technology

Six Signs You Need a Tech Refresh

January 28, 2022 By quadcities Leave a Comment

Is it time to refresh your company’s technology?

When used strategically, technology can help small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) develop a more productive, efficient and innovative workforce. That’s why businesses that prioritize technology are three times more likely to exceed corporate goals. In a business world that’s evolving at a breakneck pace, your company may not be able to perform at its full potential if it lacks the necessary technology.

Technology can improve:

Business communication
Decision making
Marketing
Security
Customer support
Resource management
Time and cost efficiency

However, even the most cutting-edge technology can experience the occasional hiccup and slow you down if you don’t keep up with regular updates and support. Performing an annual technology refresh can help you avoid this altogether.

A technology refresh is the process of replacing technology components regularly by evaluating their ability to integrate with other infrastructure components and obsolescence, rather than waiting until the outdated element becomes the most significant impediment to achieving your company’s vision.

A technology refresh is crucial because maintaining legacy infrastructure components comes at a cost. It exposes your systems to hackers, reduces overall productivity and may even drive your most valuable employees out the door because they are tired of dealing with outdated technology that makes it difficult to do their jobs. Additionally, as the costs of maintaining outdated IT components and the risks of failure continue to rise, day-to-day operations can be negatively impacted.

Warning Signs to Look Out For

Is it time to refresh your company’s technology? Keep an eye out for the following six signs:

Slow-Running Systems

Slow systems consume a significant amount of a company’s valuable time. The slowness could be caused by several factors, including a failed integration, virus or lack of updates. It’s critical to find and fix the problem as soon as possible to get back to optimal performance levels.

Suspicious Pop-Ups

Suspicious pop-ups typically warn users that their system is vulnerable to a security threat or has a technical problem. Cybercriminals then prey on worried users who want to make sure their system is secure by extorting money to fix issues and eliminate threats that do not exist. One of the best ways to keep such malicious players at bay is by immediately refreshing/updating legacy systems.

Random Shutdowns

It’s normal for systems to shut down to install critical updates. However, if the shutdowns are frequent and unpredictable, then there is a problem that needs to be addressed. While random shutdowns can be caused by a range of factors, such as an unstable power supply, virus/malware or corrupted files, it could also be a warning sign that the system is due for an update/refresh.

Connection Issues

Occasionally getting cut off from the internet in the middle of a crucial task or meeting can be inconvenient, but what if it happens regularly? It could be a sign that your system has a flaw that needs to be fixed. However, if software patching fails to resolve the issue, it may be time to refresh the system.

Lack of Integration Between Your Systems, Software and Technology

Integration is critical for today’s firms because the current technology landscape is evolving rapidly and businesses may have to depend on multiple vendors for different solutions. So, if any technology component in your company does not integrate with the rest of the infrastructure, it should be replaced immediately.

Your System Acts Possessed

You’ve probably seen situations where tabs open and close on their own, the mouse moves in the opposite direction, things open on your desktop at random and files get downloaded without your knowledge. In such cases, you should consider a system refresh before consulting an exorcist. Systems without proper patching and update history may exhibit strange behavior.

Collaboration Is the Best Way Forward

Technological roadblocks can be frustrating, and attempting to overcome them on your own can be overwhelming. Get started on your path to a technology refresh with an experienced partner. Knowing that the process is in expert hands gives you peace of mind and allows you to focus on growing your business. QCBN

By Theo Soumilas

For additional information or to schedule an appointment to assist your business, call 928-719-7724 or visit www.northernazit.com.

Theo Soumilas is the owner of Northern Arizona IT servicing Arizona.

Arizona’s Business Landscape Sees Explosive Growth

June 30, 2021 By quadcities Leave a Comment

Attracting companies and organizations is big business, and Arizona is succeeding in its efforts.

The summer of 2021 is leading the record books for businesses relocating to Arizona, including semiconductor manufacturers, electric car makers and many other tech companies. While most relocations and expansions are happening in the Valley, Northern Arizona is also attracting new companies.

CP Technologies in north Prescott is a good representation of the trend. The defense company, which also builds unmanned aerial vehicles, opened its doors earlier this year after relocating from San Diego.

President and CEO Mike McCormak said California’s high taxation and cost-prohibitive regulations had him looking at other states. After considering Texas, Nevada, Utah and Alabama, Arizona was the clear choice for new company headquarters.

“The reason we chose Arizona was because the state made it a no-brainer with financial support and a lack of bureaucracy,” said McCormak. Other incentives were supportive local officials, and proximity to an airfield, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Yavapai College, he said.

“Of all the options, Prescott was best for our business and staff. with its amenities and cost of living,” McCormak added. It was important to him that the move improved the quality of life for his staff members.

McCormak worked closely with John Heiney, Prescott’s community outreach manager. In the past couple of months, Heiney also has hosted other California companies considering a move to Prescott. “By the time a company is looking at site selection, they have done their research on what their needs are,” he said.

The greater Phoenix area has more ground and rail transportation compared to the Prescott region; however, company leaders, especially with smaller privately owned companies, may put more weight on affordability, outdoor options and four seasons, said Heiney.

The trend of companies moving to Arizona has been underway for a few years, but the pandemic accelerated timetables for many, Heiney added.

Attracting companies and organizations is big business, and Arizona is succeeding in its efforts. But, the story was different a short time ago.

The state was one of the hardest hit during the Great Recession, said Patrick Ptak of the Arizona Commerce Authority. The senior vice president of executive initiatives said that after 300,000 jobs were lost and $3 million in state revenues dried up, state leaders realized the urgent need for economic diversification. The Arizona Commerce Authority was then created, with a focus on attracting high value industries like aerospace, defense, biopharma and technology.

A decade after ACA’s inception, new business construction and renovations are underway across the state, said Ptak. “Arizona offers the complete package, with a highly skilled and growing workforce, low-cost business environment, affordable and reliable energy, and proximity to some of the biggest markets a day’s drive away.”

Ptak said these changes in what he calls Arizona’s robust innovation ecosystem will likely continue because tech companies want to be near other pioneers. Major companies like Intel, Raytheon, Benchmark Electronics and numerous others are driving these advancements in the state, he added, along with Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University and the University of Arizona.

A lot of people can look at Arizona’s growth and wonder how it affects them, Ptak said. He quotes Bureau of Economic Analysis statistics showing that state residents experienced some of the country’s most significant wage and personal income growth during the past year.

“When you are bringing in more high paying jobs, it has a growth effect for the entire economy, with more people spending money at local restaurants, businesses and traveling to other parts of the state,” said Ptak.

The Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity recently published the 2019-2029 Projected Employment Report. It calculates that nearly 550,000 jobs will be added during the next decade, representing a 1.6% annual growth in the state. QCBN

By Theresa Bierer, QCBN

Center for the Future Set for Cyber Mobility

April 4, 2021 By quadcities Leave a Comment

Cyber mobility is a theme that will see technologies continue to grow and dominate through the next several decades.

The Center for the Future (CFF), a project dedicated to the creation of economic development growth and quality job creation, has moved into office space provided by the City of Prescott.

The Prescott City Council approved a lease agreement on March 9, making the space available to the Center for the Future and its parent organization, the Prescott Regional Opportunity Foundation (PROF), a non-profit organization.

The space, formerly identified as the City Hall Annex just east of Prescott City Hall, was made available when the city reorganized several departments as a result of so many employees working from home during the pandemic. A total of 10 office suites are available in Building 218. Other offices in the basement of 216 and the 220 South Marina facility will soon be available after some renovation.

CFF director Jon Haass, also a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU), said almost 3,500 square feet of office space will be remodeled, refurnished and available to accommodate the companies participating in the center. Some office furniture has been donated and moved into offices to help the CFF partners.

Haass said a ribbon-cutting ceremony to formally announce the opening of the CFF is expected this month.

The intention of CFF is to be an incubator, accelerator and attractor of companies to the greater Prescott region. “Cyber mobility is a theme that will see technologies continue to grow and dominate through the next several decades,” Haass said.

The CFF website suggests that by joining the CFF, “…you will gain access to partner with established and proven providers throughout Arizona and the western U.S. Mentors in our ecosystem are experts and leaders in their industry, having built successful businesses, and want to help build yours. Our innovation platform is the single best place to find your next big customer.”

The first company to move into the new office space was SimpleWAN, which focuses on assembling remotely-managed network devices so that it is easier to connect, secure and automate distributed and remote networks. SimpleWAN’s CEO Eric Knight moved the company from Phoenix to Prescott.

Another partner company is Cyber Core International, which works with large corporations to provide executive security. As a result of its move to Prescott, the company will expand its offerings to include managed cyber security offerings. It was relocated from San Jose, California, by CEO Gabe Navarette, an ERAU-Prescott alumnus.

Additional companies are seeking to join the Center, Haass said. Systems Engineering (SEG) is considering growing in Prescott since its lead engineering manager moved here last fall. Additional space for expansion is being sought.

CFF is a program created through the PROF, sponsored by the Prescott Chamber of Commerce Foundation. PROF has formed partnerships with many local and regional organizations, including the Arizona Commerce Authority, Arizona Technology Council and Northern Arizona Council of Governments (NACOG).

“We’re pleased to be involved in nurturing the partnership among these organizations and these educational institutions,” said NACOG Regional Director Teri Drew. “It’s such a pleasure to work with professionals who have solid economic and financial goals that benefit the greater community.”

In addition, CFF and PROF are reaching out to students and alumni of local institutions of higher education such as ERAU, Yavapai College and Northern Arizona University. CFF also is establishing relationships with Arizona State University and the University of Arizona.

Jim Robb, vice president of PROF and a former City of Prescott economic development consultant, said support for the project has been enthusiastic. The City of Prescott set aside $92,000 as initial support for the center. Various corporate and individual contributions, plus grants from local state and federal sources, will continue to provide financial assistance.

Zach Ferres, co-founder of Coplex, Hal Hayden, an executive with Trinity Capital, and Tony Hamer, president of Growth, Strategy and Innovation, have joined the CFF advisory board. QCBN

By Ray Newton, QCBN

For more information, visit

centerforfutureprescott.com.

How Do Our Computers Know So Much About Us?

January 10, 2018 By quadcities Leave a Comment

Some people are entirely convinced that the devices we carry around with us or that are popping up in homes everywhere are surreptitiously activating their microphones and listening to our conversations. It’s the only way, they contend, that your Facebook feed could suddenly show you posts regarding the latest kitchen gadget the same night you and a friend talk about the device. Or how Google ads are suddenly showing discounts on car repair after you and a co-worker discussed their recent car repair woes. Or possibly you start seeing advertisements online for flooring materials during the remodel of your workplace, and you can’t seem to figure out why?

The truth is a bit less scary (and at the same time MUCH more frightening) than our playing the role of “Big Brother.” A much more plausible, albeit intimidating answer for this seemingly unexplainable coincidences is big data. Companies routinely purchase customer information from an expanding pool of data warehouses. And while a majority of it is anonymous, the quantity of data is of such volume that it can point to significant trends and habits. So, while you may not be interested in the latest kitchen tool, you more than likely have a friend who is. That friend may spend time online researching and learning about the device and then run across you in some public space and tell you all about it.

While the phone in your pocket or purse is most likely NOT recording your conversations, it is most definitely keeping tabs on its location and in turn, on your whereabouts. Even if you were to turn off the GPS tracker included in every new device today, it still could estimate reasonably accurately where it is since it needs to “talk” to the local cell towers. Otherwise, when your spouse attempts to call you, they wouldn’t be able to get through. Modern cell phones use the local towers it can reach, does some math to figure out how far away from each tower it is, and then uses that information to determine its position. So, when you and a friend are talking, it knows you are both in the same location, at the same time and surmises that you very well could have been talking to each other. It then deduces further that if you two were talking, and this morning your friend was looking up the kitchen tool, there is a good chance he or she shared it with you in your conversation, and thus you may now be curious about it, so it shows you an ad.

For the car repair example above, you and your work buddy may share the occasional humorous email. It’s common knowledge that most larger email providers have bots (robots designed to skim emails for keywords and phrases) that routinely review the content of your email to help “enhance” your experience. These same bots are also able to see who sends emails to whom, which emails are opened and read, and which emails then get sent on to more people. All of this data provides the email service with a ton of information, quite likely way more than you realize. If you and Joe have ever emailed back and forth, it makes educated guesses and starts showing you things that Joe has researched or reviewed via his online account.

In the scenario regarding the flooring, maybe you have a business email address similar to employee@company.com, and your boss has boss@company.com. Again, the email provider (and all the various systems that email ends up passing through while en route to your mailbox) could capture that information. But, you may say, I got the ad for flooring on my non-work email, and I never check my non-work email at work, and my employer never emails me at this address. Did you ever send yourself an email from work because it had some information you wanted to review from home? Once again big data collection would store that knowledge. It would see that boss@company.com emails employee@company.com and that employee@company.com has forwarded (possibly numerous times) emails to another email address. It then concludes that your private email and work email is owned by the same end user and starts showing similar ads on both accounts.

When you send an email, it crosses over five, 10, 20 or even hundreds of different mail servers before reaching its intended recipient. Email is sent entirely unencrypted and readable by every server it passes through, and thus, any one of the owners of those servers could be offsetting the cost of operating the server by selling the data it collects. That information is then resold over and over.

It’s not all a negative result as there are merits to it. Would you rather see advertising for a product or service in which you have absolutely no interest? Or would you prefer instead to have an ad that might be at least mildly useful? So many people want things free or at no cost, but all of those services cost money to someone, and those people have a right to cover those expenses in whatever method they are able. If you want even to hope to maintain an unmonitored email account, don’t expect that from some free email service you are utilizing. Staying anonymous in today’s world is virtually impossible. Keeping yourself slightly below the radar is possible, but only if you are diligent and willing to pay for the services you utilize. QCBN

By Greg Hicks

Bitcoin: Currency of the Future?

February 25, 2016 By quadcities Leave a Comment

A novelty digital payment method surfaced in January 2009 as the brainchild of a computer programmer identifying himself as Satoshi Nakamoto and christening his techno-currency Bitcoin (BTC).

The prognosis for BTC as a mainstream currency has been shrouded as much in mystery as the identity of its inventor. The fact that Nakamoto is presumed to be a pseudonym only adds to the intrigue.

“I like the innovative nature of Bitcoin,” shared investment manager William T. Hepburn, president of Hepburn Capital in Prescott. “It shows us what alternatives to traditional money are possible. However, most of the total failures in investing involve new entities with good stories, but without proven track records or underlying value. This is the precise nature of Bitcoin. There is no intrinsic value, just a good story. The price rise of the past three months followed a decision by a European court’s ruling that Bitcoin would be exempt from its Value Added Tax (VAT), and gave market manipulators a new PR platform. If you look at price chart of Bitcoin, it looks very much like a speculation rather than an investment. Think tulip bulbs and dot-coms of the 1990s.”

BTC has captured the interest of Congressional Research Service (CRS), which delivered a report to members and committees of Congress in October 2015. The document cites unease about use in illegal money transfers, impact on the Federal Reserve, and lack of consumer protection. The potential for money laundering, treatment under federal securities law, and effects on the regulation of foreign exchange trading remain legal and regulatory questions.

A maximum of 21 million BTC ultimately can be mined, with that milestone anticipated in 2040. Coinbase.com quotes 15,029,500 BTC as of December 2015. Average price at that time was $422 per BTC. Pricing has ranged from less than $20 to $1,100.

“Unlike a dollar, Bitcoin has no legal form, is not legal tender, and is not backed by any government or other legal entity, and its supply is not determined by a central bank,” CRS cautions. Coins owned by investors and end users are stored in digital wallets on an owner’s computer or with an online wallet service. There is no retrieval for lost or stolen BTC.

Here’s how it works, according to CRS: “Each Bitcoin and each user is encrypted with a unique identity, and each transaction is recorded on a decentralized public ledger (or blockchain) visible to all computers on the network, but does not reveal any personal information about the involved parties.”

Network users, called miners, gather blocks of new transactions and compete to verify that all transactions are valid. Verification reportedly can be completed in as few as 10 minutes or as many as 60. The first miner verifying the blockchain is awarded 25 BTC by the controlling computer algorithm.

Insight on BTC users comes from blogger Tyler Durden in an article entitled “The Demographics of Bitcoin” submitted March 2013 to www.zerohedge.com. He reports that the “average Bitcoin user,” is male (96 percent), 32.7 years of age, libertarian/anarcho-capitalist (37 percent), non-religious (61 percent), with a full-time job (43 percent), and in a relationship (56 percent). Curiosity, profit and politics are identified as the biggest motivation for new users. Thirty-nine percent of users do not drink, smoke, gamble or take drugs. “Regulatory/legal intervention” and “reputation problems” concern users.

Research firm Quantcast estimates that nearly half of BTC users have annual incomes of $50,000 and above, with 35 percent earning more than $100,000 a year and 26 percent more than $150,000. Tech savvy and Internet buying go along with the profile. Collections of white papers posted online show BTC as fodder for educational research, especially regarding the technology.

From Hepburn’s perspective, “Bitcoin feeds the desire of schemers and scammers, rebels and ultra-early adopters to use vehicles that are off the radar charts – (concepts) that ‘the man’ has not yet figured out how to control, and their neighbors do not yet understand. Just as some folks like the feeling of being ‘off the grid’ and unregulated, Bitcoin users enjoy the anonymity of its transaction process.”

Hepburn published an article on BTC in December 2013 “after being asked to do a presentation that included Bitcoin to the regional Mensa convention in Phoenix. The interest then was the result of a recent spike in Bitcoin pricing that had generated much media attention. It was the kind of price bubble that is often created by speculators or operators of ‘pump and dump’ schemes. In the 18 months following my article, Bitcoin lost 75 percent of its value, and that decline confirmed my opinion that this is an easily manipulated market.”

An online search of traders and merchants accepting BTC identifies several locations in Las Vegas, Phoenix and Tucson. No merchants are listed in the Quad Cities. Hepburn said he does not know any BTC owners or retailers here, although he said he has not really looked.

QCBN caught up with Erin Brinkman of Brinkman’s Visual Art in Flagstaff, who was located on the web as a retailer accepting BTC.

“I accept donations and payments with Bitcoin, although I haven’t conducted any business with Bitcoin yet,” Brinkman explained. “I initially got involved by purchasing Bitcoin as an asset. I don’t know of any other local businesses that accept Bitcoin. I see Bitcoin as a currency that will soon be the most stable and easiest way to pay for things.”

Some industry analysts have predicted that, even if the currency itself does not evolve into broader use, its encryption technology could be BTC’s ticket to lasting legacy.

Hepburn reserves judgment. “Technology is changing our lives at a dizzying pace. [Does it make] sense that it can change the way we use money, too? As I mentioned in my December 2013 article, I confess to not realizing the impact on our lives that the Internet might bring [when thinking about the future] 30 years ago, and Bitcoin might have a similar impact, but I’ll wait and see.”

By Sue Marceau

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