Technology is full of difficult jargon. To further complicate things, certain terms are often used in a different context between one publication or service provider and the next. An example of this is the usage of backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity.

You still have Windows XP running on some (or all) of your computers.  You know you should upgrade but you're not sure what it entails and what you should do.  Here are some things to think about and some steps you can consider.

Your XP computers are old

If your computers are running Windows XP then they are definitely old.

Over the past couple of weeks I have been seeing some messages from companies who have me as part of their email distribution list.  The gist of these messages is an explicit request for me to subscribe once more to their list.  

The reason this is happening is the impending regulations for the Canadian Anti Spam Legislation, CASL for short, which come into effect on Canada Day, July 1.  Those companies who have started this process are taking one of the necessary steps to bring themselves into compliance with the legislation.

Many SMBs don't realize it, but the path to some grand cybercrime score of a lifetime may go right through their backdoor. SMBs are commonly vendors, suppliers, or service providers who work with much larger enterprises. Unfortunately, they may be unaware that this makes them a prime target for hackers.

In an age when most  business happens online, not showing up in online search results from the major search engines like Google and Bing can really hurt you. While there

How many of your employees have branched off and started business' of their own? This makes it the responsibility of every business, especially those collecting and storing customer/client information, to implement a multi pronged approach to safeguard information.

One of the challenges that is faced by IT administrators when they are fighting for the budget needed to maintain all of the network systems, security protocols and backup systems is quantifying for management the potential losses which will be avoided if the expenditures are made.

Software audits are on the rise, ensuring that installed software = licensed software. So upon receiving an email from Microsoft that starts,

"Microsoft would like to work with your organization on a review of your Microsoft licenses.

There are many functions of a business that need to work together concurrently to keep the business operating smoothly. As a business grows the number of people and departments grows. Over time, problems emerge, redundancies, inefficiencies and information silos can be created.

Whether it's a slow system, a bug that needs to be squashed, a website issue or a crash that results in you being interrupted, chances are your office may have a go to person to take care of all your tech needs. They are the official in house IT person, but its not in their job description.