3 Benefits of Server Virtualization Services

Gone are those days when server virtualization was meant for big enterprises alone. Small to medium-scale businesses are now investing in cloud virtualization technologies to make the most out of a server and desktop provisioning, reduced energy costs and downtime, less use of physical servers, and more. It has become possible because you have more service providers to choose from than you had even a few years ago. If you are in Florida, consider opting for an IT consulting service provider in Tampa that can help you tap the benefits for a feature that has been around for more than a decade.  Here are the three major advantages of virtualization that an IT consulting firm can offer you:

1. Easy Disaster Recovery

With virtualization services, the transition from a virtual machine from one server to the other is easy, safe, and quick. You can back up critical business and customer data fast as you can develop a replication site. Virtualization platforms have software that can automatically move controls to a duplicate system while detecting an error or fault. If data is vulnerable due to a disaster, you have the infrastructure in place for a quick, secure, and effective recovery.

2. Reduced Cooling and Energy Costs

With reduced physical servers and more virtual servers, you will benefit by cutting back on energy and cooling costs. You will also be able to reduce your data center’s footprint that includes the costs of UPS, generator, rack space, floor space, and network switches.

3. Enhanced Productivity

When you have less physical servers, you have fewer things to deal with and maintain. With virtualization services, applications that took several days or weeks to provide something useful to your business will now take only a couple of minutes to deliver the results. This way, your IT team can focus on reducing cost, increasing revenue, and driving new business opportunities or benefits.  

No matter if you are embracing server virtualization services for the first time or have been using it for years, an IT consulting firm in Tampa will help you with enhanced business capabilities. A groundbreaking technology such as virtualization makes your enterprise more efficient than your competitors.

3 Ways to Protect Your Business from Ransomware

Is your business data safe from massive cyber attacks?  Have you taken any precautionary steps to address this problem? If not, it is time to think about it seriously. Why? Well, a major security threat known as WannaCry ransomware affected organizations worldwide in May 2017. It targeted PCs operating on the Windows OS. The attack targeted approximately 200,000 businesses in 150 countries globally. If it happened to them, it can happen to you as well. Even if you are a small business in Florida, you must learn your lesson from this and opt for IT consulting services in Tampa. While your IT service providers beef up your digital security, you should remember the following three ways to protect your organization from ransomware attacks in the future:

1. Avoid Clicking on Suspicious Links

Be careful while clicking on links or downloading files that look suspicious. These will not only infect your PC but also the network you use. We recommend that you delete unsolicited emails right away.

2. Update Your OS

If you are using Windows, update the OS when prompted. Recently, in March 2017, Microsoft rolled out a security patch to protect PCs from the malicious WannaCry virus. So, if your systems aren’t updated, your data may be at risk. The solution is activating the ‘auto-update’ option if your OS allows it. If not, remember to allow Windows OS updates to ensure that you are using a safe and updated system.

3. Back Up Your Business Data

Make sure that you save all your organization files, information, and documents on another system or drive. This way, you will not run the risk of losing all your enterprise data. Opt for an external hard drive that is not connected to the web. Moreover, always use antivirus application for systems that require an active internet connection.

Get in touch with an IT consulting firm in Tampa to learn about the right prevention method and detection approach to protect your data from ransomware attacks. A reliable service provider will evaluate your organization’s current IT landscape and vulnerabilities to threats, and map out a solution to keep your business data secure.

Why is it Better to Hire a Third-Party IT Consultant than a Full-Time Employee?

Every business relies on a sound IT infrastructure to maintain efficiency and performance. They seek to create a careful balance of hardware and software to benefit the organization. However, not all entrepreneurs are comfortable in looking after the IT needs and hence hire dedicated teams to take care of these aspects. But often this is not the best solution because such full-time dedicated employees often do not have enough contribution to the day-to-day functioning of the organization and simply maintain the business’ status quo in operational effectiveness – a task that doesn’t really require full-time workers.The solution? IT outsourcing to capable IT consulting firms at places such as Tampa where the technology sector is booming.  Do you why you should do that?Find out below:

More Disciplined, More Efficient

If there’s one thing IT consultants excel at, that’s discipline. Most SMBs require their employees to wear two hats and call upon them to perform tasks outside their job description. While this isn’t a problem per se, it does cut into the time allotted to the employees for gaining IT-related experience. Hiring an IT consultant solves this problem since most of them are experts specializing in a particular set of technical skills.

Flexible Services

The nature of service offered by IT consultants is flexible, which means business stakeholders can ask them to drop by when needed. This is beneficial for the company as the consultant’s know-how and talent can be put to good use on important projects without paying a fixed salary.

Cost-Efficient

From a financial standpoint, hiring an IT consultant makes more sense. Full-time employees tasked with handling IT needs within the organization need to be paid a sizable salary with benefits. These benefits cost the business a lot of money – something that can be avoided if the company hires an IT consultant. Third-party IT specialists charge by the hour for the work they perform.

When it comes to overall effectiveness, IT consultants have the edge over regular staff. They are more proficient, more experienced, and they encounter different types of IT infrastructure on the job, which makes them perfect for handling any IT crisis. No wonder, so many companies are opting for IT consulting in Tampa and other places known for their technological expertise and advancement. If clean and prompt troubleshooting of your business’ IT problems is something that interests you, you should contact a good IT consultant now. You won’t regret it!

3 Cloud Computing Trends to Watch Out for in 2017

Is your business planning to migrate to the cloud? Based on the predictions of Cisco Systems, a US-based multinational technology conglomerate, 92 percent of enterprise workloads will soon be borne by the cloud and driven by Big Data and the Internet of Things (IoT). It means 2017 will be a remarkable year when it comes to cloud adoption. From California to Florida, more businesses will switch to a cloud environment to meet their specific data management needs. So, if you own an IT consulting firm in Tampa, watch out for three of the cloud computing trends to dominate in 2017.

1. Increased Cloud Security

Though more enterprises are migrating to the cloud, some businesses are still skeptical about this emerging technology. So, cloud security will be the biggest concern this year. Since more and more firms across all sectors are adopting cloud, data protection will be at the top of their list.

2. Use of Cloud Containers

In 2017, more businesses will use cloud containers to manage their programming code created for cloud-based apps. Early this year, all private and public clouds shall start using Linux containers. It may pose a challenge for those businesses that build microservices. That’s why, all enterprises must assess issues related to security, networking, and monitoring.

3. Hybrid Clouds Will Need an Audit Function

The hybrid cloud model will continue to dominate cloud computing scenario especially because it combines the benefits of both public and private clouds. However, it also has to deal with the associated challenges, which is why one can witness the rise of audit function for hybrid clouds. This will ensure that everything follows protocol and meets user goals. These clouds can check, monitor, and control third-party and in-house contracts, thus enabling small businesses to delineate the services they would need the cloud to serve and manage.

The scalability, flexibility, and affordability of cloud technology attract customers from diverse industries. That’s why many IT consulting companies in Tampa and the other US cities have started offering cloud-based solutions and services. If you are envisioning a cloud-based future for your business, keep the trends that we discussed here in mind.

5 Pillars Of It Consulting Services

In the field of management, information technology (IT) consulting refers to a discipline focused on providing organizations with advice on how best to use their various IT assets to achieve their business objectives.  It's not only the big ticket companies that avail these services, even small and medium businesses hire consultants to guide them in all matters relating to IT. A good case in point is Tampa, where IT consulting firms serve both big enterprises as well as SMBs. If you are a start-up with a well-defined growth plan, and if you are keen on making the most of your IT assets, a consulting firm can help you in the following five ways:

By Providing Information

Consultants will furnish you with accurate, up-to-date information. They would typically want to know exactly what ways you are planning to utilize the information, and accordingly gather the relevant data through market and attitude surveys, cost and feasibility studies, and competitive structure analysis of an industry or a business. 

By Solving Your Problems

Every businessperson faces different types of challenges that may range from procuring a component to changing the company’s branding strategies.  IT consultants explore the context of these problems and offer the most practical solution in a way that does not interfere with the company's existing policies or affect the employee morale.

By Offering a Diagnosis for Your Existing Issues

IT consultants are expert diagnosticians. While offering their diagnosis for a problem, they consider several internal factors such as a client's financial health, the technology the client uses, the behavior of non-managerial members of the organization, and the external environment.

By Making Recommendations Based on the Diagnosis

Based on their findings, IT consultants submit a report summarizing their findings and recommending what the client should do. The report, at the core, provides a step-by-step action plan aimed at improving the diagnosed problem.

By Assisting With the Implementation of Recommended Solutions

Consultants also help to translate recommendations into actions. In coordination with the management, they help to install a recommended new system. Generally, they suggest necessary actions only for those areas where the company is willing to do things differently.

Your IT assets are expensive, so you must make the most of them. An IT consultant can tell you how. Cities like Tampa have shown how even SMBs can gain from the IT consulting services. Why not follow suit and optimize your IT infrastructure for your business growth? 

Essential Qualities of a True Twenty First Century Enterprise

From a traditional tourist destination to an emerging IT hub – Tampa has come a long way since the beginning of the new millennium. The IT companies in Tampa have played a big role in this transformation. They did not only enable these organizations to survive and thrive in a rapidly changing business landscape, but also helped these businesses to remodel themselves as true-blue 21-st century enterprises. So how do these 21CE look like? Let's find out:

Experience-focused

Today's consumers demand a consistently satisfactory experience over multiple platforms. In response, enterprises are trying to provide a unified experience to their customers. 

Result-oriented

Today's organizations place a lot of emphasis on the use of the right technology to deliver services to their clients. Their service delivery model cuts across value chains and they tend to measure their success in terms of outcome-based targets. 

Agile and Size-optimized

Today, big corporate entities are compared with 'white elephants'. In order to survive in today's competitive environment, organizations are trying to be lean and agile. Only those companies, which have size-optimized structures, can cope with the volatility of a fast-paced market. Thus, many large organizations are quite out of step with the market, and closely-knit organizations are doing brisk business. 

Service-driven

In a dynamic market landscape, 21st century enterprises bank on high customer satisfaction. To accomplish a big score in this area, the organizations keep on changing their service delivery models, and embrace technology-agnostic platforms to meet customer expectations. 

Ecosystem-centric

In a fiercely competitive business landscape, 'forge partnership or perish' is the mantra of the companies. Companies no longer operate within the periphery of closed offices. Instead, they strive to weave out complex ecosystems comprising employees, vendors, freelancers and even customers in which every participant works toward a common goal. 

In a fiercely competitive business landscape, enterprises must embrace the right business model to survive and thrive. And that necessitates investment in the right technologies. Reliable IT companies in Tampa are providing these companies the technological support they need, and are helping them to become 21st-century ready. Want to join the elite 21CE club? Just select your IT partner wisely. 

Why If-It-Ain't-Broke-Don't-Fix-It Attitude Is Not Safe In Maintaining It Setup

Leveraging technology in business is not just a wise move anymore, it is the only move to survive and thrive in the online trading arcade. Although establishing and operating an IT setup is not exactly puzzling, maintaining it does require expert help. But, companies often avoid keeping a watchful eye on IT setups until the problems threaten their business processes. While this may save a few bucks, it also makes your vulnerable to costly and time-consuming IT repairs in the long-run. In the online market, round the clock presence and quality of services are everything. So, downtime in your business for critical repairs will cost you both clients and money. Only preventive IT maintenance can solve this problem. Let us discuss how opting for effective IT consulting in Tampa and other IT hubs in the U.S. can benefit your business.

Maintenance Can Avoid Accidents

Your IT setup takes care of your business operations and serves as a bridge between different business sectors. When working appropriately, IT setup can maintain the flow of information while automating multi-module business operations. However, any glitch in this automated system can cause your whole process to falter. Only preventive maintenance can identify glitches in operation and rectify them before they turn into serious issues.

Maintenance Can Protect Information

Since IT channels are tasked with receiving, storing, and sending information, glitches can expose your sensitive data. Losing control over your company's valuable records or client-based data, can damage your business reputation. However, with maintenance experts fixing or updating your system remotely (as quickly as they appear), your information database will always be secure.

Modern Business is All about Automation

Automating repetitive business tasks gives you more time to work on business creativity. The same principle applies in automating the IT setup maintenance that will help you avoid calling in experts to handle things manually after a system failure. Instead, you will get an army of professionals working remotely on your IT setup to keep everything running smoothly.

There is also an issue of impaired communication (with clients and resources) every time your system suffers a seizure without maintenance. This is often the reason for losing clients and making bad business decisions. Preventive IT maintenance can remedy these situations. Maintenance is an extension of smart business strategy that progressive companies are embracing. Your business too can benefit from IT consulting services in Tampa and other booming technology hubs in the US. Switch to an outsourced IT management and see how simple it is to retain clients, strengthen business and save money.

Achieve Business Goals through Remote Monitoring and Management

Why waste precious time in day-to-day management of your IT infrastructure, when you can let experts handle it for you? When looking for professional IT support, Tampa based Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) service providers can be your guardian angel. With an advanced array of management tools, RMM service providers can increase productivity and better leverage your IT staff. However, before we delve any further, let’s take a look at what RMM is all about.

What is Remote Monitoring and Management?

IT service providers employ RMM tools, such as remote desktop monitoring and trouble ticket tracking, to client servers and workstations, which gather information about the hardware and applications running on the client’s location. These tools supply the reports to the service providers, thus enabling them to resolve any issue even before the client starts experiencing it. RMM solutions can also help in automating scheduled maintenance tasks.

Benefits of Choosing RMM

The IT support from a RMM service provider will help your business achieve the following three goals:

1. Increase in efficiency

RMM service providers use IT asset tracking software to receive data in a single central console and relay the information to clients in real-time. This saves a lot of time and results in enhanced efficiency.

2. Early detection via proactive maintenance

Without remote monitoring, an issue may go unnoticed, and result in costly repairs. The RMM tools alert the IT support staff instantly whenever any irregularity in the network takes place so that the team can address the issue immediately.

3. Gain important insights

As RMM tools keep the service providers updated 24/7, clients can gain essential insights about the overall network health, and easily locate the areas that require improvements. This can avoid costly downtime in future.

No network is perfect, even those in Tampa, one of the growing technology hubs of the US. Offering expert IT support, Tampa based RMM service providers can analyze your system in advance, carry out frequent maintenance works, keep your network up-to-date and thereby, help you achieve your business goals. While you focus on reaching newer heights, let the professionals carry out the monitoring process and keep your business safe.

How IT Companies in Tampa Can Recover Data in Case of a Disaster

According to a survey by Info-Tech Research Group, a London-based IT research and advisory firm, almost 40 percent of IT companies in the US don’t have an efficient disaster recovery plan (DRP) to help them quickly resume work after a crisis such as a storm, a fire, a break-in, or a sabotage. The survey further goes on to reveal that nearly half of all companies without a DRP go out of business within a year. This is alarming news for the IT department of Tampa, as it is one of the fastest growing regions in IT among all the Southern States. However, with the support of managed IT services, Tampa based companies can rest easy because disaster recovery of their business resources can become super fast and extremely safe. Wondering how these IT companies can save your business during disasters? Here is a brief outline of the way managed service provides (MSPs) function:

#1. Devising the DRP: MSPs design a DRP by analyzing the business components and taking backups of the important features that can keep the company running post a disaster. They also devise a plan to keep the reputation of the affected company intact among clients, in spite of a calamity.

#2. Monitoring the implementation: Once a DRP has been established, MSPs keep the data updated and regularly monitor the DRP with remediation of processes. This helps maintain a lower downtime if a crisis occurs.

#3. Testing the DRP: An under-tested plan is as bad as having no plan at all. Using important verification activities, MSPs frequently test the effectiveness of the recovery plan by simulating situations that would be applicable during an actual crisis.

Every IT firm in Tampa runs the risk of meeting a disaster at any time. With expert assistance from managed IT services, Tampa based companies can rely on a coherent and well-structured DRP, which can significantly lower the risk of business loss and interruption when a disaster strikes.

Innovative IT Solutions Helping Tampa’s Finance Companies to Stay Competitive

The financial technology sector is expected to become an 8 billion dollars market globally this year. In fact, one out of every four people are likely to turn to mobile banking by the end of 2015, and by 2017, half of the world’s population will own a smartphone. South Florida, which already is an important financial hub in the US, is capitalizing on the trend. Tampa, a city located in the state’s tech-corridor is significantly contributing to the region’s fin-tech boom. IT solutions are being developed in Tampa to exclusively serve the region’s financial institutions. These innovative solutions, which include business process management (BPM), loan processing, investor services and low-latency trading tools, among others, are enabling the region’s financial institutions achieve operational efficiency and cut costs.

Drivers for the City’s Fin-Tech Boom:Be it banks, credit societies, lenders or trading companies, all the businesses in this sector are looking for ways to become more agile, as the majority of today’s customers prefer online and mobile over traditional transactions.

Keen on delivering personalized, diversified services to their clients, these institutions are looking for technology that would offer a consolidated view of their clients’ accounts.

 In the age of social media, protection of brand image has become a top concern for banks and other financial service providers. Regulatory compliances are also becoming more and more stringent for the financial sector. Subsequently, firms look for solutions that would allow them to adhere to stringent regulatory compliances, and help them avoid the risks of reputation damage and thereby build up a loyal clientele.

Segments Addressed by the Solutions:

Based on new-age analytics, mobile and cloud technologies, a wide variety of fin-tech solutions are available across the financial services spectrum. The areas include:

Retail banking
Investment banking
Governance and risk compliance
Housing, auto and student loan segments
Credit card management and payment processing
Wealth management

Specially designed for today’s demanding clientele, Financesector-focused IT solutions in Tampaare driving innovations and enhancing efficiencies. From giving a 360 degree view of the customers’ personal finance to enabling them to overcome data challenges, and gaining an edge over their competitors, these solutions are redefining the way financial institutions are doing business today.

IT Support For Small Businesses

The revenue of the global outsourced services industry rose from 45.6 billion US dollars in 2000 to 104.6 billion US dollars in 2014. Thanks to a host of private and public assistance programs and special initiatives to aid small ventures, Tampa's small and medium business (SMB) sector is thriving. Most of these businesses that have 20 or fewer employees lack budget to employ an in-house team to look after their information technology (IT) issues. These companies find it more practical to hire a third party vendor in the city to handle their IT support issues.  Here are some of the major types of support services that can be outsourced to a qualified vendor in order to save cost and get rid of untimely hassles:

Network Setup and Administration: A qualified IT service provider can help address this important aspect of your business at the fraction of the cost of hiring a full time employee.

Network Security Management: With cyber crimes becoming increasingly rampant and sophisticated, businesses need to monitor their network round the clock. This is not only time consuming, but also extremely complicated. A third party provider, whose business focus is to set up and secure network systems, has the expertise to use the latest intrusion detection systems to keep threats at bay.  The arrangement gives you peace of mind that your critical data is safe and sound.

Hardware Support: Ongoing hardware and desktop support is an essential part of running a business, as it helps to make the most of your limited man power. With a dedicated technical team always at your service to solve your hardware related issues, your team is always at its productive best.

Data Backup and Recovery: Data back-up and disaster recovery solutions allow you to obtain your business-critical data and carry on with your operations even in the event of a disaster. In Tampa, there are several IT vendors that offer cloud-based solutions to help you save cost.

Email Services: In an era, when emails have become the primary means of business communication, companies need to have an effective email-management system in place. An outsourced service provider will help you manage your emails at a much lower cost than hiring an in-house staff for the same purpose. While an in-house employee will only focus on a certain job area, an IT support firm gives you a complete bouquet of services that turn out to be much more cost-effective in the long run

While you can avail different types of IT support services in Tampa to speed up the revenue generation process of your business, it is important to make sure that you are outsourcing the work to a trustworthy partner.

Cloud Computing Services and Tampa

For organizations that are new to cloud services, the abundance of cloud companies in the market can be overwhelming. Hiring consultants who offer specialized service in this sector can bring in fresh set of ideas to enhance a company’s infrastructure and greater flexibility in delivering quality service to customers. Tampa, a bustling commercial city in Florida, is home to an array of IT companies that are specialized in offering cloud computing service to businesses.

Companies in Tampa, offering cloud computing service do not own the physical infrastructure of hosting the software platform. Instead, they rent usage from a third party provider, thus saving big capital expenditure. Here are the models that are currently used to offer effective cloud computing solutions to companies.

• Software as a Service (SaaS)

SaaS is a cloud model that delivers on-demand applications hosted and managed by the service provider. SaaS solution offers a number of advantages over on-premises deployments including minimal administration, maintenance, improved communication and collaboration. In fact, some cloud-based tools have proven to be more cost-effective than their traditional in-house counterparts.

• Platform as a Service (PaaS)

The PaaS model delivers applications over the internet. In this model, a cloud service provider delivers hardware and software tools — usually those needed for application development. This cloud module hosts both software and hardware on its own infrastructure. As a result, users get relief from installing in-house hardware and software to develop or run a new application.

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

IaaS is a form of cloud computing that provides virtualized computing resources over the internet. It is one of the three main categories of cloud computing services along with SaaS and PaaS. In this particular model, a third party provider hosts hardware, software, servers, storage and other infrastructure components on behalf of its users.

As you can see, these three types of cloud computing models are integrated in IT solution services of Tampa. The best thing is that these services help companies to be more responsive to market conditions. Not just the biggies, with cloud computing services in place, even small businesses of Tampa can have access to high-end technology without hiring any specialized tech worker on their payroll. All they need to do is reach out to an expert IT solution provider in Tampa that has the infrastructure to manage cloud computing.