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Microsoft 365 Nonprofit Available at a Discount

In order to take advantage of this offer, you must be a registered Nonprofit or charity.  Approval process can take from 1-4 weeks depending on your organizations status.

Microsoft 365 is a Microsoft cloud application that provides web-based access to familiar Office applications including professional email, instant messaging, calendar, video conferencing, and access to your documents from anywhere.

Microsoft has donated and discounted a range of subscription plans, so no matter how big or small your organization you can find an affordable plan that meets your needs.  Eligible nonprofits and charities can now receive donated and newly discounted versions of Microsoft 365.

 

Benefits of Microsoft 365 Nonprofit

Microsoft 365 deepens the word processing, data analysis, communication, and productivity features of Office that your staff is already familiar with. Here are some of its key benefits:

  • Office Web Apps. With Office Web Apps, you can open, view, and edit documents right from your browser (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, or Safari) on your home computer. Your staff can use Office Web Apps on up to five of their own devices, giving them the flexibility to work wherever and whenever they need to.

 

  • Hosted email. With Microsoft Exchange Online, you can access your email, shared calendars, and contacts from your PC, Mac, smartphone, or tablet without having to set up a VPN or remote access to your office.

 

  • Document sharing. Easily share documents with your colleagues with SharePoint Online, which is like an online document repository in the cloud. You can edit documents simultaneously, saving you precious time.

 

  • High-definition collaboration. Microsoft Lync Online is an all-in-one tool for video calls, web conferencing, instant messaging, and voice calls. With high-definition (HD) video conferencing, you can meet and collaborate with out-of-office staff and volunteers.

 

  • Security and privacy. Along with built-in spam and malware protection for email, Microsoft 365 also lets you add security to mobile devices. Your IT staff can manage and customize your organization’s security options in a single console. If your organization deals with sensitive information, your data will be protected in the cloud. Microsoft 365 is compliant with industry standards including HIPAA, FISMA, BAA, and others.

 

  • Support 24/7. Don’t have on-call IT staff? Microsoft 365 provides 24/7 professional-level support.

 

Contact us to discover on how Microsoft 365 Nonprofit and Charity program works.

 

 

365 iT SOLUTIONS is a leading IT consulting firm in Toronto. We provide industry leading Managed IT ServicesIT Support ServicesIT Outsourcing ServicesTech Support Services and Cloud Services.

Take advantage of our Complimentary Network and Security Assessment by 365itSolutions.com

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eBay Hacked! Must Change Your Password.

eBay has been hacked.  eBay is asking all users to change their account passwords after a cyberattack compromised its database containing encrypted passwords.  Industry best practices is to not use the same password everywhere.  If you do, you now have to change all of them.

So how was eBay Hacked?

eBay has reported that there is no unauthorized activity on client accounts.  There also is no evidence that financial or credit card information was stolen.

PayPal has also commented that there has been no evidence of unauthorized access to PayPal accounts.  PayPal stated that all data is stored on a separate secure network where all financial information is encrypted.

eBay is asking that all users to change passwords due to cyberattack that compromised information.

eBay is encouraging users to change their passwords as soon as possible.

eBay Hacked is all over the news and your should change your password.

 

365 iT SOLUTIONS is a leading IT consulting firm in Toronto. We provide industry leading Managed IT ServicesIT Support ServicesIT Outsourcing ServicesTech Support Services and Cloud Services.

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What is The Difference between Virtual Private Servers (VPS) Storage and Cloud?

A typical Virtual Private Servers (VPS)r setup has local storage attached to the physical machine, which limits the amount of space, disk redundancy and security available to all clients on that Virtual Private Servers (VPS).

  • Storage Resilience – An enterprise SAN (storage area network) can sustain multiple simultaneous drive failures, uses multipath I/O, and even has multiple controllers in fail over mode so if one goes down another one takes its place seamlessly and automatically. It also alerts our staff of any error so action can be taken immediately. Centralized storage also means that cloud virtual machines can move to different hosts without having to transfer storage spaces.
  • VPS – set up the hard drives are on a local machine which limits space, allows for very limited redundancy, and creates I/O bottlenecks and migrating from one host to another requires time consuming data transfer.
  • Scalability – The cloud control panel gives you the access to increase the resources (CPU, RAM, disk space, network speed) of the virtual machines in your virtual private datacenter at your will. If you suddenly experience higher traffic on your website you can accommodate the new traffic as needed.  With auto-scaling set up, the cloud software can increase a virtual machine’s resources automatically. You can also easily create virtual load balancing clusters of virtual machines (VMs) that can share traffic load automatically.
  • VPS – situation there are set resources for each plan and if you need a bit more RAM you also need to pay for more hard drive space or CPU even if you are not planning to use it. The plans are created by the seller to fill their servers and not for the buyer.
  • High Availability – Our cloud services and cloud storage offer full redundancy at multiple levels, from infrastructure (multiple power sources, redundant climate control, multipath I/O, multiple fabrics, redundant network) to management. If a host fails all of the VMs on that hypervisor are moved to another host automatically within seconds. This effectively decreases downtime to levels not thought possible before.
  • VPS – Servers are all contained on one host and when that host fails all virtual servers on that host go down. Downtime depends on how fast the host can be repaired as everything the virtual machine relies on is in that one host.
  • Pricing – Even with all of these advanced features, our cloud virtualization service is better priced and includes flexible billing options. When you start to consume more resources than your package includes you are given access to more and billed hourly when the resources are used. Even when you find you are growing and consistently using more resources, switching to a larger package can be done in a few seconds. Resources are allocated to you on the fly, so moving billing plans is quick and painless, never resulting in downtime for your virtual environment.
  • VPS – environments tend to cost more because you are stuck in strict billing plans that allocate you a certain amount of resources whether you use them or not. Many VPS providers also over-sell their resources meaning your VM may fight for the resources you have paid for when it needs them.

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365 iT SOLUTIONS is a leading IT consulting firm in Toronto. We provide industry leading Managed IT ServicesIT Support ServicesIT Outsourcing ServicesTech Support Services and Cloud Services.

Take advantage of our Complimentary Network and Security Assessment by 365itSolutions.com

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Lenovo Outsells Apple

Lenovo has been increasing their marketshare worldwide and according to their recent financial report, Lenovo has even overtaken Apple in the US.  Lenovo has been using a winning formula by introducing new products that receive praise from industry watchers and consumers alike.

So how is Lenovo outselling Apple?

During the past fiscal year Lenovo shipped 55 million PCs, 50 million smartphones and 9.2 million tablets.  Revenue was up 14% year over year reaching $38.7 billion, while earnings increased by 29% year over year to $817 million.  Lenovo has outsold Apple in terms of PCs in the Americas with a 10.8% marketshare.

Also, Lenovo is not done yet.  Recently they purchased Motorola using $3.5 billion in cash reserves.  Based on past performance, they will push their smartphone line even further.

 

365 iT SOLUTIONSis Toronto’s leading iT consulting firm offering Managed IT Services, IT Support, IT OutsourcingRemote IT Support, Cloud Services, Cloud Storage and VoIP services in the Toronto area.

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Corporate Mobile Secure, is Your Company Secure?

Many organizations do not realize how unprepared they are when it comes to keeping data safe and secure.  Motorola surveyed people that use their smartphones for both work and personal.  Most admit to engaging in risky behaviors despite knowing the threats.

Why do you need comprehensive corporate mobile secure policies?

Companies must address mobile productivity as it presents risks to corporate mobile devices and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD).  You are at risk including data, malware, loss, theft and unauthorized access.  This is achieved through policy-based security and is managed by your it support services provider.

Here are some interesting key findings from the survey regarding Corporate Mobile Secure:

  • 66% of people know the responsibility falls on them to keep mobile data private and secure.
  • 73% of respondents said they are concerned about smartphone security.
  • 34% store sensitive data such as their bank account information or work email passwords on their phones.
  • 55% admit they’ve sent work email or documents to their personal email accounts on their phones.
  • 48% have used their devices to log into an unsecure wireless network.
  • 77% can name at least one thing they’re more familiar with than their company’s IT security policies

So is your corporate mobile secure?

365 iT SOLUTIONS is a leading IT consulting firm in Toronto. We provide industry leading Managed IT ServicesIT Support ServicesIT Outsourcing ServicesTech Support Services and Cloud Services.

Take advantage of our Complimentary Network and Security Assessment by 365itSolutions.com

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Is Your Workstation Slow? AdBlock Plus + Firefox be sucking up resources.

Do you use Firefox and AdBlock Plus?  Have you noticed that your system is slow?  Well, they are a bad mix.

AsBlock Plus has attracted a large following.  Users find that it does what it claims by making web browsing more enjoyable and faster, while reducing the amount of data used by hiding and disabling adverts on webpages.

Mozilla suggests that enabling the plugin could result in exceptionally large amounts of RAM being consumed by the program. They found that just enabling the plugin on a 64-bit system could result in a constant additional RAM usage of 60-70 MB.  Browsing a website with a relatively generous helping of ads found that RAM usage by Firefox increased by over 200 MB with AdBlock Plus enabled (417 MB of RAM usage with the plugin, versus 194 MB without).

With some more intensive websites such as the VIM Color Scheme Test, the plugin ended up consuming nearly 2 GB of RAM at 1960 MB; without it, just 370 MB was used.

There will be a major update to AdBlock Plus.  For users who have large amounts of RAM installed on their machines, such as 8GB or more, this memory consumption may not be an issue.  But those with devices that have far less RAM installed may see more significant slow-downs.

The issue has not been noted in the Internet Explorer or Google Chrome versions of AdBlock Plus.

 

365 iT SOLUTIONS is a leading IT consulting firm in Toronto. We provide industry leading Managed IT ServicesIT Support ServicesIT Outsourcing ServicesTech Support Services and Cloud Services.

Take advantage of our Complimentary Network and Security Assessment by 365itSolutions.com

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How to Reduce IT Support Services Costs for Your Business

One of the biggest costs that businesses endure has to do with IT support.  In today’s world, information and technology are the foundation of business operations.  Most businesses are noticing that this cost is getting out of control.  The key to escaping this trap is to utilize your managed systems.  When it comes to saving money on IT support, having a more streamlined managed IT services and IT support system is crucial.

Here are five ways to reduce IT support services costs:

  1. Maintain your systems. Proper maintenance is critical because it will end up preventing issues from popping up in the future.  Outdated software and platforms will be slower and there will be more expensive problems to fix.

 

  1. Update your hardware. Trying to get by with old hardware is one of the best ways to spend a fortune on IT support.  Technology is constantly moving forward and if you have old computers, servers and other hardware, it could be seriously slowing down your workflow.

 

  1. Use a managed IT system. If you really want to limit and control IT support costs, you may want to go with a custom system management platform. Many Managed IT Services and IT Support providers will make sure that your entire system is streamlined and secured. They will also implement automated functions, so that the job you were currently paying IT support a fortune to do can now be done automatically.

 

  1. Implement automatic backups. If you don’t have automatic backups, you should. If you want to save your business a lot of money, you should always be storing items on the cloud. What happens if there is a crash? It can cost a fortune to hire IT support to extract and recover files. With a cloud based storage system, retrieving files is as easy as clicking a single button. Not only that, but if you want to retrieve lost files, the cloud makes it incredibly easy to search through your database.

 

  1. Train your staff. The more knowledgeable your staff is about IT issues, the more they can troubleshoot on their own – without the help of a support team. This is especially important in the instance of avoiding viruses and other issues that could compromise your entire your system. In the long run, investing in a training program may just be the best move you can make.

 

365 iT SOLUTIONS is a leading IT consulting firm in Toronto. We provide industry leading Managed IT ServicesIT Support ServicesIT Outsourcing ServicesTech Support Services and Cloud Services.

Take advantage of our Complimentary Network and Security Assessment by 365itSolutions.com

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Microsoft Word Vulnerability Hacked through Taiwanese Government

A major hacking operation has been carried out against the Taiwanese government and educational institutes known as “Taidoor”.  They have successfully managed to exploit the Microsoft Word vulnerability.

So how did Microsoft Word Vulnerability Hacked through Taiwanese Government?

Microsoft has recently issued a security advisory regarding a serious vulnerability in its Word software and had released a “fix-it” patch immediately to protect the users from being susceptible to any attack using the exploit. The users and institutions who failed to update their software and systems risked to become victims of attacks from hackers.

The hackers have used malicious email attachments with relevant titles such as national polls and free trade issues to dupe the employees into opening the content.  The files downloaded to the computers are believed to be capable of stealing sensitive data and carrying out surveillance.

“Taidoor” campaigners have used zero-day flaws in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser for similar attacks.  The operation has been active since 2009, and has a similar pattern consisting of vulnerabilities, social engineering and targets which include government agencies.

The attack has once again shed light on the importance of installing updates and running the latest available versions of system software in situations where continuous unattended network interaction takes place.

 

 

365 iT SOLUTIONS is a leading IT consulting firm in Toronto. We provide industry leading Managed IT ServicesIT Support ServicesIT Outsourcing ServicesTech Support Services and Cloud Services.

Take advantage of our Complimentary Network and Security Assessment by 365itSolutions.com

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30 Day Extension for Microsoft Windows 8.1 Update Requirement

If you have not updated your Windows 8.1, don’t worry.  Users who have not installed the first major update to Windows 8.1 now have has an extension of 30 days.

So why 30 Day Extension for Microsoft Windows 8.1 Update?

When Microsoft released Windows 8.1’s first major update, the company said it would be required to continue receiving updates for the operating system, giving users until May 13 to install it.  Now consumers have until June 10 to install the update and continue receiving support for Microsoft’s flagship OS.

Users who have automatic updates turned on likely already have the update, and if they don’t, the update will install itself via Windows Update. Users who don’t have automatic updates turned on can install the new version of Windows 8.1 manually.

Those who don’t install the update will run the risk of exposing themselves to security issues, as Microsoft will no longer provide updates of any sort, including security improvements, to earlier versions of Windows 8.1 after June 10.

 

365 iT SOLUTIONS is a leading IT consulting firm in Toronto. We provide industry leading Managed IT ServicesIT Support ServicesIT Outsourcing ServicesTech Support Services and Cloud Services.

Take advantage of our Complimentary Network and Security Assessment by 365itSolutions.com

Visit us on Google+LinkedInFacebookTwitter and YouTube.

 

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What is Managed IT Services provider?

Managed IT Services providers are simple.  It is a proactive business IT support management approach to your IT environment.

Managed IT Services providers minimize network disruption, improves uptime, stabilizes your network and helps ensure the highest performance levels are being met while allowing you to focus on important issues, your business.

What are the benefits to 365 iT SOLUTIONS as your Managed IT Services provider?

  • Allows business owners and management to focus 100% on the business, not technology.
  • Your IT network is monitored 24/7 providing you with worry-free systems and network support.
  • Access to advance IT Support Help Desk team with unlimited remote support.
  • Disaster recovery protection of your data onsite and offsite in the cloud.
  • Integration of enterprise class tools such as Spam & Email Firewall, Corporate Antivirus and Management Tools.
  • Level predictable monthly expenses, no surprises.

 

What Makes 365 iT SOLUTIONS the Best Choice for Managed IT Services Toronto?

365 iT SOLUTIONS works hard to exceed our clients’ needs and expectations. We strictly follow industry best practices when it comes to our proactive remote monitoring and management (RMM) and professional services automation (PSA) tools and IT infrastructure systems, Canadian IT consulting team and industry leading operating procedures.

We are your IT department, not a third party partner. We handle everything IT related including offering guidance on smart technology investments and budgeting. Maintaining and managing all equipment to eliminate downtime and increase productivity. Proactively securing systems against cybercrime and unexpected disasters.

365 iT SOLUTIONS is a leading IT consulting firm in Toronto. We provide industry leading Managed IT ServicesIT Support ServicesIT Outsourcing ServicesTech Support Services and Cloud Services.

Take advantage of our Complimentary Network and Security Assessment by 365itSolutions.com

Welcome to Worry-Free iT!