Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

April 2022

4 Tips for Creating a Successful Backup Strategy

Businesses of all sizes lose an average of $4,500 for every minute of downtime they experience, and often that downtime is a result of data loss. Data loss can occur for a multitude of reasons, such as theft, natural disasters, software corruption, or human error. In addition, you can combat the adverse effects of data loss by creating a backup strategy.

Recipe for Great In-Person Events: 5 Key DO's and DON'Ts

For the last couple of years, most of us have been working from spare rooms, bar stools at our kitchen islands, the couch, and even garages retrofitted into home offices. The pandemic has changed the world of work forever. It has also dramatically changed the world of networking and events. Since March of 2020, we’ve seen networking move to virtual spaces in the following forms: Many have spent a significant amount of time and energy building up their digital presence in the last two years.

7 Cybersecurity Statistics Every SMB and MSP Needs to Know in 2022

Cybersecurity isn’t just at the top of the discussion queue within the IT channel. Businesses and governments worldwide have turned a sharp eye toward rising cyber threats. Many have learned the hard way that small businesses are frequent targets of cyberattacks. The idea of “targeting a victim” itself has come into question, and more realize that widespread, indiscriminate attacks are the status quo.

The Real Benefits of Cloud Services

"The cloud" started as a term used mainly by tech industry insiders but quickly fell into everyday use over the past several years. As more computing processes moved into off-site data centers and more organizations turned to cloud storage, the masses began to talk about migration to "the cloud." Today, the cloud is the accepted term for this type of computing and is used widely in discussions of IT infrastructure, data storage, and certain types of software.

Moving Beyond Troubleshooting, IT Reports Best Practices

It is widely accepted that technology is critical to modern businesses, but it’s often challenging to show the value Information Technology (IT) delivers to the entire organization. As a result, IT is still often viewed as a matter of “troubleshooting” or “customer support” rather than a genuinely strategic component of the organization.

Five Essential Ticketing Automations to Get You Started

Like all Ninja products, Ninja Ticketing gives users many opportunities to save time through automation. Setting up automations against a tabula rasa can be a daunting task when first getting started with ticketing. We wrote this blog post to help new users get started with common, helpful automations you can use from day one. This guide will provide step-by-step explanations and screenshots to show how to set up these automations.

Reaffirming Our Commitment to Partners During Seismic Moves in the Channel

In light of the news that Datto is being acquired by Kaseya, we’ve understandably had partners reach out asking for our take along with a variety of questions. In addition to responding 1:1, I also wanted to share some thoughts in a broader way here on the blog. For starters, I think this acquisition reflects a reality that we have long believed — that the MSP market is healthy and growing fast. Investor interest wouldn’t be so high, otherwise.

Getting Back into In-Person Sales & Networking

As the world opens back up, are you missing in-person sales and networking opportunities that growth-focused MSPs are jumping on? View this recording of a special live discussion with growth and revenue expert Adam Slutskin, the channel veteran behind wildly successful worldwide sales and marketing strategies at Liongard, ConnectWise, and others.

Building a Culture of Security: Practical Tips to Spot a Phish

Technologies exist to limit and spot the number of phishing emails that come into your business. Still, humans are the last line of defense against social engineering attacks like this at the end of the day. At some point, you're going to "be beat" as an employer or MSP. Instead of locking everything down and slowing business communications, staff from the c-suite on down need to be equipped to identify phishing emails, so the worst happens in a training environment and not the real thing.

10 Help Desk Best Practices for IT Professionals

As people continue to expand their business operations on technology and devices, the necessity of a functional and efficient help desk cannot be overstated. With ticketing software, help desk teams can provide excellent and swift assistance that keeps end users productive and IT operations running smoothly. As these roles become increasingly important to maintaining efficient workflows, organizations should understand how to apply best practices that make an impact.

Hardware Asset Management (HAM) Explained

A well-run IT team keeps track of every asset in their domain, including hardware, software, and licenses. The specific task of managing hardware assets is known as hardware asset management. This involves keeping tabs on hardware from the time it's requested and purchased to the time it's phased out of use and disposed of. As you can imagine, this can be a daunting task when handled manually. Without procedure and special tools, the process can be scattershot and rife with opportunities for error.

Driving Business Efficiency with Endpoint Management

Endpoint management solutions enable businesses to manage their entire IT portfolio more efficiently and effectively. Combining monitoring, management, patching, remote support, and automation functionality in a single-pane-of-glass, endpoint management solutions like NinjaOne give you full visibility and control over your IT assets.

What is Microsoft's New Commerce Experience (NCE)?

Microsoft began the launch rollout of the New Commerce Experience (NCE) in January 2022. This launch brings about changes that impact how MSPs and end-users purchase Microsoft 365 licenses. In addition, Microsoft created the NCE to reduce complexity and offer savings for long-term commitments while also bringing on new features to make CSP a competitive alternative to the traditional Enterprise Agreement (EA). This post will cover everything you need to know about Microsoft NCE.