Tabush Group's Cloud & Managed IT Blog

Did you know that October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month?

It's a great annual reminder for you to take a look at what you and your company are doing to protect your business and systems from potential cyber attacks that could cripple your operations and cost you thousands of dollars in lost revenue.

The IT business is loosely defined. If you surveyed 100 IT companies, you would learn just as many different ways of doing things. Every company needs the right IT resources for their business and making the right matches can be a challenge.

The Internet is a dangerous place. Unfortunately, due to the lack of central control and ownership, and the fact that the Internet is accessible from anywhere in the world, including many countries without proper law enforcement, there are many fraudulent traps out there looking to steal people’s personal information and money.

While having proper antivirus and anti-malware software is important, it’s also important to always follow safe browsing practices to ensure your data stays private.

From Turkey to NYC, Mahmut Sarigedik has long since had a knack for IT.

Growing up in Istanbul, Sarigedik credits a variety of situations that helped him follow technology into what is now his career. Throughout his childhood, Sarigedik attended school, and every day afterward, would help his father out at work. “My father was a carpenter; an inventor. I grew up with him at the workshop. He is very hands-on and he always finds a solution no matter what the situation is,” said Sarigedik of his father’s work ethic and character. It was then that he started to learn how to offer solutions to a variety of problems.

Your company’s IT system and its performance is at the forefront of your business and the security of your information is of the utmost importance. Whether it is perceived to be relevant to your firm or not, it is important to realize that any organization’s protection is salient.

There are many perceptions, programs and headlines that buzz within the technology industry. Lately, many of those have revolved around one thing: The security of your information and the privacy that it should have.

As companies look to improve their IT system’s performance, security and productivity, one of the key words thrown around is “Cloud”— Organizations then think, “We need to be in the cloud!” The perception is that it will save money, can be done quite simply and will eradicate outages and downtime. If only it were that straight forward. First, it is important to understand what the cloud is and what it can actually do for your business.

Basically, the cloud is thousands of interconnected datacenters that provide a place for servers to be moved to, data to be stored on and services and applications to be hosted on. It is likely that you are thinking that you already have a server/systems in your office that already does this for you, so why do you need to relocate to the cloud?

Businesses can rejoice! The START button is back with Windows 8.1.

Are you one of the many Windows users who’ve been missing the “Start” button? Well, on October 18^th a tweaked version of Microsoft’s Windows operating system will restore the beloved “Start” button, and update other features. A full retail version of Windows 8.1 will be available and will be offered as a free download to all Windows 8 users. Windows 8.1 will be available worldwide, starting in New Zealand at midnight on October 18^th.

CIO Magazine’s Jennifer Schiff recently interviewed IT executives to find out what questions customers should ask before hiring an IT consultant. Their answers are insightful and ones that you should be able to address.

According to Tabush Group's owner, Morris Tabush, customers should ensure a prospective IT consultant has experience providing services to their type and size of business. Morris explained, "An IT consultant who typically works with Fortune 500 companies will have a difficult time serving the needs of an SMB (small-to-medium sized business)—and a consultant who has been in the finance industry his entire career may not have the experience needed for, say, a manufacturing shop." Morris has been a successful New York IT consultant for many years, so his words of wisdom are definitely worth considering.

When it comes to productivity suites, Microsoft Office has won the title for the undisputed champion of the world. Many organizations and professionals use all of the programs in the MS Office Suite on a daily basis, which makes Office incredibly popular.

Additionally, Microsoft Office 2013 training is widely available, so becoming an expert with its use can be accomplished within a couple weeks. However, while there are a lot of advantages to MS Office 2013, there are also some disadvantages as well.

If you’re trying to decide whether or not you should upgrade to MS Office 2013, it’s important to be aware of the benefits and advantages that come from using Microsoft’s newest productivity suite.