Computer St. Louis Blog/News

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is what will take today’s businesses to the next level. Now that most businesses have made their digital transformation, internal processes have improved, consumer expectations have skyrocketed, and companies are now swimming in more data...

Security vulnerabilities are a risk for every point of digital entry, and any risk turned into an actual attack can decimate the financial state of a company or the productivity of a team. A voice IP (VoIP) phone system is no different. Here’s how to protect yourself,...

One project plan can change the course of your business. Everything starts with a project plan. From this departing point, you can outline other essential planning documents, like: Your communications plan for a given projectRisk management plans for the...

4 Things You'll Be Happy to Know About Wireless Security Most businesses today are running exclusively on wireless networks. Wireless (Wi-Fi) productivity includes the ease of switching between devices as well as updating security protocol in a click instead of...

How Continued Working from Home Impacts IT for Employees You’re looking at the post-pandemic future of work. Perhaps you’re planning a hybrid virtual model for your team. This is a sensible decision that comes with many benefits, including improved employee...

Bitcoin is known as a decentralized payment system that allows for the transfer of funds. Back in the day (when it was invented just over a decade ago), Bitcoin was touted as an alternate means of paying for services or buying goods. Over time, it’s also turned into a...

Windows 11 has been available for months, though adoption has been slow. Some of the new features are gamechangers for businesses, but as with all things new, there’s a delay to make the jump. Upgrading to Windows 11 is totally free for anyone running Windows 10. So...

MFA has any different iterations and interactions with the end user based on the vendors and technologies in use.    One-time passwords can come over text or email, they can be generated by TOTP, or they can be sent via Push systems.   The best...

5 IT Trends to Come in 2022 After the first quarter of 2020, the year saw a race between a dozen high-profile video conference platforms. Zoom pulled quickly ahead. Getting on a “zoom” meeting didn’t even necessarily mean using the Zoom platform. It had simply become...

How to Budget for IT in 2022 All organizations struggle to fit the puzzle pieces of their budgets together. When it comes to IT budgeting, there’s even more confusion. Why? Any companies big enough to have an on-staff IT team knows how it goes. The IT department is...

Choosing the right backup method is an important decision for your business. Thereafter, protecting your backups is equally essential. Business-critical data and intellectual property require reliable and secure backups for your business continuity—no matter what...

Right when you thought you had all your IT acronyms down, your MSP (managed service provider) tells you about MPS (managed print services). Confusing? Not intentionally. Managed print services are those services offered by a third-party vendor to manage your...

The email came in and I scanned it, only half reading. It was from the CRM and said that a new two-factor ID was being used, and that I had to update my credentials. So I clicked on the link. A new page opened open, and I plugged in my info. After clicking “submit,”...

No, this is not a joke. It’s not a riddle, either. These three things have the following in common: they are security realities of the 2020s. Mobile device management, or MDM, refers to software that enables businesses to secure, monitor and manage mobile devices....

When you review your business’s telephone bills, what do you see? Do you go through line-item historical comparisons, month over month? Do you know exactly how you’re billed for every rate and service? Most business owners have a general idea how they’re billed, and...

Ask yourself: is there ever a day you don’t access a password-protected account? Just about every aspect of life and work today takes place on apps or over the internet. This means our passwords are as essential to our day-to-day as planning what to eat for dinner....

When you’re a small business, you need a competitive edge. Not only are you competing with the big dogs in terms of marketing dollars, but small businesses also face unique challenges when it comes to things like cyber security. Specifically, over two thirds of small...

The term “upgrade” usually means something is more expensive. With VoIP, however, the opposite is true. VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, allows businesses to make and take phone calls using an internet connection instead of landline technology. If you have an...

Windows 10 pushed out yet another update in May 2021. The new upgrades to the popular operating system help users adopt many features that, as of yet, remained cool tricks that few knew about. With these latest updates installed on your machine, this is a good...

If your company is IT compliant, that means your IT infrastructure protocols meet certain legal and industry standards. Those standards are in place to protect your network and devices, which ultimately protects client and employee data. A business that doesn’t meet...

It might sound like a sequel to the Iliad, but in reality, the IoT—or “internet of things”—is a tale of the here and now. All you have to do is look into your pocket or around your home to see what the IoT has done to our contemporary perception of “normal.” From...

So, you have an internal IT guy. With all the managed tech services and outsourced IT help out there today, it’s natural for businesses to wonder whether they still need an internal IT department. Companies that are growing see a heightened reliance on tech, too,...

As anyone who’s seen Back to the Future I, II and III will know, what we do today can have profound impacts on tomorrow. Or on yesterday…still not sure how that works. In the second installment of the beloved saga, Marty sees the future consequences of his pride. He’s...

Mobile Device Security (MDM) refers to the whole process that goes into securing and monitoring mobile devices used for business. Depending on the company, that might include devices owned by the company along with staff’s personal devices. If it’s used for business,...

Mobile Device Management (or MDM) is the process of securing, managing and monitoring any mobile devices used in a business setting. This includes company-owned mobile devices as well as the growing trend to “bring your own device,” both of which have significantly...

Cloud computing offers more business benefits than most organizations realize. It’s convenient, it’s cost-efficient, and it’s the key to today’s “new normal” of remote work. But that’s not all. There are six key benefits we believe businesses should know about,...

Business owners are already aware of the importance of protecting their assets. Cybersecurity, however, is often over-simplified to terms of on-site tech in the workplace. Smartphone security commonly goes missed. Some small and medium business owners, in particular,...

Business continuity refers to an organization’s ability to continue performing essential functions in the case of a disaster, cyberattack, or outage of any kind. Like a disaster recovery plan, it outlines the direct response to certain emergencies. Going beyond basic...

Professionals across industries swear that using multiple monitors is a life-changer, and for good reason. From accountants to designers to programmers, using two or more monitors can increase productivity by up to 30%. With toggle time alone, users save an average of...

Telephone calls have been zooming across physical lines for almost 150 years. Innovations like cable systems and networks have added options and optimized costs over time, giving rise to cellphone technology and even more possibilities to connect. Millions of...

As you may know, Microsoft changed the name of Office 365 SMB offerings to Microsoft 365 to encompass a slew of their productivity applications. Let’s talk about Teams. Microsoft Teams - One that has come a long way is Teams, the video conferencing and collaboration...

First, what is Managed Services? It’s our proactive approach at managing all your IT, an inclusive mash-up of your network, voice, data, video, infrastructure, and computing needs. We monitor and manage anything and everything connected to the network. Here are the...

We’re out of capacity, can I have one more physical server, or can I finally upgrade to 10GB switching on my network? Can I have a new monitor – my images are morphing into gray blobs? Can I have an ergonomic mouse? My laptop is over five years old, can I have a...