Category: IT Support Los Angeles

Everyone dreads unplanned network downtime. It is bound to happen yet a surprising number of organizations fail to adequately prepare for these crises. If you have not yet allied with an IT support group in Los Angeles, there is a good chance you are woefully unprepared for downtime. Don’t let these hurdles trip up your team. If you fail to adequately prepare for periods of downtime, you will inevitably suffer productivity losses that lead to disgruntled clients and reduced revenue.

Is Your Company Prepared?

The Answer Might Surprise You … When employees are asked whether their company is truly prepared for unplanned downtime, the answers vary quite widely. A recent survey shows nearly three-quarters of C-level executives report their organizations are “very prepared”. However, less than 50 percent of the IT personnel at these same organizations agreed with the executives. This is a major gap that is likely to spur insufficient support for disaster recovery and continuity planning. Such inadequate planning inevitably leaves organizations vulnerable to unexpected downtime that typically lasts long enough to crimp productivity and cause all sorts of other problems.

Why Companies Should Avoid Downtime Incidents at All Costs

Unexpected downtime is extremely expensive. More than half of organizations subjected to major “incidents” stemming from unplanned downtime endure a meaningful financial loss. Nearly one-third of these organizations reported recovery efforts negatively impacted the business and occupied significant staff time. Around 10 percent of these organizations lost systems, applications or data. About half of businesses employing between one and 150 individuals reported an hour of unexpected downtime can cost upwards of six figures or more in lost revenue and diminished productivity. Add in the costs of the IT staff’s remedial actions, litigation and non-compliance penalties and such downtime proves to threaten the viability of Los Angeles business.

How Downtime as Seen by IT Professionals

IT workers view downtime differently than most executives. The ever-increasing reliance on highly complex technology poses a serious risk. IT professionals understand more than 80 percent of unexpected downtime is attributable to hardware failures, application failures, and operational errors. Many executives are unaware of this statistic. A lot of people believe cyber threats are a major cause of downtime when in reality, cyber-attacks cause a mere 13 percent of downtime.

IT professionals should be provided with the resources necessary to adequately prepare for errors and downtime. Disaster recovery requirements must be defined in-depth. A disaster recovery plan crafted by a trustworthy IT support team in Los Angeles is essential. If a fool proof plan is in place, recovery from major incidents will prove that much easier and quicker. It also helps to commit to a multi-site IT strategy. Nearly three-quarters of organizations with this strategy are confident their network, applications and general IT functions will operate during an outage. Such a strategy takes shape in several forms ranging from Disaster Recovery as a Service to transitioning IT infrastructure to a managed service provider environment.

Advanced Networks Information Technology Consultants is an IT support in Los Angeles is here to help you avoid as much downtime as possible. We provide IT services and cloud services including digital security, network design, backup and disaster recovery, hardware as a service and plenty more. Contact us for managed IT services, cloud services and More.

With the fast-paced growth of businesses in the past decade, software and hardware have only gotten stronger. Advanced technology is being adapted more and more. There are bigger companies to produce it and it reflects well on the businesses that use it. However, too much technology can cripple a business cost, dependency-wise. Luckily, an IT support were created to help save money, time, and effort for businesses. They ease the stress of every day’s emerging tech. Not to mention, a provider of IT support in Los Angeles allows companies to find their footing with the newly adapted technology and surpass what most businesses can handle.

What is an IT support?

A IT support can help companies by providing server and desktop support and provide endless IT support. Unfortunately, most IT departments cost a lot of money with tons of staff to handle, but an IT support works one on one with an affordable cost. After all, they’re here to help your business succeed.

What Can a IT support Help With?

Limited-Time Projects

A provider of IT support in Los Angeles can be of real assistance to companies who don’t have a full IT department. Even these companies still have IT needs. A IT support can be a real assistance with short-term projects. They can provide companies with more personalized technology than they would receive from just buying a pre-made software. Costs would be lower as well, as these already made systems often charge monthly fees. They would have total control over all their technology and be able to implement a system more suited to their needs.

Cloud Storage

Cloud storage has been gaining in popularity for these past few years, and with good reasons too. It’s incredibly useful to companies, but it can often be difficult to manage. This is where IT support’s come in. A good IT support can help your business with all your cloud storage and support needs. They can manage your storage, customize your storage service, and provide much-needed security. In fact, cyber security is a lot of what an IT support can offer. Without the proper encryption and password protection that only an IT support can provide, companies would be left vulnerable to cyber theft and hackers.

Make Your IT Decisions Easy

An IT support can offer guidance and advice on all your business’ IT decisions. Need to purchase new electronics? Not sure what technology is best for your business? Having difficulty implementing a new IT project? Go to the person who’s most qualified to help you make the big decisions: your IT support. You still have the final say, but it’s always good to take into account the opinions of experts.

An IT support can make your work day easier, rewarding, and more profitable. For reliable and top-tier IT support in Los Angeles, Advanced Networks is here to help. If you have any questions or would like some more information, contact us today.

The management of your IT system is dependent on the protocols you’re using in terms of IT support in Los Angeles. If you have an IT guy but the system is still susceptible to extensive problems like data loss and network connection outages (among other problems), then you need a new driving force behind your technology. If your IT personnel isn’t proactive enough to diagnose potential threats before they hit your business, how will he solve prevailing problems?

Importance of a Dependable Managed Service Provider

You need a proactive IT service provider with reliable experience in all aspects of technology. Ever thought of outsourcing IT support services? Well, this may just be the solution that you need. Outsourcing expert input will rid you of the avoidable problems that have stricken your IT system. For instance, companies offering managed IT services have feasible protocols in place to shield you from data related perils including data loss and attack by malware. A malware attack can dismantle your information system, and the problem will worsen if you have an IT guy who can’t work his way around it. Outsourced managed IT service often offer credible solutions to this problem, the common one being cloud computing. Cloud computing backs up your data in remote servers to ensuring their safety from loss or attack by malware.

A competent IT support in Los Angeles should also be able to maintain consistency and efficiency within your organizational IT system. For any business, a lengthy downtime translates to significant losses. A reliable IT support will run your system with minimal downtime cases. Almost every IT system requires a stable Internet connection for efficient functionality. Internet outages and related network connectivity problems should be the least of your worries if a professional is in charge of your IT. Dependable IT support services should account for alternative network solutions to ensure that outages don’t affect the flow of activities in your organization. Other IT applications also require backup plans that usually come in handy when the main systems break down. Without an expert in control, you’re bound to deal with unending inconsistencies and downtime issues.

Most of your IT related problems may be attributable to the fact that your IT guy doesn’t have comprehensive knowledge of the whole system. IT applications are extensively diverse, and it’s quite difficult for an individual to account for the functionality of every component. But with an expert with vast experience in providing IT support services, you’re assured of a partner who understands your IT system in its totality and knows your business’ respective organizational needs.

Advanced Networks is Here to Help

Advanced Networks is a company that offers IT support in Los Angeles. We have a vast array of services–= all you have to do is choose the package that best suits your needs. If you have data management problems, cloud computing and data integration infrastructure implementation may be the best options for you. Other services include help-desk support and IT consulting, among others. It’s time for you to take the bold step of working with an expert company to alleviate costly IT disparities in your organization. Contact us today!

Large and medium-sized organizations are increasingly turning to managed IT service providers to control and maintain their enterprise communication systems. Understanding what’s required of your IT support in Los Angeles is essential. How the outsourced companies go about their business determines how your experience with them turns out, and it could be great or it could turn out to be a nightmare.

Organizations must find out if their managed service provider is equipped to handle the sophisticated nature of your business. Regular scrutinizing of your managed service provider is essential to ensure that there are no security breaches and compliance is always high to meet the needs of your company.

To ensure that everything runs smoothly, your managed IT service provider should be able to do the following:

Flexibility

The ideal managed service provider should be flexible in a way that their approach to different clients matches with the clients’ requirements and goals. This should include flexible technological alternatives such as cloud-based hosting, installed on the premises or both.

Focus on Customer Performance and Growth

Most managed IT service providers’ ambitions don’t match with your organizations goals and objectives. They’re only there for the profit motive and not to give you the best services. The ideal managed service provider should recommend the best and most suitable new technologies for your organization, help businesses in the application of advanced technology such as unified communications, and contact center technologies, which generate revenue and profitability.

Customer-Centric Orientation and Mindset

IT support in Los Angeles should be readily available to sort out your issues whenever they arise. They should also be fast in responding to situations and their troubleshooting capabilities should be effective.

Confidentiality

Your ideal managed IT service provider should have experience in handling confidential information and have the necessary mechanism necessary to protect your sensitive data.

Predictable Budget

An ideal managed service provider should be transparent in cost discussions. They shouldn’t include hidden costs for services that are in the contractual agreements. Managed IT service providers should offer unlimited software licensing which increases scalability among its users without any hidden or additional costs.

Accountability

It’s important for an organization to demand greater accountability from their MSP. This is due to the huge accountability demands they face from shareholders, stakeholders, and regulators demand. Accountability features that ideal MSPs should show include:

• Performance guarantees via SLAs
• Actual network view
• Transparency of tools, processes and expertise

Your MSP should strive to give you solutions to most, if not all, your IT problems. Essentially, an MSP which solves part of the solution is usually part of the problem when the issue when it arises again. Accountability on the part of the MSP will ensure that finger pointing does not ensue.

Conclusion

In the current business environment, it’s important to have a service provider with a host of technologies and services that are suited to meet your organization’s individual needs. Not all IT support in Los Angeles can provide that. Those that can, ensure that you achieve your organization’s growth and profitability goals. We at Advanced Networks will help you achieve just that. Contact us today for more information.

Continuous Updates: Necessary

IT support in Los Angeles is more integral today than ever, and one of the most important areas where your business stands to experience exceptional profit in this regard pertains to cyber-security. From smartphones to personal computers, to the cloud and the IoT (Internet of Things), modern online connectivity is ubiquitous and necessary. Data reception, processing, transfer, consolidation, and simplification are big money. Hackers understand and have found devious means of using this to their advantage.

Ever heard of ransomware? In a nutshell, it’s a virus that imprisons your files and won’t return them unless you pay the fee. Things like this can be exceptionally costly and even bankrupt a company if not properly managed. And with the ubiquity of modern technology, there’s an equal concentration of hackers always finding new ways to compromise security. Ever heard of Moore’s Law? Basically, it’s like this: technology of the computational variety doubles between every 12 to 18 months. We may be reaching an upper limit, but the implication here is that methods of technology breach are going to transition on a statistically similar curve. That means you need to continuously update your security protocols for maximum security. Not once every several years, not annually, not monthly— this is something you’re going to have to do weekly.

VoIP

One area where many people totally miss the mark on this has to do with VoIP. Voice over Internet Protocol allows for telephone systems to be cost-effectively consolidated over the web, saving businesses hundreds and thousands of dollars on phone expenses monthly. Of course, hackers are going to find a means of exploiting this. One of the most common ways this happens today is “vishing,” which is like “fishing,” but over the phones. Hackers sneak into back doors left open in a VoIP network by unsuspecting businesses and steal information that way, then sell it to the highest bidder— or use it themselves; depending on the circumstances.

Defending against this is done through what’s known as an SBC, or Session Border Controller. This is a system of protection characterized as either a software application or a dedicated hardware device. It’s kind of like a special forces unit protecting your VoIP network. How calls are made, how they progress, how they end— these things are all protected through an SBC. Think of an SBC as your VoIP network’s firewall. With an SBC:

• Unauthorized network sessions are curtailed
• You’re not going to get eavesdropped on
• You won’t have to deal with call-jacking
• Eavesdropping is prevented

The thing is, if you’re going to have a system like this that works, you’ll likely need IT support in Los Angeles to help you install, monitor, and maintain it. You’re going to need regular updates, or it won’t do you much good. Do it weekly during low-traffic hours— you don’t want your business to be compromised by an update in the middle of peak operating time!

Protection

Maximizing and maintaining security is an operational necessity today. When you’re on the market for cogent IT support in Los Angeles which can reliably assist you in this endeavor, we at Advanced Networks have extensive expertise, and can help you choose the protection solutions which best match your operation. Contact us for dependable support.

IT support in Los Angeles needs to be cutting-edge enough that it follows technology trends and can upgrade accordingly. But upgrading isn’t quite enough— you’ve also got to be able to protect against vulnerabilities.

With any new tech, there are always going to be new strengths and weaknesses. Aspects of both won’t be visible immediately. For a fun fictional example, look at the Death Star. It was the biggest firecracker in the universe, and the thermal exhaust port was a proton torpedo fuse. Rogue One has cleared that slight plot hole up— no spoilers here; see it yourself!— but the point stands. Sometimes, massive funding and tech development still leaves a massive blind spot. That happens from the top down.

The Axis Powers had the enigma machine, but they never counted on The Allies developing what would become the modern computer to crack that code. The DNC had the 2016 e-mail scandals which ultimate effects are still reverberating throughout Washington. And the Internet of Things (IoT), one of the next big developments in tech, has some holes too. Primarily, it can be subject to hacking if you don’t properly protect your new IoT applications.

Samsung’s Troubles

Samsung SmartCam cameras were recently hacked, and so Samsung disabled user access privileges— an unpopular move. Then a hacking group found another way in. Luckily, they let the company know of the issue and fixed it. Now, when you’re looking for IT support in Los Angeles, you don’t want some exterior hacking company holding you up for a solution— no matter how good that solution may be. You should have protection for your IoT applications beforehand.

The best way to do that is to have an IT solutions organization install your new equipment, and ensure that they take every measure for security in a proactive way. You’re going to want an IT expert who can monitor your services, knows of common issues like those experienced by Samsung, and has the resources to combat such exigencies. “Cutting-edge” is a term ubiquitously bandied about today, but it’s a term people can relate to— the edge of the blade that cuts various targets is the sharpest part, the change-inciting agent, the forward mechanism. You don’t want some dulled IT solution; even if their blade is swung, it won’t work how it’s been designed to.

Qualifications

So, when you’re deciding on a solution, look for a few modern tech innovations to color their services. Things like:

• Proactive IT Support
• Cloud Computing Solutions
• IoT Installation and Monitoring
• Backup and Data Recovery Provisions
• Protections Against Viruses and Malware
• Responsive Help-Desks

In addition to these things, you’re going to need to communicate with your IT provider to ensure the greatest level of support. If you go to an auto mechanic and ask for a tune-up to fix some issue you’ve been dealing with, but then never tell the mechanic about that particular issue, how can he help you? It’s the same with an IT support solution. If you want it to be effective, you’ve got to let the tech guys know how to help you.

For IT support in Los Angeles that you can depend on, we at Advanced Networks offer top-tier, cutting-edge solutions designed to save you time and money while protecting your business proactively. Contact us today to learn more!

Aspects of Usability

When it comes to IT support in Los Angeles, there are several features of usability which are very wise to take into account before you buy. These include:

• Ultimate Scalability
• How Easy Software Use Is
• Swiss Army Knife Integration (all in one)
• Ownership Costs
• Necessary Security
• Industry Compliance
• Requisite Requirements

As you make your decision, be sure to get your mind around these angles to ensure greatest utility.

Ultimate Scalability

Do you plan on seeing your business grow or are you banking on it, remaining ultimately stagnant over time? If you don’t expect significant growth, or software needs that will have no pertinence to any kind of growth, then whatever solution meets your immediate needs will be appropriate. If you do have plans for expansion and profit, you want your software to grow with you rather than require a complete upgrade every several growth cycles.

Ease of Software Use

Many software options are designed by engineers who don’t have cognizance of their target market. They don’t know how the software they design will ultimately be used, and so design it such that other engineers may find it excellent, but non-engineers have no idea where to begin. Play with the software you plan on implementing, see if it is usable or unnecessarily complicated. You don’t want to have a need for training across the board with transition to a new software— this is costly.

Swiss Army Knife Integration

A Swiss Army Knife has multiple implements that make it more useful than a simple blade. Microsoft Office often has more than one use. It has spreadsheets, word processing, etc. Do you only have one requirement for the new software or will it be used in many different ways? Depending on your usage, more utility may be better.

Ownership Costs

It could be better for your business to buy the software outright, but then again, this may end up costing you. What’s trending now, because it’s more trustworthy, scalable, and cost-effective, is SaaS or Software as a Service. With this innovation, your software exists on the cloud, is automatically upgraded there in many cases, and only costs a small monthly fee to run.

Necessary Security

IT support in Los Angeles should provide the right level of security for your operations. Some small to medium-sized businesses will need more security than others. Generally, more is better; but sometimes requisite costs make unilateral security “too much.” Talk with your prospective provider to find your balance.

Industry Compliance

A medical or financial business will have compliance standards that differ. Meanwhile a warehouse or mercantile operation may not have such requirements. Know what you need, and be sure your software matches those needs.

Requisite Requirements

Swiss Army Knife software is good, but you don’t want to pay for that which you’ll never use. Additionally, too many features limit utility. Depending on your company’s needs, you may require more or less features. But for any software, there’s a point where too many features can choke operations. Ensure proper balance in the software you choose.

A Harmonious Balance

IT support in Los Angeles should be able to equally balance these seven factors. We at Advanced Networks work with each client to help their operation choose software which matches operational needs in each of these seven categories. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you with your business.

Businesses that rely on local servers should consider upgrading to IT support in Los Angeles that’s experienced in virtualization. The era of relying completely on local architecture is rapidly becoming eclipsed by businesses flocking to the cloud, using virtual machines or a hybrid solution. Here are details on how businesses can run more smoothly based on modern technology.

Virtual Servers

A virtual server, as opposed to a dedicated server, shares both hardware and software with multiple operating systems. Virtual servers are more efficient since they provide faster resource control while cutting costs. IT support in Los Angeles can make life easier for businesses by managing multiple virtual servers, while businesses concentrate on making money instead of worrying about the technology that drives the operation.

While a business can manage its own virtual servers, it gets complicated, so it often involves hiring seasoned IT professionals. An outsourced managed services team may make more sense if you deal with a network of numerous computers. The situation gets intense when various departments want their own virtual servers that run software specifically tailored for their departments. Such an infrastructure can be costly, as well as risky, since it involves making separate backups.

It’s not so complex when a company uses one virtual machine that shares resources with all departments. That type of infrastructure can be easily managed. But when a business becomes so compartmentalized with different systems, it opens the door for expanded security risks and potentially much more expensive for IT costs.

Keeping Downtime Limited

A company with tight budget limits should be concerned about limiting downtime. Large companies with large budgets should also be concerned about limiting downtime, except they have the benefit of more resources to fall back on. In other words, you need to be careful when you’re only working with a small network not to tie up too many computers at once with maintenance issues, such as backing up data. The more separate backups you have to make, the more potential there is for overlooked mistakes.

Using numerous virtualized servers often corresponds with using more of the physical server’s computing resources. Application performance issues can arise if this strategy does not accompany closer attention to network system management. If the physical server is not actively monitored by a quality IT team, then the result can be company frustration and even downtime. Lazy or inexperienced IT support makes the problem worse.

Quality Virtualization

The best approach for businesses that rely on virtualization is to use a managed IT service provider with expertise in planning, running and monitoring a virtual machine (VM). An expert team will be able to spot inefficiencies and eliminate idle VMs that waste resources.

Experts can also recommend a private cloud solution to free up resources and protect data better. Private clouds make an operation more complex, but are more transparent in mapping out resources and how they relate to expenses. The network infrastructure becomes easier to manage since it provides a clearer view of the big picture. A private cloud also empowers employees to access applications they need while remaining compliant with security policies.

Conclusion

Virtualization equates to modernization of business infrastructure, but it can also require more advanced IT support in Los Angeles. Contact us at Advanced Networks to learn about the most cost efficient high quality managed IT services.