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Walking the walk with modern working

It’s one thing saying your staff are enabled for modern working, but it’s another to make it happen seamlessly and effectively.

Within organisations and with external parties such as customers, partners, suppliers and contractors, people need to be able to access and share information more easily, collaborate more effectively and streamline time-consuming processes. Print and scan solutions play a big part in this.

That’s the talk talked, but how can IT make it happen?

Brother’s hardware, combined with market-leading solutions and best-in-class support, are designed to help your customers operate securely and efficiently in any setting. It’s built with triple-layer features to secure across networks, devices and documents, so you can be confident that your data always remains protected.

At the same time, Brother provides seamless integration with industry-leading third-party software vendors to help you maximise cost-efficiency and improve your business productivity.

With long-lasting, energy-efficient and durable hardware, and a commitment to zero waste to landfill through a toner recycling programme, Brother are dedicated to providing all customers with sustainable technology and solutions that minimise their impact on the planet.

Workplace by Brother is the lifetime combination of their experience across the print sector, keeping pace with the rapidly evolving business environment of the future. Complete IT Systems can work with you to implement the best possible environment to suit your printing needs and budget.

Watch this video to see how Brother’s print technology is evolving to support ever-changing ways of working.

Find out more

Get in touch to find out how Brother solutions can help you improve your business’s resilience.

 

Office 365 migration best practices – networking

Many organisations are seriously considering the deployment of Microsoft Office 365 and Exchange Online, or have indeed done so already.

Migrating to Office 365 represents a significant step for any business. It introduces opens the way for new work practices, a broad suite of new tools, and provides opportunities for re-imagining productivity.

Yet while the benefits of Office 365 are clear, there are also demands and risks that need to be taken into account. Here we take a look at those considerations, and how they can be mitigated. The first in this series of articles will look at how to design a fit-for-purpose network infrastructure for accessing and using Office 365.

What demands does Office 365 place on your network?

Moving the majority of a company’s current data and communications into any cloud-based service relies on having highly available, high-speed Internet connectivity, and a migration to Office 365 is no different. If an Internet link goes down, everyone’s ability to access current working documents, communicate through email, and host meetings through Skype is simply gone. Provisioning a reliable network infrastructure may include the following considerations.

Securing sufficient Internet capacity for each office building or campus. The actual traffic an organisation needs to support will have to be analysed and managed over time, but it will certainly be significantly higher with cloud-based applications compared to historical requirements when much of the total network traffic was kept inside the organisation.

Considering the acquisition of redundant network links for high priority office locations. Diversity of telecommunications provider and diversity of physical connectivity methods will help assure high levels of service.

Deciding how to design the firewall topology. Organisations that currently use a centralised firewall topology are likely to find that a decentralised topology provides much better quality-of-service to employees at each office location. Of course, this will have flow-on effects, raising the need for centrally managing multiple firewalls, and having a methodology for keeping the firewall rules consistent across the environment.

What’s the solution?

In the cloud era, and particularly with Office 365 migrations, network firewalls must do more than secure your network. They must also ensure you have uninterrupted network availability and robust access to cloud-hosted applications.

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is a family of physical appliance, virtual, and cloud-based appliances that protect and enhance your dispersed network infrastructure. They deliver advanced security by tightly integrating a comprehensive set of next-generation firewall technologies, including Layer 7 application profiling, intrusion prevention, web filtering, malware and advanced threat protection, antispam protection, and network access control.

Barracuda’s cloud-ready firewalls are ideal for multi-site enterprises and other organisations with complex, dispersed network infrastructures. Check out this short video to see how it works.

How can I find out more?

As Barracuda 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.

Complete solutions for all your IT needs

If you have any projects or requirements coming up in 2023 for all areas of your IT infrastructure, we can help.

Here’s a quick overview of what we do, otherwise feel free to call at anytime to discuss your requirements.

Servers: Whether HP or Dell or if you need the servers themselves or spares for them, we can provide cost effective quotations.

Networking: If you have any projects coming up for HP ProCurve/Netgear/Juniper equipment, we can cover all of their portfolios

Laptops: Regardless of if you are HP, Dell, Lenovo or Toshiba house, we supply all brand new models and spares for them such as replacement batteries, chargers, screens etc.

Refurbished Laptops: If you are looking for laptops but are struggling with supply or cost effective solutions to keep within your budget, look no farther, we supply all brands, Dell/HP/Lenovo/Toshiba refurbs, call or email for a quote.

Tablets: Whether you are looking for Apple/Lenovo/Dell or Microsoft, we offer cost effective options and solutions

Audio Visual: We supply all brands and requirements from Audio Visual and telephony equipment to smart boards, commercial screens and web conferencing.

Software and Anti-Virus: If you are looking for brand new licensing or renewals, we supply all solutions and options.

Power Supply: If you have a requirement for disaster recovery solutions, we can offer all brands of UPS and power supply from APC/Eaton/PowerWalker/Vertiv/HP.Cost effective solutions

We all have current suppliers, however, if you give myself and Complete IT Systems a chance to show you what we can do, we will prove to be competitively priced, quick on turn around and a reliable source for all your IT needs.

Products we supply:

  • HP (Servers, PCs, laptops, workstations, networking, print and storage, media and spares)
  • Lenovo (Thinkpads, Thinkcentres, Thinkvision & Thinkservers, spares)
  • Dell (Servers, PC’s, laptops, workstations, networking,storage and spares)
  • Cisco (their whole portfolio)
  • APC (UPS’ and network management cards)
  • Juniper (switches, routers, firewalls and options)
  • IBM (servers and storage)
  • AV Solutions (for Triumph Board, SpinetiX, Repeat Signage, Unicol & Scala)
  • Microsoft (Microsoft Gold Partner)
  • Apple (iMACs,iPhones, Macbooks, iPads and Macbook Minis)
  • Security solutions (Kaspersky, Eset, Sophos, McAfee)
  • Office peripherals (all brand of toner and ink, cabling, office sundries and back up media)
  • Make do and mend (replacement laptops batteries, screens, memory, hard drives)
  • Telecoms (sim-free mobiles, office desk phones)
  • Refurbished hardware for cost savings (servers, switches, desktops, laptops, mobiles, all brands with 6-12 month RTB warranties)

Find out more

Give us a call on 01274 396 213 to find out how we can help.

Make your data come alive – and get a £25.00 Amazon gift card!

Consolidate your application workloads onto Western Digital’s IntelliFlash enterprise flash storage platform. Built on a next-gen solid-state storage architecture, IntelliFlash arrays support different grades of storage media including NVMe, all-flash, and hybrid flash while intelligently managing the placement of data to maximise performance and economics.

 

Make your data come alive

In a single flash storage platform, IntelliFlash arrays enable dramatic acceleration of data access across SAN and NAS protocols, protect data from accidental disasters, and deliver significant capacity savings through selectable in-line data reduction, making them ideal for your entire organisation. Make your data come alive and watch your business transform and thrive with IntelliFlash arrays.

Get your £25.00 Amazon gift card – complete a 1-minute survey

Take a 1-minute survey on transforming your IT infrastructure and receive a £25.00 Amazon gift card.

This offer is for IT professionals who are responsible for researching, evaluating, and choosing newer storage technologies to support the transformation of your IT infrastructure which will enable you to deliver a stable, scalable platform that supports business growth.

Click here or on the image below to take the survey.

 

View this short intro video, or visit our partner page to find out more.

 

The Kaspersky Cloud and how it benefits your business

The Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud couldn’t be easier to manage. It’s the most effortless – and powerful – way for busy IT pioneers to guarantee exceptional future-ready protection without sacrificing IT resources, time or budget. It delivers exceptional future-ready protection that couldn’t be easier to manage.

Bursting with next generation technologies, it’s perfect for the era of cloud, remote working and BYOD – eliminating risks and safeguarding your cloud investments for a secure, profitable, and exciting future.

In our next article, we look more in-depth at the features of the Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud, but for now we focus on the cloud and what it can do for your business.

The power of the cloud

The cloud is a powerful tool, so long as you know how to control it. With NEW Cloud Discovery technology, you can uncover and block unauthorised cloud use automatically.

Instantly stop the spread of malicious software, phishing, ransomware, spam and business email compromise (BEC), and enjoy automatically updated protection from Kaspersky Security for Microsoft Office 365 – included as standard.

Advance, discover, explore, with Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud – the easiest way to protect your business, without sacrificing your IT resources, time or budget.

How to get started – 2 FREE licenses and try it FREE for 6 months!

With two free mobile licenses per user, you’ll get a solid umbrella cyber defence for your organisation that follows your employees everywhere, and you can even enforce security policies remotely. Meanwhile, NEW Cloud Discovery takes the headache out of controlling their cloud use, uncovering and blocking unauthorized cloud use automatically.

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.

 

Remote working – no-contract SIM cards available now!

Need a communications lifeline for your users with no contract & totally unlimited use?

In these unprecedented times, it is important that businesses are still able to communicate effectively and flexibly. That’s why Complete IT Systems are offering our customer base a flexible lifeline with short-term mobile SIM card connections – to be used when and where you need them.

We also offer completely FREE* device set up and delivery direct to the remote workers address!

This exclusive offer gives you the following benefits:

  • Keeping your communication chain intact
  • 60 day only rolling connections
  • Unlimited UK Voice/Texts/ Data
  • Sims available on both Vodafone and O2
  • Discounted rates to existing Complete IT Systems Customers

Unbeatable prices

You just pay a small monthly fee for 2 network 4G SIMS, activated on demand.

To ensure coverage, we’ll include 2 4G SIM cards with your solution, one from Vodafone and one from O2.

You’ll then pay a Failover Standby Tariff at just £10 per month.

Should you require Failover Activation, simply tell us and you’ll pay £35 per month* for as long as you need it.

Great choice of hardware

 

 

Talk to us – we’re just at the end of a phone

Complete IT Systems Ltd have been providing valuable services to our customers for over 10 years and have many satisfied clients. For more information on how we can help, or just to get some general advice on IT and business supplies during the crisis, please call us on 01274 396 213. You can also see the full range of products and services we offer, or read more about our support services here.

 

*On sim-only orders(no hardware ordered) must be subject to standard £1.95 postage & packaging charge

Get a 5 incident remote support package – and help the NHS

As you are well aware, IT downtime can cost businesses in a big way, and especially in these strange times when you’re also having to make rapid adjustments to homeworking provisions.
Complete IT Systems have skilled technicians available to help business of all sizes and types remotely at the end of the phone.

5 incident remote support package

During the COVID-19 crisis, we are offering a special 5 incident remote support package for only £499 + VAT. And even better, we’ll donate 10% of that price to your choice of either our NHS or a local food bank.

The supported incidents include:

Windows

Windows All revisions Server/Desktop

HyperVisors
VMware Hypervisor – All Revisions
Hyper-V – All Revisions

Server Stack
Exchange All revisions inc 365
Office – All Revisions
Teams
Skype/Skype for Business
WSUS
WDS/MDT

Backup
Veeam – All Revisions
Datto – All boxes
Barracuda
Nakivo
Backup Exec

Storage Arrays
HP
Dell
Tegile
DotHill

Anti Virus
Kaspersky
Sophos
Symantec
McAfee
eSet
Norton
Vipre

Firewalls
Barracuda
Sophos
Sonicwall
Draytek

Get Microsoft Teams FREE for your users!

Connect on Teams anywhere with Windows, Mac, iOS and Android devices, or bring remote participants into meeting spaces of all sizes with Teams.

We know Microsoft can be a little daunting to navigate – we can guide you through the process. Just give us your email address and we’ll get you started.

We’ll be adding more over the coming weeks, so keep checking back for more COVID-19 homeworking resources.

Talk to us – we’re just at the end of a phone

Complete IT Systems Ltd have been providing these services to our customers for over 10 years and have many satisfied clients. For more information on how we can help, or just to get some general advice on IT and business supplies during the crisis, please call us on 01274 396 213. You can also see the full range of products and services we offer, or read more about our support services here.

 

Cloud security – what are the threats?

While cloud adoption rates continue to grow steadily, cloud security remains a top concern at many organisations, often becoming a roadblock to faster adoption of public cloud infrastructure. This is understandable when you consider the number and variety of threats organisations have to be prepared to combat.

Cloud security – what are the threats?

To get a better understanding of how organisations around the world are using public cloud and the challenges they face, Barracuda recently commissioned independent market research firm Vanson Bourne to survey IT decision makers in EMEA, APAC, and the United States. The results of that research were published in the new report: Future Shock: The Cloud Is the New Network.

Including responses from 750 executives, individual contributors, and team managers with responsibility for or knowledge of their organisation’s cloud infrastructure, the report takes an in-depth look at respondents’ experiences with, and attitudes about, moving infrastructure to the public cloud, concerns restricting adoption, and the security and networking solutions being implemented to overcome them.

New perspectives on cloud challenges

The report reveals some interesting insights into how organisations are approaching public cloud solutions, and what might be holding them back. Highlights from the report include:

  • On average, organisations currently have 45% of IT infrastructure running in the public cloud, but that number is expected to increase to 76% in the next five years.
  • 70% of respondents say security concerns restrict their organisation’s adoption of public cloud.
  • 75% of respondents have already been targeted by a cyber-attack.
  • Only 23% of respondents have already deployed SD-WAN, but another 51% are either in the process of deploying or expect to deploy within the next 12 months.

As more IT infrastructure moves to public cloud, cloud providers will offer more native network capabilities, and public cloud will expand to include more network functionality. The vast majority of organisations need their security vendors to offer advanced security and cloud connectivity tightly integrated with the major cloud platforms.

Read more

Get your copy of Future Shock: The Cloud Is the New Network today to see the full results for yourself and get expert advice on how to embrace public cloud securely.

How can I find out more?

As Barracuda 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.

Microsoft 365 Copilot Workshop

Get the overview you need to understand Microsoft 365 Copilot and plan your next steps.

“First seek to understand” is how the saying goes. Whether you’re a business leader charting the path of AI for your organisation, an IT leader architecting the technology, or a business user building your new way to work, you need to understand the big picture with Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Our Workshop is designed to give you the overview you need to understand Microsoft 365 Copilot and plan your next steps.

  • Frame your understanding on what Microsoft 365 Copilot is, and what it can do within the context of your organisation.
  • Showcase the intelligence added to employee experiences by unleashing creativity, unlocking productivity, and levelling up skills.
  • Define scope, identify business stakeholders, and gather information on key business scenarios. Understand the scope of technical and licensing prerequisites standing in your way, what they mean for Microsoft 365 Copilot, and how to address them.
  • Complete and review readiness assessment and guidance.
  • Develop a plan to implement recommendations based on prioritised scenarios. Define next steps and timeline to develop and implement the solution.

  • High-level overview of what to expect with Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft’s approach to responsible AI.
  • Definition of up to three best opportunities for effective use cases and personas for Microsoft 365 Copilot.
  • A gap analysis of your technical and licensing preparedness for Microsoft 365 Copilot.
  • An assessment report and high-level roadmap for the next steps on your journey.

This engagement is tailored for organisations exploring the value of Microsoft 365 Copilot, bringing together a small group of key contributors from different functional groups including IT and your line of business leaders.

💷 The workshop costs £1,000 + VAT.

📅 When? A date to suit you and your team.

▶ Register now.

Want to learn more?

Complete IT Systems have a team of Microsoft specialists on hand to demo the solutions, discuss business benefits and help you understand how the technology works for your organisation.

To get in touch or request a demo please contact us.

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