Defining IT: A CFO’s Glossary

In the many years we’ve been managing IT for small and medium sized businesses, we’ve learned that in most cases the CFO makes decisions, with the help of their IT guy – who translates the “geek speak” into English. So we thought it would be helpful if you had a quick cheat sheet to decipher the lingo:

• Windows Domain – The name of your Windows network. It serves to identify what machines are "on your network" and resources that can be accessed.
• Virtual Machines – or “VM’s” allow you to segment a parent, or host server into multiple, smaller servers, to serve different purposes. The VMs subdivide the CPU, RAM and hard disk space of the much larger host server and can appear and function in your network as if they were plugged in. This allows you to fully utilize the computing power of the hardware you've purchased.
• Switch – This is a network device that enables intercommunication between devices on your network.
• Cloud – There are mixed uses for this term, but the most generic relates to any computing services that you utilize outside of your environment. Cloud computing refers to the consolidation of many devices, and their combined resources - disk space, processing cycles, and RAM, are offered as virtual machines or blocks, to businessess as as a highly flexible service. 
• SQL Server – Pronounced “sequel”, it is Microsoft's database software. For environments with a business system or high reporting requirements, this application typically resides on its own dedicated machine.
• SharePoint – It is Microsoft's de facto collaboration software for sharing files, internal discussion boards, announcements, and more. Many businesses use SharePoint for their intranets. The foundation, or basic installation, is included with SQL Server licenses.
• Exchange and Exchange Server – A Microsoft software product that handles email and typically requires its own hardware for optimum performance. In a nutshell, it’s your business’ post office.
• Co-location – “Co-lo” – Instead of having your own servers locally in your office data center, you can lease space from co-location facilities to house and cool your server. Your devices are locked within their own racks so that other tenants cannot access your hardware.
• Virtual Private Network – “VPN” allows a remote machine to securely access local files and resources in the datacenter as if they were directly connected to the office network.
• IP Address – Internet Protocol is a set of numbers that identify a device within a network. This address is usually masked from the outside world and all traffic from a business will appear to others as coming from a single address. IP addresses can also be used to reference a web site without a friendly domain name.
• File Transfer Protocol – “FTP” typically refers to the application that is used to upload/download files to and from an external file server, but essentially it is the protocol or methodology for transfering data from device to device across the internet. Other protocols include HTTP, for web page data, and SMTP for email. Some examples of commonly used FTP applications are Filezilla, Cyberduck and WSFTP.
• Active Directory – For organizations operating under a Windows domain, the Active Directory Server or “AD” is used to handle all of the accounts, policies, and types of devices that can connect to your network.
• Firewall – A network device that filters traffic to and from the web. It’s primarily used to secure your network from intrusions and prevent staff from accessing dangerous or inappropriate websites.

Let us know if there are other definitions we can share on this post.

Ten IT issues businesses will face this year

At Channel Dynamix, we believe that to completely manage our customer’s IT infrastructure, it starts with sharing knowledge that empowers the community around them.  When businesses interact with one another using safe computing practices, and understand that they’re a part of interconnected system – we all strengthen our security and reap the benefits.  We all know how easy it easy for an email virus to travel from business to business.  So, help us out and review the list of IT issues below that many businesses deal with and see if there things that you might consider improving:

1. Spyware infections – can cost a business up to $8,000 per year* for removal and downtime.  Spyware, as their name indicates, is made to avoid detection by most anti-virus tools and often slip past firewall security via emails and web page links. They work silently in the background transmitting data back to their originator, and typically don’t make their presence known until unusual patterns in bandwidth and network performance are detected through monitoring.
   
   
2. Network downtime – Connectivity is mission critical to a business.  Being disconnected can bring an organization to its knees.  With everything from phones to your entire cloud infrastructure relying on internet connectivity, businesses can lose nearly 1%* of their annual revenue due to unplanned downtime.  The number is even greater with smaller companies.  It could be as simple as your provider going down, or a misconfigured firewall.  Losing connectivity translates to an immediate loss of productivity.
   
   
3. Sub-optimal systems and hardware – Anything operating in your data center that is out-of-warranty, or has officially been deemed “end-of-life”  by the vendor needs to be on the high priority list for virtualization or upgrade.  Older devices may fail unexpectedly or even worse die after a scheduled or unscheduled reboot.
   
   
4. Lack of 24/7 monitoring, alerting & reporting – Need to know why your Internet connection always slows down to a crawl at 2:38PM?  Monitoring enables you to detect threats like spyware, pending hardware failures, and unapproved activities.  Alerts help you stay a step ahead of failures, and get you out of the break-fix mentality.  Most businesses handle IT like the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand.  Ignoring a problem doesn’t make it go away.  Waiting for a problem to go away or blow up may cost much more in unplanned downtime than becoming proactive with your IT.  Finally, share reports throughout the team, this keeps everyone moving in the same direction, and they may even notice something you may have overlooked.
   
   
5. Security breaches due to viruses and out-of-date patching – Unlike spyware, viruses are meant to take a machine down.  Keeping all of your devices up-to-date with the latest patches and virus definitions is a simple way to quickly secure many known vulnerabilities.  In addition, having procedures in place that teach users how to detect and react to a virus will limit the exposure of the infected machine to other devices. 
   
   
6. Backups are untested or non-existent – Most businesses take the time to go through a variety of backup methods. Whether it’s on portable hard drives, cloud backup, or whatever.  Very few actually test and verify that their backups are actually usable or successful.  Schedule a time and procedure to simulate a disaster recovery drill.  It’ll help you sleep better a night knowing how long it’ll take to recover and how much data you might actually lose.
   
   
7. Not testing your backup power supply – You may have a room full of UPS devices and even a backup diesel generator, but simply not testing whether your plan will succeed might mean they’re completely useless in the event of a power outage.  This very thing has taken down whole data centers, so be sure when lightning strikes or a tractor trailer smashes into your local transformer.  In addition, utilizing scripting or remote management to safely shut down devices when an outage is detected could extend the life of your hardware and save data.
   
   
8. Not having an inventory of IT assets – The first step to controlling IT is to make a list and check it twice.  Know what devices you have, where they’re at, who has access to them, what operating system and applications they’re running.  Also, make sure they’re all still under warranty against damage and loss.  You can’t control your IT without know what you’re dealing with.
   
   
9. Emailed passwords and secure information – Just to be clear, email is usually if not ever, secure. Let your staff know that sending usernames and passwords over email is not safe practice.  Also, show them how to password protect or encrypt documents by zipping them up. 
   
   
10. Lack of mobile security policy - It’s a fact of life that corporate laptops and mobile devices, phones, and tablets, can fall into the wrong hands.  Ensure that all laptops are password protected and even better, remotely wiped in case something happens.  With Windows 7 Enterprise and Vista Ultimate, you can turn on BitLocker to fully encrypt your drive. Finally, teach your staff how to lock their machines and create strong passwords. 
    
    

We hope some of this information will help make your organization's IT more resilient and secure.  If you need help implementing anything, let us know.

*Source: Level Platforms