What is ChatGPT and how can businesses effectively use it?

When artificial intelligence (AI) and research company OpenAI launched ChatGPT on November 30, 2022, nobody could have predicted the disruption it would cause. Within the first five days, more than one million users logged in, and within two months, ChatGPT reached 100 million users, making it the fastest-growing online platform in history.

ChatGPT’s influence is already being felt across all industries, including Utah’s educational institutions, and businesses are also eager to explore how ChatGPT can improve their workflow. If you don’t want your business to be left behind, here’s what you need to know about this new technology.

What is ChatGPT and how does it work?

ChatGPT is a powerful program for communication. Designed to understand and respond to human language, its responses mimic how humans interact. Using ChatGPT feels like chatting with a knowledgeable and friendly human: ask questions, and it will provide relevant and coherent answers.

At its core, ChatGPT is designed to understand and generate human-like text based on the input it receives. It works through a two-step process: pre-training and fine-tuning. During pre-training, ChatGPT learns from a massive amount of text data available on the internet. This data includes websites, articles, books, and various other sources that cover a wide range of topics and writing styles. Through analysis, ChatGPT learns the intricate patterns, grammar, syntax, and semantics from this data, enabling it to generate coherent and contextually relevant responses.

After pre-training, the model undergoes a fine-tuning process. During this phase, it is trained on specific tasks and data sets curated by human reviewers. These reviewers follow guidelines provided by OpenAI to make the model more accurate, safe, and useful. Fine-tuning allows ChatGPT to specialize in various applications, such as translating language, providing writing assistance, and answering questions.

Does ChatGPT have limitations?

Even though it has access to a vast amount of internet data, ChatGPT’s database is limited up to 2021 as of this writing. Therefore, it cannot provide answers or information beyond that year. Moreover, if a user asks an ambiguous question, ChatGPT will not request clarifications but instead attempt to guess the intended meaning, leading to unintended answers.

Furthermore, ChatGPT isn’t perfect and can generate incorrect or inaccurate responses, especially if there is misinformation about a particular topic. Although its answers may sound accurate, it’s still crucial to double-check the information, especially if you’re dealing with esoteric topics or updates beyond 2021.

How can I use ChatGPT in my business?

Despite its limitations, ChatGPT remains highly useful for businesses looking to leverage AI to stay competitive. Here are several ways you can use ChatGPT to level up your business:

Automate your customer service: Customer service is now commonly handled by bots. Use ChatGPT as your smarter, friendlier, and faster customer service representative. It can handle inquiries, tailor conversations for different customers, answer FAQs, and scale up to handle increased customer demand.
Create content for your business: ChatGPT can generate copy for various purposes, such as blogs, social media posts, print ads, and video scripts. However, users should still double-check the output for accuracy, factualness, and relevance.
Assist in research and analysis: Utilize ChatGPT to research market trends, competitors’ services, and other crucial business information. But remember to cross-verify its output to ensure accuracy and timeliness.
Translate copy to other languages: Easily translate your business materials to target global markets without language barriers.
Generate reports and summaries: Accelerate the report and summary creation process, and provide valuable insights for business owners faster than traditional methods.

Embracing AI early allows companies to adapt better to the changing landscapes of business and technology. By incorporating ChatGPT into your business’s system, you can improve efficiency, enhance customer experiences, save costs, and make data-driven decisions.

If you want to use ChatGPT for your business but are unsure how to proceed, don’t worry. Our IT experts at NetWize here to guide you in maximizing ChatGPT’s strengths and avoiding its pitfalls. If your business is in Salt Lake City or nearby, feel free to contact us today.

4 IT Goals Every Business Should Set for 2023

In 2022, many businesses faced a variety of technology-related challenges involving data security, automation (i.e., finding the right automation tools), and keeping a hybrid workforce well supported, to name a few.

As 2023 begins, it’s important to take a proactive approach when managing technology tools to ensure uninterrupted productivity while meeting the unique challenges posed by current market conditions. This involves putting in place an IT strategy that will address the technology challenges of the past year and prepare your business in Salt Lake City for the year ahead.

Here are some IT goals to consider integrating into your strategy this year.

1. Strengthen security protocols

In 2023, businesses should make it one of their IT goals to strengthen their cyber risk protocols to better secure customer and company information. IT threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated and businesses need to be proactive with their cybersecurity.

A recent report by Cybersecurity Ventures predicted that global cybercrime damages costs will keep rising exponentially — from $3 trillion in 2015 to $10.5 trillion in 2025. And the current global economic landscape isn’t helping, with inflation and supply chain disruptions taking their toll on businesses. Cybercrime has simply become more expensive for companies due to the rising cost of preventing and remedying attacks.

Worse, many technology companies even had to reduce IT staff or freeze hiring, leaving security teams struggling against limited resources. To adequately protect organizations from threats, it’s crucial to ensure that budgets increase alongside inflation or risk being unable to build up a strong enough defense.

2. Review your backup and disaster recovery (BDR) plan

This year, it is essential to inspect your company’s BDR capabilities and make any necessary improvements. Regularly assessing the effectiveness of your BDR plan will help ensure that your organization can cope with a range of issues that may arise, such as natural disasters or other technical difficulties.

The lack of a strong BDR strategy could lead to financial losses due to lost revenue, decreased productivity, and delays in delivery times. Thus, one of your 2023 tech goals should be to implement comprehensive BDR solutions tailored to your specific needs.

It also pays to stay abreast of new backup technologies and data storage trends, which can make data backup more efficient and offer more robust safeguards against cyberthreats.

3. Increase efficiency with automation

Another worthwhile IT goal is to achieve operational efficiency with automation. Automation has the potential to reduce business costs, increase accuracy, and speed up processes, making it an invaluable asset for any company looking to maximize its operations.

Automation can eliminate the need to manually perform repetitive tasks, enabling organizations to reduce their operating costs. It can also streamline processes so tasks can be completed faster and more accurately. Automation can also improve customer service and engagement with AI-enabled processes, allowing businesses to respond quickly and accurately to customer inquiries.

4. Link technology with profitability goals

Finally, if you’re purchasing new tech or undertaking a major IT project, remember that technology adoption should always link back to a business goal or need. Research shows that businesses that use tech strategically are likely to earn twice as much revenue per employee compared to those that don’t.

Carefully consider the expenses involved. When formulating the annual IT budget for your business, account for all technology-related costs, including application usage (i.e., how many employees will use a particular software program) and availability of other, less costly tools.

By including these four goals in your overall IT strategy, your business can stay ahead of the competition and position itself for success in the years to come. Get started today by setting some achievable IT goals for your Salt Lake City/Utah business in 2023 with the help of NetWize’s IT professionals. Call us today.

How to protect your Microsoft 365 environment

Microsoft 365 is one of the most reliable cloud platforms available for businesses today. It offers best-in-class productivity and communication tools while protecting your company’s data with multiple layers of security. Microsoft heavily fortifies its cloud platform with advanced threat protection systems, firewalls, physical security measures, and regular data backups.

However, despite these protections, you and your staff must also take precautions to keep your valuable assets safe. Here are five best practices for securing your Microsoft 365 environment:

1. Implement multifactor authentication

Multifactor authentication (MFA) is a security process in which users must provide more than just their passwords to prove their identity. This could be a one-time passcode generated by an authentication app, a USB security key, or a biometric scan. With MFA, you can prevent access to your company’s data even if cybercriminals somehow manage to get a hold of your passwords.

To enable MFA on Microsoft 365, you need to sign in to your company’s Azure Active Directory admin center. Then, go to Properties > Manage Security defaults, click Yes next to the enable security defaults option, and then press Save. The next time users try to log in to their accounts, they’ll be prompted to set up their secondary authentication method. For a more streamlined and secure login process, we highly recommend using the Microsoft Authenticator app to generate temporary passcodes on company-registered mobile devices.

2. Limit access privileges

Not all employees need to have access to your entire Microsoft 365 environment. Graphic designers, for example, don’t need to see your company’s financial records and system administrator settings. In fact, giving users complete access to your Microsoft 365 environment increases your company’s risk exposure if cybercriminals manage to compromise just one account.

To mitigate this risk, you must set access restrictions according to the user’s role in the company. With Microsoft 365 Admin center, you can appoint roles to different teams and determine what type of content they’re permitted to access. And with Microsoft Intune, you can limit access privileges based on a user’s location and device.

You should also create dedicated admin accounts that are equipped with MFA and the highest levels of security. This ensures that only a select few IT administrators have the permission to access and configure Microsoft 365 settings.

3. Enable email security features

Microsoft 365 comes with several email security features that prevent various types of phishing attacks. For starters, you can enable anti-phishing policies that block untrustworthy email domains, especially those impersonating a legitimate email address. Microsoft 365 Defender also features Safe Links, a feature that traces the real destination of URL links embedded in emails and documents. If you click on a suspected malicious link, Safe Links will redirect you to a harmless webpage warning you of the potential threat.

What’s more, Microsoft 365 Defender offers Safe Attachments, which can detect and filter emails with malware-laced attachments. This security feature analyzes email attachments in isolated virtual environments to see how they behave without harming the user’s system. When Safe Attachments detects behaviors indicative of malware (e.g., unusually high traffic volume or ransomware encryption), it instantly blocks those inbound emails from reaching company inboxes.

To enable these email security features, simply sign in as an admin to the Microsoft 365 Defender portal and go to Email & collaboration > Policies & Rules > Threat policies.

4. Establish data loss prevention policies

Microsoft 365 prevents users from sharing classified information to anyone outside the organization using data loss prevention (DLP) policies. By enabling DLP policies, Microsoft 365 instantly scours your systems for sensitive content like financial records, proprietary documents, and Social Security numbers. From there, you can decide the protective action Microsoft 365 will take. For example, you can completely block outbound sharing of personal data or encrypt the data when it’s sent to the recipient. These significantly reduce the likelihood of internal leaks and data breaches in your company.

5. Train users to develop good security habits

While technical solutions are important in safeguarding your Microsoft 365 environment, you shouldn’t overlook the human factor of cybersecurity. No matter how strong your defenses are, reckless employees can easily undermine your efforts by setting weak passwords or falling for phishing scams. This is why you need to regularly train your employees on security best practices.

You can start by teaching employees to take precautions with every website, email, and link they see online. If an unsolicited email is urging employees to click on links, download attachments, or share sensitive information, they should immediately flag it as a phishing scam and report it to the IT department. It’s also important to teach employees the importance of setting strong and unique passwords as well as avoiding public Wi-Fi networks. Building these habits require quarterly training seminars, practical exercises, and impromptu phishing simulations to test everyone’s security awareness.

If you need expert assistance with securing your Microsoft 365 environment, NetWize is the solution. Our consultants can help you customize your system to safeguard it from even the most prolific cybercriminals. Call us today at 801-747-3200.

Tips to make the most of Microsoft Teams

To maintain the efficiency of their remote and hybrid work staff, Salt Lake City businesses leverage all sorts of apps so that teams can work together and keep in touch with one another. A typical setup would have Google productivity apps like Google Docs for collaboration and Slack or Zoom for communication. But if your organization is using Microsoft 365, then there’s no need to use multiple platforms. In fact, when it comes to enhancing collaboration and communication, you just need one app: Microsoft Teams.

In case you don’t know, Microsoft Teams is a chat-based messaging platform where you and your staff members can chat, hold voice/video calls and conferences, and share and work on files. This seemingly simple and easy-to-use app is also packed with useful features. Here are a few tips and tricks you can try to maximize your use of Microsoft Teams.

Tips for admins and users with access to special features

Some features of Teams are only available to admins and to users granted usage permissions by admins. For example, regular staff can’t create their own teams (i.e., user groups that can have their exclusive chat channels, file sharing, and calendar events) unless permitted by company admins. Here are a few tips which are relevant to personnel with special privileges:

Create an FAQ

Set up a Microsoft Teams FAQ for your team to help guide them on how best to use the app. This could include things like:

What is Microsoft Teams?
Who can create a team?
How do I share a file with my team?
How do I invite someone to join my team?
What apps are available for Microsoft Teams?

For help on making your FAQ (and on all of the tips we’re sharing with you here), turn to our Microsoft Teams experts at NetWize.

Always check for team duplication

Teams can be created based on organizational affiliation (e.g., a department) or on shared activities (e.g., a project). If managers are not careful, they may end up creating too many teams. When this happens, there will be too many active lines of communication to keep track of — and team members may eventually feel overwhelmed and start dropping the ball on important tasks.

To avoid this, before creating a team, managers must always check if there’s already an existing team that can serve their purpose. They should also audit Teams every quarter or so to see if they can dissolve teams that are no longer in use. Just like with physical spaces, virtual spaces are much easier to use when they’re orderly and clutter-free.

Minimize the number of channels you create for a team

When a team project has many components, it’s a good idea to create separate communications channels for each component so that discussions and file sharing are limited to relevant members only. However, it’s best to begin with just a few channels and add more as needed. This is because each channel will have its own file archive, so the more channels you have, the more difficult it’ll be to find the documents you need.

Tips for everyone

Here are tips for all types of Microsoft Teams users:

Learn keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts allow Microsoft productivity app users to work faster than if they were to rely on using a mouse. This is because shortcuts become a natural extension to touch typing, and no time is spent moving one’s hand from the keyboard to the mouse. And just like Word and Excel, Teams also has its own set of keyboard shortcuts. Here are a few essential ones you ought to try:

Execute the search function: Ctrl + E
Open files: Ctrl + 6
Blur your background: Ctrl + Shift + P
Mute/Unmute yourself: Ctrl + Shift + M
Turn your camera on/off: Ctrl + Shift + O

For a comprehensive list, go to Keyboard shortcuts for Microsoft Teams.

Master the search function

The more everyone uses Teams, the more content your organization will collect in the app, which means that search will become your most-used function over time.

Beyond just typing what you want to look for, you can also utilize Keyword Query Language or KQL to do more advanced searches. Here are four KQL-powered search query formats that Teams supports:

From:[person’s name] + search keyword – Looks for the keyword among the messages a person sent
In:[channel or group chat name] + search keyword – Looks for the keyword within a channel or group chat
Subject:[keyword from a channel message that came with a subject line] – Returns all channel messages that have that keyword in their subject line
Sent:[Date] + search keyword – Looks for the keyword among the messages sent on the specified date

To learn more about KQL, go to Microsoft’s Keyword Query Language (KQL) syntax reference.

Here are two other tricks you can try to search like a pro:

To do an exact match search, enclose your search term in quotation marks.
If you can’t remember the exact word you used, type the first letters you can remember, then place an asterisk (*) at the end. For instance, entering “elec*” will give you results that contain words that begin with those letters, such as elections, electricity, and so on.

Save messages

To ensure that you don’t forget important items, save messages for easy access later on. To save a message, click More options (…) > Save this message.

View your saved messages by clicking on your profile picture, then Saved. Alternatively, you can go to the search box and enter /saved.

Translate messages

Teammates and business partners may send chat messages in a language that you or others don’t understand. To illustrate, non-native English speakers may have difficulty following message threads that are predominantly written in English. Thankfully, Teams users can just hover over a particular message, click on the ellipsis (…), then click Translate.

Teams’s translation capabilities also go beyond written text. The app can add captions to video calls and translate those captions live. As of this writing, you can share the videos in up to six languages. In a video call, just open the Translate to menu and choose the language(s) you prefer. Those watching the video can then click Subtitles On in the lower right-hand corner of their screen so that they can read the translated captions.

To fully leverage Microsoft Teams and other Microsoft products you’re using, rely on our experts at NetWize.

IT trends businesses must watch out for in 2022

Another year has come and gone, and it seems like only yesterday that we wrote a post about IT’s direction in 2021. Well, here we are again with a brand-new list of significant IT trends to look forward to in 2022. Here are the top ones you need to consider for your business.

1. Businesses are consolidating their IT stacks

Before the pandemic hit, many organizations in Salt Lake City and all across Utah were fine with using disparate but top-of-the-line IT solutions. However, as companies shifted to remote and hybrid work setups when lockdowns were implemented, they had to increase their dependence on the cloud. And with staff members far apart from one another, their coordination suffered when the apps they used didn’t talk to each other.

The ensuing chaos taught business owners and managers the value of integrating apps — and that platforms such as Microsoft 365 already had synergy built into its massive suite of productivity software. To illustrate, Microsoft Teams users can share Word files in their chat threads and collaborate on those files within Teams — i.e., without having to open Word separately. This shows how everyday work processes can be streamlined so that staff can focus on their work instead of having to make their apps work first.

Platforms such as Microsoft and Google are presenting themselves as one-stop shops, which companies find appealing because:

They don’t have to learn different systems.
They don’t have to spend time and money on integrating apps.
Data that’s consolidated in one platform is easier for authorized users to access and secure.
There’s less risk of subscribing to redundant software services.
Installing app updates and patches on one platform is much easier than doing so for many separate standalone apps.

2. On-prem networks are being replaced by distributed clouds

With companies granting employees the option to work remotely part time or full time, there are fewer people to accommodate on premises. Such companies can rent smaller spaces, consume less power, and even tap laborers beyond their immediate vicinity. Since workers and teams are distributed, business apps and data are better accessed via distributed clouds.

Using a single data center would mean that data would have to travel long distances (and incur tremendous costs) to reach far-off contingents. With distributed clouds, however, there would be different hubs serving their respective cloud users, but with the entire operation monitored from one dashboard.

3. Not-so-new but advanced technologies will see greater business adoption

It takes time for cutting-edge technologies to prove their utility and become affordable. Some technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and Internet of Things (IoT), were introduced a couple of years ago. Early adopters found nifty business use cases for these, fueled further innovation, and brought costs down, which is why we’ll see a sharp increase in the number of businesses that will adopt these in 2022.

Artificial intelligence (AI)

Expect to see evolutions in AI such as machine learning and natural language processing being increasingly used by businesses to automate tasks, make better decisions, and provide a better customer experience.

Augmented reality (AR)

AR allows users to see the world in front of them with an overlay of graphics or data. Use cases vary, such as:

Helping interior designers show clients what design proposals will actually look like without ever physically installing a single piece
Visualizing and demonstrating products to customers

Virtual reality (VR)

One area where you can expect to see plenty of VR usage in 2022 is business training. For example, business users will be able to use VR headsets to train in the use of new equipment or procedures before ever taking on the risk of doing things for real.

Internet of Things (IoT)

IoT devices are networked machines that are capable of sensing and interacting with their environment and one another without having to be prompted by a human being. Businesses are using these more and more, such as for automating supply chains and integrating smart systems into existing business infrastructure like elevators and heating/cooling units.

No matter how much IT changes and affects businesses, you can trust [company_short] to help you adapt and leverage it to your advantage. With us as your IT partner, 2022 may become one of your best years yet! Send us a message today to learn more.

Microsoft tips: File sharing and storage using Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive

Microsoft offers a wide array of productivity tools for businesses of all sizes in Utah. The Office apps are arguably their most well-known tools, but since Microsoft never rests on their laurels, they’ve built apps to cover the collaboration and file storage needs of their customers, too.

Let’s first take a brief look at what Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive are, then check out a few tips and tricks you can use to make the most of these apps.

What are Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive?

Microsoft developers liken team projects to coins. One side of a coin is a Teams channel, a place where your team members can communicate with one another and collaborate on project files. One of the many things you and your teammates can do on that channel is open an Office file in that same channel and not have to open the corresponding Office app separately.

The flip side of the coin is a SharePoint team site, which contains a common repository or folder for those files. The two apps complement each other to make cloud-based teamwork easy-peasy.

OneDrive, on the other hand, is also a storage facility, but is built for use by individuals instead of teams. It’s like your My Documents folder, but in the cloud. OneDrive is for your drafts and for project files that don’t belong in an existing team site or necessitate the creation of a team site yet. You can share files to other individuals or transfer them to SharePoint when you need to.

If your company is big on teamwork and your staff uses Office apps heavily, switching to Microsoft 365 Business will give you access to Teams, SharePoint, and many other awesome productivity apps! Let our IT experts at [company_short] help you find the right subscription plan for your business.

How do you store files in OneDrive and SharePoint?

Here are a couple of convenient ways to add files to the app of your choice.

In OneDrive

Upload to the app

Open OneDrive.
Click the Upload button in the top menu bar.
Pick the folders and files you want to store into your desired location in OneDrive.

Drag and drop to a folder

In the app, select or create a new folder in OneDrive.
Cut, copy, or drag and drop the files or folders you want onto the OneDrive folder you’ve selected or created.

Use the Save As function of MS Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote)

Click the File tab.
Click Save As.
Select the OneDrive account of your choice.

In SharePoint

Upload to the app

Go to a SharePoint site.
Click the Upload button.
Choose the files and folders you want to store on that site.

Drag and drop to a folder

Open SharePoint Online and go to your desired site
Drag and drop what you want onto the destination SharePoint folder.

Use the Save As function of MS Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote)

Click the File tab
Click Save As.
Select the SharePoint site of your choice.

If SharePoint sites do not yet appear:

Click Add a Place.
Select Office 365 SharePoint.
In the dialog box that appears, enter your SharePoint account credentials. SharePoint shortcuts will start appearing as Save As options for all MS Office apps.

How do you share and store files on Teams?

Sharing files of any type with your teammates is easy on Teams — all you need is access to these on the device you’re using. These are the files that are:

Stored on your device
In SharePoint, OneDrive, or other cloud-based storage
On the Files tab of your chats and channels on Teams

To quickly share a file with your team, share it in a group or one-on-one chat

The Conversations tab is where you and your teammates will do most of your communicating. Often, sharing files will be necessary, To share a file, you can copy-paste the link to that file, or you can do the following:

Click the Attach icon (i.e., the button that looks like a paperclip) underneath the box where you type messages.
Drill down to the file’s location, be it in OneDrive or local storage.
Select the file.
Click Open or Share.

Take note that this method might make files difficult to find, as chat threads easily become lengthy. For important files, you’ll want to add them to the Files tab of your Teams channel.

To make your files easy to find on your Teams channel, store them on the Files tab

As previously mentioned, each Teams channel is connected to a distinct SharePoint site. The Files tab of a channel acts as the access point to the main folder of the SharePoint site. Whatever file you upload to the SharePoint site will be accessible on the Files tab, and whatever file you upload to the Files tab will be accessible on the SharePoint site.

There are two main ways to store files on the Files tab:

Via the Upload a copy function of the Conversations tab

While you’re on the Conversations tab, do the following:

Click the Attach icon.
Accomplish one of the three methods below:

To pick a file you opened recently, click Recent, then Upload a copy.
To select from all the files you’re permitted access to on Teams, click Browse Teams and Channels, then Share a link or Upload a copy.
To choose a file from your private storage, click Upload from my computer or OneDrive, then Open or Upload a copy.

Via the Upload function of the Files tab

When you go to the Files tab, you’ll see subfolders (if there are any) and any shared files on the channel you’re in. To upload a file on that tab, follow these steps:

Select the location you want to put the file in. Open subfolders if you have to.
Click the Upload button.
Select File.

Before uploading your file, you may want to create a subfolder first:

On the Files tab, click New.
Select Folder.
Type the name for your new folder.
lick Create.

We’ve only scratched the surface of what you can do with Microsoft’s amazing apps. To discover more about how your business can benefit from these, talk with our IT specialists at [company_short]! Drop us a line or call us at 801-747-3200 today.

5 Most crucial components to include in your data backup strategy

Unless your business is a lemonade stand, your organization relies on data to operate, and losing that data may mean permanently going out of business. This is why more and more businesses in Salt Lake City and across Utah are developing and implementing their own data backup strategies. While these strategies may differ based on the company and their situation, the most effective ones all contain five crucial components.

1. On-site backups

If you’re using on-premises servers and one or more of them turn into high-tech paperweights, then having backups on-site is good practice. You can restore data immediately, or at least at much faster rates than if you used cloud or off-site tape backups most of the time. However, don’t just put all your eggs in one basket, because if an adverse event (such as severe flooding) destroys both your servers and your on-site backups, then you’ll have nothing left. This is why you also need…

2. Off-site backups

In a way, these can be thought of as backups of backups because they’re there in case the on-site backups fail. Off-site backups can be stored in the cloud or in physical media such as tape.

How many on- and off-site backups are implemented in a particular backup strategy will be different from organization to organization. However, the IT industry’s baseline standard is the 3-2-1 backup strategy. It calls for:

At least three copies of your data (i.e., the original plus two copies)
Backups stored in two different media
At least one backup kept off-site

3. Backup schedule and rotation scheme

Not all types of data are created equal. For example, customer account information tends to remain the same, which means that it does not need to be backed up often. On the other hand, GPS coordinates of goods in transit may change in real time, which means that such data needs to be backed up frequently. This is because the data will lose relevance and usefulness the staler it gets.

First in, first out (FIFO) backup rotation scheme

It is standard practice to overwrite stale data to save on backup media such as tapes. Let us say that a tape can hold a day’s worth of backup data. Having ten tapes means having backup data ten days deep. For the eleventh and every subsequent day, the newest data and files are saved on the tape holding the oldest backup. Before being overwritten, old data may be archived.

Grandfather-father-son (GFS) backup rotation scheme

FIFO is efficient, but it is vulnerable to data loss. To illustrate, if a data error is included in your backup for the day, then unless the error is caught beforehand, there is a chance that all subsequent backups will eventually contain the error.

As a safeguard against this potential outcome, you need a rotation scheme that lets you have an old but pristine (i.e., uncompromised) backup. This is what GFS is for. In a GFS scheme, instead of just doing daily FIFO backups, you will also do weekly, monthly, or other FIFO backup cycles. This means that if backups from the shortest cycle are compromised, then you’ll have backups from the longer cycles to fall back on.

4. Backup testing

To ensure the reliability of your backups, they need to be tested regularly. They must be able to restore your data to the point that they allow you to resume critical components of your operations. With that said, the testing does not only check the viability of the backups themselves, but also how quick and effective your IT staff members are in performing data recovery.

Beyond regular testing, you also need to screen your backups for malware infections prior to using them. Using compromised backups is a no-no because doing so may result in further data contamination or loss down the line.

5. Data security controls

Wherever you store your backups, you need to ensure that these remain in pristine condition. This means that backup processes must follow strict protocols. To illustrate, most procedures entail disconnecting servers from the company network and the internet to prevent backups from being tainted with false data or highly infectious malware.

Additionally, you and your third-party backup service provider must utilize security personnel, video surveillance, security checkpoints, and other means of protecting servers and other devices. Furthermore, you need to ensure power availability via uninterruptible power supplies and the like.

Last but not least, if you’re using off-site backups to restore data, you must encrypt it during transit to counter man-in-the-middle attacks.

When it comes to data backup services in Salt Lake City, no one does it better than NetWize. To learn more about our managed backup services request for a free consultation or call us at 801-747-3200 today.

The Importance of Backup and Disaster Recovery

More than likely, you have spent years building up your successful business. If a disaster strikes, you could lose everything you have worked for in the blink of an eye, unless you have a disaster recovery plan in place. Yet many companies view disaster recovery as an unnecessary cost; however, one should consider the total cost of ownership of lost data to your business.

According to StorageCraft, the survival rate for businesses without a disaster recovery plan is less than 10 percent. In order to prevent this, it is important to have a business continuity plan in place. There are a number of steps you can take to ensure your information is completely safe.

Plan. First and foremost, you need to develop and implement a disaster recovery plan that works for you. This plan will lay out exactly how information will be recovered and restored in the event of a disaster.

Store off site. Think of this as a vault where your important information is stored. This could be on a tape, hard drive, or an offsite backup facility that’s highly equipped to meet your needs.

Backup regularly. Take a couple minutes out of your day and get into a routine where you are sure to archive information—you won’t regret it. This can be done either periodically, or at the end of each workday.

Netwize was founded with the goal of being your IT solution at a fraction of the cost. Now that you know some initial steps to take, let us take care of the rest of your disaster recovery and backup planning for you. Contact us today!

We are Microsoft Gold Certified

At NetWize we know that having outstanding I.T. support is vital, yet difficult to find. This is one of the reasons why NetWize has invested in becoming a Microsoft Gold Certified partner. But what exactly does that mean, and how can this benefit your business? Microsoft Gold Certified partners are able to provide and implement Microsoft best practice solutions by skilled engineers so your I.T. runs like a well-oiled machine.

In order to become a certified partner, a company must first demonstrate a superior level of certification, capabilities and implementations. Once reached, they can then be considered (and possibly chosen) to become a gold certified partner. Once approved, a company has proven that they have the credibility needed to partner with Microsoft, one of the world’s largest software providers.

Simply put, Microsoft Gold Certified partners are independent companies that are able to provide the highest level of technical knowledge and expertise. When opting for a managed service provider, it is important to keep their level of expertise in mind. After all, you want your technology to be in the best possible hands, right? With a Microsoft Gold certification, you can positively trust their services and knowledge because they have proven themselves to become a certified partner.

Microsoft Gold Certified also partners have a close working relationship with Microsoft so they receive direct support from them while working on your projects. That also means you can be confident you are receiving the best service available in regards to your technology.

Interested in learning how we can put our Microsoft expertise to work for you? Contact NetWize today!