In practical terms Cloud is best thought of as a specific type of IT outsourcing rather than any specific technology. The key distinction is that the provider of the service supplies the hardware and technology knowhow for all the underlying tech and equipment needed to deliver the service – either directly, or through their own vendors. This lets businesses using these services stay lean and focused. 

Cloud differs from the traditional approach to business technology, where your business acquires the necessary hardware and lines up support, hosting, warranty, etc. entirely separate from the application your business needs to deploy and the support for said application; this traditional approach is often called “on-premise” or “on-prem” for short. 

While these cloud offerings are far from new, but the rapid pace of internet development continues to make it easier to both create and consume these cloud services, and there is a constant stream of new entrants to cloud services in all levels of the market. The market for these services has more than doubled over the last ten years seeing sustained double-digit year on year growth. 

In this series we’ll be diving into common types of cloud services of interest to the typical small business, in particular Software delivered as a Cloud Service (SaaS/Software as a Service), Cloud phone systems, Public Cloud Hosting, Web, and more. Please, consider subscribing to our Newsletter to see when new posts come out. 

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No discussion of cloud would be complete without acknowledging the novel security concerns that come with this style of outsourcing. On whose computer does my data ultimately reside? How can I take it with me if I change providers? How many people and companies are involved in handling my data, and how can I know they are protecting it competently? How widely is it being shared? These are all vital due diligence questions for any cloud service you may consider, especially in a country like the US with few data security or disclosure requirements for tech companies. Knowing the provider may be liable for their negligence will be cold comfort for your customers in the event of a breach – and for the poor sap who must break the news. 

As ever your business needs trustworthy and knowledgeable partners to navigate the endlessly changing world of technology, connecting you with the innovation you need to build your business and steering you away from the fluff you can skip. Consider subscribing for more insights like these, and don’t hesitate to get in touch if we can help. Mad Tech provides Las Vegas professional services firms with friendly local IT service on a monthly all-you-can-eat basis. Spend less time wrestling computer problems with a technology partner that’s in it for the long haul. 

Almost as important is the length of passwords. When passwords are long enough almost nothing else matters. 12 characters is sufficient to give attackers pause, but is still too short for important accounts. There is rarely an excuse for using shorter passwords on any service that needs passwords in the first place.

Passwords over 16 characters, or passphrases with 6+ words will be somewhat difficult to recover or guess even if the service they are used on is compromised. We recommend businesses consider 16 characters the bare minimum across all employees and all important accounts. It is hard to overstate the benefit of making the password longer. Every time you add a character you make the password about 50 times stronger. That means a 16-character password is over a million times stronger than the 12 characters. Adding another four characters (20) is a further million times stronger than that.

Mind you, tell someone to remember several hundred long passwords and they’ll look at you like you’ve grown a second head. The best answer without resorting to weak passwords or superhuman feats of recall are password managers. These are useful tools that can do most of the work for us. While a password manager will not let you forget all your passwords, it’s perfectly reasonable to get it down to only a handful you need to remember. I have less than 10 I need to remember. The right tool makes it easier to enter and use a random 60-character password than it is to remember and type those awful 8-character passwords from earlier.

We highly recommend LastPass and have used it ourselves for years. Configured with a strong password and multifactor authentication it can be a major upgrade to your password game. A good password manager allows easy access to all your passwords and syncs across all your devices. LastPass provides a password generator to easily create and save long random passwords for every account. It also enables easy sharing and updating common passwords and secrets with the rest of your business when needed.

Avoid using the password managers built into Chrome and Windows. They do very little to stop attackers from stealing passwords from the password manager itself. A specialized tool will provide a substantially better (and more secure) user experience.

Security practitioners have been trying to get people to make better passwords since as long as there’s been passwords. Some bits of advice have aged better than others. We will be diving deeper into obsolete guidance in a future blog post. Password complexity and frequent password changes have traditionally been over emphasized and can take a backseat to the guidance above.

The first step in effectively working from home is to create your office.  Ideally you want a dedicated space that can be separated from non-work space.  Preferably, this area would have a door.  Organize this space to be your office or work area.  Personal bills or shopping lists and the like have no place here in your new office. 

Dedicating and keeping this space separate and distinct from the rest of your home can help with the mental association that you are going to work.  You should also treat this area like your office.  Shower and get ready just like you were going into the office.  Getting dressed and ready for work only helps to reinforce the ‘going to work’ mental state. 

Try to follow your normal schedule as closely as possible. Show up at your workstation at the same time you would normally arrive in the office. Keeping the same break schedule can do more to tell your brain that everything is just business as usual, even when you are in a spare room on a fold up table! 

Now, we can’t go to lunch with our co-workers, or chat over a coffee in the break room, but we can adapt these routines as well.  Go brew a cup of coffee in your kitchen or order a meal from a local restaurant (help them stay in business as well).  If you and your co-workers need the social aspect of such events, plan a shared call over your ordered lunches or coffee break.  You can even use your computers to have a video meeting to socialize if you want. 

Try to follow your normal schedule as closely as possible.  Transition meetings to online meetings at the same times.  If you caught up on all your email first thing in the morning, continue that practice.  All of this together helps keep your mind in working as usual mode. 

This will be a different struggle for different people.  This can be especially difficult if you also have children at home. Giving them a dedicated space as much as you do.  The news, social media, YouTube, and similar are also a threat to your productivity at home. With no-one watching over your shoulder, it’s easy to think, “I’ll just look for a bit…” It’s easy for 30 minutes or even an hour to disappear. 

Still struggling?  You can setup a different profile on your PC if you are using the same computer for work and home.  Ideally, you can have a separate computer in your new ‘office’ instead of using your own personal computer, though this is not always the case. 

Deadlines can help you keep on track.  Set reasonable goals even if not required by your job.  Setting tight, but realistic targets can help keep you motivated and enthusiastic. 

Sharing your goals with colleagues can help keep you accountable to yourself. 

Strive to stay patient and understanding.  This time is very stressful and every day there is more depressing and discouraging news.  Working on short achievable tasks can help you stay motivated and on task.  Alternatively, your short goal can be time based.  Set a timer and make and focus and push through your work until the bell rings, and then take a well-deserved beverage break.  One internal study a company did using a time tracking app suggested that their top 10% of employees shared a valuable skill, taking effective breaks.  The study showed that these employees would work for 52 minutes, followed by a 17 minute break before getting back to work. 

Having the right tools for the job is critical, no matter what you are doing.  Working from home is no different.  When working from home, you will need a reliable internet connection, and access to the files and other tools of your trade.  Additionally, working from home can be improved by having the right collaboration and communication tools across your organization.  There are many options out there for your team.  At MAD Technical Solutions we use Microsoft Teams as part of our Microsoft 365 (Formerly called Office 365) subscription. 

Need help with working from home? We can’t actually cheer you on and help you stay motivated, but our technology experts can get you and your team set up with the most efficient home office solutions. Contact us at 702-944-9635 or our Contact Us page today!