Thinfactory Newsupdate

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 August competition: Win a Yubikey: more protection, less hassle! 

Unfortunately, Covid-19 is still very present in our lifes and still limits our freedom. Fortunately, technology tools are helping us to work remotely from home in a productive way. We hope you have enjoyed good holidays and we sincerely hope you, your family and colleagues are doing well. 

Last month, Microsoft has organized their annual partner event ‘Microsoft Inspire’. Usually, this happens in the US with 30.000 people from all over the world but, no surprise, this year Microsoft Inspire was organized digitally. Nevertheless, we have participated again and it was interesting to discover newest features and trends. The most interesting topic to us was the changing CIO priorities due to Covid-19, resulting in budget increases on Compliance and Protection to secure Remote work against increasing Cybersecurity risks….

According to a worldwide Covid-19 Security and Compliance flash poll 2020 report commissioned by Microsoft, CIO’s priority list has changed because of Covid-19:

  • Compliance budget increase 65%
  • Cybersecurity +40%:
    MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) & Endpoint device protections become most important Cybersecurity Technology investments
  • Remote work solutions +35%

In addition, 49% of Compliance Decision Makers believe that Data Protection is the most important solution area!

In this month’s update, we also have a small Yubico competition where you can win a Yubikey in a very easy way. We promise: it will take less than 2 minutes to participate and this Yubikey may change your life forever in a more secure way leaving changing-passwords-hassle behind you forever! (Read More)

This is what it takes to make a chance winning a Yubikey:

  • Like and share our Yubico post  before 25 August 2020
  • Propose us a timeslot to have a short online meeting about Yubico and other security tools which takes place before before end August 2020. 
    Mail your meeting date to sales@thinfactory.com, subject ‘Yubico meeting’
  • Conditions: Only (potential) customers can participate. Max 1 winner per company. If more applicants we will pick randomly 2 winners. Yubikeys will be send in September 2020.

Last but not least, we would like to highlight our Thinfactory vCloud Director Iaas (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) solution which will replace our Cloud Plaza environment soon. This vCloud platform is based on VMWare technology and keeps your data in Belgium (or The Netherlands, up to you!) and is a fast, flexible and secure way with predictable costs as we do not charge network bandwidth usage and connectivity! Of course, you can count on our local support specialists in case you need them. (Read more)

Don’t hesitate to contact us for questions or suggestions.

Stay safe!

Regards
Thinfactory team

P.S. Did you know Flemish SME (Small Medium Enterprises) can get 50% government funding up to 50.000Eur per project related to digital transformation with an external expert company, such as Thinfactory? Applications need to be sent between 1 September 2020 and 31 October 2020. Read more here (in Dutch).

Thinfactory

Stay productive while working remotely – 6 months FREE trial Microsoft Teams

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With COVID-19 continuing to impact people and countries around the world, teams and schools everywhere are moving to remote work and distance learning. Get Teams for free and learn how to get started. Thinfactory has the expertise to help you with this adoption inside your company.

What is Microsoft Teams?

Teams is a great tool for online collaboration with your colleagues, customers and/or suppliers. Use chat, (video)calls, meetings, document sharing, …  

Terms and conditions

  • Only valid for customers who don’t have Teams yet in their Microsoft plan: New customers without an Office 365 Tenant • Exchange Online Plan 1 • Exchange Online Plan 2 • Office 365 ProPlus • Office 365 Business • Customers with Dynamics 365 and no Office 365
  • Services added to trial licenses: Exchange Foundation • Flow for Office 365 Plan 1 • Forms • Microsoft Planner • Microsoft Whiteboard • Microsoft Teams (Teams1, Teams IW) • Office Online • PowerApps for Office 365 Plan 1 • SharePoint Online Kiosk • Stream • Sway
  • Max 1000 per tenant during maximum 6 months.
  • The trial starts on the date that the trial is initiated for the tenant, not when users are assigned licenses.
  • After 6 months the trial ends automatically or can be included in a paid subscription with Teams included. You decide, no unexpected charges!
  • If the customer has no active paid or trial subscriptions, the tenant will follow normal Office 365 data retention policies.
  • Only valid via Microsoft CSP partners

Are you convinced or still some questions? Send email “Free Teams Trial” to sales@thinfactory.com and we’ll contact you.

companies benefit cloud

What companies can benefit most from cloud computing?

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There are many benefits of moving parts of your IT to the cloud. Like cost benefits, added flexibility and productivity. But what type of organizations benefit most from the advantages of cloud computing?

In my opinion the following types of (SME) companies will benefit most from the advantages of Cloud Computing:

Project organizations

When collaboration within a group is an important part of your processes, you can maximize the benefit from the advantages of Cloud Computing. Especially the possibility to edit and share documents with multiple users in real-time will lead to cost benefits.

Decentralized organizations

Are your colleagues on the road a lot or do you work with different locations across the country? Then the central storage of data and programs ensures that information is always available to virtually the entire organization.

Cost-conscious organizations

Cloud Computing eliminates the necessity to invest in an ICT project in advance. OK, everything still needs to be set up and adjusted, but at least the high costs of hardware and software are eliminated. This lowers the costs and makes you more flexible towards the future.

Growing organizations

Do you need more storage space? With backup? Does the memory need to be expanded to have a new program run properly? Are you gaining five new users next week? Cloud Computing offers the possibilities to add capacity immediately. Without requiring an additional investment. That being said the opposite is also true: with the cloud computing model scaling down is far more easy. So shrinking organizations would benefit too.

Advantages of cloud computing

Do you know these top 6 advantages that make cloud computing so attractive?

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More and more companies decide to choose a cloud server over a traditional on premise server. And that’s in most cases a no brainer given de numerous advantages of cloud computing over traditional IT. Gartner projects the cloud services industry to keep growing exponentially through 2022.

Here’s my top 6 advantages that make cloud computing so attractive:

1. It’s scalable

It provides organizations with capacity at the moment they need it. Without large investments in advance.

2. Higher reliability

If you have chosen a serious provider, Cloud Computing offers higher reliability because multiple servers form ‘The Cloud’ together. This creates redundancy because the functioning of the system is no longer dependent on individual servers or components. On top of that it’s run by a company whose only job is to keep everything up and running. That’s why it’s usually more reliable than your own on premise server.

3. Lower costs

Because you only pay per use and unused capacity is shared among users, it is less expensive than hosting and maintaining a server yourself.

4. Always up to date

A Cloud server always runs the latest software version. This means there will no longer be any difference in document formats within a company. Another advantage is the added security that always updated software brings.

5. Universal access

No matter where you want to open your document or programs from, you and your colleagues always work in the same environment. From the office, at home or on the road.

6. Easier collaboration

Because all data is located centrally on the same system, it is easier to work together within a company.

Difference between Acronis and Veeam

The differences between Acronis backup online and Veeam cloud connect

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Many times I get the question what are exactly the differences between the two backup products Acronis backup online and Veeam cloud connect? And in what situation one product is preferred to the other?

Having a good functioning backup that you can rely on is one of the most important (and most overlooked) aspects of modern IT. At least by end users. Assuming data in the cloud is in safe hands of the services provider is not always the best mindset. Especially with the rise of cryptolockers and other malware.

Advantages of Acronis backup cloud

When would I prefer Acronis backup online over Veeam cloud connect? Let me first say that both Veeam cloud connect and Acronis backup online are both very good solutions. Acronis however is a pure cloud play where the central management dashboard is located online. From there all backups can be monitored. Acronis is a real software as a service solution.
The downside of having the dashboard in the cloud is that you need a third party remote management solution to push the backup agents to the clients. Or you could install them manually of course.  On the other hand no on prem configuration for the management portal is needed which is a huge advantage for smaller companies without on prem server infrastructure.

Advantages of Veeam cloud connect

Veeam is the younger one of the two and that could mean an advantage over older solutions because of the lack of legacy components. Veeam needs a local installed component Veeam Backup & Replication or Veeam availability suite. With Veeam cloud connect you get the possibility to use all the functionalities of the product. Like pushing agents to servers and workstations within your network and monitor all backups through the management portal. With all the advantages of a geo redunant backup in the cloud.

Acronis and Veeam compared

In order to decide for yourself which product is best in your company’s situation I created a comparison table. Please note that Veeam cloud connect can only act as an add-on to your existing Veeam Backup & Replication solution where Acronis is a full backup solution.

Acronis backup online vs Veeam cloud connect

Testdrive Acronis or Veeam backup?

Get your free 30-day trial

Try Acronis
Try Veeam
cloud server vs on premise server

Struggling to choose between cloud server or on-premise server? Here are the main (dis)advantages!

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When a server at the office needs to be replaced, management faces a choice between continuing operations the “traditional” way – simply replacing the hardware and upgrading the software, introducing automation during the upgrade while continuing to run on hardware in-house, or transitioning the server’s role or application to Cloud Computing. The fact Cloud Computing brings a number of advantages to many large companies should be clear to anyone who has been observing the Infrastructure as a Service market over the past few years…

But what are the benefits of Cloud Computing for SMEs? What should we take into account if we want to make the switch? How do we approach this technically? Where are the points of attention? And can we learn from others who have already taken this step?

SMEs lack a clear overview of the costs, the benefits and challenges of a switch to Cloud Computing and a practical manual of how this can all be realized at the technical and management level.

That’s why I created the table below. To at least help to choose between a cloud server and a server on-premise.

Struggling to choose between cloud server or on premise server? Here are the main (dis)advantages