Initiate Disaster Recovery Procedures Before Hurricane Season Begins

initiate disaster recovery procedures before hurricane season begins

Although the official timeline for tropical storms in the United States only lasts from June 1 through December 1, savvy businesses up and down the East Coast in the Gulf States know that business preparations in the event of a tropical storm or hurricane hitting your area are an ongoing process.

As 2015 heads towards summer, it’s a good idea to review your disaster recovery procedures for hurricane season before bad weather actually hits.

Just a few years ago, many businesses simply backed up their data to external hard drives prior to hurricane season and hoped for a short outage once a tropical storm hit. However, what happens if you forget to grab the backup drive before leaving the office? These days disaster recovery for your business means much more than preserving files on a separate hard drive. Information on your entire server can be at risk along with your entire telephone system if you are using VoIP services.

AE Technology Group can provide protection of all business records and data. Our backup solutions include secure cloud or data center storage that can replicate your IT working environment and get you up and running as soon as its safe to return to the premises following the storm. Getting your networks up and running as soon as possible following a natural disaster will minimize losses to your business and keep customers happy.

Cloud and other backup solutions that are suitable for disaster recovery are not just for large corporations.

Contact us today before a hurricane hits to learn how we put customized disaster recovery procedures in place that can ultimately save money.

Let Our Business IT Support on Long Island Help You Prevent Downtime

let our business it support on long island help you prevent downtime

business it support Business IT support is something every business needs, but many business people don’t know where to turn. Arguments still ensue about whether hiring an in-house IT team is better over hiring a consultant. Here at AE Technology Group, we prove every day that hiring a consultant for your IT support is the best way, for a variety of reasons.

First, they have more extensive knowledge thanks to valuable time working out in the field. Our staff knows what’s going on in the industry and understands what kind of troubles afflict the world of IT lately. This includes knowledge of the latest virus threats and how to combat them.

This stream of knowledge also includes being aware of the latest technology available to prevent any dangers. Other technicians who work for only one company aren’t always aware of what’s happening in other companies and how they successfully prevent issues from ever occurring.

Without this knowledge, you take a severe risk with your Long Island business. And when you experience downtime for the first time, you realize how much of a financial downfall it brings.

Prevention of Downtime

Just saying the word “downtime” makes most businesses bristle nowadays, no thanks to so many horror stories of downtime shutting businesses down permanently. Many of those stories come from Hurricane Sandy when it hit New York a couple of years ago. Plus, it was the same for the Polar Vortex last year. Businesses not prepared for those likely experienced so much downtime due to power failures, or perhaps severe IT issues, they never recovered.

Just imagine your company working on a critical project and you end up having a major IT issue right before a major deadline. The same could happen while you’re getting an influx of visitors due to publicity. Yes, the old problem of crashing servers is a big problem when taking advantage of new customers.

With our IT support behind the scenes, we’re there by phone, email, or in person for whatever tech problem you have. Our commitment to prevention methods reduces the chances of things happening in the first place, though we’ll be there to get any issue fixed in an efficient amount of time. We guarantee that downtime won’t become a nasty word when you use our support services.

Contact us here at AE Technology Group so we can become your new, reliable IT consultants. Also consider our overall managed services where we work behind the scenes without bothering you to keep everything running efficiently.

How To Remove a Virus From Your Computer

how to remove a virus from your computer

how to remove a virus from your computer

Is your computer running slowly or acting weird?

If so, your computer might be infected with a virus. In this article we will cover how to remove a virus from your computer.

Knowing the enemy

If you think that your computer has a virus, you are probably right. However, it’s important to know what you are facing and whether your computer issues are due to another factor.

So the first thing you need to do is scan your computer. There are many free programs out there that will do this for you.

Getting rid of the virus

Don’t worry if the scan pointed out a virus or numerous viruses. The vast majority of viruses can be removed easily. However, you may have to spend some money on a good antivirus program.

There are some good free ones out there, but if you want to ensure that your viruses are removed effectively choose a premium option.

Double-check

Scan your computer again after you’ve chosen your antiviral program. From there you simply follow the directions of your program. Most programs will remove multiple viruses with a click of the mouse.

Unfortunately, it may take hours to remove the virus completely. It’s possible to continue using your computer while the virus is being removed, but we don’t recommend it. Using your computer while it’s infected is not safe and doing so will slow down the virus removal process.

After your program says that the virus has been removed, rescan to ensure your antivirus program has worked effectively.

If it’s still there, you will have to receive support from an IT company. If you need this additional support contact us. We can remove even the strongest of viruses.

How and Why You Should Defrag Your Company’s Computers

how and why you should defrag your company computers

how to defrag computer There are a few things you can do to keep your business computers fast and responsive. In this blog we’ll go over how to defrag your computer.

First, you need to understand why defragmentation is necessary. It’s different from clearing up your hard drive to prevent lagging.

A recent Lifehacker article goes over fragmentation and defragmentation and puts them in simple terms:

“When your computer writes data to your drive, it does so in “blocks” … Fragmentation happens when those files get split between blocks that are far away from each other. The hard drive then takes longer to read that file because the read head has to “visit” multiple spots on the platter. Defragmentation puts those blocks back in sequential order, so your drive head doesn’t have to run around the entire platter to read a single file.”

It’s important that you defrag your computer every so often. The good news is that defragging is so easy that any novice user can do it.

Here are the steps of defragging, outlined by Microsoft:

Open Disk Defragmenter by clicking the Start button .
Under Current status, select the disk you want to defragment.
To determine if the disk needs to be defragmented or not, click Analyze disk.
Click Defragment disk.
If your employees know how to open and run basic programs, then they’ll be able to defrag their computers. You also don’t have to worry about them messing with any settings.

TIP: While it’s useful to show employees how to defrag their computers, it’s even better to just set up a defragmentation schedule. This way, employees don’t have to go through the process once every week. It’ll get done on a weekly or monthly basis at a time they choose. We recommend setting up schedules with the other maintenance programs Microsoft offers.

To talk more about defragging your computer, or anything else, please contact us. Thanks.

Managed Services for a Better Business

managed services for a better business

If the ever-changing world of IT has your head in a tailspin, you’re not alone. If the thought of running an IT department within your own business gives you nightmares, it may be time to consider an MSP.

An MSP, or managed service provider, is perfect for small, or medium-sized businesses that don’t have the capital to invest, or simply don’t want to spend the amount of money it would take to buy all of the equipment, and pay the necessary staff to run an effective IT department in-house. Managed service providers offer small businesses the opportunity to save time, money, and space by outsourcing their IT needs.

As more entrepreneurs open start-ups, innovators break ground, operations down-size, and many businesses shift away from the corporate structure, MSPs are becoming increasingly preferred. Having on-demand experienced IT support was once an expensive luxury exclusive to big businesses. Fortunately, with an MSP, this personalized on-demand support is now totally affordable for any size company. MSPs are flexible and allow companies to access to the amount of data storage they actually need, and can afford, and to adjust as their business grows, or downsizes. Utilize the experience and knowledge of information technology professionals, protect your data, and avoid any dreaded down-time with an MSP.

Forbes reported that, “The growing interest in management service providers comes as small businesses look for relief for their overburdened information technology workers who are often asked to perform around-the-clock maintenance. Such businesses are turning to management service providers to get a better bang for their buck…and to remotely monitor corporate networks to guard against hacker intrusion or to ease bandwidth bottlenecks.”

You don’t need to own an in-house IT department for your business to benefit from cutting-edge technology, customized support, and preventative maintenance. MSPs are the economical solution for any company that wants a slice of the IT department pie. Let the pros deal with your hardware, software, and network issues, and please contact us for any additional information to see how an MSP is perfect for your business.