3 Things to Know When Updating Your Phone System

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3 Things to Know When Updating Your Phone System

3 Things to Know When Updating Your Phone System

Lower Your Cost of Ownership

Modern communications have certainly evolved well beyond the vision of our forefathers. When we reflect on the number of touchpoints we now manage between employees and customers, it is no wonder the pace of business growth is at an all-time high. Whether it’s email, chat, messaging apps, or video conferences, you need open communication to run your business. So, as you’re comparing phone systems and unified communications platforms, here are some things you’ll want to consider.

Right Plan, Right Person

When calculating the cost of a new phone system, you’ll want to factor in “add ons” to get the features and capabilities that will best serve your business goals. One of the advantages of working with NexusTek is our ability to tailor your Unified Communications System to your business needs, so each employee has the service level they need based on their daily workflow. If you require that your management team has access to deeper analytics and monitoring capabilities, but you only need basic functionality for the rest of your staff or call center, you can lower your total cost of ownership by picking the right plan for each person.

Minimizing Business Risk

Most business owners agree that risk is a scary word. You might take risks on marketing a new product but when it comes to your phone system, taking risks is like driving without insurance. By partnering with NexusTek, we’ll help you reduce your risk by controlling all communications on our platform end-to-end. Your customers’ data stays secure while you stay compliant – making it a “win-win” for your business and your customer!

Grow the Right Way

Growth can be another scary proposition for business owners. From big decision like moving into new markets, opening new offices, or acquiring new businesses, ensuring that your operational standards are maintained across your organization is a requirement.

Let NexusTek worry about setting up your communications system and adhering to regulatory environments. At the end of the day, our service is more than just phone coverage. NexusTek can help you comply with local telecommunications rules, set up your offices with local numbers and provide an interface that your employees’ can feel comfortable with using from the start.

When choosing a Unified Communications partner, it’s critical to dive into the technology, business relationships, and support capabilities of each provider you consider. NexusTek listens to your own specific communications needs to ensure your new phone system exceeds your expectations. Contact us about NexusTek’s Unified Communications program to learn more.

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Could You Do More to Prevent Cyber Attacks?

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Could You Do More to Prevent Cyber Attacks?

Could You Do More to Prevent Cyber Attacks?

Let’s face it, just about every organization could do more to thwart the cyber threats in today’s digital age. If you’re not sure where to start, we’ve got the best tool for you.

NexusTek’s FREE Cyber Security Self-Assessment can help you stay ahead of cybercrime by identifying vulnerabilities before you get hit.

As 2018’s Microsoft Partner of the Year for Project Management & Modern Workplace, NexusTek has been given a unique opportunity to offer your business this Cyber Security Self-Assessment.  This quick survey covers more than 20 security points in four key cyber security categories. The purpose of this self-assessment is to pinpoint your cyber security strengths and weaknesses, and provide a complete Cyber Security Health Check Report containing useful tips and recommendations in the following cyber security categories.

  • Prevent/Identify a Compromise – Help prevent against a compromise within your environment while uncovering potential breaches
  • Secure Apps and Data – Boost productivity with cloud access while keeping your information protected
  • Expand Device Controls – Deliver enhanced security across both company and personal devices
  • Safeguard your Infrastructure – Enforce policies that help keep cloud resources and hybrid environments safe

The self-assessment takes 5-10 minutes to complete. Once you submit your completed assessment, you will receive a custom report containing your cyber security scores and an expert’s recommendations covering security check points across identity, apps and data, devices and infrastructure. In addition, you will have the opportunity to schedule a FREE Cyber Security Consultation with one of NexusTek’s security experts. Start 2019 off right by ensuring your business is protected against cyber attacks.

Take your self-assessment here: https://www.nexustek.com/Cybersecurity-Self-Assessment

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Collection No. 1 – Has Anyone Not Been Pwned?

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Collection No. 1 – Has Anyone Not Been Pwned?

Collection No. 1 – Has Anyone Not Been Pwned?

There are approximately 7 billion humans on Planet Earth. Recently, over ten percent of them – 773 million of them, to be exact – now have their sensitive personal information released into public record. This is courtesy of what’s known as Collection No. 1, one of the largest collections of unique email addresses and passwords ever to be released.

Importantly, Collection No. 1 is not the result of a single data breach. Rather, it is a farrago – multiple separate and previously unheard-of data breaches accumulated into a single mass and released for public consumption.

Data breaches at this scale are illustrative. Not only do they show us how many people constantly reuse weak and insecure passwords across the internet, they also show us something about how data – emails, passwords, phone numbers, and so on – are used once it has been stolen. Here’s what the Collection No. 1 breach tells us about information security.

How to Use Stolen Data

Most stolen data isn’t immediately useable. Even if a hacker successfully steals a list of email, username, and password combinations, they’ll usually find that the password is protected by something called a hash. A hash is a one-way cryptographic algorithm that renders passwords into a protected format. Most applications never store plain-text passwords – only the hash is stored. When you put your password into a login form, it gets hashed and then checked against the stored hash for verification.

Hashes are not unbreakable, and hackers are creative. If you have a weak password, hackers can find it through something called a rainbow table attack or a dictionary attack, in which they take an example list of weak passwords, hash them, and then check a stolen database for matching hashes.

Alternatively, hackers may find that they’ve stolen a list from a company that does not adhere to good password management practices. For example, they might be using depreciated hashes – hashes that are widely solved and easy to decrypt. A lot of companies still use the MD5 hash, even though it’s been known to be insecure since 2005.

Even though there are methods, de-hashing stolen data takes a ton of work – which is what makes the Collection No. 1 breach so notable. Each one of the millions of passwords that were released as part of Collection No. 1 have been de-hashed. That means that they are immediately available for hackers to use – and most likely, they’ve already tried to use them.

The Lifecycle of Stolen Data

Data that’s stolen from companies and organizations doesn’t often get used right away. For example, criminals that steal data directly often don’t have any interest in or ability to de-hash it. That means that this data gets immediately sold. The buyer will then attempt to de-hash this data, and it takes time – stubborn hashes can take months or even years to decrypt.

Once the hashes have been decrypted, the hackers will attempt to use the resulting credentials – they’ll try to unlock bank accounts and steal money, or potentially use admin credentials to break into corporate networks and steal more information. Not all credentials will be easy to use – they might not be closely associated with either companies or bank accounts – and not all of them will still be valid by the time they’ve been decrypted.

Huge data dumps like Collection No. 1 are the end result of this process. This is the data that has either already been mined for immediate usefulness or can’t easily be mined for immediate profit.  The only thing that’s left for attackers to do is use it for what’s known as credential-stuffing attacks: taking huge lists of various usernames and passwords and then running them through various services in the hope of finding a useful combination.

Expect to see a lot of credential-stuffing attacks using the data from Collection No. 1 (and subsequent collections) in the coming weeks and months.

Protect Your Business with Help from NexusTek

Data breaches like Collection No. 1 highlight the need for companies to create secure password management strategies and protect their businesses from account hijacking. NexusTek can help with both. Our security experts will consult with companies in order to develop password protection schemes that use state-of-the-art cryptographic algorithms to protect user data. In addition, we offer monitoring solutions that can detect and mitigate the influx of login attempts that would accompany a credential stuffing attack.

Information security hinges on protecting user data and mitigating intrusion attempts – and NexusTek specializes in both. For more information on how to work with us, contact NexusTek today.

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The Security Risks of Employee Online Shopping

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The Security Risks of Employee Online Shopping

The Security Risks of Employee Online Shopping

The holiday season has come and gone. While I’m sure you hoped your employees closed out the year on a high note, the reality is that they were probably a bit preoccupied with all the shopping they had to do. Throughout December 2018, analysts expected $65.5 billion worth of online transactions.

In a perfect world, you’d expect your employees to keep all of this online shopping to their personal time (outside of the office). However, more than half of employees say they’ll spend work hours shopping online during the holiday season. Amazon validated this assertion when, on the day after Christmas, it announced that 2018 was a record-breaking holiday season for the eCommerce giant.

And that’s only the holiday season. Easy access to online shopping exists year-round and as such, is a never-ending security risk for your business.

Be honest – you didn’t love every single gift you received. According to research from WalletHub, 34 percent of Americans plan to return a gift this year. For business owners, this shows the need for constant diligence to defend against cyber attacks.

While it’s important to limit risky employee behavior, the best way to secure your business is to maintain real-time visibility of your network.

Social Engineering and the Risks of Online Shopping at Work

Even if you have strict policies to block non-work-related websites on your office network, employees still find ways to visit social media profiles and eCommerce sites.

But the security risks don’t come from eCommerce sites exclusively. Sites like Amazon, Walmart, and other popular eCommerce websites won’t inject malware into your network just from employees shopping on them.

The real security risks lie in social engineering threats. Attackers know that the majority of data breaches are caused by human error. One carefully-crafted email can lure employees into opening malware-laden attachments or clicking malicious links that compromise your network.

These kinds of threats are tied directly to online shopping in the workplace. When employees shop online through your network, they’ll often log into their personal email accounts to access coupons and special deals.

One misclick as they sift through large volumes of personal emails can release a virus, ransomware, or other type of foothold in your business network. According to Rob Otten and Michael Allen at Security InfoWatch:

“Unlike corporate email, which often blocks suspicious links and attachments, personal email cannot be easily filtered for malicious content by the enterprise. Webmail content is typically delivered over end-to-end encrypted communications, such as HTTPS, allowing attachments received via personal accounts to completely bypass the organization’s content filters.”

One of the best ways to combat these online shopping threats in the workplace is to create a culture of security. When you’re continuously training employees and building awareness of potential phishing threats, you can harden the front lines of your business network without any new technology.

But awareness training can only get you so far. You can’t eliminate human error and employees will keep finding ways to shop online during work hours. To fill the gaps, you need total network visibility and real-time monitoring.

Keep Your Network Secure 24/7/365

Whether you’re up against increased online shopping for the holiday season or you need to curb the ongoing vulnerabilities throughout the year, you can’t take a set-it-and-forget-it approach to security. Simply deploying a firewall and anti-virus software won’t get the job done.

To shore up vulnerabilities related to human error, online shopping, and other risky employee behaviors, you need:

• Real-Time Monitoring: Attackers can spend days or even weeks within your network if you don’t have the proper monitoring tools and practices. Any amount of disruption can have costly repercussions, so you need real-time insights into traffic anomalies and potential threats.

• Security Operations Center (SOC): Your network is constantly evolving, and it takes a full-time team to analyze the organization’s security posture. With a SOC, you have a dedicated set of security pros who are ready to plug any holes in your network security.

• Penetration Testing and Vulnerability Assessment: Network security is no longer just about reacting to threats. You have to proactively address vulnerabilities and spot weak points that attackers could target.

These are just a few of the keys to network security that can offset the risks of employee online shopping. But for many businesses, it’s too costly and complicated to bring them all in-house.

If you want a managed security provider that can partner with you for all your network protection needs, contact us today and find out how we can help.

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3 Strategic Goals for your Cloud Migration

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3 Strategic Goals for your Cloud Migration

3 Strategic Goals for your Cloud Migration

Begin with the end in mind.
What will your organization gain by a Cloud Migration project?

Top CIO’s suggest keeping your end goals in mind as you work with your managed IT services provider on a cloud strategy. This will ensure positive outcomes for your Cloud Migration project.

Here are the top achievable business goals using a solid Cloud Strategy:

  • Modernize for competitive advantage

Scenario: Your competition is adopting new cloud technologies that you cannot implement because your technology has not been upgraded.Let’s put aside the fact that your outdated equipment is an easy target for cyber threats (click here to learn more about Cyber Security Services), and let’s discuss your infrastructure that has servers and devices not adaptable for new technology. The latest applications that can help you do your business better, faster and with business intelligence/visibility will require an upgrade. Yes, that means some investment.

We get it…it takes so much time and energy to run your business that the cloud strategy discussion you’ve been meaning to have has been shelved repeatedly.  At the same time, these new tools and technologies are out there and your competition, including new businesses entering your industry, are using those tools to take business from you.

  • Scalability – Pay for What You Use

Cloud computing sets the stage for changes in your business technology needs that would otherwise be a financial drain.  Scalability of a business using cloud services is one of the most attractive aspects of the technology. Many have analyzed and written about the cost-benefit in the short term of a cloud migration today, for those companies wasting revenue due to a lack of agility, efficiency and resources.

A prime example would be that Company A needs to easily upscale or downscale their IT requirements to allow for incremental changes that are a factor of their business model or industry.  Where changes in Company A’s business needs (data storage, workloads, etc…) would mean unpredictable spending, cloud technology is a “pay for only what you use” scenario.

  • Access and Security of Multiple Locations

Considered the ultimate business collaboration tool, cloud computing is the answer to centralized systems and applications.  This is not only one of the biggest advantages for efficiently running a growing business but the value of cloud to secure data, networks and devices begins and ends with centralized control over operations in multiple locations.

Many companies are making the decision to migrate to the cloud, either fully or using a multi-phased approach, after having a security breach due to expansion that was poorly planned. This means as the company grew, no central control or hierarchy in policies and procedure were a priority. A perfect scenario for today’s Ransomware threats.

There is so much more to Cloud Strategy and Cloud Technology for business.  Stay tuned for future stories about cloud migration, trends in Cloud Services and NexusTek’s Adaptable Cloud Solutions.

As an MSP and Cloud Service Provider for more than 20 years, NexusTek continues to provide a solid domestic IT outsource for small and midsized businesses across the county. A cloud migration today, with a partner who knows how to build the best strategy for your business, can be the best decision for your future success.

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2018 IT Spending Trends Predicted by Gartner and IDC

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2018 IT Spending Trends Predicted by Gartner and IDC

2018 IT Spending Trends Predicted by Gartner and IDC

Information Technology is no longer simply an added function of a business, it is now a major driving force in achieving greatness. Statistics show that the most successful businesses have the ability to adapt to new technology. In conjunction with this trend, businesses are increasingly realizing their need to utilize an IT partner to keep up with the IT growth within their organizations.

In April of this year, Gartner reports Global IT Spending in 2018 will experience the highest increase at 6.2% up from 3.8% in 2017.

John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner said, “This is the highest annual growth rate that Gartner has forecast since 2007 and would be a sign of a new cycle of IT growth.”

Let’s break down the IT spending forecast this year from top technology research firm, Gartner:

  • 2017 spending on IT Services = $933 billion
  • 2018 spending on IT Services will hit a record $985 billion and continue to rise.
  • 2019 spending on IT Services should reach $1.03 trillion  according to research firm predictions.
  • Device Spending in 2018 is estimated to reach $704 billion with a leveling-off expected for 2019.
  • IT Growth Trends for 2018 reported by Gartner show the largest percentage growth will be in Enterprise Software purchasing at 9.5 percent up slightly from 8.9 percent in 2017.
  • IT Services reaches 5.5 percent growth from 4.3 percent in 2017.
  • Data Center spending drops nearly 4 percent in 2018 according to researchers.

In addition to Gartner’s IT Spending Trends report, International Data Corporation (IDC) conducts a similar semi-annual study. The 2018 IDC report focuses on “Global IT Spending for the SMB,” predicting small and mid-sized businesses will spend a collective $602 billion on IT software and services.

SMB IT spending defined by company size:

  • More than two thirds of the $602 billion in IT spending globally, will be driven by firms with 100-999 employees through 2021.
  • Within the mid-market segment, medium-sized businesses (100-499 employees) will spend $229 billion in 2018.
  • Large businesses (500-999 employees) will spend $182 billion.
  • Small businesses with fewer than 100 employees will see IT spending growth of 4.7 percent over the five-year forecast period.

The U.S. leads in SMB spending on IT in 2018. Here’s a snippet of the global IT spending for the SMB:

  • The United States is the largest market for SMB spending with this year hitting a record $186 billion on IT, according to the IDC report.
  • China comes in well below the U.S. for IT spending at $56 billion
  • Germany IT spending for SMB’s reaching $37 billion
  • The U.K. IT spending for SMB’s is projected to be slightly under Germany at $36 billion.

Statistics from the IDC report broken down even more:

  • IT spending in the SMB market is expected to expand by $84 billion dollars over the next 5 years.
  • Of the $602 billion in IT spending globally, $115 billion this year alone will be on devices (PCs, mobile phones and peripherals)
  • The second largest spend will be on software applications at $99 billion this year.

Spending on IT products and services by the SMB is at an all-time high and for good reason. The value that information technology presents to businesses of all sizes cannot be debated when considering the trends of the last decade. Budgeting for technology upgrades and developing a plan for technology investment for the future of your business used to be an afterthought. In the age of digital transformation, budgeting for technology is now the main conversation.

Contact us to discuss your IT strategic plan

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References:
https://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3845563
http://www.channelpronetwork.com/news/worldwide-smb-it-spending-top-676-billion-2021-driven-software-and-services-growth-according
https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS43565918

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The 4 Pillars of Virtualization Technology

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The 4 Pillars of Virtualization Technology

The 4 Pillars of Virtualization Technology

Virtualization technology has been a standard of practice in the IT industry for nearly two decades, but has evolved since it’s general inception. Virtualization is the creation of a virtual, software-based version of networks, servers, applications, storage, operating systems, etc… As virtualization advances, this list continues to expand.

Traditionally an enterprise play, virtualization is now considered the most effective way to reduce IT expense, boost efficiency and agility for small and mid-sized business markets. Simplistically, virtualization will minimize your hardware footprint and optimize your applications that need a dedicated operating system.

Here are a few of the ways virtualization technology continues to raise the bar in providing business benefits.

1. Flexibility of your technology

Virtualization takes multiple systems running independently on dedicated hardware to one connected software-based environment. “Virtual machines” operate in a single physical environment while running the same applications but with more flexible capabilities. This also creates the ability to expand and share resources depending on the workload within that physical environment. The virtual environment provides agility that can also significantly decrease the time it takes your IT team to deploy changes to the systems.

What does this mean for your business? As we know, time is money, and having your critical software immediately accessible and running more efficiently can dramatically affect the year-end bottom line.

2. Network virtualization

Network virtualization is a way to optimize your network for speed, flexibility and scalability. It increases security and reliability through combining resources in a shared network – parsing bandwidth, each with the ability to be assigned (and reassigned) to devices and servers and giving all users access to all resources.

What does this mean for your business? By creating an environment that is responsive to change in real-time, administrator tasks become more automated and the system can effectively handle unforeseen surges in usage without productivity issues.

3. Server virtualization and hardware consolidation

Inserting multiple virtual instances of servers into one physical server can increase efficiencies by utilizing capacity and minimizing your hardware footprint. In the world of computing, for a business that manages 20 servers, incurred costs are related to energy consumption for cooling, space to house the servers and equipment necessary to fully operate the hardware and IT support for monitoring and maintenance.

What does this mean for your business? Scaling down the number of physical servers running the same applications and operating systems will produce a dramatic reduction in long term IT hardware costs.

4. Isolating applications

Isolating applications is a way to solve issues of application incompatibility. You may have experienced this when trying to run two versions of an application at the same time on the same device. Through virtualization, each operating environment will have its own registry entries, code libraries, etc. So, application incompatibilities are a thing of the past within the virtual environment.

What does this mean for your business? Isolated environment capabilities can mitigate the risk of failures and corruption in one environment affecting other applications or data. For some, this is the primary reason for virtualization.

NexusTek’s expert staff has years of experience migrating, implementing and maintaining virtual environments.  If this is the year you are looking to widen your profit margin by tighten up any technology gaps with a virtualization project, NexusTek can help.

Connect with NexusTek today to strategize on your current and future technology objectives.

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Cost Comparison: IT Staff vs Domestic IT Outsourcing

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Cost Comparison: IT Staff vs Domestic IT Outsourcing

Cost Comparison: IT Staff vs Domestic IT Outsourcing

Providing for your business needs takes planning and consistent evaluation. Evaluating and re-evaluating IT budgets is a frequent conversation we have with our clients and we have become well-versed with what type of IT budget planning will work for specific business types. Technology is the foundation of your business and the return on investment (ROI) of your technology – like hardware, software, IT Projects, IT Consulting, business services and yes, human resources – is regularly at the mercy of the market. Here is what you must ask yourself as an SMB in today’s environment of advanced Cloud Technology and XaaS (everything as a service):

What’s the ROI on your technology resources? How does one begin to measure the return on an investment in technology for business where factors like IT Help Desk support, Server maintenance, IT security, expertise, and availability are concerned? Does your staff have access to the knowledge in order to access all the factors available to make the most informed decision?

To help make the determination of ROI, we put together the top considerations when making the decision to either hire an in-house IT Professional or partner with a Managed Services Provider.

Let’s start with the cost/benefit consideration on both sides. Company parameters: 50 employees, 3 locations within the US, 50 workstations, 1TB of critical data, 2 physical servers and basic software needs. 

What your basic business technology needs include:

  • IT support – onsite or remote
  • Server maintenance/management – workstation protection, server monitoring and alerting, firewall management (updates and backups), managed backup and disaster recovery
  • Managed Cloud Services – fully-hosted managed solution and hosted exchange
  • Managed Cloud Backup – fully-hosted backup solution, monitored for data integrity
  • IT Consulting – providing strategic IT management, coordination of IT vendors, technology to support future growth projections and quarterly business reports (QBR’s) 

Cost considerations of in-house IT Professional:

  • Base Salary
  • Benefits (vacation/PTO/holidays/medical)
  • Knowledge gap
  • Downtime potential
  • 4% admin cost
  • 25% turnover rate
  • 20% unproductive rate

Here is a detailed assessment of ALL cost considerations of hiring IT staff – Download Our IT Employee Cost Calculator 

Cost considerations of outsourced IT (Denver market)

  • Monthly rate – Fully managed IT service and support
  • IT projects and IT consulting

Bottom-Line – Benefits of IT Outsourcing

  • 24/7/365 IT support
  • Teams of Highly-specialized IT professionals (certified)
  • No vacation days/sick or PTO days or medical benefit costs
  • Experts in upgrading Technology when applicable (IT Consulting Experts)
  • Human redundancy with multiple team members 

Bottom-Line – Benefits of hiring an in-house IT Professional

  • Human Resources control over IT staff

Last year we interviewed Mike Jenner, CEO of NexusTek, on hiring IT. As a veteran in the IT and Telecommunications space for more than 30 years, he was candid about the current environment of our industry and the factors businesses must take into consideration when deciding between in-house and outsourced information technology resources. View the article here: Interview with CEO, Mike Jenner on the Real Cost of Hiring an IT Person.

If you are interested in having a conversation with NexusTek on your IT project or Managed IT Services needs, don’t hesitate to contact us.

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Interview with CEO, Mike Jenner on the Real Cost of Hiring an IT Person

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Interview with CEO, Mike Jenner on the Real Cost of Hiring an IT Person

Interview with CEO, Mike Jenner on the Real Cost of Hiring an IT Person

Is it time to hire an IT person for your growing business?

We work with thousands of small and midsize business owners, managers and staff in several metro areas. As one of the top IT managed services providers, we know the business needs of our clients where IT and business solutions are concerned.

With more than 25 years’ experience in the IT industry, no one knows our business better than NexusTek’s CEO, Mike Jenner. So, we decided to get his thoughts on hiring IT staff in today’s competitive market.

Interview with Mike Jenner

TekBlog: What are the most important things to consider when hiring in the IT market today?

Mike J: What we are seeing in the market is a high demand for IT talent  — be prepared to look beyond your local area to find the right talent. Because demand is high for these employees, understanding what is important to them is a critical component to attracting and retaining them long-term. Turnover can be very expensive and can put your business at risk.

TekBlog: In your experience, what are today’s IT industry candidates looking for?

Mike J: For companies in the SMB space looking to hire support in-house for IT, they have some real challenges ahead for not only finding but hiring and managing this new hire in the local market. Today, given the fact that there is a shortage of candidates and the demand is high, you have to be able to offer something more to compete for the skilled job seekers that will stay with you long-term.

As for needs: The IT pro is a problem solver. They have a deep desire (and need) to find solutions to technical problems. Today’s IT industry pro is looking for more than just a paycheck and benefits. They want an opportunity for advancement, the tools to do their job efficiently and effectively, projects that will offer the experience they need to build on their skills, and a chance to learn more given the ever-changing field of technology.

TekBlog: You say that the SMB has some real challenges in managing that resource. Can you elaborate on that?

Mike J: We see the SMB’s struggle with more than simply finding and hiring. For many SMB’s, information technology is the backbone of the companies operations.

Your network environment must be up-and-running 24/7/365. Today, downtime can cost you more than just short-term revenue loss. It can also have a long-term impact on customer satisfaction. We are seeing breaches critically impact the reputation of a business and in a customer-centric market, this can be devastating.

Your IT manager is on-call and if you are a one-man show, you’re talking “sweatshop” environment because that individual will often have to fix something after hours to avoid affecting operations. They are responsible for your company’s operations any time of the day or night. This is one of the most difficult issues for an SMB to manage — meeting the needs of the business without burning out their employees.

It’s also a challenge for managers with little or no technical background to effectively manage and develop technical employees. It can be almost like a language barrier – understanding what they need to be successful in their career and in supporting your business without speaking their language is tough.

TekBlog: That brings up a good point. If a company hires a consultant, wouldn’t that consultant have a plan in place for backup in the case of vacation or sick days?

Mike J: They may or they may not. An outsourced provider will have a team of engineers and investment in the tools to automate infrastructure management as much as possible. This is something an independent or SMB simply cannot afford to have. This is another misconception – that this “investment” is costly for the SMB. That is not the case. When you factor in all the costs to hiring, we offer more in monitoring services and we have the flexibility to fit the needs of our target market.

This investment also gives NexusTek the foundation to find the best in the business, the tools to support their work, and a career path by making training available for our tech pros. This is a differentiator for NexusTek and a critical component in managing an IT employee today that most SMB hiring managers miss. We have the flexibility to address this need in the market.

We regularly have to educate our target market of the misconception that outsourcing costs more than an in-house resource. When you gather all of the factors that often get overlooked, it typically not the case. NexusTek considers all of the costs of hiring and retaining IT talent.

Being in the business for twenty years has taught us to listen to our clients, understand the market and provide the viable solutions that enable businesses to grow profitably.

TekBlog: We thank Mike for taking the time to share his experience and for making NexusTek’s Employee Cost Calculator available to our readers!

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Top 17 Tech Companies in Colorado

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Top 17 Tech Companies in Colorado

Top 17 Tech Companies in Colorado

Mainstream media’s fascination with Colorado has placed our culture, lifestyle, and legislation in the limelight. From progressive laws to our real estate and construction boom and the expanding economy into new markets, Colorado’s brand is growing on a grand scale.

As an IT company founded more than 22 years ago, NexusTek has seen many changes in Colorado, including the slow and steady expansion of small and medium-sized businesses. In recent years, reports have cited an influx of entrepreneurs and investors placing their bets on Colorado innovation. This reputation has also led to big brands and large corporations looking to bring their operations to the Rocky Mountain State.

Although Colorado did not achieve the 2015 top ranking state for high-tech jobs, Colorado continues to attract big names in technology.

NOTE: NexusTek is a technology company that focuses on managed IT services for cloud, cyber security, ERP and CRM (Microsoft Dynamics 365), business continuity and disaster planning/backup, VoIP and serving small and mid-sized businesses in 6 markets across the U.S. Contact us here if you are interested in IT services and solutions for your small or mid-sized business.

Here is our list of the top national/global tech companies that are either headquartered or have a substantial presence in Colorado:

1. Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin is a national leader in the aerospace, defense and security space with their headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. But in Littleton, Colorado they have Autonomous Systems where they work on robotic airborne and ground systems, vehicles, and surveillance. Robotics technology and development has a strong presence in Colorado and Lockheed is a big player here. For those passionate about robotics, here are 15 unmanned technology facts courtesy of Lockheed Martin.

2. IBM Corporation

While headquartered in Armonk, NY, IBM chose Boulder to house more than 2,800 employees because of its climate, surrounding areas, and for the lower risk for natural disasters. The tech giant’s Boulder campus is dedicated to IBM Resiliency Services division. IBM (originally, International Business Machines) is more than 100 years old and was founded in 1911 in Endicott, NY.

3. Oracle

Once the largest tech employer in Colorado in 2010, Oracle has made its mark in the mountain region with offices in Denver, Monument, and Broomfield. Their main office is in Redwood City, California, but these field offices in Colorado house nearly 2,000 of the company’s reported 120,000 employees worldwide. In 1998, Oracle Founder, Larry Ellison said, “If the Internet turns out not to be the future of computing, we are toast. But if it is, we are golden.”

4. Avaya

Highlands Ranch and Colorado Springs are the two location of Avaya’s offices in Colorado. Their headquarters are in California, where they deal with multi-channel business communications with customer and team productivity solutions. Avaya has 5,400 patents and pending patent applications, including foreign counterparts.

5. Level 3

Headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, Level 3 Communications works with enterprise businesses as well as the government with their communications services. Level 3’s services reach over 500 markets and more than 60 countries anchored by extensive fiber networks on three continents and connected by undersea facilities. Level 3 is the largest competitive local exchange carrier, and the 2nd largest provider of fiber optic internet access (based on coverage area) in the United States.

6. Tempus Nova

With their main office located in Denver, Tempus Nova is proudly a Google Apps Premier Partner, where they concentrate their work in Google Apps implementation, cloud services, app development, as well as Google Enterprise Solutions. In business for 14 years, Tempus Nova is a women-owned minority small business.

7. MapQuest

Acquired by AOL in 2000, MapQuest headquarters is located in Denver. A name and brand that, unless you have been living on Mars, you would recognize and know exactly what they do. Just for grins — they are a free online map and direction service with mobile apps for every device. What some may not know is that they have enterprise solutions for businesses that can easily optimize their routes and add map integrations to their websites. Brian McMahon, MapQuest’s top executive says the question they get asked a lot: “Does MapQuest still exist?” They do still exist and have always been profitable.

8. Zayo Group

Formerly known as Latisys, the company changed management and their name to Zayo Group in 2015. Their two data center facilities are located just outside of downtown Denver in Englewood. They provide hybrid infastructure-as-a-service for enterprise cloud and managed hosting solutions. The founder of Zayo Group, Dan Caruso, was a former top executive with Level 3 Communications. His company has grown from a startup less than a decade ago, to one of the largest providers of bandwidth infrastructure services in the United States and Europe.

9. MCAD Technologies

MCAD, for the past decade, has been providing 3D printing and rapid phototyping solutions to the engineering community. With five offices from the Midwest to the West Coast, MCAD has two of them in Colorado — Denver and Boulder. They also provide services of tech documentation, webinars, tech support as well as staffing services.

10. SendGrid

Based in Boulder, SendGrid has expanded operations and now has offices in Denver, California and London. They are an e-mail marketing and STMP relay service that allows you to send bulk e-mail to your subscribers. Some of their biggest clients include Airbnb, Foursquare, Spotify and Uber.

11. iTriage

With the first mobile app to make our list and headquartered in Denver, iTriage has a healthcare app boasting more than 13 million downloads across Google’s and Apple’s app stores. The app helps the user with answers to medical questions and practical advice on how to take action in your everyday life to be healthier. The story of iTriage began with a need identified by two triage doctors.

12. Sphero

Boulder is housing one of the smartest toys out there. Sphero developers Ian Bernstein and Adam Wilson were passionate robotics engineers who both attended Colorado universities and met through their shared love of robotics. Introduced to the thriving Techstar community in 2010, their work progressed and the result is a line of robots and connected toys to help educate kids. Sphero’s design is intended to inspire young minds through robot play.

13. Zen Planner

Littleton, Colorado is the home to Zen Planner and their all-in-one fitness business software for studios, trainers, and gyms. Taking the fitness industry digital, Zen Planner has made their mark with applications available for tablets and smartphones that, at a minimum, helps users with fitness scheduling, attendance tracking, automatic billing and more. No better place than Colorado to marry the fitness industry and digital!

14. ReadyTalk

Located in Denver, ReadyTalk is one of the top providers for web and audio conferences, as well as hosting webinars online. Placing sixth in the top ten video conferencing companies worldwide, just ahead of the well-known WebEx, some of ReadyTalk’s biggest clients include Marketo, Workfront, and Profiles International. The company has been going strong since 2000.

15. SolidFire

Boulder-based SolidFire is revolutionizing the data center with their next generation “all-flash” storage systems. With one of the largest cloud infrastructures in the world, they are a leader in cloud computing. Since launching in 2010, the company has raised $150 million in venture capital funds. In 2014, SolidFire was recognized by the Denver Post as one of the Top Workplaces in Colorado.

16. FullContact

FullContact is another leading tech software company based in Denver that has won consistent equity investment. In March of 2015, the company announced another $10 million in their latest funding round bringing the total equity investment in the company to $20 million. FullContact helps sales reps and marketers find contact information and social profiles by email for prospecting. It also integrates with Salesforce and Pardot so users can get information automatically from their CRM just by submitting an email address.

17. Google

You read correctly! The tech giant, Google, has begun work on their campus in Boulder, Colorado! The Internet search trailblazer broke ground on their new 330,000-square-foot Boulder site in 2015. Expected to house up to 1,500 employees, the first of two phases is targeted for completion January of 2017. Currently, 300 employees are spread among four buildings in Boulder. Certainly, the Google culture will fit perfectly with the Boulderite, something we’ve come to know and love as Coloradans!

This list could include many more tech companies in the SMB and enterprise market as examples of growth, innovation and entrepreneurialism in Colorado.

With Colorado’s amazing views and culture, it’s no surprise to us why more and more companies are choosing the Rocky Mountain region to call home for their businesses and their families. Like many others, we just feel fortunate to be one of the largest IT managed services companies in a growing market in the great state of Colorado!

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