The cloud is far from being an amorphous, indistinct thing. Cloud computing power is actually made possible by several physical, integrated components, including hardware, virtualization, storage, and networking devices. These components are what make up the cloud’s infrastructure, whether you are operating in a public cloud (like Microsoft Azure), private cloud, or hybrid cloud environment. Here we take a closer look at what all these resources are and how they contribute to make the cloud possible. What are the cloud infrastructure components? There are a number of key components that are needed for cloud computing. The four primary ones are hardware, virtualization, storage, and networking. Hardware Physical hardware lays the groundwork for cloud infrastructure and can be positioned in [...]

Amping up your threat intelligence and response is likely important to you, but if you lack the internal resources to do those things well, you may want to consider managed detection and response. What is managed detection and response (MDR)?Managed detection and response services involve cybersecurity and threat hunting provided by an external MDR vendor. It improves threat detection and incident response through continuous monitoring of IT assets. Why does a business need MDR?Many organizations know that cyberattacks are an issue and that fortifying cybersecurity is an important part of doing business, but they may not have the resources in-house to deal with advanced threats and security events. MDR is not a software or application. The emphasis is on service that includes both [...]

When it comes to accessing talent and expertise in certain areas, small-to-medium sized businesses can be at a disadvantage. The big guys have deep pockets for the high leadership headcount that SMBs often do not. While enterprise-level organizations have every “C” in the suite right under their roofs — from CEO to CIO to CMO to CPO and so on — SMBs need to get more creative in identifying how to access the resources that larger businesses have in-house. When it comes to technology leadership, that’s where a fractional CIO (chief information officer) — also known as a virtual CIO or vCIO — comes in.  If you’re one of those smaller businesses that doesn’t have a full-time CIO, you [...]

If you are an IT decision maker, you may be one of the many fast-tracking your digital transformation efforts. The technology needs of your business have likely changed, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Or you may be driven to transformation by something else entirely, such as competition, rapid growth, or stagnant legacy systems. Whatever it is pushing you to transform now, you’re probably already familiar with the “what” and “why.” You may have even been brought to your role specifically to disrupt the digital status quo, with an end goal to produce better business outcomes. If so, you’re not just looking to implement new technologies. You’re charged with a full-scale overhaul of the organization’s very philosophy of and approach [...]

The success of any disaster recovery plan hinges on whether or not two key metrics are achieved: Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO). But what do those two metrics mean, exactly, and why do they matter? While the two sound somewhat similar, they actually have very different roles in your disaster recovery plan and can help you achieve business continuity in the face of disruption or downtime. Recovery Time & Point Objectives Defined Recovery Time Objective (RTO) can be defined as how quickly your systems or applications must be back online following a disaster. In other words, how much time after a disaster occurs can acceptably pass before systems are recovered without significant damage to the [...]