Here at Systems Engineering, we understand that meetings are an integral part of every organization's work day. They are meant as a tool used to accomplish projects, overcome hurdles, and assign action items. Every meeting should have a clear purpose, an expected outcome, and conclude with a clear objective to move business forward. 

What is Webex Teams?

Cisco's Webex Teams, utilized by businesses around the world, is a cloud-based, or hosted, collaboration platform that’s modeled around teamwork in the modern working environment. Built on the Webex platform, it can act as a phone system, a video conferencing system, a file share, and a whiteboard environment. Persistent, or ongoing, chat can be utilized by people within an organization as well as with partners and clients who work externally. Essentially, it’s a communication platform that will change how your organization collaborates, seamlessly and for the better.

If your organization is still utilizing Windows 7 SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, and Windows Server 2008 SP2, please read this article in its entirety. 

When organizations decide to move data to the cloud, there are several benefits including cost efficiency and time savings. Consistent and frequent updates to make usability easier and friendlier is yet another benefit. For those organizations that have adopted Microsoft Office 365, (or better yet Microsoft 365, a.k.a. 'Modern Desktop') for example, you might have noticed that once a login occurs, the default page seen now is Office.com. As such, Microsoft announced the following explanation earlier this week:

The topic of SD-WAN has become the moniker for “building your company’s next WAN design." Needless to say, the term is out there as a hot topic and most people feel that SD-WAN will be a positive disruption over the next three to five years. Due to the fact that businesses want to build a better WAN experience with the benefit of lower costs, 

In the coming year, how will your organization be less vulnerable to security threats, remain in compliance, and continue to receive the latest product support?

Quick answer: Upgrade.

Review the chart below and ensure that your Microsoft products are not about to expire. The chart quickly points out some significant end-of-life/support dates that are on the horizon for some of the more popular Microsoft products, including Windows 7, Exchange 2010, and Office 2010. 

It seems these dates are far out, but in reality, upgrade discussions should begin now in order to prepare appropriately. By applying upgrades before products fall out of support, your business will be less vulnerable to security threats, remain in compliance, and continue to receive the latest product support.

It's a new year which makes it a great time to prioritize your technology initiatives. As technology changes dramatically, the headlines continue to focus on the same themes: Security, Cloud, and Digital Transformation. In this blog article, I will review important "to do's" within each category and offer ways you and your organization can achieve these important IT goals.