Did you know 83% of businesses expect their IT spending to grow or remain steady in 2019? Responses from 625 IT decision makers across the United States and Canada reflect confidence in 2019 with strong IT budgets, trends, and a focus on future technology.

Skills, support, and budgets are key to success when it comes to your technology. In this report, we analyze 2019 business IT trends by exploring:

• Challenges and Contributors to IT Projects
• IT Budgets by Industry and Company Size
• Overarching Trends

Download the full report to discover how successful organizations are investing in and transforming their IT throughout 2019.

This report is in partnership with Dell. 

Cybercrime is a real threat to all businesses, SMB's included. Statistics are only showing an increase in cyberattack methods, and successful attacks result in a significant loss of productivity and data. We want to show you why we stand by Cylance for Five Nines and our partners.

THE BASICS

Before diving into what Cylance is, it's important to understand what the software is protecting you from.

Malware: software that is intended to damage or disable computers and computer systems.

Ransomware: a type of malicious software designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid.

Since 2013, there has been a significant increase in malware and ransomware. In fact, since 2014 there have been over 120 million new malicious programs per year, and ransomware attacks have increased over 97% in the last two years. According to Symantec, 1 in 13 web requests lead to malware, up 3% from 2016. These statistics show that cybersecurity threats are at an all time high, which is why having the right tools in place to keep your organization protected is so important.

Want to jump straight to our free in-depth webinar about all things Cylance? Click here. 

WHAT IS CYLANCE

Cylance is a tool that prevents cyberattacks with artificial intelligence (AI). Artificial intelligence is the development of computer systems where systems are able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence. Cylance is able to do this through machine learning, an application of AI that provides systems the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed.

Cylance began in 2012, and has over 6,000 global customers, as well as over 10 million endpoints, and those numbers are growing each day. Cylance developed predictive endpoint threat prevention, which allows the software to predict, and then block cyber attacks on the endpoint in real time using pre-execution AI algorithms. They have an extremely high success rate at 99%+. Cylance also doesn't need a cloud connection to stop malware, as it can still do its' job without an internet connection, making it a one-of-a-kind product in the industry.

WHY COMPANIES CHOOSE CYLANCE

There are several reasons why Five Nines and other companies choose to utilize Cylance.

Effectiveness. Cylance is an extremely effective program with 99.7% effectiveness against all known malware.

Simplicity. Cylance is also very simple to manage, companies don't have to spend a lot of time managing it once it is set up within their environment, yet it increases ROI up to 250%.

Performance. Cylance only has a 1-2% impact to CPU, therefore user systems run faster, hardware lifespans are extended, and network bandwidth is reduced.

Cybercrime is a real threat, but protecting your business doesn't have to be guesswork. If Cylance is something that interests you, and you would like to see it in action while learning about how to apply it to your own business, our Power Hour might be a great resource for you. While the information above is a great overview, it may be more impactful to see exactly how Cylance works. 

Click below to access our free webinar, Cylance - Proactive Protection For Your Business, and tune in as one of our engineers provides in-depth information on Cylance while taking you through a series of demonstrations where you can see the software in action.

Unified Communications is an important business component meant to optimize processes and increase user productivity.  It is something that relies on successful technology in order to be utilized to the fullest. As technology has evolved, so has the efficiency of Unified Communications, which is why Five Nines has made it a part of who we are and what we do.

You may be wondering, what exactly is Unified Communications? What is UCaaS vs. Unified Communications? How does it increase productivity? Is it something we already have or is it something we need? Keep reading, and we will answer these initial questions for you. 

WHAT IS UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS?

Unified Communications is best defined by Gartner as the products (equipment, software and services) that facilitate the interactive use of multiple enterprise communication methods. In simpler terms, Unified Communications is used when technology is helping automate and unify user and device communications to streamline processes and improve the end-user experience. It's meant to make life easier.

The term Unified Communications goes beyond the definition above, as these solutions can be delivered in two different methods which we will break down for you below.

Not sure what this looks like for your organization? Click below to schedule a FREE technical walk through to better understand your IT environment, no strings attached! 

UC VS. UCaaS

Simply stating the term Unified Communications (UC) represents on-site solutions requiring hardware and onboarding. Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), however, represents cloud delivered solutions. UCaaS has been growing in popularity in recent years, and while both are consistently used, there is a difference between both solutions.

For organizations who already have an established IT environment, it is sometimes preferable to integrate a UC solution into that environment, as they already have the pieces in place needed for a successful transition. UCaaS makes things simple which other businesses also prefer, as it is a solution where users simply have to download and log in. Brands such as Office 365 and Skype utilize UCaaS platforms. According to Grand View Research, the global UC market will exceed $75 billion by 2020. Some organizations will leverage both options, there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to Unified Communications.

HOW CAN THESE INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY?

According to a Gartner report, businesses realize just 43% of technology's potential benefits. One benefit they may be missing is the increase in productivity UC and UCaaS provides. Here are some ways Unified Communications in all forms helps to increase productivity in the workplace:

• Effective Communication: UC helps with the ability to communicate frequently, being aware of when colleagues are free or busy, and helps alleviate the stress of playing phone tag.

• Flexibility: UC allows for flexibility. Have remote employees? Giving them the ability to answer incoming communication from a variety of devices will help to increase productivity.

• High Levels of Collaboration: Interaction over multiple platforms is easy to do with UC, and helps promote collaboration across multiple teams in multiple locations through features such as visual collaboration and instant messaging.

Unified Communications and/or UCaaS are both technological assets that should be used within your IT environment. The more consistent, collaborative communication is supported, the more your organization will be able to get done in less time. Increase the level of communication and productivity for your business at the same time by utilizing a Unified Communications solution.

Building an efficient IT solution can make the difference between your workplace technology becoming an asset or a liability. In this webinar, we will discuss how you can make your IT an asset by going over the right tools, processes, and people that will keep your technology running smoothly.

Solve. Secure. Advance. You have seen these 3 words beneath our logo since our re-branding back in 2015, however, we haven't taken a deep dive in to what they really mean on our blog. This phrase is incorporated in everything we do, it drives the way we conduct our business and our Five Nines support. We think it's time you have the opportunity to learn what this phrase, that is so important to us, really means.

For all of the visual folks out there, solve. secure. advance. represents each arrow of our logo, starting from the bottom, advancing to the top. Each piece builds upon the other, and we would not have our complete logo, (or well-rounded service) if one piece was missing.

Solve. Facing a challenge head-on is what solve is all about. In order for you to leverage your business technology to the fullest, you must first address the IT service basics. Embracing "solve" is about your initial IT set up: workstations, printers, servers, infrastructures, backups, antivirus, the list goes on. Five Nines utilizes "solve" to address the basics, because with the right foundation your business technology will be able to expand and become more innovative.

Secure. A solution becomes valuable when implemented correctly. The Five Nines team embraces "secure" by making IT business planning a priority. This includes focusing on security and compliance, conducting internal IT audits, becoming proactive with incident response and disaster recovery planning, providing business continuity planning, as well as implementing user awareness training to decrease security risks. We want your business to feel secure with every proactive step taken.

Advance. Technology is an ever-changing piece of your business, which is why advancement is all about looking forward to position your organization as a leader in the marketplace. "Advance" relates to IT strategy, whether that is 1/5/10 year budget planning, strategic planning, or implementing processes to increase productivity and efficiency over time. While strategy is not everyone's cup of tea, it's a necessary part of building and maintaining an IT environment, and that is what we are here for.

Solve. Secure. Advance. You cannot have one without the others. Putting your business technology in a position to succeed requires stepping back, starting from the basics, and taking a look at the bigger picture. We are here to help you put that full picture together to not only keep things up and running, but to keep your organization efficient and productive as well.

Did you like learning a little more about Five Nines? Another great way to get to know us is through our Five Nines Fundamentals. To watch a video on our first 7 fundamentals from a Five Niner's perspective, click below. 

In all aspects of business, there is typically some form of documentation. You could be tracking certain numbers for goal completion, documenting budgets, or analyzing metrics for performance purposes. Just like anything else in your business, documentation of your IT environment is a necessary step to keeping your business technology current and up-to-date.

Documentation helps to identify trends, and having the visibility into the trends of your technology will put your organization's IT at a competitive advantage. Here is what your IT team should be keeping a record of when tracking the happenings of your IT environment.

ALL SUPPORT ISSUES

It's important to have a record of all day-to-day issues your employee's are experiencing with their technology. It's extremely helpful to look at the most common tickets that are inputted when determining future IT strategies. Documentation helps provide a visual into whether one consistent issue is happening across multiple users, or if the same issue is happening to the same user more than once.

Having this cohesive record of support issues will also help your IT team determine how they can best accommodate your users. For example, if a user's computer is slow for a consistent amount of time, it may be time for an upgrade. Another way documentation can assist your IT team is when repetitive issues arise. If there is previous documentation of the same issue, an IT professional will have more insight into solving the same problem quickly, and may be able to determine a more permanent solution as well.

Not sure what this looks like for your organization? Click below to schedule a FREE technical walk through to better understand your IT environment, no strings attached! 

INVENTORY

Product Orders. Ordering new products for your IT environment is a very common occurrence, especially if you have multiple users or if you are consistently bringing in new talent. Keeping an up-to-date list of what products your IT team is ordering will help you make more informed decisions when having to sign off on ordering new products. Understanding what you already have, as well as what you plan to order in the near future, will keep your budget on track and your stress level low.

Your Entire Environment. Documenting your entire IT environment will help to paint a comprehensive picture of how all of your technology works together to support your business. Your IT team will have a list they can pull from when making decisions on whether to upgrade your technology, how to improve your infrastructure, and how to piece everything together within your network. You will also be able to understand what you already have, to narrow down what you may need in the future. Not only will this give you peace of mind, it could save your IT team a lot of time when asking questions regarding your IT environment.

As your organization works to improve and streamline technical processes and procedures, be sure your IT team goes the extra mile in terms of documentation practices. The more you have documented, the more visibility you will have into your business technology. That alone is worth the extra time. 

Having an understanding of the basic functions of your network will be helpful when determining IT documentation practices. Click below to download the Five Nines Power Hour: Building An Optimal Network, a webinar that will teach you all about network basics, network design (the good and the bad), as well as troubleshooting and monitoring.

"When was the last time you restarted your computer?" Does that question sound familiar? Whenever a user is facing a tech issue, typically one of the first troubleshooting steps is to try rebooting their device.

Why is restarting your device sometimes the quick fix you need to get back on track? Why is it the first step engineers will turn to when you tell them your tech issue?

REBOOT/RESTART VS. RESET

Before attempting to reboot, restart, or reset your device, it's important to know the difference between them as one is more permanent than the others. Rebooting and restarting your device are inherently the same thing, you are turning the device off and back on again in order to start with a clean slate so your programs can run normally. Sometimes, rebooting/restarting may be referred to as a "soft reset", which means the exact same thing. Your programs and settings will remain the same when you reboot or restart.

Don't let the term "soft reset" get confused with completely resetting your device, or conducting a "hard reset". Resetting is equivalent to erasing, as you are returning a device, program, or software back to its' factory default state. Resetting your device will erase all of your settings and programs, so you will want to be 100% sure before you press the reset button.

THE WHY

Today we will be focusing on rebooting/restarting as it is more common when troubleshooting. Restarting a device gives the user a clean slate the work with, as any background processes or troublesome code gets wiped clean. These background issues are fairly common in devices, and can arise in several ways. Restarting your device could resolve background processes causing a decrease in speed that are still running, shut down browsers that are using up too much memory, as well as reconnect to Wi-Fi networks that are being interfered with. Occasionally, your hardware or drivers may malfunction, or your computer's RAM is utilized to its' limitations. Rebooting your device could help resolve many of those issues.

You may be wondering, how you will know if one of the issues above applies to your device? You may not be able to diagnose exactly what is wrong with your technology, but it should be fairly obvious to you if something is wrong, as you will begin to experience performance issues.

THE WHEN

It is best to restart your devices at least once per week. Set a calendar invite to restart your computer consistently. For example, you could dedicate your first 5 minutes every Friday morning to rebooting. Aside from weekly reboots, if you are experiencing performance issues the best first step to begin finding a resolution is to restart your device. These performance issues could range from your device freezing, crashing, or overheating. Restarting could solve the issue right off the bat and save you time, however, if the issue keeps happening you will want to reach out to your IT team.

While it may be a hassle to close out all programs that you are working on, restarting your technology is a key troubleshooting step for simple tech issues users experience daily. The next time your device isn't cooperating, we hope rebooting is a helpful step in the troubleshooting process.

Having an understanding of the basic functions of your network will be helpful when reporting a future tech issue. Click below to download the Five Nines Power Hour: Building An Optimal Network, a free webinar that will teach you all about network basics, network design (the good and the bad), as well as troubleshooting and monitoring.

Have you ever run into technological terms where you don't fully understand their meaning? Have you felt this way when hearing your technology is approaching "end-of-life" or that a product has an upcoming "end-of-support date"?

We'd like to give you a little insight as to what end-of-support dates are, what end-of-life means, as well as what your action items should be when your IT team tells you that one of these is approaching. This way, you will know what your engineer is talking about, and you will have peace of mind when navigating upcoming changes.

End-Of-Support dates

So, what does end-of-support actually mean? It's just how it sounds. This is put into place when a company decides to stop providing support on a specific product or service. Oftentimes this occurs when newer software or hardware is released, and support for the older version is no longer provided.

Think about it this way, whenever your technology breaks, freezes, or simply isn't working correctly, you pick up the phone and call a support line. Imagine not being able to call a support line for one of your products. If something breaks and you're in that position, it becomes a larger problem as it may not have an easy fix. This is why updating your software and hardware, and paying attention to end-of-support dates is so important.

End-Of-Life dates

End-of-life dates are slightly different, as this is the date when the product goes end-of-sale. Utilizing end-of-life hardware can be especially risky, as businesses could experience compromised data security, decreased productivity, higher maintenance costs, problems with scalability, as well as non-compliance.

According to the State of IT Study conducted by Spiceworks, end-of-life is the top driver of new technological purchases as it was reported 57% of purchases were motivated by end-of-life. In fact, 62% of small businesses are driven to purchase new technology due to end-of-life dates that are fast approaching.

Business Reviews/Budgeting

So, what should you do when you hear end-of-support or end-of-life dates that apply to your business are approaching? It's important to set a meeting with your main IT contacts to cover all of your bases. Take time to discuss all of your current products, what you should keep, what isn't necessary, and which of your hardware or software is approaching an end-of-support or end-of-life date. Even if the date is a year away, they tend to sneak up on you, so it's always good to start the discussion in order to be prepared ahead of time.

From there, you will have a clear picture that will help you to budget and prioritize for the upcoming year. You will have the opportunity to really plan ahead and allocate your IT budget dollars in the right places.

For free presentation slides from the 2018 NE Tech Summit titled, "End-of-Life: The Technology Graveyard", click below. This presentation will provide you with tools to create an end-of-life management plan, and will outline upcoming and recent end-of-life dates you should be aware of.