IT Solutions Archives | ANAX | Managed IT Solutions

Managed IT Services for Not-So-Techy Companies

by Dennis Szymczak | Nov 22, 2021 | IT Services, IT Solutions, IT Support

It’s easy to dismiss managed IT services if your company isn’t in the tech industry or doesn’t use a lot of technology in general. Outsourcing might seem unnecessary when you could hire a small team in-house to handle your company’s IT duties. Here, we explain why most companies outside the tech world can benefit from hiring managed IT services.

What are managed IT services?

A managed IT services provider will handle various IT duties for your company. The level of coverage is up to you. Some companies opt to outsource their entire IT management services, while some only look for managed IT services to ease the workload of their in-house IT team.

What are the benefits of managed IT services?

There are various benefits to hiring managed services that you should be aware of, including:

Cutting down costs

You might think that managed IT services are costly or unattainable. However, these services are usually cheaper than hiring an in-house team to handle your IT duties. Most managed services providers operate under a subscription model, allowing you to efficiently operate within a specific budget. Costs can also be reduced since you won’t have to hire and train new workers, as most managed services provide experienced professionals.

In addition to this, you’ll also save by streamlining your IT services to cover only what you need. Providers can tailor their services to meet your specific needs to ensure that you aren’t paying for more than you need.

Improve Security

Another advantage to managed IT services is that they can improve security. If your in-house IT team is overwhelmed, it can be easy to fall behind on fixing and patching issues. Providers will also ensure that your company’s IT infrastructure is up to date and in line with the latest industry standards.

If your business has the latest security software, the chances of your company falling for a cyber attack are lowered. Even if you aren’t in the tech industry, scammers use various phishing scams to get important company information and client data for financial gain.

Reduce downtime and recovery speed

Technical difficulties are a reality for any company, regardless of the sector that they operate in. As the world becomes more digital, ensuring that your business can get back up and running as quickly as possible becomes essential. Managed services can ensure that your business has enough workforce to handle all difficulties and help solve employee technical issues. Not to mention save you money on the time that your business wouldn’t be able to function while the systems are down.

Doing this will improve employee satisfaction, as no one likes to wait in a lengthy queue to solve technical problems. It will also reflect positively on customers if you can have your systems up and running quickly.

Curious about Managed IT Services for your business? Get in touch with ANAX today!

Phishing Scams & How to Not Get Caught

by Dennis Szymczak | Nov 7, 2021 | IT Services, IT Solutions, IT Support

Falling for a phishing scam can cause substantial financial damage. The stakes are even higher if you are attacked at work, where hackers can access company financial information and client data. As a result, it’s a good idea to be familiar with phishing scams, how to avoid them, and how ANAX can help.

Most Common Types of Phishing Scams

There are various types of phishing scams that you should be aware of. Here are some of the most common ones:

Email Scam

Scammers use this method by impersonating a legitimate organization or company and sending emails to various unsuspecting companies. The emails are usually traps that include malicious links or an elaborate method for you to input your financial information. If hackers gain access to your system, not only can there be economic damage, but they can leak the information of clients and employees.

Business Email Scam

Hackers gain access to the email of a high-level executive, such as the CEO, and use their account to send emails to other workers in the company for monetary gain.

Whaling Scam

This scam targets specific executives in companies (usually C-level execs) to obtain information generally unavailable to lower-level employees. Falling for this type of scam can have substantial financial consequences and damage the reputation of your company.

Vishing Scam

Instead of using emails, scammers will use phone calls to exploit unsuspecting workers. Such scammers will usually claim to be from a large reputable company to lower your defenses before requesting your personal information.

What to Look Out For

There are certain checks you should make that could help you avoid falling for a phishing scam, including checking if:

The message is from a public email domain, such as Gmail or yahoo.
The email domain name is misspelled. Check if the email domain matches the company that they claim to be from.
The email is full of grammatical and structural errors.
The email contains questionable links or attachments.
The email urges you to act fast. This is usually the case for phishing emails that ask you to pay an invoice or make another payment.

Remember, never click on anything if you’re not sure where it’s from. A link could be malicious and give a hacker access to your computer or your organization’s system.

Stay Protected: Don’t Get Caught

You can always start by briefing your workers on phishing emails and the dangers that they pose. An educated workforce will be more effective at dealing with phishing attacks and potentially save you money in damages.

The best method to ensure that you and your company are protected is to consider employing a managed IT services provider to handle the technical side of your business. This type of service will monitor and detect phishing scams and help you deal with them effectively.

Check out our SMB guide to MFA for more information. A managed IT service provider will also ensure that you are up to date with the latest software and defense mechanisms to deal with any potential attacks. ANAX is up-to-date with the latest phishing scams and knows how to keep your business protected. Get in touch with us today!

Ransomware vs Malware

by Dennis Szymczak | Oct 21, 2021 | IT Services, IT Solutions, IT Support

Each year, cyber security risks like ransomware, malware, and phishing scams cost businesses billions of dollars. That is why knowing about what you are dealing with and taking the extra protections for cyber security is crucial for every business. Using a trusted network management company will help keep your business safe, but there are steps that you can also take as a business owner.

To offer more protection to your business and keep away from harm in the digital space, you need to know about all the attacks that you could be facing. Keeping that in mind, today we have come to you with a simple guide on Ransomware vs Malware. We will discuss the key differences between them and how they can affect your business.

Malware

Malicious software or popularly known as malware is one kind of software program that is coded to damage your computer or cloud system. The main goal of this software is to infiltrate your system and download a program that will have unauthorized access to your overall system.

Depending on the type of attack and the malicious code, malware is usually divided into various categories. Below is the most common malware you should watch out for.

Spambots

Spambots are designed to take repetitive actions for an infinite amount of time before your system crashes. They are mainly used to perform DDoS attacks on websites or servers. With an overwhelming amount of traffic coming to your website, your system or server will soon be unable to handle it all and crash down.

Trojan horse

Trojan horses are files that act like legitimate software but are actually malware.

Spyware

Spyware is a common type of malware that will take in all of your information without your consent and send it back to the hacker.

Crypto-jacking

Crypto-jacking is a new form of malware that uses your hardware to mine crypto coins for third-party users.

Ransomware

Ransomware has similar functionalities as malware. That is why it is classified as a special category of malware.

The goal of ransomware is to encrypt your files and system and asking for payment in exchange for the decryption code. One of the most common ways of being affected by ransomware is through phishing links or websites.

These links or attachments download the ransomware onto your system and block you from any kind of access to the files. For a business, this can be very alarming. So make sure to always double-check before going to any websites or clicking on any links.

How ANAX Can Help

Both malware and ransomware can do massive damage to any business. Although common sense is the best practice for the defense, as a business owner you always should keep all of your data backed up and save it to another off-site storage. Want to keep your business best protected? Contact ANAX today.

Preventing Extensive Data Loss

by Dennis Szymczak | Oct 14, 2021 | IT Services, IT Solutions, IT Support

Accidents do not come knocking at the door. That is why you should always be prepared for the worst. As a business or a user in the digital space, nothing can be worse than extensive data loss.

In today’s world, data is one of the most crucial parts of any business. So, whether you lose your data due to self-mistake or cyber-attack, it can cause serious damage to your business. Keeping that in mind, we have come to you with a list of ways to go about preventing extensive data loss.

Keep Your Data Backed Up

We can not emphasize enough how important it is for you to keep your data backed up. With so many security threats in the world, you never know when or how you will face data loss. So keeping a scheduled back routine for all your data is crucial. We advise people to back up their data at least once a week.

Have Multiple Backups

One single backup is always not enough. What about that one rare occasion when one of your backups and your current system crashes at the same time.

The best rule of thumb is to have

3 backups of all the data that are vital for your business.
2 forms of backup, which means both physical and on the cloud.
1 single backup off-site, just in case your physical office sustains any form of damage.

Encryption

When it comes to preventing extensive data loss, encryption is the key. Make sure your backed-up data are fully encrypted so they are safe and completely secure from any form of cyber attack.

Utilizing Antivirus

This might sound simple, but many people all around the world do not invest in antivirus. The best way to keep yourself from harm’s way is to invest in internet security.

As businesses have to deal with emails every day, they are the biggest target of phishing and ransomware. A full-on antivirus system will prevent the malware in the emails to affect your company and provide extensive email security in return.

Invest in a DLP Solution

A DLP solution will address all the issues that revolve around data loss and do much more than traditional data protection for your business. DLP tools are designed to offer several layers of protection for your sensitive data and block unauthorized transfer of data.

Consequences of Not Taking These Precautions

If you do not take this prevention measure, you can suffer from extensive loss of customer data. Hackers can get hands-on the financial data, social security number, name, address, phone number of your loyal customers. You can also lose rights to your intellectual property which is arguably one of the biggest assets for any business. Take the measures stated above and enjoy a worry-free business experience for the years to come. Contact ANAX for assistance today.

When Disaster Strikes: How ANAX Can Help

by Dennis Szymczak | Sep 20, 2021 | IT Services, IT Solutions, IT Support

Do you know what to do when disaster strikes? Do you know how ANAX can help? Let’s say you have a big presentation at work. You get everything all set up and ready to go, aaand nothing happens. No presentation shows up on the screens and there’s no fix in sight. Time to call in the backup. Most network support is done virtually, as some tech companies only offer troubleshooting over the phone, or via an online chat session. On top of being frustrated with your presentation falling through, you now have to figure out how to explain your problem to someone who might not even reside in the same time zone as you.

Maybe you don’t know the terminology, or you don’t know quite how to put the issue you’re experiencing into words. Regardless, it can be excruciating trying to work through solutions with someone who isn’t even there. Often this kind of troubleshooting requires you to fix the problem yourself as well. At ANAX, we believe in providing hands-on support directly on site, and we believe in the many benefits that come along with it.

Saving You Time

Whether it is via chat session or phone call, virtual support can be time consuming. It can take a while to even establish what the issue is, since the technician is unable to see what is going on and get their hands on the source of the problem.

After initially figuring out what is causing your troubles, the technician then has to spend even more time working through a solution, all while explaining to you various things to look for or try. This step can take time as well, as you are most likely unfamiliar with your office equipment and network servers, etc.

There is always the possibility of the solution not working as well. If this is the case, then it has to be determined if it didn’t work because it wasn’t the right solution, or if there was a misstep along the way. After all, you are only receiving directions virtually and it is to be expected that you are not as familiar with the process as the tech is. If all else fails, then these virtual troubleshooters will send finally send out an on-site technician.

We like to avoid all of this going back and forth and potential problems that come with it. From the very beginning, we send out a hands-on tech to assess the problems you are having. The allows for less communication errors and also doesn’t require you to fix it yourself!

Saving You Stress

Since you no longer have to try to figure out the issue and fix it yourself with the “help” of a virtual troubleshooter, you end up having less on your plate. Go give that presentation a few more practice run throughs while we sort everything out. When everything is up and running again, you’ll definitely nail it this time around. Our goal is to make the process as stress free as possible for you.

Saving You Money

Since less time is required, chances are, it’ll cost you less too. On top of that, if you are in charge of fixing it yourself, and a mistake gets made, it may cost you even more to fix that additional issue. However, if you aren’t in charge of fixing it, and have experienced techs handling the problem from the beginning, you won’t have to pay to fix it again.

Overall, at ANAX we believe in helping your business run as smoothly as possible, and we provide the quality service to get you there. When problems arise, our experienced technicians are ready and willing to show up on site and get the job done. Want network and office equipment support that’s actually supportive? Contact us!

Managed IT Services & The Remote Work World

by Dennis Szymczak | Sep 5, 2021 | IT Services, IT Solutions, IT Support

By now, you’re probably familiar with what managed IT services are, but do you know the benefits they can provide to the remote work world? Whether you have a small business or a mid-size one, whether you are working in person or remotely, chances are that you should look into managed IT services. Let’s dive right in!

Managed IT Services Remote Benefits

Obviously, before you make a big decision that impacts the operation of your facility, especially when it is being operated remotely, you want to know what you stand to gain in the process. That’s why we figured we would go over the benefits that managed IT services offer your business.

Experienced IT Experts

One of the most important out of all the benefits that managed IT services offer your business is that you are dealing with the best of the best. MSP technicians have experience handling many different kinds of IT problems. They are fast and flexible and knowledgeable and dedicated to ensuring that all of your business tech issues are being addressed quickly, efficiently, and effectively.

These are not just techies with a weekend job at the local electronics store. The technicians that you will have access to through a managed IT services provider are professionals who are passionate about handling your IT and doing it well so you don’t have to.

Take Back Your Time

Another of the benefits that managed IT services offer your business is the ability to take back your time. With an MSP, you will never have to spend hours vetting possible IT technicians or companies every time a problem arises. You won’t have to troubleshoot issues yourself. You won’t have to re-explain the background information over and over, because you will be working with the same managed IT services provider.

All of this means that you will have more of your own time back. Whether this means that you can take a night off or you just have more time to oversee the office and handle the rest of the day-to-day operations, your time will be yours to do what you would like. When you have someone else managing your IT, you can free up a lot of calendar space previously dedicated to troubleshooting.

Financially Frugal

When you have a dedicated team handling your tech needs, one of the other benefits that managed IT services offer your business is the ability to save some money. With technicians who already know your business, are aware of what IT services you utilize, and are familiar with problems you have had in the past, you will not have to throw money out the window every time an issue comes up, trying to find another tech that you can explain everything to.

When you do not have a dedicated team handling your tech needs, you may end up having to hire technicians with who you do not have a history. This could lead to miscommunications, differences in pricing, and unfamiliarity with your business and the typical tech problems that happen there. In addition, there is no guarantee that you will get the same level of service every time.

No HR Headaches

Last but not least, another one of the other benefits that managed IT services offer your business is the freedom from HR headaches. There is no need to recruit, hire, train, manage, and fire when necessary. You simply deal with the MSP, and they handle the rest. You can sit back, relax, and know that you are getting the best of the best without having to hire them full-time.

Partnership

In addition to managed IT service technicians having the necessary experience, there is another level of care and familiarity that comes with always having the same crew handling your concerns. You will not get bounced around to different people in different departments, trying to explain what your problem is to people who obviously do not want to take care of it. When you partner with a company that provides managed IT services, there is more of a relationship that stems from the business arrangement. With managed IT services, you can have faith that when you need assistance, the technicians are already at least somewhat familiar with your company, they know the work that has been done already, and they are ready and willing to get you back in action as soon as possible, boosting your productivity.

Why ANAX for Managed IT Services in the Remote Work World?

As you can see, there are multiple benefits to having Managed IT Services. Managing and maintaining your IT network can be a complex and demanding process. Using ANAX as your IT manager will take the pressure away so you can focus your time and energy on your business and its growth. Learn more about why ANAX is the right choice here.

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