News

What is ‘Cloud Hosting’ and how can your business benefit from it?

What is ‘Cloud Hosting’? Cloud hosting is the concept of using another person or organisation’s infrastructure to service your own requirements, generally, this comes in the form of a Cloud Service Provider. Here at Southern Solutions, we utilise many cloud service providers, our most notable being one of the market leaders, Microsoft. Cloud hosting can include things such as email, hosted applications, services accessed through a website, and remote desktop solutions. It’s not as scary as you may think. Many services that you already use may include some cloud features that come at no extra cost. These services will utilise a fully managed and maintained environment that is frequently updated, monitored 24/7 and provided with 99,99% uptime, which is approximately 48 minutes a YEAR. Businesses get worried about storing their data online, but hosting your services on the cloud should … Continue reading

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3 Effective ways to boost your WiFi signal.

WiFi, to most of us, whether you love it or hate it has become a constant need in our day-to-day lives. If you are at home, in a restaurant or even walking around town. We have all become used to having a consistent connection to the internet and ensuring we are always online. Unfortunately, we can’t always have the luxury of a strong connection. It could be a particular office in your building or the garage in your home. These blackspots (areas with no WiFi signal) can often leave us frustrated and eagerly awaiting a return to a strong, connectivity-filled haven we have become so used to. Fortunately, there are some simple and effective ways to fill these blackspots and ensure you are always online. 1. Wireless Access Points (WAPs) An access point is a device that creates a wireless … Continue reading

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How do I know if my business needs IT support?

It is unavoidable… your business relies on IT. You have managed very well for a while but when is the right time to consider getting expert support? Here are key signs that might mean you are at the right point to chat with a professional IT company. Firefighting IT problems are getting in the way of running your business effectively Your time is important and expensive, especially when you are trying to grow your business. Setting up networks and dealing with basic computer issues is quite different to running a business so allow experts to take this stress and annoyance away from you. You will save time, money, and stress. Your IT person is often not contactable ‘We have always used the same person since we started and just call as and when we need them.’ This is usually enough … Continue reading

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Everything you need to work from home like a pro!

With flexible working becoming the norm, it is important to know what options are available to make working from home easier and more productive. Here are some key pieces of equipment and software that can get you working from home like a pro! Phones A VoIP system is something not to be overlooked when it comes to your business phone system. It allows you to pick up your phone from any location, even when you are not at your desk! In our office, we utilise a VoIP system with “Soft Clients” which basically means a piece of software installed on our computers or mobile phones which turns our device into the equivalent of a desk phone. This keeps our desk free from a bulky physical phone which can come in very handy when space is limited at home. It also … Continue reading

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How much should my IT support cost?

Businesses have had a lot to deal with over the last couple of years (let’s not mention the ‘C’ word) but now in the aftermath of a global emergency, new challenges are emerging especially when it comes to the increase in business expenses. With this in mind, we have compiled a list of common concerns and questions regarding the cost of IT for businesses and answered them from our experience. The first thing that should be at the forefront of your mind before you even look at your systems must be to trust and review. What am I currently paying for? When looking at the cost of your current support, you need to consider: What level are the support staff trained to? How fast does your support company respond to your requests? Do they monitor and maintain your systems (with … Continue reading

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Training Our Customers – Jade Aden Interiors

We take the training and cybersecurity of our customers very seriously. Yesterday Jade Aden Interiors attended 2 free training sessions for cybersecurity and Microsoft 365. Staff left our offices with a better understanding of the threats against their company data and tools provided by Microsoft that most people are not aware of. The biggest vulnerability in any network comes from untrained staff, and we know that well targeted training is the greatest form of defence for company data. If you are interested in training for your staff, we are always available for a call to discuss your requirements. Speak to one of our team on 02382 022 099.

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#ThinkB4UClick

It’s European Cybersecurity Month! This year there is a push on the “ThinkB4UClick” mentality. As we know, 95% of data breaches are caused by computer users clicking on malicious links, entering passwords on Phishing sites, and downloading malicious files, so we at Southern Solutions take user training really seriously. When running our training sessions, the first thing we look at is the current threats facing your company or home network. In every session we find participants shocked by how easy it is to fall victim to cybercrime. These days a simple click on the wrong button can bring your company to a standstill, just look at this video showing how easy and fast ransomware can infiltrate your company. Simply seeing videos and examples like these can really hammer home the importance of the #ThinkB4UClick campaign. We know that everybody makes … Continue reading

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Windows 11 … What you need to know

It has been 6 years since the release of Windows 10, the operating system we have all become at home with in recent years. Naturally, the time has come for an upgrade, and just recently Microsoft have announced the launch of their next operating system – Windows 11. So, what’s new? How will it affect your business and what do you need to know? Well, on the surface, Windows 11 will have a visual face lift from what we are used to with Windows 10, the biggest difference being the new task bar seen at the bottom of the screen. Effort has clearly been made to make this as minimalistic as possible, almost resembling that of the Mac OSX application dock. However, the core interface of the system will be largely familiar. You will still have access to file explorer, … Continue reading

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Are face to face meetings as dead as a Dodo?

To quote Steve Jobs “There’s a temptation in our networked age to think that ideas can be developed by email and video chat. That’s crazy. Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions”. So with that in mind should we continue to maximise online platforms for meetings even once the pandemic is over? As an IT Company we, of course, are extremely comfortable with using virtual online platforms to run meetings and training. We provide expert IT advice and support to develop conference rooms so that businesses can run professional online meetings in conjunction with face to face. However, we have always been advocates for face to face meetings to support and build the relationship with our clients. We attend client sites as standard to proactively plan and discuss their IT requirements for their business or to design infrastructure. We … Continue reading

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2FA…Should you bother?

Talk to almost anyone these days, individuals or businesses, about what they should do to secure their accounts and the first thing they will say is “have a strong password”! This should be different for every account, never share it, change it regularly and use a password manager if you can’t remember them such as LastPass. They may then go on to say the next step is 2FA or MFA Enabling 2FA is free, easy and something we talk about in our Cyber Education with companies. It will provide a further barrier to your accounts from these pesky hackers who are after easy accounts to hack and exploit. So what is 2FA and MFA? 2FA stands for 2-Factor-Authentication 2FA, is an additional step to your log in process. This happens after you have provided your username and password and can … Continue reading

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