While many small businesses beat the bushes to sign on any customers they can, Victor Grinshtein takes the opposite approach for his remote information technology support company.

He only takes on clients that he sees as a good fit, and in fact, has even gone as far as “firing” some of them.

Since starting Xvand Technology Corp. in June 2000, Grinshtein has focused more on building the right kind of customer base and less on aggressive growth.

Xvand serves as an outsourced IT department of sorts for small and medium-sized companies, housing clients’ data on its servers and offering testing, upgrades, system back-ups, installations, roll-outs and a help desk. The company charges fees based on a per-user, per-month model.

Read the complete Houston IT consulting article

In a study conducted by analyst firm Freeform Dynamics, more than 40% of small and medium-sized businesses that use hosted or cloud technology reported revenue rises of 30 % or more while 90 % of respondents not using hosted technology saw decreases in revenue.

Benefits of Utility and Cloud Computing

Firms enjoy the pay-as-you-go economics because it keeps cash in the bank longer. Additional business benefits include:

·         Accelerated Speed to Market: Starting with a prebuilt, enterprise-level IT foundation allows clients to accelerate launch times of projects and businesses

·         Lower Financial Risk: Reduce the risks of on-premise solutions that require upfront capital expenses with an uncertain payoff

·         Greater Financial Visibility: A cloud-based managed service provider helps executives more accurately forecast the costs of adding new users or locations.

·         Better Cash Flow:  Avoid assuming debt and keeping cash in the company longer

·         Free up Internal Resources to focus on innovations that drive business instead of daily trouble-shooting

·          

·         IsUtility^® , a Houston IT firm leading the charge for utility and cloud computing services, backed by 16 years of research and proven client implementation.

via Information Technology As A Utility.

According to independent telecom consultant, Simon Telecom (www.simontele.com), the following are crucial elements when considering an IT partner that you can trust to manage your IT requirements:

1.       technical resources and certifications

2.       secure environment with built-in disaster recovery

3.       experience with similar businesses to your own

4.       a cost structure that makes it an attractive alternative to managing in-house

5.       service levels with pre-defined penalties for failure

6.       managed exit clause in case things don’t work out!

For more advice in finding an IT consultant that works for you, please feel free to contact us.

Here’s another warning sign to firms involved in legal disputes to beware of malicious cyber-attacks.

According to a recent article in Network World, the law firm representing a U.S. company involved in a legal dispute over China’s Green Dam censorship software says it was targeted with a sophisticated online attack this week, similar to the one reported by Google Tuesday.

Employees at the firm began receiving well-crafted e-mail messages that appeared to come from other company staffers. The messages tried to get the victims to either open a malicious attachment or visit a Web site that hosted attack code. "It came from email addresses that people would recognize as internal to the firm, and the attempt was to make it seem like everyday stuff," said Elliot Gipson, an attorney with the company.

Thankfully none of the firm’s employee took the bait. he said. 

Takeaway: We strongly recommend that you warn your employees not to click on links or open attachments that come with suspicious-looking email. For more information on phishing scams read our blog article on network security or contact your IT provider.

Read the full article here.

Be aware of an phishing email campaign that invites you to "apply a new set of settings" to your mailboxes because of a recent "security upgrade" of their mailing service. 

Do NOT click on this email!

If you receive an email similar to the one pictured, please do NOT click on it. This is a phishing scam aimed at executing a virus similar to the recent H1N1 and Facebook phishing attacks.

• For more information on the phishing scheme, see this article. 
• For updated advice on phishing, check the IsUtility® blog 

If you’re planning some eleventh-hour online shopping, please be aware of a recent string of cyber-crimes (known as ‘phishing’) that has caused many unknowing victims to surrender their identities and credit card numbers to hackers and other criminals.

• To see recent example of phishing attacks see this CRN article. 
• For updated advice on phishing attacks, check with your Managed Service Provider.

I hate to beat a dead horse with the data security topic, but it’s become increasingly clear that many small business executives feel that they’re too "small" or "insignificant" to be a target of cybercrime. As a result they don’t take the proper steps to secure their organization’s most critical asset.

Back in September, we published a report on the "Five Most Expensive Expensive Mistakes in Having Onsite Servers". (You can request a copy here.) The belief that you are not a ‘valuable target’ for cybercrimes was Costly Mistake #3 on our list. Here’s an excerpt:

The U.S. Secret Service reported in September 2009 that, since larger corporations are pursuing data security with significant resources, cyber criminals are increasingly targeting more vulnerable small and medium-sized businesses.

"Smaller businesses often believe they’re better protected than they really are, because they don’t have experts to advise them on what else they should be doing,” said Steve Cole, president and CEO of the Council of  the Better Business Bureaus. As of mid-2009, there about a million new malicious programs created each month with the intent to steal information. Just as there is cost involved in protecting data, there is also a cost in not protecting it.

According to security leader Symantec, the risk of data loss increases in a bad economy. This is likely attributed with the unfortunate rise in the number of employees leaving their companies during the recent economic downturn – with a whopping 59% leaving with confidential corporate data (more on this topic in a later post).

The risk of data loss also increases when employees work from home – many times, on more vulnerable home office computers. Make sure your employees have secure remote access to corporate data whether they log in to your own infrastructure or through a managed servers.

Computer network consultants around town received calls from clients who wondered if their organization might become the next victim. Unfortunately when it comes to viruses, it may be too late. In fact, at Xvand we run into executives all the time who swear that their organization’s data has been secured by the firewall they’ve installed on their computer systems.  

But is setting up a firewall the be-all and end-all of data security?  

According to Richard Kirk, UK Director for Fortify Software it isn’t.  Because a firewall provides a gateway for users to explore the outside world and, therefore, it becomes the very doorway by which hackers gain entry. Mr Kirk explains that hackers understand the typical code used and will exploit simple mistakes in programming and oversights in security efforts.

In fact, 67% of the breaches Verizon investigated in 2008 were “aided by significant errors.” Their 2009 Data Breach Investigation Report states that “only 17% of attacks were designated to be highly difficult.” Making 83% were not difficult and therefore avoidable.

So let’s keep 2010 brimming with optimism. Implement strong IT policies and safeguards concerning employee web surfing, downloading and email attachments.  If your budget allows, set up a redundant data operation to switch to when things like this go horribly wrong.

If you still have concerns about data security, contact your local computer consultant and set up a security assessment (man any of the Houston IT consulting firms will provide one free of charge) to ensure sure your data’s safe in 2010.