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The workplace of the future is here now. Are you onboard?

Okay, so we might not be living in sci-fi movies just yet, but offices around the world are undoubtedly undergoing a revolution. Workplaces are transforming into collaboration spaces where no one has a fixed desk, computers are no longer tied to a single user and boardrooms are virtual.

Companies are embracing flexible working. Employees are expected to work remotely rather than being in the office from nine to five, and senior management are happy to let their middle managers decide who needs to be in the office when.

Even putting the COVID crisis aside, it’s estimated that half of UK businesses are now fully embracing flexible working, allowing employees to work from both home and an office. The Working Anywhere report by Lancaster University’s Work Foundation estimates that 70% of employees now have the opportunity to work remotely, and this will result in big changes for businesses as they look for ways to make the office accommodate everyone.

“The evidence is showing a clear trend towards a more flexible way of working in the UK as the hurdles are overcome by fresh innovations in technology and people management,” says Cathy Garner, director of the Work Foundation.

The office space itself

As fewer employees need a desk, businesses can downsize their office space. Small businesses can cut costs by only paying for office space when it’s needed, while larger businesses can either rent out space to smaller companies or relocate into a smaller office – significantly reducing overheads in both cases.

The design of these office spaces is changing too. Instead of sprawling offices with cubicles, which contribute nothing to productivity, organisations can instead use a co-working space or open up enclosed spaces to make the environment feel more collaborative.

Configurable desks feature in some offices, allowing employees to move them around according to whether they need to work collaboratively or singularly, and outside areas will feature heavily, offering workers a breath of fresh air when things start to get stuffy.

If businesses take note of a study that revealed buildings with better ventilation and ‘green’ features improved the cognitive abilities of workers, sophisticated heating and ventilation networks could feature heavily in office design of the future.

Smart lighting adapts during the day to ensure it’s always the most efficient for employees to get work done, and sensors will monitor the temperature, carbon dioxide levels and humidity, ensuring employee comfort is optimal.

Beacons can be used to log an employee’s attendance from a health and safety point of view, checking them into the building as soon as they walk through the door and logging them off as soon as they leave.

Office hardware of the future

It’s unlikely we’ll see laptops and desktops replaced by the virtual, holographic screens from Minority Report. Nor is it likely all desktops will be replaced by tablets and smartphones. What is changing, however, is the way ‘standard’ hardware is used.

Desks are starting to be equipped with computers that employees can simply log into and see the content from their computer at home – or mobile or tablet.

In the boardroom, tables and chairs are being replaced by huge screens such as Microsoft Surface Hub, allowing staff to work collaboratively from home, in a cafe, or with a client from another office.

If employees need to present, they can beam content from their connected device – be it a mobile, tablet, or computer. Because everything is stored on one single account, no one needs to carry bulky equipment with them.

The design of devices is also changing to accommodate portability and flexibility. Check out more information and a video on our Lenovo ranges with AMD Ryzen processors via this link.

Office software of the future

Software is the area most likely to experience a shake-up within the office of the future. As teams become more distributed around the world, they need to stay in contact and work as though they are right next to each other.

If businesses opt for the shared desk route, employees will simply arrive at their desk, log in and be able to access everything on a standard computer using a virtual desktop. All files and folders will be on shared drives and accessible from anywhere.

Collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams accommodate 24/7 communication, helping colleagues and teams stay in touch, share resources and ideas, making the working day more productive (click here to get FREE Teams licenses for your users).

It will also take the headache out of IT management and shadow IT as all equipment is treated equally and individual users won’t be able to install non-approved apps onto the communal computers.

“The next five years will see even more change than the past five years,” Peter Hirst, associate dean of executive education at MIT Sloan School of Management, told Inc.

“Over the next five years, it is hard to imagine that the display, processing, interface and communication capabilities of these wearable devices won’t match and likely surpass what we can do with today’s tablets and phablets (phone/tablet hybrids).”

One thing’s for sure: as more employees embrace flexible working, employers need to ensure their workers can be more productive wherever they opt to work. And if they do decide to head into the office, they must have all the resources required to get the job done.

Want to find out more?

As Lenovo Platinum PC Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on how the devices and solutions and could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back.

This article was originally posted here.

References

http://www.think-progress.com/blog/innovation-and-entrepreneurship/put-digital-at-the-heart-of-a-flexible-workplace-strategy/

http://www.theworkfoundation.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/398_Working-Anywhere.pdf

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/innovative-companies-changing-workplace#sm.000oyzuvf1031ddvup822dcydpruy

http://naturalleader.com/thecogfxstudy/study-1/view-the-reports/

https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-surface-hub/en-gb

http://www.think-progress.com/blog/performance-and-productivity/working-around-clock-company-always-on/

https://www.inc.com/comcast/your-office-in-2020-a-glimpse-into-the-future.html

 

Every IT technician’s go-to remote access solution

COVID-19 is transforming the way organisations all over the world work in the wake of a viral outbreak. Remote work is on the rise, and the traditional work environment may soon become a thing of the past. Currently, companies of all sizes are urging employees to work from home by implementing various remote work policies.

Unfortunately, only 30 percent of businesses are prepared to embrace remote work. For effective remote work, organisations should turn to their best ally possible—remote access solutions.

Step forward ManageEngine’s Remote Access Plus: Your essential tool for remote work. With it, your organisation and IT team can stay more connected than ever with Remote Access Plus, and embrace remote work like never before!

Every IT technician’s go-to remote access solution

Here’s how Remote Access Plus prevents your business from taking a plunge during this crisis:

Collaborate with other technicians

  1. Seek expert guidance from adept technicians and resolve issues in no time.
  2. Invite novice employees to learn from an ongoing remote session.
  3. Shadow end users during a remote session, and intervene if need be.

Leverage multiple communication channels

  1. Take remote collaboration to the next level with built-in chat options.
  2. Initiate a voice/video call to procure additional information from end users dynamically.
  3. Keep end users in the loop on every action that’s been taken on their endpoints.

Bolster remote troubleshooting

  1. Automatically record remote sessions for auditing and educational purposes.
  2. Troubleshoot multiple active monitors connected to the target machine.
  3. Remote power options to wake, shut down, restart, lock, and hibernate machines.

Transfer files during a live session

  1. Get past the traditional file transfer protocols with a two-way file transfer across endpoints.
  2. Expedite your troubleshooting process with all the necessary files during a remote session.
  3. Transfer files seamlessly, whether its a workgroup-setup or a domain-based setup.

Hassle-free remote diagnosis

  1. Remotely manage hardware devices such as drivers, printers, etc.
  2. Monitor applications, processes, services, and startup programs dynamically.
  3. Control Windows Registry, and remotely access Command Prompt.

In short

ManageEngine Desktop Central manages over 7 million endpoints with a happy customer base of 12,000+ organisations, and over 85% of customers renew the product annually. With a complete endpoint management and security solution in place, Desktop Central will watch over all the endpoints in the your organisation.

Click here to read more including a short demo video, or here for further technical details about the solution.

Take it for a test drive

Request your 30 day free trial today, and manage unlimited endpoints.

Want to find out more?

As ManageEngine Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back.

15 reasons to use DesktopCentral to manage your endpoints

With over 15 years of expertise in the IT management industry, ManageEngine Desktop Central has understood the needs in the market, and developed the product to defend cyber-threats. We’ve put together 15 reasons to help you understand why Desktop Central is unique, and the leading choice for endpoint management solutions.

  • Desktop Central enables you to manage any device in your network from anywhere at any instant with the most minimalistic and easy-to-use UI.
  • Desktop Central is compliant with major regulations like GDPR, PCI, CIS, ISO, VPAT, HIPAA and RBI compliance.
  • Network-neutral architecture enables administrators to manage endpoints across Local Area Network, Wide Area Network, endpoints in Demilitarized Zone, and even closed network environment. Endpoints in different network environments like Windows Active Directory, Windows Workgroups, or Novell eDirectory are also supported.
  • Desktop Central enables complete PC life cycle management and management of on-the-go devices. The overall view of the network endpoints is given in the product dashboard.
  • A complete end-to-end patching solution for Windows and other third party applications. From detecting network vulnerabilities, testing and approving missing patches, to proceed with immediate patching solutions or completely automate the patching process, Desktop Central provides a comprehensive patching solution.
  • Over 50+ configurations and 200+ scripts across Windows, Mac and Linux are available for the end-user to proceed with efficient device management.
  • With 6000+ predefined templates available to deploy applications, software deployment is made simple with easily customization capabilities. The Self-Service Portal feature allows the end-user to choose to either install or uninstall the required application.
  • The network assets will be continuously monitored through the data obtained by Inventory and file scan in Desktop Central. The Enterprise can also monitor the software usage in the network and block applications whose usage is prohibited in the particular devices. The secure USB feature will allow one to keep a look on the portable storage devices.
  • To help the end-user and to resolve help-desk tickets which require technician support, one can use the in-built remote control tool. Loaded with functionalities like screen recording, voice and video call facilities, multi-technician support, and remote file transfer. Desktop Central paves a way for remote troubleshooting and seamless management.
  • Desktop Central can be integrated with prominent help-desk products like ServiceDesk Plus, ServiceDesk Plus Cloud, Jira, Zendesk, ServiceNow and Spiceworks to make the IT admin have transparent view of data across products. Other integration like Asset Explorer, Analytics Plus and Browser Security Plus is also supported by Desktop Central.
  • Desktop Central can image and deploy OS for a new machine through the OS deployment feature. In the current trend, Enterprises are looking for standalone OS deployment products to help in the Windows 7 to Windows 10 migration process. Customized deployment templates, hardware independent templates, and flexible boot options enable convenient OS deployment in Enterprises.
  • Desktop Central supports modern management for Windows 10 and Mac devices.
  • Desktop Central has over 100+ out-of-the-box reports which will provide detailed insights on the actions performed in the endpoints. Custom reports can also be generated according to one’s needs and preferences.
  • An IT admin with the Desktop Central mobile app can manage all the endpoints from across the globe. One can deploy critical patches, obtain complete hardware and software reports and even take remote control of the endpoints in the network. Zia, the virtual assistant in Desktop Central can carry out all your tasks through voice recognition.
  • Additional offerings like secure gateway service, fail over service and multi-language support ensure efficient endpoint management of the network.

In short

ManageEngine Desktop Central manages over 7 million endpoints with a happy customer base of 12,000+ organisations, and over 85% of customers renew the product annually. With a complete endpoint management and security solution in place, Desktop Central will watch over all the endpoints in the your organisation.

Click here to read more including a short demo video, or here for further technical details about the solution.

Take it for a test drive

Request your 30 day free trial today, and manage unlimited endpoints.

Want to find out more?

As ManageEngine Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back.

[Demo Video] Kaspersky security for Microsoft Office 365

Most businesses have put time and effort into educating users on the threat of dodgy email. But what can you do when cybercriminals and spammers are constantly changing their tactics? When email is the number one malware vector for business , relying on default or built-in security settings to protect you is risky. This short video demonstrates how Kaspersky’s next-generation security technologies can make your Microsoft Office 365 mail even easier to secure and manage.

Kaspersky Security for Microsoft Office 365 helps your business to detect and block spam and malicious email before it becomes a problem – without slowing productivity or accidentally deleting legitimate traffic. Like Microsoft Office 365, it’s hosted in the cloud. And like all Kaspersky solutions, it’s built on the world’s most tested, most awarded security.

This short video (1:47) demonstrates how Kaspersky’s next-generation security technologies can make your Microsoft Office 365 mail even easier to secure and manage.

Want to find out more?

You can read more about the Kaspersky Cloud, including a 6 month FREE trial here.

As Kaspersky Gold Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back.

 

The main features of the Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud

In our previous article, we looked at the benefits of the Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud. Here, we look in more detail at some of the key features of the products.

Prevent threats and keep your business running

The Kaspersky solution offers endpoint protection from the most tested, most awarded security vendor. You can protect Windows desktops and file servers, Mac OS workstations, iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, as well offering your users secure Microsoft Office 365 communication and collaboration platforms.

Compensate for lack of IT resources and budget

  • Hosted in the cloud. No need for hardware and software procurement, provisioning and maintenance
  • Instant protection with pre-defined security policies developed by our professionals
  • Available on a monthly subscription to free up financial resources

Gain cloud visibility

  • Shadow IT discovery to reveal uncontrolled sharing of corporate data in the cloud as well as users wasting time on social media and messengers.
  • Block user access to unnecessary or unauthorised cloud resources, keeping your data secure and your colleagues focused and productive.

How to get started – try it FREE for 6 months!

To support remote working in this challenging time, we’re also offering 6 months’ FREE protection with the very latest version of Kaspersky Security for Microsoft Office 365.

This extends protection for SharePoint Online and Microsoft Teams, securing all collaboration and messaging channels within Microsoft Office 365.

Sign up NOW for a FREE 6-month license and take protecting remote workers and business data off your to-do list.

Want to find out more?

As Kaspersky Gold Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back.

 

Seven simple steps to eating well and staying well

Sitting down for extended periods of time is incredibly bad for our health but, now many of us are working from home or at the very least moving about much less than we normally do, it seems hard to avoid.

To help with this, over the coming weeks as part of our Working from Home series in partnership with Fitbit we’ll be looking at a range of exercise, nutrition, sleep, stress management, and general wellbeing activities to keep your employees and users feeling fresh and energised as you work.

In the next in our series of blogs, here’s seven simple steps to eating and staying well while your users are working from home.

A time to be healthier

With so many of us having to stay indoors at the moment, our eating routines have had a bit of a shake-up. However, this means it’s a great time to get into healthier habits as what you eat doesn’t just affect your weight, it also impacts on your physical health and your mental health.¹

 

Be powered by protein

According to Wayne Campbell, Ph.D. a professor of nutrition at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, protein-packed foods are a great way to quash hunger and reduce those snack cravings. This is because, as protein travels through your gut, it stimulates the release of the appetite-suppressing hormone cholecystokinin (a.k.a. CCK), which sends fullness signals to your brain – it also reduces ghrelin, a hormone that makes you feel hungry. So, try to include 25-30g of protein per meal to keep hunger at bay.

 

Choose big-volume, leightweight eats

In a recent study published by the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, volunteers were asked to serve themselves the same type of cereal, but one was in flakes and the other was crushed.² Although those eating the flakes had much fuller bowls, they ended up eating 25% fewer calories than those eating the crushed cereal. This is because dense foods packs more calories into a smaller volume, so choose big-volume, lightweight foods like bran flakes, salad leaves, tubular pasta and popcorn to fill your plate with fewer calories.

 

Eat little and often

Going a long time between eating can cause fluctuations in appetite, so if you only eat at three points during the day, you’ll be very hungry (and likely to eat more) at each meal. However, if you eat four or five times a day, you’ll have a more consistent appetite and be less likely to overeat. So, try having three smaller-portioned meals with a healthy snack between each one instead.

 

Win with wholegrains

According to a study from the Department of Nutrition at the University of California at Davis, the benefits of switching to wholegrains have been discussed for years. Packed full of filling fibre, they’re great for your heart, your digestive health and even the bacteria in your gut. So, as well as the more usual whole-wheat bread and pasta, try incorporating different wholegrains like oats, barley and rye into your meals to stay fuller for longer.

 

Swap your snacks

It’s much easier to reach for the sugary snacks when at home, but try to limit temptation by keeping your cupboards stocked with healthy alternatives. Choose popcorn instead of crisps, grab a carrot instead of a cereal bar and keep fruit (whether tinned or fresh) close at hand.

 

 

Since you’re home, try homecooked

Takeaways are very tempting, but since we’re all home more, now’s a great time to prepare food from scratch – especially as we all have a bit more time on our hands. Cooking a meal yourself means you can monitor how much salt and fat you put into your meals and ensure they’re packed with all the goodness your body needs.

 

Track what you eat

To make sure you’re not overeating, it can be helpful to track what you’re consuming. This is really easy to do inthe Fitbit app or dashboard – simply log what you eat and drink, and you’ll get a breakdown of your calories, macronutrients and even the amount of water you’re drinking. Plus, you can even set up a food plan to help you reach any specific goals.

 

Find out more

As Fitbit Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back.

 

 

 

References

https://blog.fitbit.com/appetite/

https://jandonline.org/article/S2212-2672(14)00104-X/abstract

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4939539/

Breathing exercises to de-stress when working from home

Sitting down for extended periods of time is incredibly bad for our health but, now many of us are working from home or at the very least moving about much less than we normally do, it seems hard to avoid.

To help with this, over the coming weeks as part of our Working from Home series in partnership with Fitbit we’ll be looking at a range of exercise, nutrition, sleep, stress management, and general wellbeing activities to keep your employees and users feeling fresh and energised as you work.

In the next in our series of blogs, here’s some breathing exercises for your staff and users to de-stress and relax while working from home.

Keeping a cool head

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect our lives, it can be increasingly hard to keep a cool head. Even before we began working from home and social-distancing, a 2018 study by the Mental Health Foundation showed that 74% of UK adults felt so stressed at some point over the last year, they felt unable to cope – so if you’re feeling like this, you’re not alone.

Why are breathing exercises important?

Your breathing can have a massive effect on your stress-levels and vice versa. When you’re stressed, your breathing speeds up and becomes more shallow – in fact, breathing quickly can actually bring on feelings of stress.² Luckily, it works the other way too.

When you slow your breathing down and make it deeper, you’ll start to feel calmer. Fitbit’s Relax feature uses your heart rate to create personalised guided breathing sessions for you to follow, but the three exercises below can also help if you start feeling overly stressed.

 

Mouth-to-nose

Start with three mouth-only breaths, in and out (imagining you are yawning). Then take three breaths where you inhale through your mouth and exhale through your nose. Lastly, do three breaths inhaling and exhaling through your nose only. The initial three yawns will make sure you get a lot of oxygen and, when you switch to your nose-breathing, you’ll start getting nitric oxide which can help you feel relaxed.

 

4-4-6-2

This exercise is great for focusing the mind, perfect if you’re feeling a bit anxious. Simply inhale for four seconds, hold for four seconds, exhale for six seconds and then hold for two seconds. Keep repeating this pattern, gradually get slower and slower at counting, and you should start feeling a lot more relaxed.

 

Walking breath

If you’re still able to go outside for a walk (with appropriate social distancing) as part of your daily exercise, then you can try this one. Sync your inhales and exhales with your steps, inhaling for two steps and exhaling for two steps. After a few rounds of this, switch to inhaling for two steps and exhaling for three. Exhaling for longer will stimulate your vagus nerve which activates your parasympathetic nervous system and helps calm you down.

 

Find out more

As Fitbit Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back.

 

 

 

References

https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/news/stressed-nation-74-uk-overwhelmed-or-unable-cope-some-point-past-year

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-health-and-work/health-matters-health-and-work

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5455070/

https://blog.fitbit.com/breathing-techniques/

https://blog.fitbit.com/breathing-techniques/

Five ways to keep homeworkers active

Sitting down for extended periods of time is incredibly bad for our health but, now many of us are working from home or at the very least moving about much less than we normally do, it seems hard to avoid.

To help with this, over the coming weeks as part of our Working from Home series in partnership with Fitbit we’ll be looking at a range of exercise, nutrition, sleep, stress management, and general wellbeing activities to keep your employees and users feeling fresh and energised as they work.

To get us started, here’s 5 easy ways to keep your staff and users moving during while working from home:

 

Turn your kettle into a personal trainer

The UK Chief Medical Officers’ Physical Activity Guidelines report recommends that you should break up long periods of sitting with just one or two minutes of activity. So, while the kettle’s boiling for your coffee or tea break, do star jumps, planks, press-ups etc. to elevate your heart rate.

 

Talk the walk!

If you’re on the phone talking to your colleagues, leave the laptop behind and walk up and down the hall (or stairs if you have them) as a great way to get a few extra steps in. If you have a Fitbit, you could even challenge your friends to an indoor step challenge.

 

 

Create a standing desk

You burn more calories when standing, so try moving your laptop onto the kitchen side (you may need the help of a few books depending on how tall you are) for a new work setup.

 

Make the time to move

Physical activity can boost self-esteem, mood, sleep quality and energy – something a lot of us need at the moment – so make sure you include time in your working day, whether that’s a session before, after or even during lunchtime. Ideally, aim for 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week and if you have a Fitbit Charge 4, your device can track all that automatically for you with its new Active Zone Minutes function.

 

Try something new

Whether you’re used to jogging with friends, heading to the gym or kicking a ball about with the gang, now’s the time to experiment with new forms of exercise and challenge yourself. With Fitbit Premium, you can access our Dynamic Workout Library packed full of thousands of yoga lessons, dance classes, abs workouts, HIIT sessions and more.

 

Find out more

As Fitbit Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back.

 

 

References

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-getting-every-adult-active-every-day/health-matters-getting-every-adult-active-every-day

https://www.posturite.co.uk/help-advice/useful-resources/learning-guides/what-is-ergonomics

What business data is backed up by Datto SaaS Protection?

Knowing your Office 365 data is backed up by reliable, cloud-to-cloud backup infrastructure, provides you with more time and budget to grow your business. So what exactly does Datto SaaS Protection recover?

  • OneDrive
  • Contacts
  • Calendar
  • Mail
  • SharePoint
  • MS Teams

Want to learn more about maintaining a secure and compliant business environment?

Datto SaaS Protection for Office 365 takes your data security far above and beyond the baseline industry standards to ensure that all business data in Office 365 and cloud apps data is secured, easily recoverable, and continually protected. Key features include:

  • Three-times daily backups of your business data
  • Encryption at rest and in transit
  • Quick and easy restores and exports of data

These features combine to significantly reduce the risk of losing key data, protect the business network from users, ransomware and other vulnerabilities, and support ongoing compliance efforts.

Keeping your team working on the right things

From a productivity point of view, Datto SaaS Protection for Office 365 make it easy to locate backed up files and folders. This is achieved through effective search filters that make their location quick and simple. The solution makes it possible to manage backups, see restores, and monitor all your activity via a clear and simple dashboard.

From this, it’s possible to analyse emails, files, contacts and full folders of data and, if necessary, restore files to users’ specific accounts, or to download them directly.

Do you need help convincing your colleagues about SaaS Protection? Check out this educational ebook, SaaS Protection for Office 365, and understand how to keep your critical business data people proof!

Find out more

You can read more about Datto SaaS data protection in this article.

As Datto Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back.

Datto

Ensure your Office 365 data is secured and quickly recoverable

Modern business data is more than just data – it’s your business. And while it may be tempting to think that it’s safe in cloud applications, relying on cloud storage solutions that aren’t designed as backup or security tools can be risky.

So while we recognise that IT budgets are already under pressure and additional backups are yet another strain on them, in this article we look at the benefits of adding an additional protective layer to your business data in the Office 365 suite, and in other cloud applications such as Google Drive.

What are some of the risks of holding data only in cloud applications?

Among many other risks, these are some of the most common, and all contribute to unwanted levels of business downtime, or at the very least, distracted IT departments and users. To put it another way, is an additional solution worth it? These are the top 5 risks of holding business data exclusively in cloud applications:

  1. Additional costs and potential data loss from needing to keep inactive licenses open (from users that have left the business, but their data is still needed for example)
  2. Data loss due to accidental or malicious deletion by users
  3. Potential data loss when attempting to restore files
  4. Data loss when accidentally overwriting previous file drafts
  5. Ransomware and other cyber attacks

What’s the solution?

Datto SaaS Protection for Office 365 takes your data security far above and beyond the baseline industry standards to ensure that all business data in Office 365 and cloud apps data is secured, easily recoverable, and continually protected. Key features include:

  • Three-times daily backups of your business data
  • Encryption at rest and in transit
  • Quick and easy restores and exports of data

These features combine to significantly reduce the risk of losing key data, protect the business network from users, ransomware and other vulnerabilities, and support ongoing compliance efforts.

Keeping your team working on the right things

From a productivity point of view, Datto SaaS Protection for Office 365 make it easy to locate backed up files and folders. This is achieved through effective search filters that make their location quick and simple. The solution makes it possible to manage backups, see restores, and monitor all your activity via a clear and simple dashboard.

From this, it’s possible to analyse emails, files, contacts and full folders of data and, if necessary, restore files to users’ specific accounts, or to download them directly.

Do you need help convincing your colleagues about SaaS Protection? Check out this educational ebook, SaaS Protection for Office 365, and understand how to keep your critical business data people proof!

Find out more

You can read more about Datto SaaS data protection in this article.

As Datto Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back.

Datto

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