Case Study: Transforming IT Infrastructure with Managed Services
This case study format highlights the transformation and benefits experienced by the business when they shifted to a managed IT service approach with Eyes Everywhere IT Consulting.
Executive Summary:
A business (keeping their name hidden for their privacy) suffering from frequent IT disruptions turned to Eyes Everywhere IT Consulting for a proactive, managed IT service approach. The partnership led to improved system reliability, enhanced employee morale, predictable costs, and an overall better tech foundation for the company’s future.
Introduction:
Frequent IT issues can severely hamper a company’s performance and morale. This case study explores how one business, located just outside of Toronto, overcame its tech troubles by partnering with Eyes Everywhere IT Consulting.
Background:
The business had always shown profitability, and good potential growth for the future. However, the unpredictable IT infrastructure became their main challenge. The previous IT service provider, while initially showing promise and low costs, only provided temporary fixes that didn’t address deeper technical issues. This led to mounting costs and frequent system downtime and disruptions, often during crucial deadlines.
Challenge/Problem Statement: Why Eyes Everywhere IT Consulting Was Needed?
The recurring IT disruptions, along with escalating costs and decreasing employee morale, called for a swift and efficient IT overhaul.
IT Solution:
The company decided to partner with Eyes Everywhere IT Consulting. Unlike their previous IT provider, Eyes Everywhere introduced a managed services approach. This proactive method doesn’t just respond to issues but anticipates and addresses them before they escalate or even surface for the users.
Results/Outcomes:
Within the first month:
Streamlined network systems.
Implementation of security patches.
Replacement of outdated software and hardware.
Introduction of preventive measures.
Employees experienced fewer disruptions, and morale improved.
Three months in:
Finance department reported that while upfront costs were higher, monthly expenses stabilized.
The predictable fixed costs of the managed services model simplified budgeting.
Hidden costs associated with lost work hours and inefficiencies from the previous IT setup were eliminated.
Downtime decreased by over 90%.
Discussion/Lessons Learned:
The break-fix approach is not sustainable for businesses beyond a tiny operation. Proactive solutions, such as managed services, offer better value in the long term, preventing potential problems like outages and security breaches.
Conclusion:
By partnering with Eyes Everywhere IT Consulting, the business not only improved its IT infrastructure but also saved on hidden, unpredictable costs. The company’s story emphasizes the significance of transitioning from reactive quick fixes to proactive solutions for long-term success.
Recommendations/Future Implications:
For businesses facing similar challenges, it’s crucial to:
Evaluate the true costs of IT disruptions, including hidden expenses.
Consider the benefits of a managed services model for proactive IT management.
Prioritize long-term IT solutions over temporary fixes for sustainable growth and efficiency.
IT support refers to the practice of providing technical assistance and solutions to businesses for their technology-related issues. Experienced IT support technicians possess the knowledge and experience to troubleshoot technical problems, provide advice on the efficient use of resources and optimize IT systems. These services can be done on-site or remotely and include support for different kinds of computer, networking and servers, security support, anti-spam and antivirus, integration, configuration and enhancement, SAN and cloud storage, disaster recovery, and backups.
Who needs IT Support?
IT support services benefit businesses and companies facing frequent technology-related issues. Here are a few examples of who can benefit from IT support:
Small and medium businesses (SMBs): SMBs often lack the necessary in-house expertise to manage their IT infrastructure. Managed IT support services can help them with technical troubleshooting, proactive maintenance, and efficient resource allocation.
Enterprises: Large businesses and enterprises with complex IT infrastructures require dedicated IT support to ensure that their systems run without disruptions. IT support professionals provide advanced technical assistance, help administer complex IT issues and offer seamless assistance with equipment and software issues.
Individuals, including entrepreneurs or freelancers, often benefit from IT support services. Tech-related issues can be time-consuming and stressful for individuals who lack the knowledge to fix them. IT support professionals offer personalized assistance based on individual needs.
5 Benefits of Using IT Support Services
Increased Productivity: IT support can increase productivity by troubleshooting technical issues and offering solutions that help overcome obstacles. Their expertise enhances business operations and IT systems, keeping employees focused on their core competencies.
Reliability: IT support services help to ensure IT systems keep up with industry standards and maintain high levels of reliability. Regular maintenance, installation of security patches, and updates to software guarantee equipment consistently runs smoothly and without issue.
Quick Resolution: Time is of the essence with IT issues. IT support services offer quick resolution times when urgent technical assistance is required. Combining responsive services with proactive and preventative measures removes any potential downtime.
Cost Savings: IT support services can offer cost-saving opportunities by helping businesses minimize IT expenses. IT support assists businesses with identifying replacement opportunities, preventing unnecessary hardware/software, and improving overall efficiency to reduce IT costs.
Strategic Planning: IT support providers typically have expert-level knowledge and experience in technology advancements and market trends. Their valuable insight can help businesses plan IT spending and guide investment decisions to align with business goals and growth strategies.
IT support services offer many benefits to businesses that face frequent technology-related challenges. With the knowledge and experience of IT support providers, companies can increase productivity and reliability, receive quick technical assistance, lower IT expenditures, and achieve long-term growth goals.
If you have any questions about managed IT services in Toronto and the GTA and how we can support your business, feel free to reach out. We would love to help.
In this blog post we will cover Cyber security threat and how to deal with it.
In the time of 1950s, Cyber word used to refer to Cybernetics – The technology of understanding the control and movement of machines and animals. But today, the term is almost exclusively used to describe cyber security matters. Because it’s hard to visualize how digital signals traveling across a wire can represent a harmful digital attack, we’ve taken to visualizing the digital phenomenon as a physical one.
A cyber security threat is an attack that is mounted against us by means of cyberspace. Cyberspace, a virtual space in the digital device or system that doesn’t exist, has become the metaphor to help us understand digital weaponry that intends to harm us.
As noted the evolving threats to Canada’s cyber network, the government of Canada has outlined a robust plan to make top level security to address the risks to the Canadian government and its business owners from the cyber attacks, and cyber crime.
Most parts of Canada cyber security strategy are focused at protecting confidential information of government, business owners and critical infrastructure, but the plan does directly affect ordinary Canadians through a series of specific security measures designed to make Canadians more secure online. In particular, the government of Canada has concerned itself with what ordinary Canadians worry about most: the security of their sensitive personal and confidential business information.
The National Cyber Security strategy of Canada recognizes that each Canadian has a significant role to play in protecting themselves from becoming the victim of cyber threat.
As such, much of the government’s initiative is aimed at Canadian centers for cyber security to educate citizens on the most critical cyber security practices, frequently changing key passwords, including keeping antivirus protection up-to-date and only using secured wireless networks.
The government of Canada is also trying to increase general awareness of the types of cyber threats that common online crimes generally present.
Toronto Businesses at Risk from Cyber Security Threat
There are many risks from a cybersecurity threat. It is vital that information security is taken seriously within an organization’s information technology systems.
What are the risks of a cybersecurity threat?
Data Breach
Loss of Data
Internet of Things (IoT)
Malware
Social Engineering
Hacking
The following are some of the cyber threats or risks that you should watch out for.
Data Breach:
Cloud data storage is very popular and rapidly increasing in popularity. Many businesses follow traditional methods of data storage and are transferring their data to the cloud. This leaves you vulnerable while you are backing up your data. It is possible that some systems can have unauthorized access to your information. Your cryptographic keys can be vulnerable during this process. There are also some transfer protocols that transmit sensitive data in plain text which is a significant vulnerability and not always obvious it exists.
To mitigate the risks of a data breach, business owners need to be picky when it comes to choosing a cloud provider. Cloud security is an important part of protecting sensitive information such as intellectual property, credit card data and other important sensitive data that is at risk if a data breach were to occur.
Loss of Data:
Loss of data can be devastating to a business and it happens far too often. Sometimes important data may get lost due to many reasons. The reason behind loss of sensitive data may be through deletion, alteration and use of an unreliable, unsecure storage medium.
Loss of data or a data breach can ruin the reputation of a business, cause a loss of customers, and drain your finances.
Internet of Things Insecurities:
In this blog post we will cover
Internet of Things (IoT) technologies connects and networks devices across the world. They are perhaps the most vulnerable and prevalent type of cybersecurity threat in existence today. Many IoT devices are treated as “set and forget” when it comes to cybersecurity. They typically reside on a process network with default or admin-level credentials at the patching and firmware versions they were released with.
This is a very vulnerable state and they are significant targets, representing a large part of the attack surface a potential hacker may try and exploit. Given the nature of IoT devices, they are usually not considered as directly connected to the internet and usually don’t use protocols and interfaces people are familiar with and consider as the “internet”
Malware/Ransomware Attack:
A malware attack refers to the activity when cybercriminals create malicious software that’s installed on the owner’s device or system without their knowledge to gain access to personal information or to damage the system, usually for financial gain. There are many causes of malware attacks from cyber criminals.
Some common reasons are behind the malware attacks, the use of many free software programs, removable media, and not having an internet security software program in place. To prevent this, Software updates are important because they repair security holes that have been discovered on a regular basis, and fix or remove computer bugs.
Social Engineering or the Human Factor:
Whether with intent or without malice, people are the biggest threat to cybersecurity. Most of the businesses continue to face insider threats as a major form of cybersecurity breaches. The users in organizations are the weakest link.
This can be due to a lack of cybersecurity awareness — such as using easy-to-guess passwords or falling for phishing emails.
Social engineering is a very real problem. It is the practice of using human nature and tricking people either directly or to circumvent security systems.
The best solution for this problem is training staff on cybersecurity measures, monitoring their activities, and testing.
Hacking Toronto businesses:
Hacking is a general umbrella term. Most hacks are multifaceted and not as direct as people imagine. Sharing or leaking of seemingly benign information can lead to a privilege escalation that forms the basis for a broader more substantial hack. Many hacks are automated, at least on initial attack surface probing.
Conclusion: IT support services in Toronto are providing accurate and timely threat intelligence, thought leadership and education on cyber security. We hope this article helped you understand more about the Risk from Cyber Security Threat and solutions that are available.
Are you concerned that your business is not secure from the cyber attacks? Our expert at Eyes Everywhere, have experience in analyzing and implementing robust security plans, from prevention all the way to mitigation, to protect our client’s critical information. Contact us Eyes Everywhere today to secure your systems and reduce your risk from cyber security threat.
Security Alert: Critical Flaw in Internet Explorer Detected – Take Action Now!
A major security issue has been discovered in Internet Explorer, affecting pretty much all versions of it.
Microsoft is working on a fix. As soon as one is available, Eyes Everywhere I.T. consulting will deploy the patch out to our clients. We prioritize your security and will proactively handle the patch without any support calls required .No need to call in for support for this, we will do it for you.
It is strongly advised to limit Internet Explorer usage and switch to alternative browsers like Firefox or Chrome for enhanced security. Safeguard your online activities now!
Heartbleed Security Hole: Eyes Everywhere I.T. Consultants Takes Action for Toronto and GTA Clients and Beyond
The Heartbleed security hole that is affecting many websites is not as prevalent as originally thought (“only” 17% as opposed to over 60%), however, this is still a significant problem. Eyes Everywhere I.T. Consultants has patched any websites listed that affect our clients in the Toronto and GTA area, but the problem is global.
Time to Act: Change Passwords for Heartbleed-Affected Websites
Most big websites have patched their systems already, so now it’s time to change your passwords. Please have a look at the websites that Mashable has put together here. If you are in the affected list, and have received a patch, please change your password on that site. If not, wait. There are many more websites that are affected, and not all will probably inform their users, so please contact them to make sure. http://mashable.com/2014/04/09/heartbleed-bug-websites-affected/
Canada is 17th most computer virus-infected country, according to Kaspersky…Not good, people! Although not all viruses, adware, malware and other vulnerabilities can be stopped, proper maintenance and protective measures in place can drastically reduce such infections!
See nice representation of the world infections here: http://cybermap.kaspersky.com/
Email Safety Guide: Protect Yourself Everywhere, Not Just in Toronto/GTA!
A lot of times, we get questions regarding the safety on email. This guide is applicable to people everywhere, not just to our clients in the Toronto/GTA area!
Easiest answer: if it is too good to be true or looks suspicious, don’t open it. No prince in Africa has left you a huge inheritance, nor did you win some mysterious Microsoft lottery!
More detailed answer of things to watch out for:
1. Email saftey, tip no. 1 – Look for misrepresented URLs/links
With your mouse, hover over (but not click) the link that says, for example www.itsupport.com, and see whether, when the mouse is held over it, it still shows ‘www.itsupport.com’, or now actually displays ‘www.ifooledyou.com’ or something. If these links are different, be suspicious.
2. Look for malicious attachments
Did you get an email from Canada post or UPS saying you missed a package? Those are most-likely spam/virus delivery system. Not all the time, though. To check, do the test describe in #1. These emails also often contain attachments. They may contain an attachment that is called something like Delivery.PDF.exe (or Delivery.PDF .exe). The .exe is the thing that makes this not a PDF (Adobe file), but a malicious executable program. Another way to recognize that it is not a real Adobe file is that even though you see the aforementioned Delivery.PDF, the icon in front of it does not look like a typical PDF icon, with the red and white picture.
3. The URL to click, or source of email is misleading
Beware of email security: Watch out for deceptive emails like those from PayPal services .com instead of paypal.com. Emails resembling @paypal.com may employ techniques outlined in #1 and #2, with prompts to click suspicious links. Check the URLs carefully to detect misleading addresses, such as PayPal services .com instead of paypal.com. Similar variations may impersonate Facebook support and other popular websites.
4. If the email asks for personal information, never reply to it
If your personal information is needed or needs to be updated, just go to the website directly and do so. Do not fall for the trick described in #3 as per above, for example, and be directed to PayPal services .com or Facebook mail .com to fill out those emails. If you think that the email is legitimate, simply open the browser yourself, type in the address of PayPal (as an example) yourself, and log in manually. See if anything needs action. If not, it means that the email was bogus.
5. If the email threatens to close your account…
have your taxes audited, or the police needing your information by email or some other such odd threat/request, if you don’t respond to the email with various information, this is the same as #4, use the same precautions, as this is most-likely bogus.
Summary
This a general guide that allows the basic user to decrease their chances of being harmed by malicious/phishing emails.
Email systems can be compromised, so even someone you know well may have their computer infected (often without their knowledge), and have their email automatically send you an email, which contains a virus (that will attempt to infect your system as well).
Someone who got hold of that person you know may also pretend as if he’s the sender, with the same story.
Nothing basically replaces good I.T. support for email safety, a proper antivirus (that also protects your emails), as well as several other solutions that your tech support person can provide, which would harden and drastically-reduce your chances of being infected and having your data compromised.
Microsoft Allows Sales of Windows 7 Computers: User Preference and Stability Considered
Microsoft has announced that it will allow continued sales for computers with Windows 7 installs. This is not to say that Windows 8 is a bad operating system, as it is quite good, fast and stable, but most of our users (at least from what Eyes Everywhere I.T. Consulting has seen in the Toronto area) prefer the look and feel of Windows 7.
