The end of XP Support and SP3 Office 2003 is April 8th, 2014. A few members of the NSI team recently attended a conference where a lot of discussion took place regarding XP and Windows 8 Pro. You do not have to be a techie to be aware that moving to Windows 8 has received a lot of heated publicity, both for and against the operating system.
Recently, I spent a full day in Washington, D.C. attending the sold out inaugural 2013 Datto Partner Conference. The vibe was similar to the first VMware Partner conference I attend years ago.
A keynote from CEO Austin McChord kicked off the event; he is completely unpolished, which is refreshing, as is the obvious fact that he is totally immersed in every detail of his business. He rattles off facts, figures, and details. Technical, business, and sales related data roll off his lips at a rapid-fire pace. What did I learn? Here are some of the key things I took away from his talk:
- Datto is exploding – 200+ employees; 112 of which were hired last year
- Datto has 8000+ partners – wow! Lots more Managed Service Providers (MSP) and IT Service Providers than I thought existed
- The company is totally focused on the channel, particularly the MSP market
- New MSP User Interface has been rolled out, making it easier for us to quickly setup and troubleshoot devices for our clients
- Direct-2-Tech was introduced, this means when you escalate an issue, we go directly to the tech that can solve the problem – this is a great things for NSI, and NSI clients.
- Tech support is 24/7/365, when clients need help, help is there.
- Brand new software allows us to show our clients the incremental changes that are happening
- HIPAA compliance - Datto is compliant and enables NSI to continue offering backup in regulated environments for clients needing this
The summary from Austin’s keynote for me was this – Datto gets it. They understand what we need to be the best possible ITsupport service provider to our clients. Additionally, they enable us to offer enterprise class services to the smallest of businesses; it is as simple as that. Why that’s a big deal:
According to the U.S. Census of 2010:
Are you reading this on your smartphone or tablet? One thing that I know for certain is that I view a majority of emails, blog posts, and reports on my smartphone. The amount that I do this surprises me, as I once believed the screen was too small and the notion of conducting business on, well, a display the equivalent of a business card seemed impossible. It's not. I do it every day, and I'm sure you do, too.
Did you know that by 2014 there will be more mobile web surfers than stationary ones? That means more prospects are accessing your business website more through their smart phones, tablets or other mobile devices than with a laptop or PC. If you thought you had time to make the switch closer to 2014, you may want to reconsider in light of new research. A recent study revealed that around 40% of prospects move on to a competitor if they have a poor mobile experience. How prepared is your business for this change? Well, if you are just starting out, the following checklist will help.
Here at NSI, we do a lot of IT consulting for network support and computer services, including vmware projects, storage, and data backup and recovery solutions for small business. Let's jump right into the five things you can do right away to improve your businesses IT environment - One: Backup Files Every Day - As catastrophic as data loss is, the number of businesses that still are not backing up their network is unbelievable. According to the Symantec Small to Medium Size Businesses (SMB) data, only 23% of SMBs are backing up their data on a daily basis and fewer than 50% are backing up data weekly. Any number of events can result in data loss, so the importance of frequently backing up your network cannot be overstated.
