Did you know that in a study of 200,000 ostriches over a period of 80 years, no one reported a single case where an ostrich buried its head in the sand? Yet we use that expression to describe people who want to ignore the future. In technology the future is in cloud. Most of the major growth that is occurring in technology (above industry trends) is in the various cloud services out there. We talked about that last newsletter and it has sparked numerous interesting discussions with a number of our clients.

As always I am available to respond to your requests, queries and provide you with information.

I don’t charge by the phone call – and as I often say “it’s cheaper to ask me then it is for me to fix something after its done wrong”.

Cloud Management Tips – Where is my data? Is it safe?

We are going to keep writing tips on cloud management as there is just so much misunderstanding out there as to what the cloud is and how to leverage it in your business safely and effectively.

One of the biggest fears our customers have is storing their data off their PC. There are various questions around who has access to it, if it’s safe, and so on.

Let’s bust a myth but also add some words of caution.

Is it safe? The easy answer is not only a resounding yes – but also its much safer. Your PC has a single point of failure – the hard disk. And they fail all the time – in fact more than any other PC component. We deal with them all the time – I have two clients pcs here right now with failed drives from the last week. So storing your data on your hard drive is not safe. Even having a local backup may not ensure your data is safe if that gets destroyed, e.g. in a fire or theft.

The cloud is designed to be always accessible, always backing up and constantly redundant.

Different organisations do different things but the big ones (Microsoft, Google Amazon etc.) all have geographic redundant storage duplication ensuring your data is spread all over the world for safety sake.

Security. Now don’t be alarmed by that last statement. The word document you just made with all your user names and passwords in it cannot be seen by technicians in data centres all over the world. Microsoft Office 365 data duplication is done at a very basic level – way below encryption. No one could steal drives from a data centre and recover your data. It’s just not physically possible. Physical access to centres is tightly controlled and access is never given to physical entry as well as user information. In fact user access is only ever granted to an engineer with your specific permission. Any other technician can only ever see data as encrypted information for which they have no access.

If you want to read more about Microsoft’s security then check this website. Other storage providers have similar security in place. Check their sites if you want to know more.

http://products.office.com/en/business/office-365-trust-center-cloud-computing-security

We can sit down with you and talk about your current business technology usage and what cloud services you could be using that could benefit you in one or more of these areas – cost reduction, efficiency, data security and access, and business continuity. Call me to discuss today on 0414 770 002.

PC Patches – managing your computers’ security.

Many of our customers wonder why they constantly have to patch their Windows PCs. Often they think that Apple Macs don’t have patches. They find it frustrating and confusing.

Hopefully I can explain some points here.

Microsoft has committed to delivering an operating system in Windows 8.1 that is extremely flexible, and has world class security levels (e.g. hackers find getting access to these systems very difficult compared to previous OS (Windows XP for instance). However with millions of lines of code there are always going to be flaws. Code is written by programmers with not enough sleep and too much caffeine after all. Someone once said a programmer is just a tool that converts caffeine into code! As hackers look for flaws and ways to exploit them so Microsoft is constantly releasing patches to resolve those flaws. However that’s not all. They also release patches to provide updated driver lists to pcs for ease of adding new hardware, provide upgraded options, speed and performance updates and new features.

For individual users running patches once a month (Microsoft have what is called Patch Tuesday when the bulk of patches are released) it isn’t too onerous. By the way Apple also releases patches for Macs and their other products. See this website https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT1222

However for business users with more than one pc on premise – and particularly those with upward of 5 – who haven’t implemented a pc management strategy will definitely notice their internet slow to a crawl as 5+ machines simultaneously attempt to download and update.

Businesses with multiple computers should either be using WSUS – a patching tool that resides on a local server and downloads the patches once and then distributes them to the pcs on the network, or a cloud delivery service called Intune that is the new way of doing this. Both options also have many other features and benefits that business users can take advantage of to improve their users’ productivity.

Special Deal – mention this newsletter and get a 1 hour PC Management consultation free. We will help you identify exactly what you need and what benefits you can achieve with either an on premises server or Intune Subscription.

Using SUM in Excel

Have you ever used Excel? It is the most used business intelligence tool in the world. It is an extremely powerful spreadsheet tool but often people use it as little more than a glorified back of the envelope scratchpad.

We have hundreds of articles on www.spyjournal.biz relating to using Excel in many scenarios.

Today I want to show case just how to use the Sum function and the Sigma short cut in the ribbon.

The article was written for Office 2010 but is still current to 2013. http://spyjournal.biz/excel/SUM

If you want to know more about improving your spreadsheet design for more efficient use and ensuring your results are accurate then give us a call.

Social Media Tip – image sizes and advertising for Facebook

Facebook is the world’s largest advertising platform. If your business is not active and advertising on Facebook then you are definitely falling behind your competitors – they are!

However there are some tips and tricks to advertising effectively in Facebook. As a Facebook Agency account we have access to be able to help you manage your advertising, and if you have a budget of over $1500 per month then we can get you access to a Facebook account representative to assist you to maximise your results.

For the rest of you – there are some tips and tricks.

Links

https://www.facebook.com/ads/tools/text_overlay

https://www.facebook.com/business/ads-guide

If you need us to manage this for you just give us a call. We would be happy to assist you with your advertising, graphic design and photography needs and questions.

Web Design – are your contact details easy to find on your website?

One of the most frustrating things about websites is not being able to contact the company. Having an easy to find phone number, email address doesn’t seem too hard. But many business websites do not display them at all or hide them away in multiple menu layers.

If your website doesn’t have an easy way to contact you – then we can guarantee you are sending your potential customers away. And your opposition with a clear phone number and a fast response time on emails sent is happy to have them! See out site for an example of an easy to find phone number, email and multiple ways to contact us. www.jethroconsultants.com

Contact us today if you need help fixing your site, or for a whole new refresh! Mention this newsletter and we will provide a free site review – normally worth $199.

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As always we are your web, cloud and technology specialists. I am constantly learning new things and spending time researching, playing and testing new systems and reading about other people in the IT world doing the same thing. If you want to follow along with what I share in various spaces then connect with me on these platforms:

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