More than just ransomware, your hardware will break some day. We have already helped clients with both of these underlying issues recover their data, repair or replace their devices, and get back online. A lot of the downtime, pain, and costs can be avoided by having a backup plan in place now for the inevitable problems that will occur.
That’s why we are encouraging new clients to join our flexible subscription plans where we include backup plans, virus protection, and remote monitoring with our support. Our plans offer you a 30 days cancellation policy. We want to earn your trust through reliable work that addresses your core concerns, not contractually obligating you to trust us.
Most tech services can be run in the cloud. That provides you the flexibility to work in multiple offices, at home, or on the go. Do business anywhere with anyone. The best are everywhere.
Cloud systems provide resilience to disasters, rapid changes to your business operations, and even do it all while being more secure and cost effective!
We created a test lab with Microsoft Azure earlier this year and are happy to recommend that to your business. If you already have AWS never fear, we have plenty of experience with that as well. We have a deep understanding of the fundamentals. Therefore we can confidently help you with any cloud system if you want to try a different one.
On-boarding automation takes everyday tasks and makes them a breeze. Do you know how much your on-boarding and off-boarding cost?
You’re growing fast and have a booming internship program that’s great, right? Sure, but it takes a lot of time and money to maintain.
Setting up each employee’s laptop manually takes a technician four hours of labor. The employee cannot work until it is ready.
We can set up a provisioning system that installs all the needed software and configurations to multiple laptops at the same time. It takes a minute of setup and fifteen minutes of automatic configuration. That’s less than 1 percent of the paid labor and twelve percent of the down-time.
Perhaps your business is rapidly growing customers? The on-boarding process there requires many repetitive tasks we can help you automate. You want a streamlined process for new customer intake that collects all the relevant information from them, responds automatically and then creates a profile on your sale database? We can help you set up a system on your company’s website that’s quick and easy for anyone with an Internet connection to do business.
Ready to level up your security? Need a new software tool installed on all of your employee’s machines or even just one departments? Automation systems make this work a breeze and we can get everyone patched up and set up quickly getting you back to work.
But what if I use a Mac, or Linux machines, or a combo of all the above? There are options for mobile device management (MDM) that we can use to help you manage all your business’s tech assets from smartphones to laptops to servers.
You’re rolling with cloud only back-ups but it could be costing you lots of downtime.
A Windows server update automatically installed but it broke your primary office server. Worse, your only backup is an untested cloud system so you get that started and wait. And wait some more. Because the cloud has a slow download the total restore took…guess how long? A few hours? A day? Try a week of real-world downtime. We’ve helped businesses with similar problems and you can trust us to setup redundant on-site data back ups that would have your server restored in minutes.
If you know your server’s amount of data usage you can calculate an estimate yourself with this great tool.
Servers at Datacenter
We rely on tech services to get our daily jobs done just like any tools. When your servers get knocked offline you’re missing out on those tools. This can mean your document data, chat, email, phone, printers, version control, productivity software, accounting software, CAD systems, or countless other tools you rely on. Calculate your productivity loss by the number of employees relying on that service and their hourly wage. Add in the cost to your image and reputation with customers and the time you will be unable to do business with them.
Everyday we risk downtime from outages. Most people fail to prepare to manage downtime in a way that optimizes costs to keep you online doing what you do best.
Do you know how much your server downtime costs? Sign up at oakcityit.net/#ContactUs to claim your free quick start discovery today.
In our first of many meetings Alan met Neal Isaacs of VR Business Brokers at the Oaks of Lake Benson Park. We walked about 2 miles over about 45 minutes while discussing business, life in Garner, and of course tech!
Meet at the Oaks of Lake Benson. Call our business number 919-480-1547 or see the bottom of our Home Page for more details to schedule a walk in the park to talk tech and how our business can help you!
From Left – Alan of Oak City IT and Neal Isaacs of VR Business Brokers
Neal is an ambassador at the Garner Chamber of Commerce and Alan has been getting to know other people and businesses at the chamber. It’s a fantastic group of people who are all passionate about community, their work, and helping others. Neal prioritizes relationships and has great ideas for improving businesses.
If you own a business and you’re looking to sell I encourage you to chat with Neal. You can find more info at his company’s website.
We talked tech briefly because I know not everyone wants to geek out like I do. Neal had asked about Internet Service options which seems to be a popular topic from other businesses I’ve heard. There’s often some relatively cheap and easy ways to boost your Internet speeds and I’m always excited to help clients discover those.
We shared our company goals and some strategies for how we’re both adapting to the rapidly changing market. I always appreciate chatting about business and helping others. This time around Neal may have shared more sage advice with me which I’m grateful. I’m sure it won’t be long before I pay it forward and help others like you!
Earlier this month our company founder Alan Youngblood was invited to speak as a guest at the 1099 Ladies Networking event. Alan gave his talk What can your Tech do for you. Thanks to Lyndah Tello for inviting us! We encourage any women in the NC triangle area who are self employed to check out their group.
Here is Alan’s talk about “What your tech can do for you?” from the recorded Zoom session:
What can your Tech do for you? It can boost your productivity and help you protect what’s important to you.
In addition to Free Open Source cost savings you can also use your technology to save time and improve your work. Configuring the tools you already use to communicate better with each other is all it takes to save time on routine tasks. Often your work can be easier if you have your tech tools optimized.
Cyber-Security planning is unique to your organization, but every plan shares a few common points.
Assessment of current systems, controls, data in use.
Identification of each one’s importance.
Taking reasonable measures to protect each item based on it’s importance.
The web-comic XKCD shows us why it’s important to protect your data with better unique passwords:
BitWarden is a free open source password manager that we will get you setup to quickstart.
We all use passwords everywhere because they are easy to implement and use and restrict data access to authorized people.
But they’re a pain to remember and create for every account.
Worse, if you’re human like we are you can’t remember a unique password for every account you have. While larger companies use Single Sign On (SSO) Agents, there aren’t good options for small businesses. Don’t fret, we’ve got you with the password manager, and we recommend the free BitWarden.
BitWarden helps with all these problems
Generate secure new unique passwords
Safely store your old passwords
Auto-fill passwords only when needed
Check for password re-use
Setting up BitWarden
Start by thinking of a secure long passphrase much like the “correcthorsebatterystaple” example from above, but unique. Jot this down in a location you can physically access and protect like a locking file cabinet.
Download BitWarden (You will want to install it on all computers and mobile devices you use, but you can do that after you’re setup on your first machine)
When you first install it on a device it will attempt to import any saved passwords from your web browser. Go ahead and do that. That’s what we want.
Additionally you may want to disable your browser’s built-in password storage. We prefer using BitWarden because they work on all devices and browser built-in functionality invariably doesn’t.
***Please Note*** BitWarden is what’s called a zero-trust security solution. In simple terms this means that BitWarden nor Oak City IT LLC have any knowledge nor access to your master password to unlock your secure data vault. If you lose this password you can still request a reset to your account and begin using it again, but all the passwords and data contained in there will be wiped. This also means that there is no way for anyone to accidentally or purposefully steal your data without that password. So it is important that you guard it.
Free Open Source Software can save you a lot of money.
There’s a growing community of people developing and using Open Source Software. They call it “free as in freedom.” This means that you’re free to use it how you please, without forced updates, and you can configure it to work with your unique process.
Additionally, Free Open Source also means free as in no financial cost. This sounds too good to be true. Why would any business give away software that others profit?
Open Source is Good Business
Proving the success of this business style is Raleigh’s Fortune 500 industry leader, Red Hat. They develop and offer a free alternative to Windows called the Linux Operating System. Red Hat pioneered the open-source business model by charging for quality service and giving away their software.
Because they are so successful Red Hat boasted nearly 3.5 Billion dollars revenue in 2019 with nearly half a billion in profit!
Good Software Should be Free for All
However not everyone is in it for the money, others volunteer with online communities making free software because they believe great tools should be available to all people.
Many of these are developed in a way that they run the same on Windows, MacOS, Linux, or any device, adding further benefits.
Quit paying monthly subscriptions or big licensing costs for your software tools now and you’ll save from $32-$100 per month per person.
Free Open Source Solutions
If you use commercial software there’s often a great Free Open Source solution waiting for you.
***NOTES: Prices are based on recent best estimates and are subject to change for commercial software, while free open source software will likely remain free. There are some valid reasons you may need to continue or begin using commercial software, depending on your organization’s needs. ***Nextcloud Talk is a part of Nextcloud which is free open source but you may need help setting up a server to use with it, we’d be glad to consult on an installation.
You may want help setting up a server to run software like Nextcloud. Perhaps you want to ask about other free open source solutions. Please contact us and we would be glad to consult with you on how you can host a server or help you find cost savings.
We got our morning started right with breakfast at the Chamber for business networking. We’re proud to be members of the Garner Chamber of Commerce since Spring. You might wonder why it took so long to join? Truth is we’ve been busy, but that’s never an excuse. So we’re making up for lost time now by attending as many events possible. We have been making some great connections with lots of great local businesses in Garner and the Triangle area. We’re always looking for new ways to help people with their IT challenges so they can focus on their goals.
Today the Chamber has restarted its Business Exchange Breakfast. Members and guests networked together and we were able to meet and chat with many others from some great businesses.
We focus on local small businesses and non-profits and tackle your IT challenges so you focus on the work you do best. We always help with cyber-security, computer networking, websites, and tech support. Additionally we also like to help you integrate and automate any IT software or business processes you already use. What if you could accomplish the same work in a quarter of the the time? We’d love to help with that. We shared how we can integrate your website’s blog posts to automatically post to your social media accounts. Keep doing what you do best we’ll free up more time for your focus!
If you’re in a small business or non-profit organization and want some help with your IT, contact us today!
The Chamber is a great place to do business networking and there’s all sorts of organizations of all sizes. That’s why I’m excited to meet people that work at larger companies, even if you’re beyond our typical scope you might have referal partners or know others ways to collaborate. We’ve already met many larger IT firms that we will introduce you to if your projects are beyond our scope.
FlexGen Power Systems provides energy storage solutions with their revolutionary FlexGen HybridOS platform. Oak City IT worked with FlexGen to create an agile PC Data Backup solution.
“One size fits all” is the biggest lie. It should read as “one size someone, somewhere, probably.” And just like a comfy sweater, your organization’s IT needs may fit a bit differently than others.
Unique Background, Unique Needs
Oak City IT consulted FlexGen during rapid growth as a startup pivoting into leading as a provider of green energy storage solutions. As an agile engineering company FlexGen needed agile solutions for their IT systems. Keep in mind you may need something different. We partnered to develop a system that allowed rapid deployment of new PC’s to employees in only 5-15 minutes!
Don’t Re-Invent the Wheel
We used existing systems that FlexGen already owned, were trained, and trusted. FlexGen’s leadership aimed to stay agile by streamlining any on-premises infrastructure and relying on cloud technology for flexibility.
Employee Data
Understanding our goals, we developed a robust while lean and agile system. Data on individual employee PC’s were treated as ephemeral working copies. We safely did this by having all employees sync important data to their company Dropbox, securely stored in the cloud. For the computer engineers we worked with the DevOps team to establish github repositories migrating from the dated subversion repositories.
Software and Configurations
After taking care of the data, what about the PC’s software? Did we really want to manually re-install every app every time? In fact we couldn’t do that. We worked with another IT service provider that had an Acronis backup solution in place. Acronis provides wonderful tools for backups, but they weren’t flexible enough for FlexGen’s needs. FlexGen employees echoed: “It works for everything else but there’s that one program we all install manually because it’s easier.”
Compare the manually setup PC’s that took around 4-8 work hours and occasionally longer. FlexGen would often require agility to hire a new employee and have them start work in a couple weeks. It’s hard to carve out a day of our work time for each PC setup. Cloud systems tend to bottleneck when deploying large amounts of data. Thus we became convinced that there would need to be an on-premises solution for our software and configuration deployment.
New Life to a Trusty Old Server
FlexGen had an existing server that ran an aging version of Windows Server. We could have upgraded, but we decided to save that cost and headache. Instead, we found robust FOSS solutions for no additional license fees. FOSS stands for Free Open Source Software which is free as in freedom and free as no cost.
We found a great system that was capable of deploying images and prepared several template images ready to go. Images are a snapshot of all the software on a PC including installed apps and configuration. We built images for each their different job roles. FlexGen uses mostly Windows PC’s. Microsoft’s Volume offered a fraction of the cost and we could deploy images to all PC’s. This system aided updates for Windows 10 when Windows 7 was approaching EOL (End Of Life).
Unique Needs Meet Unique Solutions
We refurbished FlexGen’s Windows Server and installed linux and FOG Project for the imaging. The FOG server can deploy images with the latest version of Windows 10 and everything already installed. And it runs fast! For example on FlexGen’s network the server can deploy an image at speeds over 4 GB/min. Many images we created ranged in size from 20 GB to 35 GB. In summary we could deploy a fully installed and configured system in about 5 minutes!
FlexGen PC Data Backup Solution Results
Let me repeat that: we got new PC setup from 4-8 work hours down to 5 minutes! That’s a 99% reduction in real-world time to complete a new PC setup!
Added Benefits
Employees regularly synced or pushed any business critical work data to Dropbox and GithHub. Whenever there was an issue on their PC that couldn’t be fixed quickly, we could deploy a fresh image. Their PC was ready before they could finish a coffee break.
If anyone been compromised by ransomware, then we could have used the multicast option on the FOG server and deployed all the PC’s then syncing up with cloud data. The whole process for the organization could have easily completed within one hour or less. Though it never happened, we were ready in advance to recover from such disasters which are increasingly common. Thanks in no small part to our cybersecurity plan implemented for FlexGen, but that’s a story for another post. Check out more posts about our security consulting work.
