The “New Standard”, Continued

The ecosystem around email has changed significantly and dramatically in just the last couple of years. Huge new business risks have come to the forefront.

Today, there’s a “New Standard” for business emailÔÇöone that requires servers to protect your business against everything from phishing attacks to legal challenges to the risks of an unpredictable climate.  To mitigate these risks, your business must embrace these three key changes to your email infrastructure:

 1. It should be hosted by experts in the cloud.

For all the reasons listed above, more and more businesses are migrating their email from in-house email servers to the cloud. Your email needs to be managed by expertsÔÇöincluding engineering specialists who can manage the complexities of cross data-center replication and backup; infrastructure experts who can ensure virtually no downtime; and trusted advisors who can help assist with keeping day-to-day operations running smoothly.

2. It should be archived in a compliant, tamper-proof repository.

Compliant email archiving isn’t just for regulated businesses. When your email is properly archived, your data is stored securely with no ability to delete or modify the messages or attachments. Additionally, archived emails are indexed so they are easily retrievable and can be presented during eDiscovery, provided as part of an audit trail, or just restored to an active mailbox. With email archiving, your intellectual property is protected and, if necessary, stored in a form that a court of law will recognize.

3. It should be protected by advanced email security.

The built-in protections of the standard email server are no longer enough. You have to protect your users and your business with a number of advanced security technologies, including real-time link scanning (in case a user clicks on a malicious link in a phishing email), inbound and outbound message filtering, and much more.

Nominate Your Office Champion

The Thomas Office Solutions & LEAP Managed IT “Office Champion Award” is designed to recognize amazing individuals that make Indiana Organizations great. The award provides the opportunity for individuals to nominate co-workers that go above and beyond to help make their organizations a great place to work and stewards of the community.

Award winners are presented with a plaque signifying their contribution and a cash award.  The nomination window is now open.  Visit the About Tab to nominate your Office Champion!

 

Networking with Nick

As more companies continue to grow and require more data, resources and reliable hardware, the marketplace is following a familiar trend -the cloud.

So, what is the cloud? Currently this is the most used term in the technology world mainly because of what it does. There are many solutions that a cloud infrastructure can provide including hosted email, hosted hardware (servers, firewalls, etc.) or just a simple shared folder with files such as Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox.

In the cloud, implementation is rapidly transitioning toward virtual resources. Think about it this way, physical equipment is used to “host” the virtual resource. This allows for quicker access to data and the ability to share physical assets to create multiple virtual assets (computers, networking hardware).

The potential benefits of cloud services include convenience, speed and on the backend -redundancy (backup components in case of failure). For instance, accessing a file from a computer usually entails having that specific computer available; however, with a cloud resource, it can be accessed from different computers given there is a provided Internet connection.

Here are a few questions to help you get started when evaluating cloud services:

1. Where will my data and applications be stored and processed?

2. What security protocols are in place? (Ask for a white paper and data sheet.)

3. Who manages software and system updates? (Although your data is outside your physical location, you might be responsible for keeping the OS and applications updated.)