Putting the “Innovation” in CIO

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Chief Innovation Officer.  That’s the future for IT leaders seeking to place technology at the center of the conversation of how to grow their businesses.  The modern-day IT leader is more than just the technologist who understands how the network works or the executive who can explain why cloud matters.  Today’s IT leaders add value to the business and identify the opportunities where technology-driven business models can propel the enterprise forward.  The fastest growing taxi service in the world is a technology business.  So is one of the highest profile hospitality and lodging businesses.  Uber and Airbnb could not exist if not for the visionary leadership of founders who understood how technology could revolutionize a traditional business transaction. These disruptive businesses underscore the need for organizations to develop a solid and agile foundation to react to new opportunities.

Applying the Lessons of Innovation

The same principles apply to any business competing on a regional or global scale.  Healthcare organizations in America’s heartland can connect local resources to national experts via the cloud and high-speed broadband, bringing in the best and brightest talent for data-driven diagnosis.  Cities can harness the power of IoT and analytics to improve the quality of life, keep traffic flowing, and deploy public safety resources where they are needed.  Local schools can connect with universities across the country or across the world to expand both learning and cultural experiences for their students.  But getting to this reality requires thinking beyond just boxes and buzzwords.  Hybrid cloud might be a compelling technology, but if it doesn’t match your requirements, then it becomes a complicated way to spend more money.  Just because a technology appears in every article you read in the computer trade press, you still need to consider if it’s right for you.

Getting there means asking the right questions and understanding not only the “what and how?” of your technology decisions, but also the “why?”  It’s in asking the question, “why?” where the value of innovation comes to light.

Partnering for Success

At ISG Technology, innovation is at the heart of our mission.  But not innovation for innovation sake.  Innovation starts with the right technology foundation, allowing businesses to focus on opportunities, instead of constantly patching and maintaining an IT Infrastructure designed for the past.  Only with a solid foundation to work from, is innovation possible.

Innovation can take many forms, including developing a “Bring Your Own Device” policy, for example.  For a financial firm, it might mean building a data center foundation on converged infrastructure based, for example, on our partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise for the HPE Hyper Converged 380 solution, powered by Intel® Xeon® processors.  A local service business may reimagine its core value proposition based on a technology-driven business model.

IT Making a Difference

Wherever IT leaders start their journey to innovation, the measurement of success will be to close the gap between the current state and the destination.  In this journey, IT leaders must be mindful of balancing time, money, and resources to achieve their goals.

Technology for technology’s sake adds little value. The newest server, the faster storage like the HPE 3PAR StoreServ all-flash storage array, or the most hyped software is not always the right answer.  ISG is a partner who can help ask the right questions and build solutions which are aligned to the organization’s long-term goals and solve real business challenges.  Whatever the final answer is, ISG is prepared to help you innovate; that’s when IT makes a difference.

Visit our resources to learn more about how you can modernize your infrastructure with ISG.

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The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for Hewlett Packard Enterprise products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. Hewlett Packard Enterprise shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. 

Intel, the Intel logo, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

© ISG Technology. All rights reserved.

 

Top things to consider in a colocation site

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More data is being generated, collected and analyzed than ever before. Data storage options are also becoming major centerpieces for business continuity and disaster recovery strategies. As time progresses, it will be significantly more difficult for in-house IT to manage it all. Colocation has become an answer for organizations to achieve security, easy access and ample data storage alongside optimal uptime levels. Let's take a look at the top considerations in a colocation site:

1. Location

Where you decide to colocate is a major decision. Kansas City Business Journal contributor Dan Kurtz suggested choosing a facility close to your company's headquarters or near the majority of your employees. Having a colo facility in close proximity allows leaders to go check on their systems and manage them appropriately. It will also help provide the connectivity and latency that users require. The facility should also be in a place that is protected from severe weather events and disperses water away. Details like these will enable organizations to avoid disaster and drive continuous operations.

The facility's location could impact your decision.The facility's location could impact your decision.

2. Security

Your colocation site should give you peace of mind that your data is protected. Data Center Journal noted that there should be multiple levels of security externally as well as internally. This could include monitoring systems, physical barriers and layered security zones. Keycard access, staffed checkpoints and alarm systems should all be standard features. Guards can constantly monitor visitor access and ensure that no unauthorized personnel are able to access your hardware or data. Ask what types of safeguards are in place as well as what Tier compliance the site has. These considerations could make a big difference in where you decide to colocate and what vendor you choose.

"Compare vendor prices to quote comparable facilities and support services."

3. Pricing

The cost associated with colocation services can be a major factor in your decision. TechTarget contributor Julius Neudorfer noted that while this shouldn't be the crux of your choice, you should compare vendor prices to quote comparable facilities and support services. The amount of power and cooling required will play a big part in your price, and each provider will have its own formula for supplying these utilities. Carefully consider your options based on the solutions provided, history of success and industry costs. These factors will help narrow down your options to the best colocation facility for your requirements.

As data becomes more of a priority for businesses, it will be important to store, manage and protect this asset effectively. It's often time-consuming and expensive to build and manage a data center on your own, but with colocation, you can have a data center without all the cost. The facility itself is governed by the provider, while you maintain your hardware. It will be important to look at the facility's location, security capabilities and service pricing compared to other vendors to guide you to the best solution. For more information on choosing a colocation site, contact ISG today.

3 myths about Office 365 that just aren't true

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The rate of innovation involved with modern technology is increasing with every year. Companies are working hard to constantly give new features to their clients, a sentiment that is especially true of Microsoft’s Office 365. This cloud-based productivity platform has exploded on the enterprise IT scene and is completely changing how and where employees complete tasks.

Despite having been on the market for nearly five years now, those who haven’t had the chance to work with Office 365 yet still don’t know much about it. In fact, there is a portion of this population that have formulated myths based on unfounded rumors and hearsay. We wholeheartedly believe that Office 365 is an incredibly beneficial tool, and we would hate to see a company miss out on it due to unsubstantiated claims.

Therefore, we’ve put together a list of myths about Office 365 that just aren’t true, and what the reality behind the situation actually is.

Myth #1: It’s not secure

No matter which sector your company works in, one of your most important areas of concern has to be cybersecurity. This is because a data breach could seriously affect how clients view your organization. A study from Centrify found that two-thirds of consumers living in the U.S. will stop their business relationship with an institution following a major hacking event. Clearly, staying on top of your firm’s security is of the utmost importance.

This is especially true when you’re talking about a platform like Office 365. This service handles so many pieces of important information that it makes sense for people to be worried about it’s ability to mitigate the risks of a cyberattack. However, the idea that Office 365 is inherently less secure than other options is completely false.

This service has a good level of security. Office 365 is incredibly secure.

Microsoft has spent years refining and polishing the security features on Office 365, and it truly shows. This service has been built from the ground up with cybersecurity in mind, and businesses all over the world rely on Office 365 to keep their data safe. The company’s website even has a list of the most important features, which are:

  • Identity security: Ensuring that only the right employees have access to secure data is paramount. Therefore, Office 365 relies upon multi-factor authentication, which means you have to utilize multiple security credentials in order to log onto an account. This puts another obstacle between your company’s data and the hackers.
  • Data and app encryption: Encryption is by far the most important tool in the fight against cybercriminals. Office 365 utilizes this technology when information is moving between systems and when it’s stored on a particular device.
  • Responding to issues: Microsoft stated that Office follows the response tactics of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This includes having a dedicated security team, detecting and analyzing threats, containing incidents and spearheading an investigation after everything’s said and done.

Clearly, there are too many security features baked in to Office 365 for it to be considered a vulnerable platform. Working with this tool means that your data has an added level of security that will help lower the chances of a data breach.

“One of the major selling points of Office 365 is that it clears up a lot of technical issues.”

Myth #2:  It’s going to steal your job

One of the major selling points of Office 365 is that it clears up a lot of technical issues that other platforms present to company IT teams. While it is obviously a clear advantage, some workers see this as a threat to their current position. They see all the work that they put toward just keeping their current system running, and they think if they don’t have to do this maintenance then they’ll be out of a job.

While this comes from a very real place of self worth, this is once again a very false myth. Although Office 365 will streamline certain processes and eliminate the need to constantly put out fires, it won’t completely take away the need for a robust IT department. As a matter of fact, the truth is quite the opposite.

Office 365 gives you the opportunity to explore internal goals like never before. Due to the fact that you won’t have to waste time simply fixing what should already work, you can move on to opportunities to expand your current IT infrastructure. A deployment of this platform isn’t the death of the IT team; it gives your department new life.

Myth #3: Moving from a different platform is next to impossible

This is less of a specific Office 365 myth and more of a misconception for most newer technologies. Companies very often get comfortable with their current solution, and they start to imagine that making the move to another platform would just be more trouble than it’s worth. Of course, the multitude of benefits provided by Office 365 show that this just isn’t the case. Sticking with an older solution that doesn’t work properly just because you’re used to it doesn’t make any sense, and it could end up costing your company big in terms of productivity and effectiveness in dealing with client needs.

However, making the transition can lead to certain obstacles. But don’t worry, ISG Technology is here to help. Our staff members have quite a lot of experience dealing with moves to Office 365, and we can help make sure yours goes as smoothly as possible.

3 myths about Office 365 that just aren’t true

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The rate of innovation involved with modern technology is increasing with every year. Companies are working hard to constantly give new features to their clients, a sentiment that is especially true of Microsoft’s Office 365. This cloud-based productivity platform has exploded on the enterprise IT scene and is completely changing how and where employees complete tasks.

Despite having been on the market for nearly five years now, those who haven’t had the chance to work with Office 365 yet still don’t know much about it. In fact, there is a portion of this population that have formulated myths based on unfounded rumors and hearsay. We wholeheartedly believe that Office 365 is an incredibly beneficial tool, and we would hate to see a company miss out on it due to unsubstantiated claims.

Therefore, we’ve put together a list of myths about Office 365 that just aren’t true, and what the reality behind the situation actually is.

Myth #1: It’s not secure

No matter which sector your company works in, one of your most important areas of concern has to be cybersecurity. This is because a data breach could seriously affect how clients view your organization. A study from Centrify found that two-thirds of consumers living in the U.S. will stop their business relationship with an institution following a major hacking event. Clearly, staying on top of your firm’s security is of the utmost importance.

This is especially true when you’re talking about a platform like Office 365. This service handles so many pieces of important information that it makes sense for people to be worried about it’s ability to mitigate the risks of a cyberattack. However, the idea that Office 365 is inherently less secure than other options is completely false.

This service has a good level of security. Office 365 is incredibly secure.

Microsoft has spent years refining and polishing the security features on Office 365, and it truly shows. This service has been built from the ground up with cybersecurity in mind, and businesses all over the world rely on Office 365 to keep their data safe. The company’s website even has a list of the most important features, which are:

  • Identity security: Ensuring that only the right employees have access to secure data is paramount. Therefore, Office 365 relies upon multi-factor authentication, which means you have to utilize multiple security credentials in order to log onto an account. This puts another obstacle between your company’s data and the hackers.
  • Data and app encryption: Encryption is by far the most important tool in the fight against cybercriminals. Office 365 utilizes this technology when information is moving between systems and when it’s stored on a particular device.
  • Responding to issues: Microsoft stated that Office follows the response tactics of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This includes having a dedicated security team, detecting and analyzing threats, containing incidents and spearheading an investigation after everything’s said and done.

Clearly, there are too many security features baked in to Office 365 for it to be considered a vulnerable platform. Working with this tool means that your data has an added level of security that will help lower the chances of a data breach.

“One of the major selling points of Office 365 is that it clears up a lot of technical issues.”

Myth #2:  It’s going to steal your job

One of the major selling points of Office 365 is that it clears up a lot of technical issues that other platforms present to company IT teams. While it is obviously a clear advantage, some workers see this as a threat to their current position. They see all the work that they put toward just keeping their current system running, and they think if they don’t have to do this maintenance then they’ll be out of a job.

While this comes from a very real place of self worth, this is once again a very false myth. Although Office 365 will streamline certain processes and eliminate the need to constantly put out fires, it won’t completely take away the need for a robust IT department. As a matter of fact, the truth is quite the opposite.

Office 365 gives you the opportunity to explore internal goals like never before. Due to the fact that you won’t have to waste time simply fixing what should already work, you can move on to opportunities to expand your current IT infrastructure. A deployment of this platform isn’t the death of the IT team; it gives your department new life.

Myth #3: Moving from a different platform is next to impossible

This is less of a specific Office 365 myth and more of a misconception for most newer technologies. Companies very often get comfortable with their current solution, and they start to imagine that making the move to another platform would just be more trouble than it’s worth. Of course, the multitude of benefits provided by Office 365 show that this just isn’t the case. Sticking with an older solution that doesn’t work properly just because you’re used to it doesn’t make any sense, and it could end up costing your company big in terms of productivity and effectiveness in dealing with client needs.

However, making the transition can lead to certain obstacles. But don’t worry, ISG Technology is here to help. Our staff members have quite a lot of experience dealing with moves to Office 365, and we can help make sure yours goes as smoothly as possible.

What can Office 365 bring to health care?

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Microsoft has constantly been at the front of enterprise IT innovation, and for good reason. The company has a large suite of services that can help companies achieve their full efficiency potential, with perhaps the most important of these being Office 365. The Office collection of productivity tools has been a mainstay in the business world for decades, and the latest iteration is no different.

That said, certain industries like health care are hesitant to make a move on newer technologies. Medical facilities often have a very specific way of doing things, and changing up the regular routine can seem to be extremely disruptive. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Office 365 has a host of benefits for those working within this sector that simply cannot be ignored.

Incredible security

“When it comes to health care IT, the most important factor to consider is security.”

Of course, when it comes to health care IT, the most important factor to consider is security. Medical records carry a host of personally identifiable information, and if that data is compromised, it could lead to stolen identities or worse. In fact, this is such a huge issue that the federal government passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

HIPAA is regulatory legislation that governs how medical facilities can handle patient information. It’s basically designed to harshly penalize any actions that could lead to a breach. What’s more, a violation doesn’t have to be malicious or negligent. HIPAA Journal reported that a hospital can violate a rule completely by accident and still be liable for payments of up to $50,000 per incident.

With so much on the line, it’s no wonder that so many health care administrators are hesitant to change their current IT routine. What’s more, this fear of change has even generated the rumor that Office 365 cannot meet the security needs of a modern medical organization. Of course, this simply isn’t true.

Office 365 actually has more stringent standards than many other tools on the market, and we firmly stand behind the statement that you couldn’t build a more secure environment. Hospitals looking to improve security measures can seriously benefit from an Office 365 deployment.

Lower upfront costs

Outside of security, many medical facilities also have to deal with the constraint of tight budgets for the IT department. Running something like a hospital is incredibly expensive. Between the salaries for highly-trained professionals and the ever-increasing reliance on costly equipment, health care institutions just don’t have a lot of wiggle room when it comes to the technology solutions they use.

This is yet another area where Office 365 can help out. This suite of tools doesn’t require any pricey upfront costs, instead relying on a reasonable monthly fee. This allows organizations to make the switch to Office 365 without having to allocate a huge amount of money toward the venture right from the start.

Less maintenance work for IT departments

Another problem most health care organizations have to deal with is an overworked staff. Just about every department in a hospital is overrun with important tasks, but IT is very often one of the most strained departments in any medical facility. In fact, the 2014 HIMSS Workforce Survey found that 84 percent of these institutions had hired an IT worker in the past year, showing that there is an almost constant demand for experienced technology professionals.

Those in IT are often stressed. IT workers are very often overworked.

Clearly, hospital IT departments have a very full schedule, and performing general maintenance on productivity tools is just another fire to put out. This is where working with an outside partner to develop an Office 365 solution comes into play. ISG Technology professionals can manage these issues for your organization, freeing up employees to work on internal projects.

However, it’s important to note here that such a deployment isn’t a threat to anybody’s job. ISG Technology doesn’t want to downsize your IT department, we want to help it crawl out from under the mountain of maintenance problems they have to deal with. Our IT experts are trained to make your life easier, so contact us today and find out what an Office 365 solution from ISG Technology can do for your business.

3-2-1 Backup Rules Best Practices

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Companies that backup to tape as their offsite backup often aren’t aware of what recovering from tape looks like until they unfortunately have to live through it. Depending on the nature of the failure and the extent of the data involved, that type of recovery can take days to restore “business as usual” functionality.

Image result for 3-2-1 backup rule

What Backup Is… and What It Isn’t

Data backups are critical for data protection and recovery, but they should not be a substitute for other important parts of your IT strategy:
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  • Backup is for data protection and targeted item recovery:
    It is not for archive. Archives ideally will be indexed for search, have a managed retention policy, and will be stored on less expensive storage mediums.
  • It is not for disaster recovery. It is nearly impossible to test a full environment recovery scenario when relying on this method. It will often require 100% more equipment overhead to have the empty equipment in standby, equipment not providing any usefulness or return on investment
  • It is not a failover solution. Recovery times with this method should be measured in weeks, not hours.

Snapshots are not backup:

  • Snapshots can be used as one part of a backup strategy, but provide no protection on their own in scenarios where the storage devices have failed or are no longer available
  • Snapshots are usually not very granular and are commonly the recovery method of last resort
  • Snapshots are not disaster recovery on their own, only a part of a comprehensive plan

The untested data recovery plan is both useless and a waste of time to create:

  • Make time for testing, it will always be worth it.
  • Do not let the single point of failure be a human, involve many members of the team in the process so that when the time comes to execute your plan it does not have to wait for the only one who knows how.



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Shadow IT: What it is and how to mitigate it

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Technology has advanced at an incredibly fast rate in the past few years. Innovations such as the computer that were once thought too expensive for personal use are in a vast majority of American homes, and the emergence of the smartphone has increased the internet’s reach even further.

It would seem that every day some new device or piece of software is making life easier for people, and while this may be good for the consumer, it poses a major risk for IT administrators. The in-office use of these kinds of technology is called shadow IT, and it’s causing some big problems for organizations all over the globe.

How is shadow IT formed?

“The issue at hand here has to do with an employee’s personal convenience.”

The issue at hand here has to do with an employee’s personal convenience. As a rule, shadow IT very often forms when a worker decides to go outside of the company-supported suite of software and hardware in order to use something he or she is more familiar with.

A good example of this would be an employee that gets fed up with a certain file storage/exchange system. They don’t know how to work this platform, so they decide to use a free service that they’ve relied on before.

While this may solve a convenience issue, this employee is now moving company information around utilizing a platform that isn’t supported by the internal IT team. This creates a gaping security vulnerability that a hacker could work to exploit.

BYOD can help foster it

An aspect that a lot of administrators don’t consider is that shadow IT doesn’t just pertain to software or digital platforms. As TechTarget contributor Margaret Rouse points out, hardware is also part of the equation.

Your employees have all kinds of personal devices that they use at home, and they bought them for good reasons. They have experience with this tech, and this can very easily translate to an increase in productivity.

In fact, the bring-your-own-device trend hinges on this exact principle. BYOD allows organizations to sidestep paying for new equipment by simply allowing workers to bring in their own gadgets. On top of that, staff members get the unique ability to complete daily responsibilities with the tech they know and love.

When done properly, this is a perfect example of a win-win scenario. However, a BYOD deployment must be implemented properly. The IT team needs to handle this transition to ensure that the devices in question are properly secured against hackers. Without some kind of security procedure on the books, companies could be looking at a data breach.

The problem is that employees very often don’t know about the risks involved here. Again, without any sort of maliciousness, they’re simply thinking of their own convenience and choose to bring in their own gadgets without clearing it with company officials. In fact, a survey from Gartner found that more than one-third of respondents were currently completing work-related tasks on personal devices without telling anyone about it.

This is huge because the average person simply does not take the time to properly secure their gadgets on their own, especially considering the high standards of data security many industries need.

A consumer affairs survey found that only 8 percent of average smartphone owners had software that would allow them to delete the information contained on their phone should it be stolen. While most people would worry about the photos and other irreplaceable memories in the event of a theft, a stolen smartphone can easily turn into a major data breach should the wrong person get their hands on the gadget.

Smartphones used for work must be secure. Smartphone security is incredibly important in a BYOD plan.

Companies must take action

Clearly, shadow IT is no laughing matter, and organizations must take decisive action in order to mitigate the risks of a data breach. So, what would this look like?

First and foremost, set up a meeting with employees to explain the consequences of their actions. As stated, it’s not that these workers are actively trying to sabotage the company. Rather, they simply don’t understand that using a personal device or outside software could cause serious harm. These people simply need to be educated about what can happen when they step outside the approved systems.

Second, to attack unlicensed BYOD directly, administrators must come up with a plan. This could include banning these gadgets outright, but doing so is nearly impossible to enforce, and completely misses all of the advantages BYOD has to offer when done correctly. A better option may be to simply work with a vendor that knows how to implement a secure system to regulate these devices.

Finally, it might be important to figure out why employees were using outside tech to begin with. Are current solutions not doing what they’re supposed to? Do you need to implement training sessions? Would it be best to simply move on to a different platform? Answer these questions and you can work to find the root of the problem.

How can your company benefit from hyperconvergence?

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Computing resources are very often mismanaged within the business world. Considering just under one-third of all servers haven’t processed data within the last six months, it’s clear that there are a lot of inefficiencies within enterprise IT. This kind of ineffective model is exactly what hyperconvergence is meant to solve.

Combining all computing, storage and other IT resources into a singular device is allowing companies to get more creative with their technology solutions. To that end, let’s take a peek at what the average organization can get out of hyperconvergence:

Simplify IT operations

One of the great benefits of hyperconvergence is that it helps IT employees immensely cut down on the number of individualized resources they need to deal with. A hyperconverged infrastructure allows workers the unique opportunity of handling all of these components through a centralized platform. This increases efficiency and enables staff members the ability to treat IT resources as if they were a singular system.

Hyperconvergence makes IT work easier. Allowing resources to be accessed through a singular platform allows employees to keep it all together with ease.

Scale up efficiently

Another great advantage of working in a hyperconverged environment is the fact that these systems can be very easily scaled up or down according to a company’s needs or desires. Organizations need to be constantly growing and innovating in order to continue operations, and scaling up IT needs is simply a requirement of modern business. Due to the fact that hyperconverged infrastructure growth simply requires the acquisition of new nodes, the employees can rest assured they’ll have the resources they need to get the job done.

“Hyperconverged systems can be very easily scaled up or down.”

What’s more, companies from all over the world are seeing just how easy it is to grow under a hyperconverged model. A study conducted by ActualTech Media found that 42 percent of IT workers thought it was easier to scale up within their hyperconverged infrastructure than it was to do so in other IT schemes.

It would appear that many within the business technology community don’t know about this benefit. The same study also found that only 6 percent of respondents stated that scalability was a driving force behind the switch to hyperconvergence. Clearly, this topic needs to reach a wider audience.

This is of course only a taste of what a hyperconverged infrastructure can give to the modern business. That said, this technology has far-reaching implications for many organizations, and its benefits should be carefully studied by those wishing to increase efficiency.

Office 365 and the value of cloud-based solutions

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Microsoft’s Office 365 has made a huge splash within business IT. In fact, a study from security firm Bitglass found the service to hold 25.2 percent of the enterprise market in 2015, which was a 300 percent increase over the previous year. This even beat out Google Apps, hoisting Office 365 above the competition and showing just how valuable this solution is.

That said, many organizations are hesitant to make the switch to cloud-based platforms for a number of reasons. To that end, we’d like to dispel some rumors about Office 365 and get to the heart of what makes this service great.

Cloud-based solutions make sense for multiple verticals

“The cloud’s many advantages simply cannot be ignored.”

The cloud’s many advantages simply cannot be ignored at this point. The technology’s ability to increase innovation and flexibility while also keeping costs low is an incredibly central part of its selling point. In fact, Matthew McClelland of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina has stated that these exact reasons were the drivers behind his organization’s switch to Office 365.

“We were often stuck in the old way of doing IT,” said McClelland, who is the manager of the information governance office at BCBSNC. “Slow waterfall-style projects that took a lot of time to roll stuff out. When you add up the cost of everyone’s time, impact to our operations, the impact on the day-to-day work of users, it’s expensive.”

Of course, health care isn’t the only sector seeing the benefits of cloud-based solutions like Office 365. Fortune quoted Curt Kolcun of Microsoft as saying that the number of Microsoft Cloud for Government users is around 5.2 million, which includes Office 365 as well as other cloud services.

Regulatory compliance is a must

Of course, many sectors have more to worry about than cost and flexibility. Regulatory standards, such as those imposed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, come down hard on institutions that can’t follow the rules. In fact, a violation of HIPAA carries a maximum annual penalty of $1.5 million.

HIPAA has strict rules. Violating HIPAA could result in massive fines.

Again, this is where Office 365 shines. McClelland also reported that HIPAA used to be a “hurdle” for medical cloud migrations. However, Office 365 is now HIPAA-compliant, ensuring McClelland’s organization stays on the right side of the law.

ISG Technology can help with your transition

While Office 365 clearly has many benefits for all kinds of institutions, making the transition can sometimes be difficult. To that end, it makes sense to partner with an experienced company that knows all about what a move to the cloud means for an organization. ISG Technology is more than happy to be that partner for you.

Our trained professionals have the experience necessary to help you navigate the tricky waters of transition, both in terms of overall cost and regulatory standards. We know how important this move is to you, and we’re here to help you every step of the way. Contact an ISG Technology representative today and find out what your organization can get out of Office 365.