More and more IT leaders recognize that the industry is dealing with an acute talent crunch. Information Week reported on a recent survey from Mulesoft suggesting that “IT and business leaders are re-examining their tech stack during the economic slowdown to prioritize solutions that deliver maximum value to employees, not complexity and burnout.” 98% of the 1,000 IT executives surveyed indicated that their technology choices are influenced by the need to find the right talent.
Read MoreTags: Managed Services, Business Process Optimization, Enterprise Application Support
Power i / IBM i has been one of the most secure platforms around for decades. But, as we recently discussed in our debrief on the Log4j virus, no ecosystem is immune to serious risks – even Power i/IBM i.
If your organization wants to begin taking a more systematic approach to securing its critical infrastructure, it can be hard to know where to begin. Based on our experience supporting and securing a variety of enterprise-scale Power i implementations, security audits are the ideal foundation for more robust security practices. In this blog, we explain why and provide a breakdown of how our team organizes a Power i / IBM i security audit.
Read MoreTags: IBM i Platform, Managed Services
As the global business community navigated the COVID crisis, we saw a major shift in attitude toward remote work. A forced experiment with this new model pushed companies to address implementation challenges as fast as possible, finding solutions to issues that might have caused companies to hesitate about expanding remote work in normal times.
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The benefits of utilizing a managed service provider (MSP) to manage your IT infrastructure can be substantial. But that’s only half the story – your IT department still needs to devote time and resources to monitoring and maintaining the business-critical applications that run on this infrastructure.
Combining the management of your IT system and the enterprise software that runs on it with a single managed service provider can make your entire IT strategy more effective and efficient, reducing downtime while saving time and money.
In this blog, we look at why a multi-faceted MSP who can support both your applications and infrastructure can be so valuable.
Tags: Managed Services, Enterprise Application Support, Enterprise Application Services
Remote monitoring is essential for ensuring the stability, reliability, and consistent performance of business-critical IT systems managed by a third-party provider. Attentive monitoring is the key to quickly resolving issues before they result in operational disruptions and minimizing the impact of disruptions if they do occur. In many cases, a smart monitoring approach can even automatically resolve routine issues using automated scripts.
In this blog, we break down some key considerations for organizations considering remote monitoring for applications and infrastructure.
Read MoreTags: Managed Services
Many business professionals talk about "operational excellence", but few understand that it actually consists of several elements that must be successfully implemented and integrated to be successful. If you ask a dozen business professionals to define Operational Excellence, you’ll get a dozen different answers, such as “it’s about process quality and making perfect parts every time,“ or “it’s applying lean tools everywhere to eliminate waste.” Perhaps one of the best definitions I’ve seen is also one of the simplest, from business consulting firm Duggan Associates: “It is when each and every employee can see the flow of value to the customer and fix that flow when it breaks down.”
As the technology landscape continues to change and evolve at lightning speed, CIOs and CTOs have more on their plates than ever before. For many, spending time on valuable business drivers—the ones that give your business a competitive advantage—takes the backseat to managing and maintaining an IT environment that’s increasingly complex. This challenge is diverse, with many tech leaders needing to oversee everything from vendor management, to rising cyber security concerns, to the many facets associated with maintaining business continuity. And at the end of the day, these tasks leave little time to focus on innovation.
Read MoreTags: Managed Services
Has your manufacturing company experienced considerable growth through acquisition or other significant changes in recent years? While change can be a positive thing, it can also lead to a lack of centralized IT control, in turn creating an IT environment that feels a bit… well, chaotic. This “hodge-podge” type of environment—one that’s characterized by multiple systems managed in functional silos—is actually quite common. And not just an issue among post-acquisition companies. This scenario applies to any manufacturing organization that lacks a holistic, well-planned IT approach.
Read MoreTags: Managed Services
The new year can be a good time to address head-on those same old IT challenges that have been lingering for too long. So what are YOUR manufacturing company’s IT objectives this year?
Freeing up internal staffers so they can focus on higher-value projects? Gaining more control over fluctuating IT costs? Tackling the security beast?
Read MoreTags: Managed Services
1 – More Complex, Global IT Environments
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