Small Business IT Blog

How do your employees communicate and collaborate? Is the level of functionality in your office working so that everyone's best talents are put to use, especially yours? Although most small business owners are initially successful because (by being clever and intrepid) they can 'do everything', it also means that owners tend to take on all the responsibilities, working tirelessly to increase profits by whatever means necessary. This usually results in long days, as you struggle to pull yourself ahead while your true talents for networking, leadership and sales get pushed aside. Needless to say, this isn't the most efficient way to use your time.

An antivirus definition update may fail due to firewall issues, licensing, network connectivity or other reasons.  Following are steps to take to ensure that you have the most up to date protection for your business.

Business owners often ask how to protect against viruses, spam and malware in their operations given the constant onslaught of new threats.  Following are five steps to consider in your perimeter security strategy.

The latest anti virus release from your security software provider just came out and you are wondering whether you should update.  To make this decision, it is important to understand how anti virus software works.  Most anti virus software is continuously updating signature files to catch new viruses as they are identified and cured.  The second manner in which anti virus software keeps you safe is through behavioral analysis.  This uses what are called heuristics to assess when programs acting in a certain way appear suspicious.

Firewall issues are important to deal with right away because of the critical nature of this security device.  These devices determine what traffic is allowed in or out of a network and are primary in preventing unauthorized access.  One question we get is why support is no longer available for a particular model.  As with all things in technology, there is a finite life cycle for firewalls.  Typically security devices like firewalls are supported for many years and there is usually a very orderly process to ending support.

What is antivirus software for a small business in terms of the impact on end results - profits?  While we all know that the Internet is still the wild west in many ways as it relates to threats, how does antivirus software actually save money for an organization?

So you read "My ISP Gives Me An Antivirus Software Product. Why Do I Need Another?", selected the right anti virus solution and now you are wondering why didn't your anti virus software stop spam and infections?  Why did a particular computer in your office get infected?

Along the same lines as POP3 vs Exchange 2010 - How to Know Which to Choose?, an antivirus software product is often included as part of your Internet service.  Why then, should a small business consider purchasing additional antivirus products?

There are many things to consider when virtualizing - storage requirements, number of users and disaster recovery to name a few.  One thing that should be at the top of the list is security. Small businesses are embracing server, storage and other forms of virtualization as a means of reducing costs, improving efficiency and becoming more agile.  The last post provides a framework for quantifying these benefits.  What about the security of virtualization? Does introducing this new technology make small business IT infrastructure more vulnerable?

We have been discussing ways to optimize infrastructure to be more proactive and drive business benefits through technology.  It would be an oversite if security did not enter the conversation.  At the same time, small business owners are being bombarded with hype about cloud computing and it may seem that this is the panacea for everything from e-mail to virus protection software and combatting malware.