Zinc Blog

With the transition of broadband Internet from a helpful convenience to a prescient need for modern life and business, it is staggering to consider that access to this resource is not equally distributed. While the U.S. Federal Communications Commission intends to change this, they need data to help them gauge the true scope of the problem. To do so, the FCC is pulling out an application that they first released years ago: FCC Speed Test.

Of all the technologies that have been proposed and developed over the years, few have tickled our collective imaginations the way that the concept of artificial intelligence has. For this reason, many small and medium-sized business leaders may write off AI as science fiction, rather than a solution to their operational challenges. However, the technology is currently finding its footing in practical use—more than proving its worth and adaptability in the process.

When you have a thorough and powerful data backup strategy in place at your business, you are protecting your operations, your employees, and your customers from an array of terrible scenarios. Unfortunately, many businesses don’t think of data loss in the terms it should be considered in, a complete travesty. Today, we thought we would briefly describe the long and short of data backup and recovery practices that can put your business in a position to secure and restore your data should it be corrupted, destroyed, or stolen.

When you think of human resources (HR), you may not consider them the most essential part of your organization, but they have a lot of responsibilities. They coordinate a lot of the administrative issues of a business. They handle the onboarding, recruiting, and offboarding of workers. They handle payroll and sometimes, in smaller organizations, they do much, much more. With everything that needs to be done, it can be a real grind, but it doesn’t have to be. Today, we take a look at how new technology can improve your organization’s HR effectiveness. 

Have you ever listened to someone talk about something that they really have a good handle on? One of two things will happen. First, their language will be filled to bursting with buzzwords and jargon that—while they clearly know what it all means—is confusing for a layperson. We can be guilty of this ourselves, so we wanted to take a few moments to take the second option and discuss what they mean in more common terms… and, despite how others may use them, what they don’t.

Windows is the most used operating system in the world, which should really come as no surprise. After all, it can be found in just about every environment: most businesses utilize it, and there is no shortage of Windows desktops and laptops in homes around the world. While nothing has been set in stone yet, Microsoft may implement a new setting to let all the different uses of Windows shine.

Data backup is a must-have for every business, but it isn’t enough to just copy your data. You will need to have a data recovery strategy in place to ensure that your business can effectively respond after a data loss incident. Today, we’ll take a look at why considering your recovery strategy early is important, and how to prioritize it with everything else going on with your business.

Chances are you can’t “speak” face-to-face with your customers right now due to social distancing, but that doesn’t mean you can’t conduct business. The internet has allowed many companies to keep their lines of communication open throughout the entirety of the pandemic and these strategies will likely be sustained after this period is over. Ironically, the reliance on online communication has exposed the gaps in broadband businesses face. Today, we will help you learn a little bit more about how to determine if your business may need more bandwidth. 

For the better part of four decades, Apple has bragged that not only are their devices more secure than PCs, hackers don’t bother building threats specifically for their operating systems because their security is so superior. For this reason, Apple has routinely refused advances from law enforcement to share workarounds so that police can get into phones. Apple’s rationale for this constant refusal is that it would undermine their ability to keep the most secure personal computing devices, secure. Federal law enforcement officials went ahead and developed their own workaround and the findings may surprise many Apple aficionados. Let’s take a look:

The emergence of technology has been at the forefront of all major evolutions of human society. Fire, the wheel, electricity, and countless other intuitive innovations have got us where we are today. If you were to quiz the average person, they would point out that today there seems to be so much derision on any subject that it seems that civilization is breaking down. This perspective fails to recognize the importance that technology plays in the dissemination of opinions. Today, we will take a good look at three technologies that are working to improve society.

Building business strategies that actually work to promote productivity has to be a core consideration for every business. Some business owners will try about anything to get there, and their stories will get other business owners to try them out, often with much less success. One of the best ways to build more productive and sustainable business processes is to ensure that they are repeatable. Today, we’ll discuss how building more consistency can really benefit your business.

“Doing things the old-fashioned way” isn’t often how a managed service provider will operate, but in some respects, this really is the best course to take with your IT, at least in terms of strategy. Let’s consider some principles and best practices that have largely remained the same even as time has changed.

If you are buying a new desktop or laptop, one of the specifications you might care about is how much data it can store. After all, your family computer needs plenty of storage for your photos and documents, and if you have kids, they’ll want to install games and other applications on it that fill up a hard drive. These days, however, it’s less about how much space your hard drive has and more about how fast it can run. Let’s explain this, and then talk about something you should almost always look for when picking a hard drive for your PC.

2020 was a big year for the wireless industry. The start of 5G, while hotly anticipated, was kind of a flop outside of some select places. Today, we thought we would discuss the changes and considerations that the telecoms are going to have to confront in 2021.

Collaboration is central to most business’ production strategies nowadays. It’s no secret that businesses are doing more with less and in order to coordinate resources that are stretched thin, companies are looking to collaborative software titles. Today, we will briefly go through three of the most popular collaboration apps to give you an idea of what they can bring to your business. 

With remote work remaining a popular option embraced by many businesses nowadays, it is more important than ever that security is prioritized amongst the employees now operating outside of the office. One facet of doing so is to implement a virtual private network, or a VPN. Let’s go over what a VPN is, and how it works to protect your business’ data.

Collaboration is a critical consideration—especially nowadays, with more people than ever before working remotely. Fortunately, there are plenty of solutions available today that enable the level of communication necessary for effective collaboration to take place. Let’s go over some of the tools your business should embrace to fulfill its needs.

If you’re seeking out an IT resource to assist your business in maintaining its all-important technology resources, you’re almost certainly seeking out the option that will give you the greatest return on your investment in terms of value. There is no denying that we are biased in our opinion, but that doesn’t change the fact that—dollar for dollar—the investment you make into managed services will always be the best choice.

There’s no denying that marketing is a big deal for smartphone manufacturers. They spend a lion’s share of their money pushing one or two devices on the public, when they build many more that sell as well or better. The thing is, not everyone has $1,000-to-$2,000 to drop on a cellphone every couple of years. To wrap up our look at the smartphone market, we thought we’d introduce you to some phones that won’t bust your budget and that can still provide users some value. 

Last week we explored the flagship smartphones that are on the market right now. Today, we wanted to look at some different devices. These devices carry the price tag of a flagship (or cost more), but don’t necessarily have the specs that you would expect from devices priced in that area. They explore new form factors, or in some cases, older form factors. Let’s briefly discuss four innovative new devices.