What Your Business Can Do With IT Consulting

what your business can do with it consulting

ae-consult We offer IT consulting services to level the playing field for small businesses. We understand that not every small business is capable of affording an in-house IT team. But with IT consulting, you can enjoy a similar service at a fraction of the cost. Here’s some of the things you can do with IT consulting:

Talk to experts

If you ever have any questions related to IT, you can call at any time. Whether you’re interested in buying new hardware or you want to backup data, you can direct your questions towards us. Here are some of the topics you can talk to us about:

  • Technical and help desk support
  • Software training and support
  • Network design and implementation
  • Hardware design, installation and configuration

Make better IT investments

Small businesses only have so many resources to allocate to IT investments. It’s important that those resources are used efficiently.

We advise all of our clients to talk to us before purchasing any new hardware. Whether you’re looking to upgrade your computers or finally buy a new printer, you can always ask for our advice. We’ll let you know if we recommend a specific model or if something won’t be compatible with your network.

Lower your risk 

IT consulting provides business owners with an invaluable peace of mind. You don’t have to worry about network failure or cyber security. Furthermore, we provide 24/7 support so you’re covered through the night. Our technicians are available round the clock and are ready to help you with your IT issues.

Small business owners aren’t expected to be IT experts. But with the role of technology in business today, you either have to be one or know someone knowledgeable to talk to. This doesn’t necessarily have to be an in-house employee, as long as you’re willing to call in to contact support.

To talk more about IT consulting, or anything else, please contact us. Thanks.

Mobile Shopping Safety for the Holiday Season

mobile shopping safety for the holiday season

ae-safety The madness of the holiday season is officially here, and to kick off the shopping season there are six tips you should keep in mind when it comes to protecting your personal information. While many of these tips apply to computers, laptops and tablets, don’t forget that mobile shopping can be at just as high of a risk for security threats.

According to staysafeonline.org, 2013 saw 52% of online shoppers using mobile devices during the holiday shopping rush – the highest percent ever recorded. With all signs pointing to even more mobile shoppers this year, here’s what you need to know before making that purchase:

  1. Public WiFi is not secure, so before you make purchases in public make sure you have a VPN (Virtual Private Network) installed on your device. VPN’s keep your information secure by encrypting your data.
  2. Only buy from reputable websites or brands you know and trust. And listen to that feeling in your gut – if an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
  3. Be cautious about any emails that include a link and claim your order has a problem – this could be a way that cybercriminals ask you to provide personal information (known as “phishing”). To help determine if the link is legitimate, many times you can hover over it and you’ll be shown the full URL of the hyperlink without actually clicking. There are also link scanning websites such as URLVoid to help you determine if a website or link is safe.
  1. Make sure you keep up with any software updates on your phone. This can potentially help you avoid malware and/or viruses.
  2. Use strong passwords with a combination of numbers, capital and lower-case letters and even symbols when allowed. This makes it harder for criminals to guess when attempting to hack your accounts.
  3. Use multi-factor authentication (MFA, also known as two-step authentication) when offered. MFA is the use of 2 or more credentials upon logging in, such as a password, security token and biometric verification. Multiple steps mean your information is harder to access by criminals.


With a little extra attention to the details, you can still shop conveniently and keep your information safe this year! Don’t forget that AE Tech Group is here to help if you’re ready to talk about security ideas on a larger scale for your SMB – contact us today!

Winter is Here: Time to Revisit Disaster Recovery

winter is here time to revisit disaster recovery

What happened in Buffalo is a reminder to all businesses to practice disaster recovery. Businesses in Upstate New York that had a disaster recovery plan will have had an easier time recovering from the colossal snow storm. It’s difficult to imagine the difficulties facing the businesses that didn’t have a proper strategy.

For those who missed it, Upstate New York was just hit by a record-setting snowstorm. Here’s a description of the aftermath in a recent New York Times article:

In Lancaster, Orchard Park and Cheektowaga, three of the area’s hardest-hit towns, cornices of ice and snow blanketing house roofs dipped down like frozen custard toppings, merging with snowbanks that towered eight feet from the ground.

Forget about businesses trying to contact clients. People were lucky if they were able to open their door to exit their house. There was so much snow that entire towns were stuck inside.

We’re approaching the heart of winter now, so storms like this could happen at any time. Businesses in the north should be used to this threat. And even if you’re located in the southern states, it seems like no one is safe any more after last year’s polar vortex.

The lesson here is that whether it’s snow or rain or a tornado, disasters happen. You can’t do anything to stop it. What you can do, however, is plan a disaster recovery strategy.

Disaster recovery strategies help businesses restore their operations after devastating storms. You should include several factors in your plan, such as:

  • a source of data backup, such as cloud computing
  • an internal communication plan
  • an external communication plan
  • employee training
  • an official company policy

All of these factors will prepare you and your employees for the worst. If you plan properly, then it doesn’t matter if your city is hit with three feet of snow. Your data will be backed up, your employees will know what to do, and your clients will know that your operations will be restored shortly.

To talk more about disaster recovery, or anything else, please contact us. Thanks.

IT Support Celebrates The Return of the Start Menu

office 365 amp voip phone systems on long island and new york 2

Although Windows 8 boasted several improvements to the operating system, its much-loved Start menu disappeared. After much clamoring by users, Microsoft decided to bring back the Start menu for the upcoming Windows 10. (There is no Windows 9.) As your IT support experts, we wanted to let you know of several enhancements that have been added.

  • The left-side of the menu still shows traditional applications and folders. But the right side can include the tiles introduced in Windows 8. You can resize the tiles, add or remove each one, or remove all the ties if all you want is the traditional view on the left.
  • The size of the Start menu is under you control. Move your mouse to the top edge and move it to the top of your screen for the biggest layout possible. You can also move the mouse down to shrink the menu.
  • Bored with the way the Start menu looks and behaves? Right-click any empty space in the menu and choose “Personalize” from the pop-up menu and you can define the background color. Choose “Properties” and you can define everything from the number of displayed items to the way icons and menus look and work.
  • If you want to uninstall a program, there’s no need to do it from the Control Panel. Right-click on the application name in the Start menu and choose “Uninstall” from the pop-up.

Windows 10 is currently being tested so some of these features may differ in the final version. The new operating system is due out in late 2015. If you want more information about Windows 10, need help in preparing your business for the upgrade or have any other IT support questions, please contact us, your IT support experts.

Disaster Recovery: Most Common Causes of Data Loss

disaster recovery most common causes of data loss

An important aspect of disaster recovery planning is understanding what causes data loss. At this point, most business owners understand the risks and costs of data loss. On the other hand, not everyone is so sure as to what causes it in the first place.

We understand this and included a section in our backup solutions PDF that covers data loss causes. Here’s what we wrote:

The most common causes of data loss are due to:

  • Viruses
  • Software failures
  • File corruption
  • Hard drive crashes
  • Laptop loss / theft
  • Natural disasters
  • Power outages
  • User errors

If you’re going to plan for disaster recovery and what happens when you lose data, you also have to know why instances of data loss occur. Knowing what causes data loss will help you prevent it from ever happening. And while restoring data is good, preventing data loss is even better.

Consider what your business does daily to prevent the causes listed above. For example, write down exactly what your business does to prevent viruses. Do you have a firewall? Do you block certain websites that are susceptible to viruses? Have you educated employees about the risk of viruses?

This will give you insight as to how protected your data really is. If you find that there are many holes in your data protection plan, don’t worry. There are a few things you can do to protect your data immediately.

The best thing that we can recommend is to speak with a managed IT service provider. We can audit your data security and let you know if you need more protection. The worst case scenario is that you need to add extra security, and we can help with our flexible services. At the same time, you’re not locked into any deal or contact. There’s no pressure and you can choose what you think is right for your business.

To talk more about this or anything else, please contact us. Thanks.