VanGuard Technologies President Matthew Adkins was named to the MSPmentor 250 list Monday. The MSPmentor 250 is an annual executive listing and report produced by MSPmentor and its owner, Nine Lives Media Inc. The report features the top 250 CEOs, CIOs, CTOs, entrepreneurs, marketing experts, PR pros, association leaders and others who are shaping the global managed services ecosystem. Managed services is the term coined to describe the delivery of proactive flat-fee IT services such as VanGuard’s V-Care.

Adkins has been interviewed by local media including WSPD radio morning host Fred LeFebvre and the Toledo Free Press. The online version of the Free Press article can be seen here.

The full press release can be read at http://www.vanguardtech.net/2011/08/vanguard-technologies-president-named-to-mspmentor-250-list-of-top-it-managed-services-executives/

The MSPmentor 250 report can be read here.

VoIP is now within easy reach for everyone—including small businesses. Here are the top ten reasons you should switch to using VoIP and VoIP phones for your business. Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) is basically technology that allows you to make and receive calls over data networks.

Instead of traditional phone services which channel analog signals such as the sound of your voice over copper wires, VoIP converts these sounds to digital form first—so that they can be sliced, diced, packaged, and routed over a digital network.

Because VoIP technology uses the same ideas behind data networking, and allows the use of the same networks used by computers, voice traffic can also be routed through the Internet as well. Suddenly you can now dramatically reduce the cost of voice communications, as well as achieve creative combinations of both services to create new applications for use.

With today’s advancements in technology, and the constant lowering of prices as technology achieves mass adoption, VoIP is now within easy reach for most businesses—even small ones. In fact, many have already made the switch to an all-VoIP infrastructure, using a combination of VoIP phones and VoIP communication systems.
Here are ten reasons why you may want to consider switching to VoIP for your phone and office communication systems:

1. VoIP can allow you to dramatically reduce the cost of communications, especially for interstate or international communications, since everything can go through the Internet instead of having to go through expensive long distance toll charges.
2. You can make and receive calls from multiple devices—for instance, on a dedicated phone, your PC via a software-based phone, or even a mobile phone with VoIP capabilities.
3. It’s easier to add extensions to your phone. You can provide a local number or extension for all your staff without additional costs or cabling.
4. VoIP allows companies to maximize investments already made in their network infrastructure. The same network that handles the flow of data such web access and email can now accommodate voice as well—no need to add and maintain additional wires and devices.
5. VoIP allows your employees to be more productive and efficient by giving them the ability to receive and make calls anywhere with a data connection.
6. VoIP reduces the complexity associated with having to manage multiple networks and devices for communication. A company can potentially set up their office network so that each employee can use a single device such as a computer or a smart fixed or mobile phone to handle everything from email, chat, messages, faxes, and more.
7. You can use VoIP as a tool for real-time collaboration along with video conferencing and screen sharing.
8. You can potentially unify your communication channels, streamlining communications and information management—for instance, marrying email with fax and voice in one inbox.
9. You can employ presence technologies that come standard with VoIP phones and VoIP communication systems. This technology can tell colleagues about your presence or give you info on the status and whereabouts of your staff.
10. You can employ intelligence into how your calls are handled, such as: providing automatic call routing based on the number, time of day, etc; providing an interactive voice response when a call comes in, such as voice prompts that guide callers; call reporting; and more.

VoIP is certainly a technology that has come of age. It’s cheap, ubiquitous, and easy to use. Interested? Contact us and we can help you make the switch to VoIP for your business today!

The iPad continues to impress analysts with its sales performance, with nearly 9.25 million of the devices sold last quarter alone, an upward trend from just 4 to 5 million in previous periods last year. It may be just a matter of time before iPads start becoming just another device, like the cellphone, that people routinely bring to work. Is there a place for the iPad in your business? Read on to find out how the iPad can be put to work in businesses like yours.

The iPad for many is a revolutionary device in that it brings the full power and experience of computing into a form that is easy to hold, easy to transport, and easy to use. Manufactured by Apple, the device uses the same operating system as its earlier iPod Touch and iPhone devices. And just like its smaller brethren it does away with conventional input devices like the mouse or keyboard, instead requiring just the user’s fingers to touch, navigate, and interact with the operating system and installed applications.

Key to the success of the device has been the availability of thousands of applications from third-party software vendors – in fact, nearly a hundred thousand of them. These applications range in categories from entertainment, media, education, and even productivity and business. Using these productivity and business applications for the iPad, you can effectively use these devices in the workplace. Here are some specific work scenarios in which you may want to consider the iPad in your business operations:

For presentations. Because of its portability, the iPad makes a great device for showing and sharing presentations. Applications like Apple’s Keynote allow you to import and edit PowerPoint presentations. Accessories allow you to connect the device to a monitor or projector. If you’re thinking of doing virtual presentations, there are iPad apps that allow you to do that as well—letting you stream your presentation via the Internet.

For Communication and Collaboration. The iPad has built-in applications for emailing, plus more can be added to support audio and even video conferencing. If you want to manage meetings, the iPad’s built-in calendar and address book apps make it a great replacement for a planner, while its larger screen makes it easier to read and manage than your cellphone or smartphone. It has built-in support for third-party mail and calendar applications like Microsoft Exchange, Google Mail, and Calendar. You can also download and use additional applications to help you manage your tasks, monitor projects, share files, post and read stuff in your social networks, and much more.

For field assignments. The iPad’s light weight and portability make it a great companion while out on the road. You can install and configure VPN clients to securely connect to your office network when in the field, or use any of the business applications you use in the office—especially cloud-based ones. Again, using the built-in productivity tools you can use the iPad to manage your itinerary while on assignment.

For travel. As a travel companion the iPad is unmatched, with a wide breadth of apps for managing flight and hotel booking information, expenses, and more. Use the built-in tools to manage your travel itinerary, and use the communication and collaboration tools to check on progress at the office. During lulls, breaks, or after office hours, easily shift modes and use the iPad as a media viewer or news reader for information and entertainment.

Industry-specific apps. There are dozens more business cases in which the iPad can be put to work. For example, as a store or point-of-sale display, or even a point-of-sale device. Companies are using it to replace manuals, and schools are using it to replace stacks of books.

There are many more ways the iPad can be used for business. Are you considering using it for your business as well? Do you know of other uses? Let us know!

VanGuard Technologies President Matthew Adkins was recently featured on the Toledo Biz Talk Show on WCWA radio. In this interview Matthew discussed the history of VanGuard Technologies as well as a bit about what we do and where we are going.

You can listen to the Podcast here. The Toledo BIZ Talk Show airs Monday through Friday from 9-10 AM on WCWA 1230 AM. You can also listen online at www.1230foxsports.com.

VanGuard Technologies recently attended the 2011 ASCII Success Summit in Chicago, IL. The SMB IT Success Summit provides solution providers business building activities, market intelligence and an array of partnering opportunities all in just a single day. While there we renewed acquaintances with friends from vendors and other IT service providers, attended training, and shot a commercial for one of our vendors. The event was made memorable by a power outage affecting 250,000 customers. All day Wednesday and most of Thursday the hotel had minimal power. One of our vendors was handing out flashlights with their logo on them – they were a huge hit!

Being a member of the ASCII group provides VanGuard with access to other IT service providers throughout the US and Canada allowing us to exchange information, share resources, and gives quick access to product experts. ASCII membership differentiates us from the competition. We were the only service provider form the Toledo area in attendance! More information on the benefits our clients gain from our ASCII membership can be found here: http://www.ascii.com/member. More information on VanGuard Technologies can be obtained at www.vanguardtech.net or by calling 419-269-9918.

We answered a few questions for Geek Squad while we were there.

VanGuard recently attended the Spring SMBNation event in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The event is held every year and features many seminars on the newest and best ways of providing quality, value-added computing services to small and medium businesses. Also included were technical overviews of various products designed for the small and medium business market. This year’s theme was on cloud computing and highlighted many Microsoft technologies such as Office 365. Hundreds of IT providers from around North America were in attendance (including Geek Squad agents attempting to understand how to service small businesses). VanGuard was the ONLY service provider from the Toledo area in attendance.

In addition to the main event, VanGuard also attended a full day’s training by Cisco on the new UC320 Business Phone System. This phone system is a digital system designed to bring the same high quality, feature rich, durable phone systems to small business that the big companies have. The twist here is the UC320 is very affordable with a suggested retail price of $999 and phones starting at under $100. In addition to affordability the system is also very easy to use and program using a simple web interface.
Cisco Phone systems as well as cloud computing services such as Office 365, hosted e-mail (Exchange), SharePoint, and spam filtering are available now from VanGuard Technologies at www.vanguardtech.net or 419-269-9918.

VanGuard President Matthew Adkins recently attended the annual Microsoft-Intel Training event held in the Chicago area. At this event Matthew attended presentations from Microsoft and Intel on their newest products. The afternoon session was composed of hands-on lab training with Microsoft’s newest sever for small and medium businesses – Microsoft Small Business Server 2011.  Small Business Server 2011 affordably provides e-mail, document management, and file services for up to 75 users while Small Business Server 2011 Essentials is designed for companies of up to 25 users and features employee desktop backup. Both products are available now from VanGuard Technologies, Toledo’s Premiere Microsoft Small Business Specialist. Call 419-269-9918 or visit www.vanguardtech.net for more information.

VanGuard Technologies is proud to announce the availability of our new V-Defender Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) Device. The V-Defender BDR is a device that sits on your network and makes real-time copies of your servers. If a failure occurs, VanGuard can have an exact virtual copy of your server(s) up and running in minutes saving you hours or days of costly downtime. Optionally, we can also spool your server up in the cloud in case of a disaster. The V-Defender onsite server protection appliance is part of a comprehensive business continuity solution. Employing local and cloud-based components for total protection, fully operational failover, and convenient failback V-Defender is affordable, and simple to use.

The V-Defender appliance:

• Replicates all Microsoft Server operating systems, from Small Business Server to Enterprise server
• All/Any files and folders can be retrieved from historical snapshots that are by default taken twice daily (user definable and up to 512 snapshots) – including Exchange and SQL.
• Tapeless operation saves money while providing more reliability & accessibility
• Available in tower and rack-mount configurations
• Real-Time byte level replication provides a full, working version of your server, including the operating system, applications, and data
• Quick & easy verification as often as you like
• Automatic or manual failover means no more complicated backup sets and little or no operator involvement
• Complies with SOX, HIPAA, SEC, and FINRA security requirements and standards

For complete protection including disaster recovery, give us a call at 419-269-9918 and ask about the complete V-Protect™ line of local and off-site backup products.

While Microsoft’s Internet Explorer enjoys a wide following including many businesses, the downside is that it becomes a prime target for hackers to exploit and abuse. One such instance is the recent discovery of a new flaw that allows hackers to “cookiejack” or hijack information from cookies from any website.

Despite a few flaws, Internet Explorer remains one of the most commonly used browsers in businesses today, making it a ripe target for hackers looking for security flaws to exploit.

One such flaw has been discovered recently by a security researcher in Italy. Dubbed “cookiejacking”, the flaw allows hackers to hijack a cookie of any website, thereby allowing them to gain access to passwords, credit card information, and various other data stored in the cookie. The flaw is found in any version of Internet Explorer in any version of Windows.

However, users must first drag and drop an item before the exploit can be activated. It might sound like a bit of a stretch, but hackers are known for their creativity, so expect that a seemingly appropriate situation will be presented in which you will find it perfectly normal to do a drag-and-drop action.

Microsoft responded to the threat by labeling it as “low risk”, citing the level of user interaction required for cookiejacking to occur. It did, however, encourage users to be more vigilant and alert, as well as to refrain from clicking suspicious links and visiting dubious websites.

Regardless of what platform or OS you use, there is always the constant threat from cyberattacks – all it takes is one attack to break through and put important business data at risk. It is essential to always educate users on how to avoid being victimized by scams and hacks, and to have the right security software to ensure that your company’s information is safe and secure.

If you are interested in user training for security and / or better security protocols, please give us a call and we’ll be happy to draw up a custom security blueprint that’s tailor-made to meet your needs.

Securing your business data is twofold. The first part entails having the right security software and security policies. The second is providing the right user training to your employees, making them more aware of the different scams and ploys used in socially engineered cyber-attacks.

One of the things many people fail to realize is that securing business data from malware and other sorts of cyber-attacks doesn’t stop with implementing the right security software. These days, cyber-criminals also use all sorts of tricks to bait unsuspecting employees into being catalysts for malware entering your system.

Reports cite that as much as 60 percent of cyber and malware attacks on businesses are done through social engineering – meaning that instead of a direct attack on your system, hackers are using ploys found on email and social networks to get people in your organization to unwittingly introduce malware into your IT infrastructure.

This is why it’s equally important to put emphasis on training your employees to recognize common cyber-attack strategies such as phishing, or how to use proper virus scanning software so any external or thumb drives they plug into their computers are malware-free. Remember, it only takes one mistake from a gullible employee to open the gates of your system to keyloggers and other sorts of malware and viruses.

Keeping your company’s IT system safe is an investment. Getting the right security protocols and then training your employees to not only use and respect these protocols but also be more aware about security risks goes a long way in keeping your data safe and your operations stable.