Frequently Asked Questions

Managing cloud costs often begins with planning your resources carefully. When someone doesn’t work with cloud resource management frequently, it’s easy to devote resources to capacity pre-purchases and extra servers when you’ve already got plenty of capacity with your existing spend. As difficult as it may be, it’s crucial that you perform an audit of what resources you currently have so as to avoid spending on redundant capabilities.

Over the course of a long-enough time horizon, everyone will eventually have to contend with a compromised IT environment. It’s possible to extend that time horizon by employing technologies like firewalls, data governance systems like Microsoft Purview, and adhering to industry best-practices like regularly changing passwords, employing two-factor authentication, and properly setting-up a single-sign on interface. However, the one thing you can do that has the highest impact on your company’s security is ensuring that your employees are properly trained on how to spot cybersecurity threats and avoid them.

If you’ve built your company to be in-office and have chosen to adopt a hybrid or remote model for your business, the first thing you’ll want to do is audit the structures you have in place to communicate with the team. Communication systems like email, video conferencing, and phone services are crucial to ensuring that your team remains connected during and after the transition. In addition to a solid communication system, you’ll likely need to evaluate which systems can be moved into the cloud, whether your security protocols and firewalls need to be updated to manage the new load, and whether you want to implement a bring-your-own-device policy to enable greater flexibility.

While a true wireless survey (performed on-site with specialized equipment) is always the best recommendation for planning a wireless environment, predictive (software-driven) wireless site surveys are one way to evaluate your organization’s wireless connectivity if a true site survey is not possible (e.g., if the building has not yet been completed). Predictive wireless site surveys are performed before an organization moves into a new space to ensure there are sufficient access points, bandwidth, and other resources dedicated to the tasks for which the site is being built. They should account for characteristics like how the network will be utilized, whether there’s significant video usage, building materials, number of projected users, and other variables that can impact the effectiveness of your organization’s wireless infrastructure. They generally don’t require a physical site visit to complete, relying instead on the blueprints for the space to come up with the assessments.

While predictive site survey doesn’t require a physical site visit, most assessments are accurate to a degree that is much greater than simple estimates. However, the software used for predictive site surveys relies heavily on the information provided for its models, so this margin can change if the entered information doesn’t match the reality of the space.

There are two main differences between a predictive wireless site survey and a physical site survey: the way the site is assessed and the cost. Site assessments for predictive wireless site surveys generally are done remotely without ever entering the space where the access points are being set up, relying instead on site plans and other information provided by the client. The physical site visit requires a technician to evaluate the site in-person to perform the same task, and is therefore generally much more accurate but also more expensive than a predictive wireless site survey.

The fundamental difference between a wireless site survey and a coverage assessment is that one is done to plan a wireless network and the other is to ensure it’s operating the way it should be. The best laid plans often go astray and that’s especially true of a wireless network where a moved filing cabinet, a renovation or other slight change in the office can impact your organization’s ability to work optimally. Performing regular wireless assessments is a good way to ensure that any issues your networks develop are resolved quickly with minimal impact to operations.

With ever increasing amounts of data available to companies, using data effectively needs to begin with developing and implementing a data strategy. Figuring out how you want data stored, organized, and accessed will inform how you’ll utilize data to inform your company’s decision-making, process improvement strategies, and other developmental endeavors.

Proper data compliance, as with most things, requires you to first audit your data management systems so you know what data you’re collecting and where there might be a potential compliance issue. With so many different laws to comply with, you could find subject matter experts who can develop policies that will enable your organization to avoid violations across the array of privacy and security laws. It’s also important to have a disaster recovery plan in place so that if a breach occurs, you can quickly respond and minimize the risk to your clients.

At its core, digital transformation is about enabling a company to grow in the modern era by leveraging technology. Many companies have relied on highly manual processes to collect information and store it securely, but with the advent of new technologies, businesses can increase their efficiency and create more value for their clients in the process. This places IT leaders in a unique position, as they now become an even more critical part of their organization than they already were. However, with this increased prominence comes a need to deliver, which means IT leaders should take steps to plan for the increased use their organization’s IT infrastructure will see and find ways to optimize the implementation of new technologies through trainings in the new system itself and ensuring proper cybersecurity protocols are followed.