IT Horizons Blog

When helping our Grande Prairie clients plan their hardware lifecycle I’m often asked about the price difference between consumer and business class devices. If you can go down the street to Costco or Best Buy and pick up the latest back-to-school-special laptop for $500, why on earth would you spend two or even three times that amount for a business-line laptop from Lenovo or Dell? Here are some important points to consider when purchasing computers to make sure you’re getting the best return on your investment. In the Windows PC market, inexpensive home lines come with whatever low-cost surplus components are available to the manufacturer on the factory floor at the time. Because of this, the specifications change month-to-month or even faster and there can be wide differences in the nuts and bolts even within a single model of PC or laptop. This means that not only are you often...

I hear people often refer to Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive as backups. I’d like to dispel that myth by explaining why these cloud services do not provide enough data protection to be considered a true backup and also how an actual online backup system can provide robust data protection that compliments the convenience offered by you cloud storage service of choice. Cloud storage service – how does it work? A cloud storage service like Dropbox, OneDrive, or Box.net synchronizes documents and files from your personal computers and devices with your cloud provider. If you make a change to your documents on one of your connected computers or devices, those changes replicate to all your other devices by synchronizing through the cloud (and by cloud we mean a data center/set of servers and storage devices maintained by the provider). This is handy because now you can access your files...

'The Cloud' refers to accessing your data or programs over the Internet instead of locally. “The cloud” is really just a metaphor for the Internet. Some of you may have even seen the Internet expressed in drawings as a puffy white cloud, back in the day. This is where the term, 'the cloud,' started. How can a business benefit from using the cloud? Unparalleled Connectivity & Increased Collaboration: Access your data from anywhere at any time with your team. You can save thousands of dollars on your business' information technology needs. Physical onsite servers & backup solutions are now optional. Just 5 years ago, when a small business was moving to the next level and needed an IT infrastructure, the cost could be between $15,000 and $30,000! Today, instead of investing all that upfront cost for technology hardware and physical setup, we can leverage cloud subscriptions that often take a...

An IT environment that's going to keep up with the demands of your business both now and in the future starts with a solid foundation - a structured cabling system that's robust and adaptable. This is one of the many IT solutions our trained and experienced team provides to small and mid-sized businesses throughout Northern Alberta and B.C, and it's one that can determine your network infrastructure's overall performance. Cabling that Keeps Your Business Competitive In today's technological world, a quality, effectively installed structured cabling system is a must for any business that wants to stay competitive. Our team can perform cabling installations for businesses in any industry, and we will ensure that your system can be easily integrated with the technologies you use now, but also scaled to accommodate your changing needs. Taking steps to properly install quality structured cabling and components today will mean less downtime and other...

Depending on the industry you're in, keeping track of the assets that are vital to your business can be significantly valuable to you internally, but it may also be a necessary step in meeting various security or compliance regulations. Accountability is an important factor in many IT environments, but depending on how your IT solutions are delivered or by whom, there may actually be little in the way of updated or clear documentation for you to draw on. In the last couple of blog posts, we've been talking about managed IT services and, specifically, the immense value that this type of arrangement can have for small and mid-sized businesses. This week, I'm going to discuss yet another benefit of managed IT from IT Horizons - greater accountability. Consistency & Transparency Sometimes, when IT solutions are provided in-house, knowledge is internalized rather than clearly and regularly documented. When it's time to...