Thursday, 2 March 2017

Upgrade Windows 7 To Windows 10 Urgently

 
Windows 7 was a good operating system from Microsoft. In fact, it was one of the best operating systems which came in the market, along with Windows 98, Windows XP and Windows 95. However, with time, it got backdated, if not less appealing. Moreover, Microsoft has just decided to end the official support from Windows 7 and that is a dangerous news. No matter how much you love the OS, you need to move on as it will be targeted by the hackers as the protection will be gone.

However, Microsoft also introduced Windows 10 which is even a better version of Windows 7 and has many newer features and added security. Considering everything, it is the perfect time for Windows 7 to 10 migration.

However, organisational migration is not as easy as personal migration. Not only the computers are spread around the world, for a multinational company, but there are confidential and critical data which should be safe during migration. The internal applications which the business uses for daily operation should not be affected by the shift and also daily operation of business shouldn’t be interrupted during the upgrade process. This is why it takes a professional agency to handle organisational upgrade. Thankfully, there are a few agencies who are doing good work in this field and they have the resources, experience and skills for these jobs. You should sit with them, formulate a strategy for the upgrade, fix a time and ask for a quotation.

Upgrade From IE8 to IE11 Safely

Microsoft operating system comes packed with Internet Explorer, the native web browser for the system. As it is the native program, it works the best in the Windows environment and organisations stick to it because they can get support and update from Microsoft themselves. They build their internal software and online resources compatible with Internet Explorer for the best usability.

However, when new versions of Internet Explorer hit the market, despite Microsoft’s best efforts for backward compatibility, they sometimes break the internal software of the organisation. However, these legacy applications are vital and critical for the operation of the business.

IE8 has been a hugely popular version of Internet Explorer and it was continued for years. Thus, many organisations built their applications based on this browser. However, the latest offering from Microsoft is IE11 which is much better, faster and of course, safer version of the browser. Microsoft is endlessly stressing the importance of upgrade from IE8 to IE11 as well. Companies are worried though as they can’t risk to break down their critical internal applications.

Thus, they need the help of a professional agency. The agency will upgrade the browser without breaking the internal application. Moreover, the agency will do the upgrade for remote locations as well so the organisation doesn’t need to hire experts to visit their every office. This is even more important if the company has a worldwide presence. Moreover, a professional agency will get the upgrade done without disrupting the daily operation of the business.

Cyber Security is Investment, Not Expense

 
Cyber attack is not a news anymore, it is that much commonplace. Every day we can hear about a company facing hacking attack. While the methods and the weapons are more sophisticated now, the lack of preparation and awareness from the companies only help these criminals. At least, two third of the companies have no written down course of action to prevent cyber attack or even to recover after a cyber attack.

There can be different types of attacks; SQL injection, phishing, scripting, DDoS, data sniffing are some of the common methods used by the hackers. While phishing is more like duping the user to give out confidential details, there are other attacks, like DDoS, where a common company worker can do nothing to help. Here arises the need of having a professional cyber security agency beside you. They can provide ample security against cyber attack in real time. For example, when a DDoS starts, they can sniff it and quickly take protective measures. They often install firewall to allow only secured access to the server.

A professional cyber security agency or team is not an expense, all the companies must realise this. It’s like the lock of your house, they keep you safe and thus, it’s an investment which yields safety in return. Companies often think they are too small and insignificant to be target of hackers but here they are wrong. Information and data is power and hackers simply don’t discriminate. They often steal user data from smaller companies to use those to hack bigger organisations.

A Brief History of Microsoft Operating Systems

Windows is our most favourite computer operating system. Come on, let’s confess it, despite of a strong argument in favour of Linux and the presence of the Macboys, Windows have around 90% of PC operating system market. A monopoly in an open market tells us how good Microsoft has been in PC operating system.

Their success started early when they came up with Windows 1.0. However, their masterstroke was the Windows 95 which made it possible to use GUI to accomplish every bit of computing. That freed computers from the geeks and made it available for everyone, even the housewife who never touched a computer in her life. Then they followed up with their even advanced version, Windows 98 which came with more hardware support, even more in-depth GUI computing and many newer features.

Windows XP came next and was the most successful and loved operating system from Microsoft till now. Even when the official support has ended for Windows XP, many computers are still running on it. However, the next few versions of Windows suffered as Microsoft either failed to deliver something new or simply messed up. Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows Vista are some of the failures which Microsoft met before they came up with Windows 7 which again was loved by the users. Then they brought Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 which both failed miserably. Their latest offering is the all new Windows 10 and many users are swiftly opting for Windows 8 to 10 migration after the horrible experience they had with Windows 8.

Wednesday, 1 February 2017

4 Reasons to Install Windows 10 Right Now


Let's not even talk about Windows 8 or Windows 8.1. They are best forgotten, just like Windows ME or Windows Vista. After Windows 7, the proper operating system to hit the market is Windows 10. And with Windows 7 is almost at the end of its lifetime, it is high time to migrate to Windows 10.  Windows 7 to 10 migration has multiple benefits which we will discuss briefly.

1.    Receive regular updates: Windows 7 will retire later this year which means you will not receive any update. This will make the computer vulnerable to hacking threats. With Windows 10, you will receive not only the latest security features but also get periodic updates which will keep you safe from modern hacking tools and attempts.

2.    Increased employee productivity: Survey has proved that Windows 10 increases employee productivity in an organisation. If that is to be believed, then your organisation stands to gain a lot from this migration.

3.    Better built-in software: Windows 10 comes with many modern software and applications. For example, the latest browser from Microsoft, Edge, is the best browser from the company and that is installed in Windows 10 by default. These modern applications are better suited to handle the modern computing needs. 

4.    Improved speed: Windows 10 is faster than Windows 7. In fact, this is the fastest yet operating system from Windows. The increased speed will surely increase the way things move in the organisation.

Modernise Your Legacy Applications To Save Effort and Money

One of the most common problems faced by almost every old organisation is how to migrate the so called legacy applications. These applications, which have aged since their inception, are actually still capable of delivering what they were created to deliver but they are unable to cope up with the changing business environments or the expansion of the business or even are incompatible with the newer computing environment.

Additional issues which might pop up, complicating the case further, is the paucity of staffs who know how to handle and maintain these applications. There would be hardly any updated documentation and adding new functionalities which might become necessary during the course of time will be difficult while keeping the original architect intact.
 

Building a new application is always a solution but that might not take advantage of the investment made in the research and development of the original software. It might also fail to utilise the collection of enterprise data which has been captured by the existing organisational architecture. Finding a third-party solution is another way of handling the crisis but there is hardly ready-to-use application which has every feature which the organisation needed.

Rather than waiting for a long time to build a perfect replacement which might never take form and which might also become outdated even before it is implemented, migrating the legacy application to a modern system might be an excellent idea. You can retain the original architecture yet install all the modern and needed features into the system.

Are The Boards Prepared for Cyber Attacks?


The possible negative effect of cyber attack on a business is so grave that it is time for the cybersecurity and information risk management is to be elevated and have its own category of INFOSEC (information security) and should be reported to the CXO level.  

Board of director, chief information security officer, general counsels and chief risk officers need to comprehend and monitor the planning and readiness to address the threats of cyberattack. 
 

A recent study by a prominent body in cyber security found out that one third of all the general counsels surveyed believe that their board is not ready to handle cyber attack real time. Less than half of the CEOs said that their companies have a formulated and approved method for handling cyber attack. However, on a positive note, almost four fifth of all the general counsel and CEOs said that they are ready to detect a cyber security breach. This also indicates that there is a stark difference between being mentally ready or aware and to have a written strategy to combat the threat. In an older survey of 2012 by Carnegie Mellon decided that boards are not actively preparing for the threats for cyber attack. 


Only one fourth of the respondents, all of whom are from Forbes Global 2000 companies, review the top-level privacy and information technology policies on a regular basis and approve them. However, a dismal 40% respondents said that they hardly ever do it, if ever. These figures are worrying and a call for the board members to pay more attention to cyber attack threats.