The H-1B visa is one of the most important immigration law options to employ foreign workers on a temporary basis, and because it is viewed as the option for skilled professional positions that require at least a bachelor’s degree (U.S. or foreign equivalent), technology companies typically hire more H-1B workers than any other sector. For experienced immigration practitioners, H-1B petition approvals have generally been considered to be routine, but the Trump administration’s attack on the H-1B visa petition has changed this long-standing perception.
There’s a repetitive scene that plays out each month as my team sits down to review and plan our varinsights.com and Channel Executive magazine editorial content. Our modus operandi, in a nutshell, is to feature executives who apply innovative solutions to often complex problems associated with being in the IT services business. With that M.O. in mind, we struggle to strike a balance between our coverage of traditional VARs and that of managed service providers.
The work my friend and colleague Abby Sorensen put into the IT Channel is paying dividends even after she shifted her focus to the greater software business community. Last week at its RetailNOW event, the Retail Solutions Providers Association’s Women-to-Women (W2W) Committee named her its 2018 Leader Of The Year. Committee Chair and business owner Kelli Stewart, owner/operations manager at Advanced Data Systems, bestowed the honors from the mainstage.
At the top of the New Year, ConnectWise and HTG Peer Groups collaboratively announced that the former was acquiring the latter. Among the HTG associate, member, and greater MSP communities, the news incited a lot of speculation about the future of the HTG empire led by Arlin Sorensen and family. This week, the speculation was put to rest. HTG is now IT Nation Evolve, a new brand that reflects the Arnie Bellini-inspired ConnectWise flavor of channel community building.
The technologies VARs sell and the services VARs provide change drastically in short periods of time, and it takes persistence to evolve your business to keep up. That’s why Built To Last is a must-read for VARs.
Men outnumber women in this industry by something on the order of 8 to 2, and the margin is even wider in the c-suite. By and large, we’re the ones approving salaries, greenlighting recruits, and setting the cultural tones of our companies. That requires us to be involved in solving the pay gap, recruiting more women into the field, and most importantly, driving cultures that demand equal respect across gender lines. None of that will happen if we’re not talking about it.
As more companies shift their IT infrastructure, data, and applications to the cloud, the need for reliable cloud security has become more acute. Fact is, the cloud has increasingly become a target for cyberattacks, as criminals follow the data from on-premises servers to cloud platforms.
Low-tech security strategies are a vital part of protecting customers from email-borne threats.
For MSPs, the traditional approach to cybersecurity focuses on defense and prevention, but as cybercriminals get bolder and more sophisticated, that’s no longer enough. What’s needed is a proactive security posture that MSPs can enforce with their clients using these nine best practices.
For many resellers, vendor relationships don’t extend much beyond the contract signing and some initial training. That may be fine for some product lines, but if you aren’t fostering a closer working relationship with a vendor, you’re probably leaving money on the table.
Most VARs are aware that cross-selling and upselling can boost their revenue, but not as many put the required effort into executing this type of program.
Educating users is an undeniably effective way to protect them from phishing and other malware, but it takes much more than that to stop attacks. There are many risks to networks that user education can’t reduce—from malicious sites mistakenly categorized as benign to watering-hole attacks that infect trusted sites. To combat these challenges, businesses need well-designed antimalware that protects across a variety of attack vectors and infection stages. That’s where multi-vector protection comes in.
As cloud storage becomes more affordable, organizations of all sizes are exploring new ways to meet their increased storage demands and streamline operations. This steady decline in cost and improvements in security have made cloud storage a viable alternative to traditional on-premises storage options.
First popularized in terminology several years ago, threat intelligence means many things to many people. This is due, in part, to the wide variety of producers, consumers, formats, intended uses, and quality of this type of data. This wide variety of definitions is exacerbated by the spectrum of qualitative and quantitative data called threat intelligence.
Global Technology Systems is the trusted expert in mobile power technology. GTS designs and manufactures high-performance batteries, chargers, and power management technologies for essential mobile devices. Millions of business professionals, public safety, government, and military worldwide rely on GTS to power mission critical communications and mobile computing applications. Founded in 2000, GTS is headquartered in Framingham, MA.
The ASCII Group is a vibrant community of independent MSPs, VARS and solution providers in North America. The organization offers members leveraged purchasing programs, education and training, knowledge sharing among peers, discounts on business services, and more. Founded in 1984 by Alan Weinberger, ASCII is the oldest and largest group of independent IT solution providers, integrators and VARS in the world.
Taylor Business Group is an executive coaching and peer group firm that focuses on IT Solution Providers and Copier Dealers. Founded in 2001, Taylor has brought efficiencies and higher profits to IT Solution Providers through a focused effort in delivering best practices to the Service Provider and Copier Dealer's service, sales and administrative functions.
| ConnectWise is the leading business management solution designed exclusively for technology organizations, such as IT solution providers, MSPs, software companies, hardware/software resellers, and System Integrators. |
Shif4 Payments is a leading national provider of touch-screen point of sale (POS) systems and payment processing services. As pioneers of the "as a service" model, Shif4 Payments offers an unprecedented "free" POS program that allows the company's sales partners to offer a full-featured POS system with no up-front costs.
SherWeb has been helping businesses around the world work smarter in the cloud since 1998. Our cloud solutions help companies be more agile in today’s competitive market and trim IT costs.
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The Schrödinger’s backup is such a backup, that was not yet tested for a recovery. Having a full backup is essential for making sure you can recover everything, especially if you have a widespread system failure, compromised data, or even an employee error that leads to loss of a substantial part of your information. While traditional full backup methods used to be the only option for having a complete copy of your data, synthetic full backup is providing a new alternative.
If you care at all about the security of your data, you already know that you need a backup strategy in place. Cyber attacks, technology failures, and human error (especially human error) can all lead to loss of important information that can put you at risk. However, not all backup strategies are equal. To keep your data backed up and secure, follow these three tips.
In the last year, phishing was involved in 93% of successful security breaches. But we shouldn’t point the finger at human error alone. Today’s phishing attacks can be pretty convincing. And, ultimately, we’re all in this together. What your clients really need is a solution that empowers end users to be a strong line of defense. They need cybersecurity awareness training.
They say recognizing a problem is the first step in solving it. Whereas in the past many small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) didn’t believe they had a cybersecurity problem, today many executives in those businesses know that hackers will focus their attention on and exploit them. Particularly if they don’t have adequate cybersecurity defenses in place. The rampant growth in ransomware and increasing volume and velocity of cyber-attacks has meant the “it won’t happen to me” mentality is at last being left behind.
“With 7.5 million new malware variants introduced each month,” organizations need to prepare for an all-out war on cyberattacks. Cyber threats are attacking users from multiple angles—or “vectors.” And what’s worse, their attacks can hit in multiple stages. As an MSP, you must leverage solutions that keep users and devices infectionfree across all endpoints. Unfortunately, two-thirds of MSPs are short on qualified IT professionals who can help them ramp up their security offerings. Thankfully, Webroot multi- vector protection can help.
As an MSP or VAR, you’re looking for new ways to improve services without adding overhead. The addition of providing security to your clients is an absolute necessity in today’s threat landscape, but MSPs and VARs need ways to ensure the highest levels of security without draining staff and profits. So, how can artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) help?
Cloud backup service with centralized management and monitoring.
A MOBILE SOLUTION FOR GREATER FEXIBILITY
APG’s Stratis™ tablet holder is designed for retailers who want the look and feel of an integrated POS terminal while maintaining the flexibility of Thinbility POS. Designed to present the tablet to both the clerk and the customer with a smooth rail system, the adjustable clamping system allows for a variety of tablet sizes to be used. A hidden button releases the tablet converting it from a thin POS station to a mobile solution in seconds.
The APG Vasario Series is the cost-effective choice that doesn't sacrifice quality or dependability.
Most of our clients have ambitious plans for their MSP business. They aspire to double their revenue and simultaneously increase their gross margin and NOI dramatically over the next 18 months. Simply put, they aspire to build a scalable business model capable of driving profitable growth for years to come.
