It Coach For Business Leaders With Aaron Swann

If one of your goals in 2021 is to harness the power of IT process automation, our partners at Red Hat have some good news: Ansible, an open source community project that is simple to use, reliable, and one of the fastest ways to automate IT, is making waves and transforming how businesses accomplish more.

Think phishing scams don't pose a real threat to your business? Think again. In this conversation of IT Coach for Growing Businesses, InfoSystems' vCIO, Aaron Swann, discusses the various ways malware can access an organization's network through email phishing scams. The conversation provides concrete steps businesses can follow to prevent malware from entering networks and spreading to devices and servers.

In this episode, Aaron and Fred discuss value-adds that vCISOs can deliver to organizations. From learning how to create and follow a secure password policy to the most critical security needs, learn how to address common cybersecurity concerns from our vCISO.

In this episode, Aaron and Danika discuss a question from a listener - "How do I protect my company's wireless network in a high traffic area?" Many companies are surrounded or nearby busy streets, other businesses, and housing. This means your wireless network is being seen hundreds of times each day by complete strangers. Whether you are headquartered in a large city like Charlotte, NC or a small town in Georgia, your company should take precautions to keep your wireless network safe.

In this episode, Aaron and Josh discuss a question from a listener - "How do I select a good home router?" A router is what sits between you and the internet. Selecting the right home router depends on factors like the size of your home and your internet speed. While this podcast was made for small business leaders, we strive to answer questions that help listeners stay connected, safe, and secure no matter where they are. This is especially true with many working remotely right now.

In this episode, Aaron and Josh discuss how to choose a computer. Choosing a new computer for your specific needs is never an easy task. Not to mention, it's time consuming. Much like buying a car, you have an abundance of styles, sizes, and speeds available at your fingertips - but choose too quickly and you'll miss important info like safety and model ratings.

In this episode, Aaron and Josh discuss a question from a listener - "When I try to go to websites, I sometimes get error messages. What are they trying to tell me?" Error messages look like this, "This site is not secure," "Certificate can't be trusted," or "Your connection is not secure," and are all too common. They pop up for numerous reasons and are famously difficult to troubleshoot for everyday website browsers. Difficult terminology following the error messages creates confusion and leads to hastily made decisions to bypass and continue on.

In this episode, Aaron and Josh discuss the "De Facto IT Person." AKA the office manager or employee who has proved capable to fix small technical issues, so is given all IT duties. You may not realize how common this scenario is within companies of all sizes.

In this episode, Aaron and Josh discuss how a Virtual CIO (vCIO) can benefit businesses that don't have C-level or senior IT leadership. A CIO (Chief Information Officer) is responsible for all of the internal technology that runs a business. The most important role a CIO plays in an organization is to take the vision, goals, and strategies established by the executive team and build out the technology systems that need to be in place to support them.

In this episode, Aaron and Josh continue the series on Managed Services. Today's discussion covers a number of Software Services (antivirus, spam filtering, email, security training, etc.) that can be monitored and maintained by an IT company as part of a managed services agreement.

You've probably heard IT people talk about end-points and have no idea what they're talking about. An end-point is each individual device connected to your company's network that employees are using. Laptops, PCs, cell phones, and tablets are all end-points. In this episode, Aaron and Josh discuss important steps every business leader should take to ensure employees are working on devices that are approved, maintained, and updated as necessary. When employees use devices daily that are outdated or not properly maintained, it can quickly kill morale. This doesn't only impact employees though. It can cost your company unnecessary time and money when acting reactively rather than proactively. Thankfully, there are many basic programs and platforms that can help you do this.

In this episode, Aaron and Josh discuss how to determine what type of IT services provider you may need, how to choose the right type of provider, and the questions you should ask before hiring them. There are many options available to help you solve IT issues that arise. Finding the right provider is a must. As your company grows and changes are made, you will need an IT company to help you through those changes and to get your issues resolved quickly.

On this episode of "IT Coach for Small Business Leaders", Virtual CIO, Aaron Swann, discusses firewalls and how a managed service provider can help manage your firewall. When it comes to firewalls, there is much to take into account. From policies to content filtering to life cycles. It can get overwhelming. If you want to make sense of it all, this episode is perfect for you. Aaron and Josh discuss the little things, then offer an easy solution for those times you need to reach out for the big things.

On this episode of "IT Coach for Small Business Leaders," Virtual CIO, Aaron Swann, discusses managed backups and how to determine your business' backup needs.   Early-stage businesses that don't have the cash to spend on professional help may be able to implement "DIY" backups. But as your business grows you will need professional help - a managed backup service. A professional-grade backup service provider will help steer businesses through the entire decision making process to get the right managed backup service for your business.

We're excited to launch season 2 of IT Coach for Small Business Leaders and hope you enjoy all of the topics we plan to cover in 2020. In this episode we dive deeper into the topic of "Managed IT Services." With so many IT service providers offering "managed services," it's important for business leaders to understand exactly what this term means. The truth is, it can mean very different things depending on which IT company you are dealing with. We break down Managed IT Services into plain English and relate it to common concepts such as "consumer-grade" vs. "professional-grade," and "do-it-yourself (DIY)," "done-with-me," and "done-for-me." Listen to the full episode to hear Aaron Swann's advice on how to determine what level of Managed IT Services is the best fit for your company.In this episode, InfoSystems vCIO, Aaron Swann, and VP of Marketing, Josh Davis, discuss managed backups for your data and how a managed services provider can help take the burden off your team to make sure you have a solid backup

In this episode, InfoSystems vCIO, Aaron Swann, and Marketing Director, Josh Davis, discuss how a "Managed Services" agreement may mean you are unknowingly outsourcing your IT systems management to another country. We compare the way InfoSystems delivers locally managed IT services, to other models that include reselling software and outsourcing IT support to overseas call centers. The information technology industry has seen a major shift in the way IT companies deliver services to their customers over the last 5-10 years. 10 years ago, you would have never heard an IT company referred to as a "managed services provider." Today, that is the most common way IT companies describe their services. So that leads us to the question - "what has changed?" For the next few episodes, Aaron Swann will share information about how managed services are delivered for the various individual components of your overall IT system and how you can make sure you are making sound decisions on what to outsource.

We're beginning our podcast episodes for 2019 on the topic of Cyber Security. It has become more and more urgent for organizations to make sure that all employees receive adequate training on how to recognize cyber attacks and other security threats. It's also crucial for companies to draft and adopt security policies and to assess whether or not they are meeting compliance requirements that may be in place for their type of business. In this episode, InfoSystems vCIO, Aaron Swann, and Marketing Director, Josh Davis, discuss the KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training program. Aaron discusses his experience rolling out this training program for several InfoSystems customers. He gives a great overview of how a company can deploy simulated attacks and other security vulnerabilities with KnowBe4 to train employees by letting them see and experience them firsthand and receive feedback and training tailored to how they responded. If your company does not have an active training program in place for end user

We're beginning our podcast episodes for 2019 on the topic of Cyber Security. It has become more and more urgent for organizations to make sure that all employees receive adequate training on how to recognize cyber attacks and other security threats. It's also crucial for companies to draft and adopt security policies and to assess whether or not they are meeting compliance requirements that may be in place for their type of business. In this episode, InfoSystems vCIO, Aaron Swann, and Marketing Director, Josh Davis, discuss how cyber attacks are becoming more sophisticated and much more difficult to recognize. We also discuss many different types of attacks such as phishing emails, spear phishing attacks, and voicemail and phone scams. If your company does not have an active training program in place for end user cyber security awareness, this is a great intro to hear why your employees are your biggest risk. 15 minute listen.

Technology has become so important to business operations that most companies can't run if their IT systems are down. Despite that fact, when it comes to construction, renovation, and general environmental decisions at a place of business, technology is typically an afterthought. In this episode of IT Coach for Business Leaders, Aaron Swann and Josh Davis discuss the environmental factors that are important to ensuring that your technology runs optimally.

One of the most common pieces of customer feedback we hear from InfoSystems customers is how much they value the time they spend with our vCIO, Aaron Swann (a major reason we love having him on our podcasts). In this episode of IT Coach for Business Leaders, we talk through a very common scenario that often causes very major issues - the impact of IT infrastructure on software implementation and upgrade projects. Let's be honest - software sellers are hyper-focused on the software deal and usually treat the infrastructure requirements as an afterthought. Don't make that mistake. Listen to the full episode to hear specifics on how to avoid issues with your new software implementation.