Business management in the digital age

When automation transformed the manufacturing sector across the Western world during the 1980s and ’90s, many white-collar workers were nonplussed at the wave of job losses. But now artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies have come knocking for their jobs – and managers and skilled workers alike will need to fashion new tools to survive.

Beyond the physical world: How virtualisation can save you time and money

Imagine that you have three servers: one for your emails, one for your customer database and another to host your website. Each of these servers is running at only 15 percent capacity. In a traditional set-up with x86 servers, there’s no way to use the remaining 85 percent for a different purpose. One server means one function. And if, for example, you wanted to add a server for your applications, you’d need to buy new hardware to house it.

Virtualisation makes it possible to combine your servers and allocate resources to minimise wastage and duplication. By moving beyond the physical constraints of conventional servers, virtualisation allows you to save time, money and space while boosting server performance. Read on to learn more about its pros and cons.

Every dollar counts

Still wondering if you should upgrade to Windows 10?

Microsoft's latest operating system is a solid product, with significant improvements under the hood that have made it the most secure and productive Windows ever. Business users have voted with their cash and adopted it faster than any previous version.

Governance is a business term used to describe the framework you have in place to control and protect your IT infrastructure. Often used in a corporate context, governance also has an important role to play for SMBs.

Your governance strategy should express how your IT infrastructure can drive business performance and help achieve your business goals. It also sets out key IT processes (including security procedures) that govern not only how your IT function is operated, but also how your employee devices are managed.

Think of it as a roadmap for your IT department. It sets out a destination (your business goals) and provides step-by-step directions (your processes) that will safely and effectively get you where you need to be.

Governance is a business term used to describe the framework you have in place to control and protect your IT infrastructure. Often used in a corporate context, governance also has an important role to play for SMBs.

Your governance strategy should express how your IT infrastructure can drive business performance and help achieve your business goals. It also sets out key IT processes (including security procedures) that govern not only how your IT function is operated, but also how your employee devices are managed.

Think of it as a roadmap for your IT department. It sets out a destination (your business goals) and provides step-by-step directions (your processes) that will safely and effectively get you where you need to be.

Not all that long ago, the best way of securing your primary means of transportation was to tie your horse to a piece of timber – ensuring you used a decent knot, of course.

These days, when you buy a new car, you expect that it will come with robust security features that go well beyond the ability to lock the doors. An immobiliser, central locking, and maybe even an alarm for good measure would be the three you’d accept at a minimum.

Yet, despite the leaps and bounds we’ve seen with technology over the past few decades, so many people still leave their precious devices simply ‘tied up’ and hope for the best.

However, for those who recognise that their devices are the best means of navigating and traversing our vast digital world, Windows 10 offers some of the best security on the market.

The latest version of Microsoft’s desktop and mobile OS boasts three critical in-built security features designed to keep your data and devices safe.

1. Device Guard

Most of us are blindly trusting of our apps – after all, if they’ve made it to the App Store or Google Play, they must be legitimate, right?

Well, not always. In November 2018, Google had to remove 13 apps from the Play Store – including two that were trending – as they were just malware with no functionality.

While the lesson is to be vigilant with anything you’re uploading, regardless of the source, it’s nice to know that Windows 10 offers an added layer of protection.

Device Guard blocks executable and script-based malware. It also allows organisations and individuals to identify trusted apps, giving them exclusive permission to run updates and perform other automatic functions.

Importantly, Device Guard has been endorsed by such major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) as Acer, Lenovo and HP.

2. Passport

Passwords have long been the gold standard of personal security when it comes to IT, but they have a crucial flaw: the more secure they are, the harder they are to remember.

As a result, such efforts as ‘password’ and ‘12345678’ continue to top ‘worst password’ lists year after year.

But what can you do? Well, instead of addressing the symptom, Windows 10 aims to treat the cause.

Microsoft Passport gives Windows 10 users a safe and easy way to access password-protected services.

Users first complete an easy two-factor authentication process that requires a PIN or biometric signature and an authorised Windows device.

Once authenticated, users can select a unique gesture to use for future log-ins. This allows Windows to complete other logins (for example, to online services) on the user’s behalf.

It’s not only safe, it’s also a convenient solution – after all, not only are gestures harder to crack than passwords, they’re also much harder to forget.

3. Windows Hello

Not content with gestures to keep your precious data safe? Then it’s just as well the new system is also packing Windows Hello.

Hello works with Passport to provide enterprise-grade security – again, without the need for a password.

Instead, Hello allows you to teach your device to recognise a unique biometric, such as reading your fingerprint or scanning your face or iris with your device’s built-in camera.

To make it even safer, the authentication data is encrypted and, to protect it from online assailants, stored only on your device.

And along with helping to beef up your device’s privacy and protection, Hello also improves efficiency, getting you logged on as much as three times faster than a password.

Thanks to technologies like these, Windows 10 is one of the most secure operating systems ever developed. Combined with modern hardware, your PC will be a tough nut to crack.

Microsoft Teams is the collaboration hub that helps your team to get on the same page with group chat, online meetings, calling, and web conferencing. Collaborate on files with built-in apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and SharePoint and get end-to-end security, administrative control, and compliance—all powered by Office 365.

Silicon Root of Trust anchors the essential firmware of HPE ProLiant to an HPE-exclusive ASIC even before the server is built, creating an immutable fingerprint that must be exactly matched before the server will boot. This ensures malicious code is contained and healthy servers are protected. It's the Silicon Root of Trust that makes HPE ProLiant Gen10 servers, powered by Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors the World's Most Secure industry-standard server¹.

Now that working from home is the new normal, managers and employees are working hard to maintain mutual trust. Here’s how to assure that both parties feel comfortable and productive.

Ensuring that your company is data compliant can be a time-consuming, expensive and all-around tedious task. But not abiding by compliance laws can seriously hurt your business in the long run.

There’s a lot of information about PCs out there but much of it is far from true. Read on to see the most pervasive myths about workplace computers.