If your company’s sensitive data was to be put up for sale, how much do you think it would go for? Chances are, you may be guessing a little high, which makes things worse for businesses in such a situation. Assuming that your data will be sold for a premium price will likely lead you to believe that fewer criminals will access it than actually will.

A responsible business owner looks at the repercussions of their actions, however, it’s not always easy to determine what the right action is. Something to keep in mind is that, if it benefits the long-term mission of your organization, chances are that it’s the right thing to do--especially with technology solutions.

Did you know that, according to Gartner, a whole 80 percent of all employees bring their personal mobile devices to the office? It’s a rather troubling development for business owners who want to secure their data and keep their employees productive. However, this Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend has proved extremely beneficial for prepared organizations. This must prompt the question of how your business manages mobile devices in the workplace.

If we asked you how you back up your data, would you be able to respond with enough knowledge to seriously talk about the topic? Many small organizations are under the impression that data backup is only necessary if your business suffers from a data breach or data loss incident. However, the truth is that if you want to ensure the future of your business, data backup is absolutely crucial.

Technology is necessary for so many businesses, but some don’t know how best to approach managing it. This is particularly difficult for businesses that have limited budgets and workforces, which leads organizations to simply go without the support in favor of saving some cash. Of course, when something goes wrong, it’s more noticeable and could cause major troubles in the future. This break-fix IT is far from the best way to approach IT maintenance, but how can you make sure your budget doesn’t suffer from it?

How confident are you that your employees act in the best interest of your company’s security with every decision they make? While it’s certainly the case that you, as the business owner, think along these lines, it’s also true that the average worker isn’t nearly as motivated about network security as you are. The challenge, then, for business owners is to get everyone in your organization on the same page when it comes to security best practices.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “Too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing?” Well, there’s a hint of truth to this, especially in the business world. Just because your cloud solution allows your business to store a huge amount of data in the cloud, doesn’t mean that you are getting the best return-on-investment. In fact, you might just be unknowingly wasting resources that would be better used elsewhere.

The future of any organization is only as good as its business continuity plan. This is a well thought out plan that instructs a company of what to do in the face of a disaster, so they can return to normal operations as quickly as possible. One key part of every business continuity plan that should never be overlooked: the backing up and recovery of your data.

If your business hasn’t dealt with a phishing attack before, you need to understand what kind of threat they present. To steal credentials, personally identifiable information, or other data, hackers will target people by creating messages that entice users to interact with them. This then leads to malware or spyware being deployed on the computing system. Once hackers are in, they can look around and take whatever they are looking for.

Thankfully, natural disasters like floods and tornadoes are rare. However, there are plenty of other threats that are much more prominent, and they can strike at any time. This makes it dangerous to be complacent about your company’s business continuity plan, especially since you have no way of predicting these events ahead of time. This forces you to have the mindset of “If not now, when?”

Businesses don’t typically pay enough attention to the possibility of a cyber attack--a scary thought if you’re unprepared. Instead of just hoping that hackers will overlook your company, you need to equip your network with enterprise-level security tools while taking proactive measures that keep threats out of your infrastructure.

If we asked you to think of a business technology that doesn’t take advantage of the cloud in some capacity, would you be able to come up with one? Cloud computing has become a part of almost every business endeavor, and for good reason. SMBs can leverage the cloud for any number of services or solutions, including email, data storage, server virtualization, and so much more.

Every piece of technology comes with this risk. Although, some businesses are better at mitigating this risk than others, and it’s usually based on how they approach their organization's IT maintenance.

Small and medium-sized business owners are finding that it’s getting more difficult to compete without the means to deploy the newest technologies. Larger organizations are finding greater market shares, but smaller businesses have some advantages, namely in terms of maneuverability. With the help of some external resources, SMBs can be operate as effectively as larger organizations.

What would you do if you got a surprise bill for tech support? Would you go around the office asking where it came from, or would you worry more about trying to figure out how you’re going to pay for it? Clearly someone in your office doesn’t know the proper way of asking for IT support if you are receiving mystery invoices. Regardless, it’s important that you understand that this is the norm for an organization working with a break-fix IT provider.

How much has your business invested in its communications technologies? If your business is like many others, it relies heavily on the functionality of its organization’s communications platforms. You might have a VoIP system filled with features, but are you taking full advantage of them? Here are three ways you can get the most out of your VoIP solution.

The cloud is a great way to make services and solutions available to your employees anytime, anywhere. There are now plenty of ways to leverage out the cloud for the benefit of your business. Here are four such ways:

How does your business handle threats to its data security? You might think you’re safe, but according to the Ponemon Institute, nearly four out of every five organizations aren’t prepared to fend off threats to their security. This is a major problem, so it should make you question whether you’re prepared to handle the various security risks that could potentially plague your business.

Your computer always starts acting up when you need it most; otherwise, you might not notice the minor technical hiccups that happen. To try and fix it, you tap the tower, but the problem only worsens. Now you’re seeing a blue screen, which is definitely not a good sign. If you’re unlucky, you may have lost data, and you might need to start the project over again.

Firewalls are one of those things that businesses need, but may not have. They are integral parts of network security for organizations of all shapes and sizes, as well as the average PC user. We’ll discuss what a firewall does for your organization, and why it’s important that you implement one as soon as possible.