Author: Stuart Crawford

Should a Business Place the CFO in Charge of IT?

The work of a Chief Financial Officer in a business organization is to manage the finances, record keeping, manage financial risks, prepare financial reports, and give general financial advice. Information and Technology, on the other hand, is the department that is in charge of designing, operating, and maintaining the IT infrastructure of the organization. So where do these two critical departments intertwine in the management of the affairs of a business organization?

Why is it important to separate the two departments?

This question can only be addressed properly by having a quick overview of the functions of the IT department in an organization.

Functions of the IT Department

Some businesses have their IT department run by the CFO because they think that the IT department is more or less a wing of the finance department. This thinking may be derived from years past where companies didn’t have a large IT department and no one really understood the work that IT experts were doing.

That was way before technology took a leap to this current era where IT departments are responsible for services such as storing data, online platforms, website management, social media, and all related functions. This scenario clearly shows that the functions of IT have evolved into a massive effort to keep the company website running smoothly and protect customer and company assets. Since the website is the face of most companies now, this is a crucial aspect of doing business in a global economy.

Connection with the Outside World

Truth be told, most of what we learn and know about a given business organization is the information that can be viewed at websites and other online platforms. The profile of almost all companies is found on their web page. There you will learn things about when it was incorporated and who is in charge of various departments. The addresses of the head office and branches, if any, are there on the website, along with achievements, awards, upcoming events, press releases, and so much more.

Links are there to all social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. These assets form an organization’s direct link with their customers. For instance, if a business is portrayed in a bad light by the media, they use their social media platforms to clarify issues so that they can restore the confidence of the different stakeholders and prospective customers. When introducing new products into the market, businesses opt to use social media to launch them. These are all vital tasks that take place every day for most companies.

Storage of Company Data

Long gone are the days when data was stored in large physical files using paper copies of documents. This method came with many disadvantages. Government buildings would frequently run out of storage space. The sheer amount of paper and ink used was massive. Retrieving documents was tricky at best. If someone misfiled an important document, the staff might have to search for days to locate it. Those days are gone with online data storage. Now a company can store enormous amounts of information and retrieve the records almost instantly.

Privacy and Security

With all the good things associated with a modern IT department, certainly, there are a few challenges here and there. Now that all our data is stored online or in the Cloud, it’s available to cyber thieves. Most of them have special hacking skills that can break through the best defenses.

Security breaches can totally cripple a business and bring it to its knees. Information that healthcare organizations store is very sensitive. It can be devastating for any company to undergo a security breach, but healthcare is especially vulnerable.

The IT Department is tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that security breaches don’t happen at all and if they do occur, they are detected as soon as possible. The IT department must be vigilant in protecting a company’s data. It’s a full-time job.

Updates

Technology keeps on evolving to better serve us and this is where the IT department comes in. They consistently stay aware of security threats. They install system upgrades and train the staff on how the new upgrades are applied. They must make sure the company website works properly and all service issues are dealt with right away. If customers can’t shop or perform tasks on your website, then they’ll just go someplace else.

Should the CFO do IT work?

Given the above overview of the functions of an IT department, it is clear that the Chief Financial Officer cannot adequately deliver or even oversee most IT work. The main and only function of a CFO should be overseeing company finances. Of course, they must be consulted if the IT department needs newer equipment, hardware, or software. These expenses can be hard to budget for but they’re very crucial to maintain a thriving online presence.

Wrap Up

The financial transactions of most business organizations nowadays rest with the CFO and his department while the IT department handles servers, computers, internet security and the company’s online presence. Only IT experts are equipped to manage these tasks efficiently. The CFO should be there to facilitate financial assistance and receive reports, but not be involved directly in the IT work. Organizations should ensure that these two departments have their roles distinctly separate and well laid out.

Healthcare practitioners such as doctors and specialists rely on information systems to diagnose and intervene in a variety of clinical conditions and settings. Recently, technology has allowed corporations to integrate cloud-based innovations to bring about the needed efficiency in the development of sustainable growth among healthcare institutions.

Increasingly, users of healthcare services have showcased a trend towards the adoption of innovative solutions such as the combination of information in the management of information and the collection of patient data.

However, there are still concerns about the adoption level of cloud-based computing systems in small and medium-sized healthcare organizations. The risks associated with data loss or breach exceeds the economic capabilities of these companies. In this regard, this article outlines some of the uses of cloud-based computing tools to doctors emphasizing the economic return on investing in these types of systems.

Among the uses of cloud-based computing tools discussed herein, we discuss data storage, collaborative cloud computing, and cloud-based management systems.

Facts About Data storage

Data storage needs serve a variety of purposes for doctors and their staff. Generally, cloud storage serves the interests of doctors in the collection and preservation of patient data for follow-up and future consultation purposes.

Specifically, doctors must refer back to the data provided by patients to continue offering reliable treatment options. There’s no way they can remember every piece of information about each patient. They rely on their records to keep track of patients, their health, and they’re treatment options. This allows them to offer evidence-based treatments for ongoing patient care.

Cloud storage has become a good option for storing records like these because there are simply so many of them and the records can cover many years of patient care. Naturally, it’s important to protect this data at all costs. It contains a great deal of health information and personal information that no one would want to be released publicly.

HIPAA Regulations

The laws are changing to offer people greater protection for this type of health information. HIPAA and other regulations are meant to provide rules for how patient data is handled and stored. In order to carry out effective medical care, doctors do need the health records of their patients to be accessible at all times. Without the ease of access and availability of cloud-stored information, physicians would be less effective. Their jobs would be more time-consuming. So there must be a good balance between the doctor having good access to patient data and the patient’s information is protected from cyber theft.

How Cloud Storage Benefits Doctors

With the application of cloud-computing tools, the strategy of cloud collaboration has developed due to the benefits of storing the results of clinical records and procedures to various databases. The provision of cloud medical databases enhances the readiness of critical information essential for quality service provision.

This availability of information benefits physicians when recommending drugs that relate to other medical cases with similar diagnoses and conditions. Today’s technology has a lot to offer when it comes to researching past medical cases.

For doctors, using cloud resources for their medical practice makes the work lighter and more effective. For patients, there are better, more effective treatment options available.

Time is also a big factor in treating illnesses. The sooner a proper diagnosis can be reached, the better. Patients want to know immediately what’s wrong with them and how to get well. This has led to the application of information from cloud-based peer-to-peer databases that offer reliable case studies on interventions and best practices to enhance patient satisfaction and practitioner efficiency.

Managing Patient Data

Sound administrative practices are essential in the control of a healthcare institution. Management systems play the role of providing automated services such as billing and scheduling. The benefits of cloud-based management systems are easy to realize. One large hospital might process the medical records of thousands of patients each year. This includes their billing and payment information. Imagine trying to keep track of that much data without modern technology. Automating most tasks is the only thing that makes sense.

Specifically, healthcare organizations collect patient data relating to care demands and offer treatment at a cost. The cost of providing the service is based on the cost that doctors and hospitals incur. Therefore, cloud-based web applications for billing functions are implemented in medical institutions to impact the economic development through sustainable return on investment (ROI). Both large and small scale organizations have come to understand the need to provide sustainable care by being efficient, ethical, and consistent in managing resources when providing patient care.

Wrap Up

It is essential for healthcare institutions to make use of the benefits of integrating information technology, particularly the application of cloud-based computing tools. These systems provide access to medical research that is essential in interpreting the proper treatment and care of the patient. In addition, the cost of doing business must be manageable and the patient’s private health information must be kept secure.

In terms of reliability, time-saving benefits, proper treatment options, and best care for patients, the healthcare industry needs the convenience of Cloud-based technology.

Today’s workforce is more mobile than ever, which means they can work from virtually anywhere any time, provided they’ve got an internet connection.

1. The IBM-sponsored Ponemon Institute’s 2017 Cost of Data Breach Study puts the global average cost of a data breach at a whopping $3.6 million. That’s about $141 for every data record. Not to mention that the cost of recovering from a security breach is higher than protecting against one.
2. More than 80 percent of employees use non-approved SaaS (software-as-a-service) apps in their job, leading to hundreds of million records already compromised to date.
3. An attacker can reside within your network for up to 200+ days on average before detection.

What Microsoft is doing to combat security threats

Microsoft’s protection begins with the unique insights that the tech giant amasses through machine learning technology. Machine learning on Microsoft Security works by overlaying separate sets of company data for its Artificial Intelligence (AI) system to monitor. The system measures each dataset against the other using pattern recognition to detect any anomalous activity which it then flags in order to be addressed.

This threat intelligence gathers signals — or indicators — from a broad and in-depth array of sources to help the security graph understand the threat landscape. This means analyzing and learning from data built into products and services such as Windows, Office 365, Hotmail, and Azure from users all over the planet to detect attack trends and intercept new threats before they happen.

That’s data provided by:

• 400 billion emails monthly
• 2 billion devices monthly
• 1 billion cloud queries daily
• 2 million file samples daily

Microsoft also employs threat researchers and analytics systems across its worldwide network to provide a timely and actionable assessment of the threat landscape. This approach means that Microsoft has billions of data points that throw light on various security issues.

The company is constantly learning from every one of these interactions and creating a security graph built on its broad scale, strength of signal, visionary mindset, and vast experience as a global enterprise. Most importantly, they perform ongoing studies of the threat landscape to help understand and mitigate the impact of more sophisticated attacks.

Pillars of Microsoft Security

Microsoft’s approach to security comes down to four simple pillars: Trust, Intelligence, Partnerships, and Platform.

Trust

Microsoft believes in the need to trust that your organization, data, and people are protected from security threats.

Intelligence

This is about acting on the intelligence that Microsoft gives you from its security-related signals and insights – helping both Microsoft and its users detect threats more quickly.

Partnerships

Microsoft is fostering an ecosystem of vibrant partners whose contributions lead to the effective raising of the security bar across the industry. The tech giant believes in working with the industry as a way to take a holistic approach to technology.

Platform

Microsoft security is in-built on the company’s platforms, taking a holistic approach to security by looking at it across identity, apps, devices, and data, as well as the security infrastructure. This involves, for instance, harnessing machine learning on integrated applications such as Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) to seamlessly monitor data, detect threats, and eventually contain them before they become a problem. Since all this is done using technology rather than human input, there is little need for employee involvement or related software deployment.

A more targeted approach to threat protection

Because many of today’s organizations have multiple data centers spread across various locations or all over the globe, there are more opportunities for a security breach. This means that an integrated approach to protection would be a less efficient alternative. Microsoft, therefore, encourages the deployment of more targeted products that narrow the focus and guarantee the security of internal business processes.

A good example is the protection that Microsoft offers for emails; a major point of breach targeted by cybercriminals. Here, Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection (which works in the same way as ATP) focuses only on scanning and detecting suspicious activity within emails.

There is also the Threat Explorer in Office 365 Threat Intelligence and Exchange Online Protection that Microsoft uses along with the Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection to create a broader threat visibility. This guarantees faster detection, investigation, and response to email threats.

Conclusion

With its unique approach, Microsoft is always steps ahead of bad actors that threaten your two biggest assets – people and data. Using Microsoft Office 365 means that you’re leveraging these unique capabilities to increase your protection. The beautiful thing about having world-class security is that it ensures your employees have the peace of mind to do their best work that will yield the most productivity for your organization.

On July 4th we as Americans honor the formation of the union we call The United States of America. Whether enjoying the holiday at the beach; a backyard barbeque; watching a fireworks celebration in the city; working hard in the office or shop; or marching in a local community parade; we all celebrate the birth of our great nation together as one.

For anyone who’s not American, or new to our country, here’s what Independence Day is all about.

Independence Day is celebrated each year on July 4^th. It’s often known as “the Fourth of July.” It’s the anniversary of the publication of the declaration of independence from Great Britain in 1776.

In 1775, the people of New England began fighting the British for their independence. On July 2, 1776, the Congress secretly voted for the country’s independence from Great Britain. Two days later, on July 4, 1776, the final wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved, and the document was published.

The first public reading of the Declaration of Independence occurred on July 8, 1776. Congressional delegates began signing it on August 2, 1776. Fifty-six congressional delegates signed the document. The delegates signed by states from North to South, beginning with Josiah Bartlett of New Hampshire, and ending with George Walton of Georgia.

Some delegates refused to sign the Declaration, including John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, and James Duane, Robert Livingston, and John Jay of New York.

Some opposed the document but signed it anyway to present the appearance of a unanimous Congress. This included Carter Braxton of Virginia, Robert Morris of Pennsylvania, George Reed of Delaware, and Edward Rutledge of South Carolina. Five delegates were absent including Generals George Washington, John Sullivan, James Clinton, and Christopher Gadsden, as well as Virginia Governor Patrick Henry.

John Adams sent a description of how Independence Day would be celebrated in a letter to his wife Abigail on July 3, 1776. He described “pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations” throughout the country.

An interesting note: Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, both signers of the Declaration of Independence and presidents of the United States, died on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after the adoption of the Declaration.

For our Help Desk employees, Independence Day is a workday. We plan to celebrate the 4^th just like the rest of our countrymen (and women!). But we do this by being here if you have any technical issues.

Our Help Desk is your front-line support for submitting incidents and service requests.

We say that we operate 24/7/365 and we mean it – Independence Day, Memorial Day, Christmas, New Year’s Day, Easter – no matter the holiday or day of the week.

You’ll have direct access to the IT professionals who help you onsite and provide the advice, guidance, and rapid restoration of services you need to keep your business running. 

When you call, one of our agents will log your request into our IT service management system and either resolve it for your then or escalate it to the next level of support.

You have the option of reporting an incident or service request by email or by contacting us by phone. When you do, this will generate a “ticket” in our IT service management system.

Once the ticket is created, you’ll automatically receive an email receipt confirmation with your ticket or reference number. This confirmation tells you that your request has been logged at our Help Desk and that it’s been assigned to a tech specialist who knows your business and is experienced in your particular IT issue.

Here’s what we ask that you provide when submitting a request to our Help Desk:

• Your name, business name, phone number, and email address.
• A detailed description of the problem or concern.
• Whether the issue you’re experiencing affects only one user, many users, your entire office or multiple offices.
• The impact your issue has on your business, including whether any critical applications have been affected.
• Anything you or your staff have done to try to resolve the issue before contacting us.

Prioritizing Tickets

It also helps if you prioritize your need. Here’s an example of what we mean:

• Non-Urgent: Your problem is minimal and doesn’t impact your ability to work. It’s something that you could wait to be addressed within the next week. (For example, you’d like us to provide a new piece of computer equipment for you.)
• Normal: The IT issue has some impact on your day-to-day operations. However, you could wait for two days for it to be addressed. (For example, you’d like us to help you find a better way to use an application or replace it with a different one.)
• Urgent: The issue you face has a significant impact on one user’s ability to work. You need help sometime during the workday.
• Emergency: This issue has a significant team-wide impact on your staff’s ability to work. Multiple employees are affected. You need help as soon as possible, no matter if it’s after hours, over the weekend, or on a holiday (like the 4^th of July). This is for things like outages and downtime.

Please do your best not to prioritize something as “Urgent” or “Emergency” when it’s not. This helps us get to those really urgent requests much faster.

We want you to know that you and your staff can enjoy Independence Day with the peace of mind that our Help Desk is always here for you. Happy 4^th of July everyone!

Help! How Do We Migrate To Office 365?

YOUR MICROSOFT OFFICE 365 MIGRATION CHECKLIST

First, let’s talk about why you should use Microsoft Office 365.

It’s simple…

If you do, you’ll have a full-featured, cloud-based office productivity tool that can help you work more easily, productively, and collaboratively.

This allows you to please your customers and grab more market share. There’s no better solution for small and mid-sized businesses today than Microsoft Office 365.

Why?

Because instead of simply packaging the popular applications you use (like Excel, Word, PowerPoint and more) Microsoft has taken the extra step to integrate these tools, along with others. This provides your organization with the capabilities a larger-sized business enjoys.

But there’s something you should know.

Migrating to cloud computing is a multi-phased project. There are many things to consider when making a conversion to Microsoft Office 365, or any cloud-based system.

We’ve developed this Microsoft Office 365 MIGRATION CHECKLIST to help ensure the process is seamless for your business and transparent to your customers.

Of course, we think we should do this for you.

Why?

Because it’s complicated and a lot of things can go wrong unless you know exactly what you’re doing.

But, if you’re ready to try this on your own, here’s what you need to do.

INVENTORY EVERYTHING IN YOUR IT ENVIRONMENT

Start by making a detailed inventory of everything in your IT environment. This way you can make the best decisions and estimates about what it will take to migrate everything. You’ll also be able to better determine how long this might take and develop a migration timeline that you can share with your staff.

Your inventory may include things like:

• Site Collections (a group of websites that have the same owner and share administrative settings)
• List and Libraries (a special list/library for documents)
• Pages (all files that have a dependency to another file using a URL)
• Blocked File Types
• Branding
• Workflows (pre-programmed mini-applications that streamline and automate a wide variety of business processes)
• Content Types
• Site Columns (reusable column definitions or templates that you can assign to multiple lists across multiple SharePoint sites)
• Permissions
• User Alerts
• Retention Policies (A retention policy is the only feature that can both retain and delete content across Office 365.)
• Records
• Users and Groups
• Large Lists or Libraries
• Any other UI customizations (JavaScript, altered menus, etc.)
• Customized IT Solutions

What About Our Customized Solutions?  

You could run into trouble here.

Create an inventory of all your customizations. Identify what you want to migrate. This is a good time to identify what you don’t need any longer and remove it.

Make sure you have a good overview of what you have in your sites (WSP, Sandbox, etc.) And note if one depends on another.

Map things out, so you’re sure to deploy everything in the right order when it’s migrated to your destination.

Are you running any Farm Solutions? These run codes that can affect the whole farm and can’t be migrated to Office 365. Get rid of them.

Do you have any Sandbox Solutions? As with Farm Solutions, it’s recommended that you don’t include these.

Converting any Web Parts you developed for Add-Ins could be problematic.

If you’ve built Timer Jobs, there is no real solution when you migrate to the Cloud. You must find a new way to do this.

Event Receivers: You’ll need to rewrite and host them differently to get the same results.

Determine how you can deploy your declarative artifacts. You might be able to do this with an Azure Web App or PowerShell.

Stay away from customized fields. Display Templates or Office 365 column formatting might provide an option for displaying content the way you want so you don’t need to create new fields.

Item IDs in Lists and Libraries could change during the migration.

REMOVE & REORGANIZE YOUR OLD IT ENVIRONMENT ITEMS

Microsoft SharePoint helps you custom-build what you need for your unique operations. Now’s a good time to locate and reorganize what you want to keep or delete what you don’t.

• Locate and get rid of any “Orphaned Users.”
• Locate and get rid of vacant SharePoint Groups.
• Move users with specific permissions back into Groups.
• Get rid of any Custom Content Types, Site Columns, and Workflows you no longer use.
• Locate any sites that you haven’t used or modified and determine if you still need them.
• Ask all users to check-in documents they’ve checked-out, including those that have never been checked in. (Ensure you migrate the most recent versions.)
• Find any Large Site Collections and break them up into multiple Site Collections.
• Locate Large Sites and promote them into Site Collections.
• Delete any duplicate content.
• Clean-up items that have too many custom permissions.
• Get rid of versions in your history you no longer want.
• Re-order Lists and Libraries that contain too many columns.
• Rethink and re-order very Large Lists.
• Ask all users to finish up any pending workflow tasks.

III. PREPARE YOUR NEW DESTINATION

This is the time to prepare a clean slate for your new destination. A well thought out Information Architecture can make all the difference between a successful migration and one you’re not happy with. Take your time doing this as it might be the last chance you have to do this for quite a while.

• Map out the information architecture of your new destination.
• Backup all of your data.
• Test your backup restoration to make sure it works.
• Check out all databases for any corrupt data. (Delete any that you find.)
• Run a number of migration tests beforehand. (Take note of any unsupported elements.)
• Determine the overall time required to migrate all sites. (Slow migration speed can significantly impact project duration, causing delays that can disrupt your business operations.)
• Set SharePoint to import user profiles from any specific sources.
• Map a plan for the metadata on your content.
• Look at your customizations. (If required, convert them to work in the new destination.)
• Locate any deprecated native templates or features and make a plan to replace them.

IT’S NOW TIME TO COMMUNICATE EVERYTHING TO YOUR STAFF.

Change is always difficult for everyone and this includes your users. For your Office 365 Migration to be a success, you need to let them know what to expect.

• Communicate with all users before starting the migration and let them know this is a process but that you’ll keep them informed.
• Circulate the proposed timeline to ensure it won’t interfere with their business-critical efforts.
• Let them know about the IT downtime that will occur and for how long.
• Relay any possible changes in the environments (URLs, Bookmarks, Document References, Excel Macros, etc.).
• Determine where to go to get an updated status or any assistance you might need during the migration.
• Create sandbox sites for previewing.

BEGIN THE MIGRATION

At this point, the process of migrating to Office 365 shouldn’t be too difficult if you’ve followed all the steps above. Just be prepared to deal with any unforeseen complications that might not have been revealed during the testing phase.

Workflows:

• Stop running any workflows you’ll be migrating.

Migration Scenarios:

• Use a third-party tool to migrate and granularly restructure as you transition.
• Perform multi-phased, incremental migration for large sites.

AFTER MIGRATING

It’s time to take a “test drive” to make sure everything is working properly in your new environment.

• Test your Destination Environment.
• Make sure everything migrated successfully.
• Test all your workflows and check user permissions.
• Make a complete backup of your new environment.
• Remove all access to the old SharePoint environment.

ON A WEEKLY BASIS: MONITOR YOUR OFFICE 365 ENVIRONMENT

You’re not done. It’s very important that you continue to monitor the security, usage, and other elements in your new Office 365 environment to make sure it’s running at peak performance without any glitches.

• Ensure all your users are getting what they need from Office 365. Find out if they require any assistance or run into problems.
• Always monitor data security and check for any data breaches.
• Locate any broken permissions.
• Ensure all users are using the right permissions.
• Ensure user credentials remain private.
• Control sharing of monitor permissions.

As you can see, when you move your organization to Microsoft Office 365, it’s important to plan exactly what steps you want to take, when to perform them, and who’s involved. Keep the lines of communication open, and this checklist will help you as you plan and prepare for a migration to Office 365.

How Do You Know That You Can Trust Your Cloud Provider?

8 Important Questions You Should Ask

We lock the doors to our workplaces when we leave for the day, but there’s no key to turn on our cloud storage security. So, what do business owners like you need to know to keep your digital world as safe as the real world?

While there are many common cloud software suites being used by providers that offer cloud storage-as-a-service, it doesn’t mean that their operations are equal. Ensuring your cloud security should begin before uploading your first file.

Here Are 8 Important Questions That You Should Ask Before Choosing A Cloud Provider

Does your cloud provider have a regular backup schedule?

Depending upon your specific solution, any cloud provider worth their subscription cost will run regular backups with redundancies for all the data it stores. The backups are often stored separately from the primary storage which adds another level of security against data loss. In the event of an incident in one location, data can instantly be restored from one of the other backups.

Do they stay ahead of issues?

Along with an alternate storage location for those backups, ensure you’re getting the protection you are paying to receive. Because a cloud provider’s reputation largely relies on its ability to deliver on its promises of security and reliability, staying ahead of issues before they become problems is every good provider’s top priority.

Does your provider conduct security audits and make them available to you?

Reputable cloud providers conduct routine security audits of their systems to ensure your data is safe from a variety of threats, including malware, data corruption, system failure, or damage to your physical infrastructure. Even better, these security audits are typically available to the provider’s customers because they want you to know that your data is in good hands.

Do they offer Security Awareness Training?

With all the security tools available today, it would be much more difficult for cybercriminals to gain access to data if it wasn’t for the single biggest source of security breaches – human error. The end user remains the biggest threat to the security of business data. Knowing that your cloud provider can educate and empower you and your employees in the practice of good security hygiene is an important step in ensuring your data safety.

What about Cloud Compliance Support?

Can they deliver cloud infrastructure solutions for closely regulated industries and ensure the data they collect, store, and access for you will be protected in line with compliance regulations such as HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and more?

They should also provide support 24/7 to ensure that any issue or concern you may have is addressed and taken care of quickly and effectively.

Will their Standard Uptime SLA meet your business requirements?

Some cloud providers offer SLAs (Service Level Agreements) with 99.9% uptime, while others offer 99.999%. An SLA with 99.999% uptime will cost more than one with a 99.9% uptime. However, it may be worth the price.

There’s a significant difference between the two:

• A 99.9% uptime equals 8.77 hours of downtime per year.
• A 99.999% uptime equals 5.26 minutes of downtime per year.

Evaluate your needs and consider how much downtime is acceptable to ensure your business runs smoothly without reputational damage or major revenue loss.

What’s included in their Disaster Recovery Plan?

The cloud provider’s disaster recovery plan is extremely important. Ask about site visits and audits to estimate the vendor’s recovery time and the impact of a potential failure.

Does the provider have a reliable process in place? Is the provider’s staff knowledgeable and ready to react under the worst possible conditions? Unfortunately, disasters occur so it’s critical for your business and your cloud provider to be prepared.

How often do they test their disaster recovery plan?

A disaster recovery plan alone doesn’t ensure that downtime will be minimized in the unfortunate event of a disaster. The cloud provider must test their plan on a regular basis to ensure the plan is effective. Ask the cloud provider to disclose the results of disaster recovery tests on a regular basis.

When Selecting A Cloud Provider, Be Sure To Do Your Homework First

Your business needs a robust and comprehensive data security policy. And your cloud provider should play a role in the development and execution of this very important strategy.

Cloud computing and storage have changed the way we store and share data in all types of businesses – from the cost savings of off-site storage and the ease of collaboration to the peace of mind regarding disaster recovery and more.

But with the trust that we put in cloud solutions, it’s very important that this trust is also earned by the cloud provider.

There are many reasons why you would want to download a live video from Facebook, whether it is yours or someone else’s. Sometimes a video is shared into a very active group and finding it later would be a bit tasking. Another reason why someone may want to download their own live videos is to keep a copy for future reference, or even upload it to another social media platform like Instagram.

For whatever reason you may have, here is a step-by-step explanation on how to do it. First, this article will outline the process of downloading your very own live video from Facebook, then explain how to download someone else’s live video from your wall, or a group where the video was shared.

Previously, Facebook didn’t have this feature and it was difficult to download a live video but now it is available and very easy to use.

Downloading your own live video from Facebook

Step 1

Locate the video on your Facebook account page profile or on your feed. On the left side bar you will see under “Explore”, a button for Live Videos. When you click on that button, it will generate all the live videos you have shared or the ones that have been shared on your wall. Find the one you would like to download, then click on it to open it.

Depending on the method you choose to access the video, say through your feed, you will also be required to click on the time stamp. Once you click on the time stamp, it will open the video. On the right side of the screen, you can also view all the comments about the video.

Step 2

On the upper right side, there are three dots. Click on them and you will get a number of prompts including one allowing you to download your video. Click on this and you will start downloading the video automatically. It will be saved to your device as an MP4 video.

Now you have the video downloaded to your hard drive. You can share the video to your other social media platforms, email it to someone, or use it for whatever purpose you like.

Downloading someone else’s Live Video

Downloading someone else’s live video from Facebook is totally different from downloading your own. This is because of the strict privacy measures put in place by Facebook. The steps are a bit complicated and you may need to use a third party site in order to download the video and save it directly to your device as opposed to saving it on your Facebook page as a feed. There are other strategies of course, such as switching to the mobile version of Facebook. The bad news is that this is no longer supported by most web browsers. So for now, we will discuss the other option of using third-party software to download someone else’s live videos. One of these programs is called SaveFrom.net.

Step 1

Find the live video, open the time stamp, and play it. Locate your browser’s address bar, which is always at the top of the page. This displays the URL to the video. Highlight and copy the link. Alternatively, just right click on the video and then choose the option, Show Video URL. This is another method of copying the link.

Step 2

Go to the SaveFrom.net site and paste the web link there.

Step 3

Click the download button and you will have a drop-down menu with two options: download your video as an MP4 or in High Definition (HD). Choose a suitable format to save the video to your device.

Browser Extensions

Some browsers, such as Chrome, do have download extensions that you can use to download a Facebook Live Video. These extensions include Fbdownloader and Social Video Downloader, just to mention a few of them.

The trick to choosing the most suitable method to use when downloading a live video is the time it takes to do this and also the quality of the video saved. Choose a method that is best for your situation.

Wrap Up

Live Videos on Facebook are becoming a common trend lately and they are preferred because they have a larger social media following compared to YouTube. It’s common to see everything from funny cat videos to breaking news stories. Millions of people all over the world use Facebook today and everyone enjoys viewing the many videos found there.

In addition, more people are using Facebook as compared to any other social media platform. The important thing to consider is time and quality of the video. Depending on the device that you are using, you may have a number of options to choose from when downloading your video as discussed above.

Time is money, but most of us value both. Microsoft knows how important these two things are. They have developed some programs that will help you work faster with your computer or preferred device. This article will review some helpful features from Microsoft that will help you get your work done faster and more efficiently. These technologies include Cortana, Outlook, and finally the Microsoft Edge browser.

Microsoft Cortana is like a digital assistant who does everything asked of her. Before you start working with Cortana make sure to link it into your work account. Then navigate to the bottom left search bar. There, you can type anything, such as a random question. Let’s say you type something like: “What do I need?” Cortana will automatically generate a pool of different things she can do for you.

Simply put, you can set a reminder on your PC for a doctor’s appointment and Cortana will alert you on your phone. This is so helpful, especially if you are away from the office. It collects information from all your devices, such as your phone contact list. Cortana can send email reminders and give you alerts based on your location. Did you know that you can even attach a photo to your reminder? Yes, with Cortana you can do that!

Cortana simply ensures that you keep up with your busy schedule. Like all smart voice assistants, Cortana has the ability to find information ranging from flight schedules, traffic conditions, and even weather changes in your area. She can immediately give you updates on all these things and more.

With time, as you interact and use Cortana, she gets to know you personally and improves the kind of assistance that she provides. These customized services make this virtual assistant especially helpful. She helps keep track of your favorite things like music, hobbies, and sports. She can learn about your favorite hang-outs or places you like to eat. She can give you suggestions and inform you of any updates in relation to these things. Do you have a favorite celebrity that you enjoy following? Cortana can give you timely updates on what your favorite celebrities are doing.

The Cortana virtual assistant is constantly advancing in knowledge. The developers add new features all the time, plus she learns as you use her. This new type of technology is advancing at a rapid pace. It includes the convenience of being available for all of your devices. Information is synchronized across phones, computers, and tablets both at home and at work. Every time you use any of your devices, the information gets updated. Cortana remembers. This definitely saves you time and it offers a new kind of convenience that people are beginning to enjoy and expect.

Microsoft Outlook

Here is a tip to help you reduce the number of emails that are related to conversations in your inbox. You just go into Outlook into the messages in your inbox. At the top left of your menu, you will see something called “clean up.” When you click on this icon, it will give you different options like:

• Clean up conversation
• Clean up folder
• Clean up folders and subfolders

This allows you to delete individual conversations or entire conversations. This feature goes through your conversations, streamlining everything, leaving only the most recent conversation. Your inbox gets a quick but thorough clean-up.

Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge is the most secure, dependable web browser on the market today. It has a whole host of features within itself, but here are a few that stand out.

Imagine a busy day at work and you have been conducting research and your desktop has a number of Tabs open. Maybe you’re not ready to close any of them! Microsoft Edge allows you to use a tab manager which pushes aside the tabs for you to use later.

When you want to reopen those tabs, you simply go to the left of the screen, open up the Tab Manager, and select the tab that you want to reopen.

Ink within Microsoft Edge

The ability to ink within Microsoft Edge is now at your fingertips. All you need is a stylus. Go to the Microsoft Edge and circle what you need, annotate it, capture it, and send it to the recipient of your choice.

Wrap up

Microsoft is constantly searching for new ways to improve the efficiency of their products just to make your life easier and more enjoyable. That is why Microsoft Windows 10 is a modern day hack on your computer that will make work stress-free. It helps you get everything done more efficiently so you can still achieve the best results in a shorter time frame. Being organized is part of working smarter and so is mastering these simple tools. Knowledge is power, and with what you have learned here, you can save time and improve your work life.