Microsoft is working on patching any exisiting flaws in windows 10, and that includes forcing you to upgrade your operating systems. Microsoft started cleaning up their operating system support list a while back with Windows XP, and has brought it all the way up to windows 10 with their windows release health dashboard.

Windows 10, version 1809 is 14 months old, forcing upgrades to 1909, which effects all home and pro editions and will take effect May 12th of this year.

The feature roles out with a "Download and Install Now" (DaIN), which forced upgrades from 1803 to 1809, and into 1903 of Windows 10 version. The DaIN allows users to choose when to upgrade their operating system, and even schedule it.

Most system and server operators waiting till the end of the support cycle of the current version before forcing an upgrade throughout all the systems, bypassing the DaIN forced integration, which Windows is working around.

According to AdDuplex, windows analytics company, 22% of computers running 1809 recently, which is only a 3% decrease from October’s reporting of 25%.

Request a consultation today. 2econd Wind Technology works on any service upgrades or support in supplemental IT that your firm or business needs. We work with our clients in offering the best support, working with businesses in varying sizes.

Even with a large in-house IT team, it may not be enough to manage your business for releasing updates and adding information, both small and large scale. Facts are that most companies still have not developed a fluid equation to their IT needs. In situations where there is a stalemate in technological advancements, most companies result to spending more money and growing their team.

Thinking smarter is better than thinking larger. Saving money and updating your company with fluid practices is great for your IT team and employed staff, or even for a permanent solution. Supplemental IT is a great temporary solution for struggling businesses, but doesn't need to be a short term solution. Supplemental IT is great for companies whom prefer not to worry about the in-house staffing, time investment and setting up a support team. If money is a problem, it is also great for small to medium sized businesses whom don't have the capital.

Supplemental IT may seem as a big investment at first, but it actually is a solution most companies implement into their data and operations systems. AMITA Health is a great example of a company that utilizes Supplemental IT, which is no small accomplishments. Outsourcing your IT or simply adding to your team is actually a more cost effective solution to technological advancements and error resolutions for your team, whether it is setting up an email database, optimizing your support/ticketing process or helping with your database operations.
 

If you have any questions on how to improve your day to day technology operations, reach out to 2econd wind technology, and we would love to schedule a phone call to discuss how we may become the solution to all of your IT issues.

Hurricane Katrina and now Hurricane Harvey are natural disasters that disable everything around them and have caused the nation to shake. They cause the communities to come together and truly shine, especially through the powers of the small businesses that link up for a greater cause. We have constantly found ourselves in shock and in a state of sadness when he view the aftermaths of natural disasters, and it sets up our nation for the vision of how technology can better help us in preventing the actions of natural disasters. It also puts into play how businesses rebound from catastrophes, such as Hurricane Harvey, in terms of resetting up their business and IT services. Can IT really help companies recover and help resolve the community? It has the ability to do that and much more. 

Source: https://www.britannica.com/event/Hurricane-Katrina

Information Technology has always been the tool used to advance our society. We depend on both information and technology as a source of national separation, competing with other countries on who has the most advanced set of technological tools to innovate. In times of natural disasters, we need to take a step back to the fundamentals of IT to figure out how small businesses recover from natural disasters, or in this case, Hurricane Harvey. Now in most scenarios, if not all, there is a lot of support going into the communities, commonly raising money for business’, for people to get their homes back and lives to return back to normal and what not. An IT department is great for businesses making a recovery from any situation, and sometimes it is even important to make sure you have disaster occurrence insurance, especially if the location you are in is common for these disasters. You should always make sure, with or without your IT services, that your information is secured, backed up and saved so that re-launch is not the most dreadful part of recovering from an event. Of course on top of the IT costs you have to worry about physical building costs and interior and what not, part of your personal expenses and government/city expenses as both will take part in recovery of your business. So try your best to minimize these costs. Recovering information when it is not backed up is very costly and a hard task at that, trying to work around damage is not an easy task when it comes to data which is why layers of fail-safes are important to any business. Put yourself in a situation where you can depend on IT and not have to be a small business looking for IT services last minute. Consult with us today so that we can better prepare your business for situations such as these.

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Source: https://goo.gl/h3Laz6

Our thoughts are with the people whom have been affected by hurricane Harvey. To donate, please visit the American Red Cross or simply click here

Most devices now-a-days utilize the wonderful IPv4 protocol. IPv4 stands for Internet Protocol Version 4 and simply allows our devices to connect to the internet. Essentially IPv4 technology works whenever your device, whether it is your computer, phone, tablet or TV, uses it’s unique IP address, it sends to and from the internet. The Physical IP address sticks to the product as a “unique identifier” and allows it to be labeled and located by the internet. Now, there are other types of Internet Protocol Addresses such as a Sticky Dynamic IP Address, which is a form of assignment, and IPv6, and the list goes on. The Internet Protocol space, almost like a realty home management, is managed globally by IANA or Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, which are divided by 5 RIR’s or Regional Internet Registries.

Now we got the details out, lets continue on with you leveling up. IPv4 has been the most common and reliable protocol that our devices use. Through time, and usage IPv4 has shown to have a lot of issues that haven’t been fixed, for a while now, since 1983, to be exact. IPv4 carries a hefty 32-bit number, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but holds up to 4,294,967,296 or (232) IP addresses. If you thought that was a lot, IPv6, the newer, improved and smarter version of IPv4 carries a hefty 3.403×1038 (approximately) of IP address which scales heavily. The issue with IPv6 is that we simply didn’t need it yet, well at least until now. IPv6 shows us security in the use of internet, knowing that we won’t be flooded with IP addresses, insufficient to the universe as the growing number of technology use seems to shock us on a day to day basis. Think about it, how many devices do you use that connect to the internet? Most users carry at least two (laptop & mobile phone).

The issues revolving IPv6 seem to grow, mainly being…

·        Not all devices and ISP’s (Internet Service Providers) support IPv6 yet;

·        Routers seldom support IPv6, and if they do it is hard finding one on the lower end      budget that meets the intensity of a heavy internet user.

But the good out-weighs the bad…

·        IPv6 obviously outnumbers IPv4 in available IP sectors;

·        IPv4 uses fragmentation, in packeting, where IPv6 no longer needs to fragment, which slows down a router so IPv6 essential is faster in terms of network speed;

·        IPv6 also carries more bits, 128-bit number, where IPv4 is 32-bit number;

·        Security is no longer an issue for IPv6, as it is a part and integrated within the IP Sector, where IPv4 struggles in security.

Now very rare, and in some cases expensive, IPv6 is available to some, and a lot of people are starting to take advantage of it’s many features. Businesses are beginning to implement the technology more and more, and some believe that it will fully replace IPv4 in the future as our internet-of-things seems to grow on a day to day basis, while others think IPv6 is not necessary in replacing IPv4. Have you leveled up to IPv6? Are you reaping the benefits? Let us know on social media by tagging our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/2econdWindTechnology

Are you already using IPv6? Find out by visiting (http://testmyipv6.com) which tests your IP address.

    1. Mobility

Your clients are constantly on the run, moving at a minute’s notice to satisfy their customer’s needs. So, it makes just as equal sense that your company is mobile for your clients. A majority of companies have begun to assign their employees weekend shifts and 24/7 shifts, answering a ticket at a moment’s notice. The days of “Support Desk” are over, it is now “Mobile Support”. Have you upgraded? Separate yourself from the rest.

2. Lack of Organization

This one isn’t such a good one to have within your company, but a building block for you to implement within your company. Most IT firms seem to find their structure to be unorganized, and a lot of businesses seem to be unsatisfied with the response time of IT firms that they are working with. If you lack organization within your company, you better fix it right away or you risk the possibility of losing your company as a whole, as it truly can be the downfall of even the greatest company.

3. Cloud Computing & Storage

The future is now! Well, kind of. If you are a Chicago based IT firm, then you must be practicing the advances of offering your clients cloud computing and storage.  Companies excel the most when they are able to use a VPN to connect to their company’s servers and get their work done. If you are able to offer this to your clients, then you are already competing with the head honcho’s as the price is not cheap to offer this set-up.

4. Artificial Intelligence

Now, when we mention AI, we don’t mean the Facebook computer that builds its own language, doomsday-esc type of AI, we stay away from that bad joojoo. We mean automated services that function off of Natural Language Processing (NLP), voice recognition, facial recognition and other advanced technology that big companies like Google, Apple and Amazon have their hands on, and continue to separate themselves with. With the race between the three, and now Samsung proving a worthy opponent with their AI, it seems that the talk is huge and companies like big things.

5. Big Data & Security

We’ve written about this before and we mean it. Security and Big Data is huge and connects with AI, as a majority of our marketing and IT solutions connects in a big way with Big Data & Security. Big Data has never fallen off the top 10 of IT trends as it continues to excite, or scare, people into thinking how companies actually use our information. On top of this, people are very secure with how they operate with Big Data, especially when the understand the extent of how far we, as a society, have come in terms of Big Data. Yes, we are talking to you, people who put tape on their laptop cameras!

The danger of having an unsecured IT set-up is not worth the struggle, especially if you are a Chicago-based firm doing it yourself. The procedures that ensure a secure database are often overlooked by either employees or firms managing your database. It is with the highest importance that your services and information are managed with the most secure set up, no client wants the business that they are working with to have an unsecure database. As a matter of fact, clients find it most comfortable if a company where to display how secure their database is to their clients. Who doesn't value safe business relations?

When taking into consideration the security of a database, Chicago IT firms and all other firms should ensure that there are layers of security to be implemented. The layers of support and strength are what define how secure your database is. There are a list of checks and balances that must be accomplished, some taken more seriously than others depending on the size of your database. The basic list is labeled as access control, auditing, threat prevention and backup.

Access control or authentication is the simple, who can access your database, from where, and what times. A simple "username and password" can go a long way and it is best to keep this controlled, monitored, and ensuring the ability to adjust this at your need can be done at a times notice. For example, you do not want a fired employee to enter your database and delete everything, ensure that his access is revoked at the time of dismissal. With a Chicago-based IT support that has 24/7 response time, we ensure that 2econd Wind has this under control.

Auditing is a process of ensuring no bad patterns of bad things are happening in your system by routinely checking logs, files, and data to ensure nothing bad is in there, or to make sure no one is accessing files they shouldn't be! Imagine a detective with a magnifying glass examining everything for something that just doesn't belong in your database. This step is essential in ensuring that no one is tampering and using your files incorrectly as well as its ability to prevent a numerous of other issues.

Threat prevention, or encryption, is the foundation of a secure IT database. Small Business IT Support struggles with implementing a sophisticated and reliable encryption, which should never happen. 2eond Wind IT has the essentials and go-to needs for encryption, and everyone struggles with this. Whether it is implementing security to prevent all sorts of hacking such as white hat, DOS, phishing, ransomware, or sniffing, you want to ensure that your database can prevent these and many more. This can be prevented in many ways, but ensuring you have a solid and secure system is the best way to go about this. If you struggle with this, we urge you to contact us on our home page so that we can prevent anything from happening to your company.

Backups are the "you saved my ass" of information. What happens if your files are gone forever? Well, we just said it, they are gone forever. With a backup, you can ensure that you have a "2econd Wind" in your company life. See what we did there? Backups are often forgotten about, but desired most when files disappear. Don't put yourself in that situation, and allow us to back up your files for you in case of an emergency. This is a standard in all databases, and if you do not have it, you are missing out on a foundation of security.

If you manage a company, you most likely find yourself going to Google and searching all over the web for local IT support. Most of the times you find some low-end IT support service that just doesn’t cut it, and they mess around with your systems without even telling you what they are doing. Actively practicing business investment can be risky, and a lot of businesses are afraid of this because of the simple fact that a lot of IT support services lack communication. Communication is key because without it, you simply cannot implement and circulate the correct information. “I don’t know what the IT support guy did with our database!” said Jacob, the business man as he panics to find the information for his $1,000,000 deal. Don’t be Jacob.

We know, at 2econd Wind Technology, that communication is key. Communication is power, you need it to connect from top to bottom. Whether it goes from corporate, to upper management, to lower management, to your customers, everyone knows the importance of communication. That is the point of your IT services, without a fluid IT help desk, and lacking the remote IT (that 2econd Wind oh so happens to have!), you will struggle when communication is required. Hire a company that will ensure your IT services for small business is meet to the quality needs that you need. The best communication comes best when you have computers interjecting the process, such as emails, instant messenger or whatever form of inter-company communication you use. Communication is the foundation of most major companies that succeed in today’s industries such as Apple who is able to effectively communicate their companies’ motto and image directly to their consumers. Other companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Arbys, GM, and Whirlpool all have great communication and you can see it in their marketing, and we believe that you should to.