With so many technological advances in the world today it benefits business owners to know their way around a computer and how to operate the latest technological inventions. Many business owners, however, do not possess the knowledge of computers they need to stay current with the newest technology. It benefits them to know exactly who to contact when they need assistance with It management, computer networking, or software issues.

There are many benefits of choosing a managed IT service over hiring an in-house full-time employee. Full-time employees can add overhead expenses to a company’s budget, including health benefits, pre-hire screening, and vacation pay. An in-house staff member typically covers an eight hour shift, and because computer problems can occur at any time, it is important to have the computer network monitored twenty-four hours a day so any problem can be resolves as soon as it arises. A managed IT firm will have the resources to cover a full twenty-four hour shift.

In this day and age owners and managers want to be careful about whom they allow to access their confidential and important files. This is why it is so critical for a business to locate a managed IT firm that not only has skilled technicians but ones who are cleared to work with confidential information. Not only that, but it really is important to find a managed IT firm that has experience securing the intellectual property of a network and the network itself. Security is a must with the threat of identity theft always looming.

So, why not begin the New Year by saving money? Choosing to utilize an outsourced IT service will help save money, worry, and time. Business owners and managers alike can get back to running their businesses and leave the stress of computer networking and repair to the experts.

AllCity Technology is an experienced and expert managed IT service. With AllCity Technology a business will have the option to choose from a variety of plans that are made to fit any budget. The plans can entail remote diagnostic service, anti-virus/spyware and anti-spam service, on-site networking, and emergency repair. AllCity’s technicians are trusted by medical offices and school districts as well as the Social Security Administration, Internal Revenue Service, and other government agencies.

This year you can resolve to eliminate a major business worry by choosing an IT service on which you can rely and trust. Check out http://www.allcitytech.com/ for information on how to bring AllCity’s expertise to your company.

The biggest danger businesses have with remote backup services is lack of knowledge in what to look for in a Michigan computer services company. There are hundreds of backup services and not all of them are ethical.

But not all service providers are created equal and you absolutely want to make sure you choose an ethical, reliable vendor or you’ll get burned with hidden costs, unexpected “gotchas,” or with the horrible discovery that your data wasn’t actually backed up correctly, leaving you high and dry when you need your data most.

If your remote backup provider doesn’t meet all 7 of these points, then you’d be crazy to trust them to store your data:

1. Military-level security, data transfer, and data storage. This is fairly obvious; you want to make sure the company housing your data is actually secure. After all, we are talking about your financial information, client data, and other sensitive information about your company. Never trust your data to anyone that doesn’t have the following security measures in place:

Ask your backup service company if they are compliant with HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, Gram-Leach-Bliley, or SEC NASD. These are government regulations that dictate how organizations with highly- sensitive data (like banks and doctor’s offices) handle, store, and transfer their data. If you are a medical or financial institution, you are required by law to work only with vendors who meet these stringent requirements. But even if you are NOT an organization that falls under one of these regulations, you still want to choose a provider who is because it’s a good sign that they have high-level security measures in place

2. Ensure the physical location where the data is stored is secure. Ask if the firm has a security and ID system

Make sure the data transfer is encrypted with SSL protocols to prevent a hacker from accessing the data while it’s being transferred.

3. Geographically-dispersed data centers. Anyone versed in data security knows the best way to avoid loss is to build redundancy into your operations. All that means is that your remote backup service should store multiple copies of your data in more than one location. That way, if a terrorist attack or natural disaster destroys one of their locations, they have backups of your backup in a different city where the disaster did not strike.

4. Require overnight copies of your data on a data storage media. Do not rely on a provider that only offers internet recovery.  Choose a backup provider that will provide overnight copies of your data via some physical storage device.

On that same token, ask your service provider if you have the option of having your initial backup performed through hard copy. Again, trying to transfer that amount of data online could take days or weeks. If you have a large amount of data to backup, it would be faster and more convenient to send it to them on DVD.

5. Make sure your data can be restored to a different computer than the one it was from which it was backed up. Amazingly, some backups can only be restored to the same computer they came from. If the original computer was burned in a fire, stolen, or destroyed in a flood, you’re left without a backup.

6. Require daily status reports. All backup services should send you a daily e-mail to verify if your backup actually ran AND to report failures or problems. The more professional providers should also allow you to notify more than one person (like a technician or your IT person) in addition to yourself.