendor management
• Data backup & archiving

With these tasks off your plate and access to industry experts, you’ll be 100% committed to growing your business.

Managed Services Providers Save Startups MONEY

A typical managed services agreement costs less each month than a single full-time employee responsible for the same. And, a quality IT services provider has experience in a variety of different industries including companies of all sizes.

Qualified IT professionals often command high salaries. When you’re hiring an IT person, it can be difficult to determine if they have the skills to do the job well, and you also need that person to be a good organizational fit. Plus, there’s the whole paid vacation thing.

What Should I Look for When Hiring an IT Company for My Startup?

Successful companies have experts running every aspect of their business, whether the process is being handled by internal team members or an outside firm.

While saving time and money are key benefits of hiring an outside IT contractor, there are things to be aware of when making this important decision:

Commit to a Partnership, not an independent Contractor – IT is an ongoing endeavor. Project-based outsourcing fills a short-term need but doesn’t ensure your IT is being proactively managed or that the vendor fully understands your business and its needs.

The Cheapest Option is Never the Best – Like most things in life you get what you pay for. Get bids to find the best fit for your business, not the cheapest price. Be wary of packages that aren’t all inclusive or scalable to fit your growing needs.

Find a Company Who Understands Your Expectations – Outsourcing agreements fail when both parties aren’t on the same page. Know what you want and illustrate your goals.

Partner Your Startup with ThrottleNet

Whether you’re at T-Rex, Cortex or are still in your garage, consider ThrottleNet to help support the IT needs of your business. Our full-service IT solutions provide your business with a dedicated Virtual CIO, around-the clock monitoring & help desk support, security solutions & much more at a fixed monthly cost.

Contact us today to receive your free network assessment!

Integrating managed services into an organization does not have to be a fully-outsourced solution. More and more organizations are turning to managed network providers for partial IT outsourcing even if they currently have and wish to continue to have an internal team managing aspects of their information technology.

A reliable managed network partner can seamlessly work as a supplement to your existing IT team, helping monitor your infrastructure, manage security requirements and help resolve any everyday incidents that may occur.

Below are 5 reasons why companies who intend to continue managing IT in-house can still benefit from partial IT outsourcing with a Managed Network provider.

Become More Proactive in Your Approach to IT

Managed Services provide proactive IT support. Being proactive in your approach to information technology naturally improves the security of your network and infrastructure. Many organizations who manage 100% of their IT in-house gravitate towards a reactive model no matter how good their intentions are. Taking a reactive approach to IT leaves your organization open to severe vulnerabilities that can turn in to major issues down the road. You fix what’s broken, but may forgo patching servers, backing up data, monitoring systems and may not be aware of new risks that may impact your security.

Leaning on a managed services provider for administrative assistance can also decrease risks associated with human error, by limiting the number of people who have in-house admin access.

Gain Access to Additional Resources

A second set of eyes can make a huge difference, especially for organizations with smaller IT departments or a single individual managing in-house IT processes. If your IT guy has a question he doesn’t have to let his decision-making hinge on his gut – he can send an email or make a phone call and get assistance right away. These resources provide more than just general IT support – they know everything about your unique network environment and its intricacies to provide personalized support.

Take Burdens Away from Internal Staff

End-user support is a monotonous task that most internal IT staffers don’t enjoy. If a printer fails to connect to a machine, who is the first person that gets a phone call? It’s the IT guy. The IT guy gets up, walks down the hall, fixes the issue in 2 minutes and goes back to his desk. Then 10 minutes later, a marketing manager stops him to set up a VPN for an employee who will be working remote next week. It never ends. Routine monitoring can help avoid many of the technology issues that may occur within your organization, while monotonous tasks can be offloaded to leave your IT team free to focus on planning, strategic developments and go home at 5 every night.

 Keep Everyone Ahead of Industry Trends

When the work piles up and you’re playing catch-up, it’s hard to keep up with new updates that need to be pushed and new programs that you should invest in. A managed network operation has the resources to provide proactive IT support and keep you informed on what’s new in the world of technology.

Decrease Costs & Add Value to Your Operations

When working with a Managed Network provider alongside your internal team, you’re spending an additional monthly fee and are not saving salary, so how can one possibly help save on your overall IT budget? Remember the old slogan “time is money?” By reallocating your staff to focus on more strategic planning, you’re investing in revenue-driving opportunities. A Managed Network provider can also help your organization make budgeting more predictable, by proactively protecting against threats, while also being able to assist in cloud migration support, which can save significant costs on maintaining bulky in-house servers.

Should Your Team Consider Partial IT Outsourcing?

Even if you’re not “fully outsourcing” your IT, a managed network vendor can provide significant benefits to your organization and make everyone on your team – even if it’s just a team of one – happy.

ThrottleNet is a full-service managed services provider with nearly two-decades experience serving small and medium-sized businesses in the St. Louis area. Learn more about our services and how they can help your organization grow. Contact us today.

Getting IT Help for Small Business is Easier Left to an Expert

A small business needs a small army of people to make business grow, with an organizational chart usually featuring management, HR, standard employees and of course, in-house IT support, right?

Depending on the size of a business “in-house IT support” can be defined as a guy or an entire department.

Management and HR are very good at what they do, but one thing they don’t do is IT. While not trained in this field, these people are tasked with hiring in-house IT support. Resumes and personality work well to gauge an employee’s ability to fill a cubicle but only go so far with highly technical individuals.

Pardon the Forest Gump cliché, but in-house IT support is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get.

For small businesses, the risks of using an in-house IT department may outweigh the pros. Below are some things to be aware of when considering keeping IT in-house vs. hiring an outsourced solution:

There is a Shortage of Qualified IT Professionals in the Workforce

57% of businesses can’t find enough IT security pros who are equipped to handle sophisticated cyber-attacks, and worse, 36% of organizations cite a higher turnover in their security department over other areas of the company. The other problem with a shortage in qualified IT staffers is that they’re more apt to leave for a better opportunity because they’re always in demand. The IT industry has a very low unemployment rate, and retaining IT help for small business is almost as hard as hiring it in the first place.

You Assume All the Risk When You Keep IT in House

If something goes wrong would you rather have the responsibility fall squarely on your shoulders or on someone else? If the network goes down, your in-house IT support team must juggle fixing it with countless other tasks planned for the day or all the other tasks go out the window for the day. Time is money for your business. If your business falls victim to a cyber-attack, you’re left picking up the pieces yourself.

You’re Leaving the Keys to One Individual

If your company can only afford one IT staffer to make up your in-house IT support team he develops knowledge of every process and every bit of confidential information your company owns. What happens if he leaves? Under those circumstances, you’re left scrambling to find a replacement and there’s no guarantee the information stays with your company. In a worst-case scenario, an ex-employee can be malicious towards your organization, or use the knowledge gained from your organization to improve a competitor in a new position.

It Can Get expensive to Keep IT In-House

You must pay top dollar to get top talent in a competitive industry. Add benefits to the equation, and in-house IT support get very expensive for a small business that just needs the basics – like a dependable server, security & employee support. Plus, your IT guy should be entitled to a few sick and vacation days like everyone else, even though your network doesn’t take any time off.

Managed Network plans from ThrottleNet can save your business more than 50% on IT staffing over in-house IT support, and provides a personalized approach to your company’s unique needs. All Managed Network clients receive access to local 24/7/365 help desk & support services, a Virtual CIO, uptime monitoring, anti-virus & spyware software, vendor management support & much more at a low monthly cost without contracts.

Contact us today to learn more about getting IT help for small business with ThrottleNet.