MicroLogix Network Services, LLC Blog

You can’t wake up anymore without hearing something about AI, and in the business world, there’s almost a sense of peer pressure around it. Nowadays, you have to be using AI, or your business will be left behind… or at least, that’s the narrative.

While we are in no way discouraging you from adopting AI, we are saying that moving forward without a plan is likely to waste your money. For AI to work the way you want and need it to, you need to have done the homework and laid a foundation for success.

Artificial intelligence has reshaped the relationship that many people have with technology, and especially how we work and communicate. Despite this, there are plenty of challenges that the technology faces—especially if it wants to remain sustainable. Today, we want to look at the fuel that keeps these platforms running—the data center—and why it’s important to consider them in the context of the AI conversation.

As IT professionals, we understand that effective device management is crucial for maintaining optimal performance and security. A simple, often-overlooked practice is the routine reboot of Android mobile devices.

When was the last time you performed a controlled shutdown and restart of your corporate or personal Android smartphone? If your answer involves "I wait until the battery dies," you're likely missing out on simple performance and security gains. Also, if the only way to restart is using the power button, and it breaks, you're stuck.

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is practically now a household name, and it’s changing the way we think about work, communication, and even innovation. It takes a lot of power and infrastructure to fuel these systems, however, and they wouldn’t be possible without the data center. These structures are the powerhouses that enable AI, but what does a data center for AI look like?

So, one of your devices—let’s say it’s a computer monitor—finally gives up the ghost and dies on you. What do you do?

Too many people would answer this question by simply tossing the offending monitor into the trash, even though that would be precisely the wrong move. Let’s go over how to properly dispose of your old technology and review the many reasons it is essential to do so.

We all want to be more productive, but actually being more productive is harder than it sounds. Thankfully, you can make being productive easier than ever by implementing proven frameworks to drive success. Today, we’ll highlight three different frameworks: the Eisenhower Matrix, Eat the Frog, and the Two-Minute Rule.

Your email inbox is one of your most accessed business resources, which means that it cannot get clogged up with useless messages that have little to no value, i.e., spam. If you want to make the most out of your workday, that means mastering your inbox and getting it under control. Today, we have three great tips to help you do just that.

Your business lives and dies by its budget, and its IT budget is no different. If you can get your IT budget under control, you can enjoy greater peace of mind and reassurance that your operations are as smooth as possible. Today, we want to look at three of the greatest factors that can contribute to an efficient IT budget: the IT roadmap, minimized downtime, and outsourcing IT. Let’s get to it.

Whether employees like it or not, they bear some sort of responsibility for the technology they use in the office. It’s your job as the business owner to ensure that they get the help they need to both make effective use of the technology and to do so in a way that keeps the business safe. Today, we want to look at three of the ways hiring a managed service provider can help you offer better and more consistent IT assistance for your employees.

When you send someone within your business an email, the expectation is that they will read it and respond accordingly. Unfortunately, messages can sometimes slip through the cracks, especially for small businesses with limited staff and an impossible workload to keep up with. If you primarily use email to communicate with your team, you need an email archiving system that can help ensure lost emails aren’t setting your business up for disaster.

When the time comes that you have to make a big decision—one that could have some significant impact on your business, for instance—what does your thought process look like? Do you rely on data, or do you rely on what your gut tells you?

If it’s the latter, you’re literally relying on your least accurate information and hoping that you get the most beneficial outcome. Instead, why not rely on the other, quantitative and confirmed data your business has collected over the years and pair it with the analytical prowess of AI tools?

It’s official; Windows 10 is no longer supported by Microsoft. It was an incredibly popular operating system, which might give you a certain level of hesitation to move on and upgrade to Windows 11, but we want to urge you to do so now rather than later. Let’s take a look at your options and which one is best for your business.

If your business relies on its digital infrastructure—and nearly every modern business does—you know that downtime isn't just an inconvenience; it's a direct hit to your revenue, reputation, and productivity.

Have you ever wondered how major online services stay operational even when a server crashes or a major event occurs? The secret is failover.

We’ve all been given an impression of what artificial intelligence is or will ultimately become through pop culture. HAL 9000, Skynet, Ultron, and M3GAN each show their own form of calculated malice. 

However, in reality, the true potential of AI is more in line with the likes of Rosie the Robot, JARVIS, R2-D2, or Data, helpful companions who assist their cohort in generating ideas or completing tasks, often leaning on the soft skills that have been so valued in human relationships, things like curiosity, empathy, and resilience. Let’s consider how we can embrace these soft skills and better utilize the tool at hand.

We've all heard the saying, “Opportunity knocks only once." While it sounds like something a wise man would say, it’s not always true. For business owners, opportunity is everywhere, but it doesn’t stand on a corner spinning a flashy sign. The real skill is learning how to identify it and, more importantly, how to take advantage of it.

If you're ready to stop waiting and start creating your own luck, here are a few tips to help you get started.

Your IT project manager is the centerpiece at the proverbial table of project implementation. Without one, your project will be much more likely to fail, or at least more likely to get done incorrectly or inefficiently. Today, we want to break down some of the qualities that make for a great project manager and how you can find the right one for your business.

Passwords are an important part of ensuring your IT infrastructure remains safe, but they are far from the most effective security solution. It’s not necessarily the fault of the password, either; it’s just that hackers and scammers have gotten a lot better at cracking passwords in recent years, even reasonably complex ones. We recommend you implement multi-factor authentication as a secondary precaution against breaches—and here’s why.

Let’s say, for a moment, that somewhere out there is a diligent employee—John—who works for a small business. While John means well, he has the unfortunate habit of using the same password for everything… including the marketing tool his employer has him sign up to use.

A year or two goes by. The company hasn’t touched that marketing tool in months. John has completely forgotten he has an account with it. Meanwhile, that tool experiences a significant data breach, and suddenly, the credentials to almost everything John has ever accessed are now available on the dark web.

Sometimes the best technology solutions will fly under your radar, and depending on your company’s preferred productivity suite, you might already have tools that are being underutilized. One such tool is Google Forms. Today, we’ve got a step-by-step guide that shows you how to create a Google Form for a variety of purposes.

How much would you be willing to pay to keep all of your business’ records from being locked away, or to keep them off the dark web? Hundreds? Thousands? More?

This is precisely what cybercriminals rely on when they infect businesses just like yours with ransomware. Let’s talk about ransomware a bit: what it is, why it’s so effective, and (most importantly) how to keep it from dragging your business down.