Virtual Business Solutions Blog

Most of us have at least heard that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In other words, proactivity is pretty much always the better strategy. Despite this, we’ve observed that many businesses still avoid investing in their IT until something breaks—the exact opposite of proactivity—and wind up losing in terms of downtime, recovery time, and reputation, along with the financial implications these factors introduce.

This is precisely why we’ve designed our services to serve as preventative measures against the root causes of downtime, helping you be more proactive and reduce overall costs.

Remember tape backup? For some SMBs who have moved on, this form of data backup is a clunky and frustrating relic of the past. But if you aren’t remembering it and are instead still dealing with it, you might be experiencing some operational frustrations of your own. Today, we want to cover a better solution—one that takes the unpredictability out of business continuity.

It’s everyone’s worst nightmare—checking your pockets or purse, then checking them again, trying to feel around for your smartphone, but it’s not there. Where did you leave it, or where did it fall out? Or worst of all, did someone steal it? Regardless of how you lost your smartphone, you need to take these three simple steps to ensure whoever finds it can’t steal your data.

In the movie Moneyball, Billy Beane and the Oakland A's changed baseball forever. Faced with a tiny budget in the early 2000s, Beane ignored traditional scouting and used data to find talented, undervalued players. This sabermetrics approach allowed a small-market team to consistently beat rivals with much bigger budgets, proving that data, not just money, can lead to success.

Today, those same principles apply to every business. In a competitive world, companies of all sizes and industries can use data to make smarter decisions, optimize resources, and build a stronger business for less.

A backup is mandatory for any business, but not all backups are the same. You’ll want to be prepared for more than just a simple server crash; you’ll need geographical redundancy that can protect your business even in the face of disasters that destroy your servers or physical location. Yes, local backups are helpful, but you’ll need the power of geographical redundancy to overcome the most horrific disasters that could strike your business.

There are times when you might make changes to a file, only to wish to revert back to the previous version. Sometimes you’ll accidentally overwrite an important existing file, and sometimes someone else will make edits to a document without permission. All of these situations warrant version control, or having the ability to view different iterations of a file. Here’s why you need to have version control in place, as well as what’s at stake if you don’t have it turned on.

Data breaches are no joke, and they can be so severe that businesses have a hard time bouncing back. Despite the danger, you can somewhat predict when you are at risk of a data breach, and certain actions can be taken to keep them from being fatal (or prevent them entirely). Today, we want to examine three of the common ways data breaches happen and what you can do about them.

There are a lot of file types that are put to use in the modern workplace, all with their own importance. Let’s review what the different file extensions—the little series of letters after the file name—mean, and how they influence how you can use a given file.

We need to talk about something that is as exciting as watching water boil, but it might just save your entire business one day: backing up your data.

I know, I know. You're busy doing your thing, closing deals, and you’re busy. The last thing on your mind is where your files are outside of your server. The truth is, it’s not very interesting, but it sure is important.

Summer is here, and with it comes the rest and relaxation that warm weather encourages. That said, summer is not a time to let up on your cybersecurity awareness. Today, we’ll share how you can both enjoy the summer season without putting your security at risk in the process.

Do you ever find your eyes glazing over at the sight of a sprawling spreadsheet? That feeling of being overwhelmed by a sea of data is universal… but what if you could instantly start making sense of it all with just one click?

Both Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets offer powerful, yet often overlooked, features to help you quickly analyze and visualize your data. In Excel, this is called the Quick Analysis tool. While Google Sheets doesn't have a single button with the same name, it provides the same powerful capabilities through its intuitive menus and the AI-powered Explore feature. Let's dive into how you can leverage these tools to transform your data from a source of sighs to a font of insight.

Running a small or medium-sized business is difficult enough without having to worry about cyber threats all the time. If you haven’t updated your security systems in a while, your infrastructure could be at risk. In fact, when considering IT security, we recommend adopting zero trust as a security measure, and we’ll explain why.

Modern technology practically revolves around USB, but what do you really know about what goes on inside the cables and connectors? Let’s explore some of these minute details and see if we can achieve a new appreciation for this technology.

The cloud is one of those solutions that you’re either taking full advantage of or you have yet to experience the true benefits it can provide. If you’re still on the fence about cloud migration, we have news for you; this decision is actually costing you in the long term. We recommend you explore the possibility of cloud migration by considering why you’re so worried about it in the first place (and why that doesn’t make sense).

Is your business data hard to get to, like it's locked away and only a few people have the key? That can really hold your business back. Imagine if everyone on your team could easily use all the data you create and collect to make better decisions, faster. That's what data democratization is all about, and it’s a powerful tool. In today’s blog we briefly discuss how it works. 

Cybercriminals are in the business of ripping you off, make no mistake about it. They’ll do what they can to trick you and steal your hard-earned cash. Thankfully, there are common and recurring trends you can look for that expose these fraudsters for what they really are.

If given the opportunity, would you rather manage a room full of big, bulky servers to maintain an in-house data network, or would you prefer to decentralize your infrastructure to make it more accessible, redundant, and secure? A data center can help you do just that, and it’s not nearly as difficult or as complicated as you might think to utilize one.

Data storage is hardly the most interesting topic out there, but it’s one that your business needs to consider if it’s going to flourish in the modern era. The cloud offers you real benefits from traditional on-premises file storage, all while being cheaper and more efficient. Let’s take a look at three reasons you might consider cloud storage over in-house infrastructure for your company’s data storage needs.

We all know companies collect a lot of data. After all, your business is no exception to this rule, and you likely collect significant consumer data to facilitate operations. But if you get the itch to protect your personal privacy (and you should), there are ways to limit how much advertisers, criminals, and other companies can gain access to. Here are just a couple of ways.

Antivirus is a staple security solution for businesses and everyday PC users, but have you ever considered how it works? By thinking through some of the details, you might gain a greater understanding of how antivirus works, what it does, and why you need to keep it updated. Today, we’re going to discuss just that, starting from square one.