Blue Ridge Technology

Is your business data at risk? Don’t take chances with old tech What does your business do with old hardware when it reaches end of life? We’re talking about old computers, external drives, servers— anything that has the capability of storing data. Do you know what happens to this old tech at your business? If not, you might want to investigate—because improperly disposing of old hardware could put your data at risk. Where Old Hardware Goes to Die (or Live Again) The first thing to discuss is what actually happens to your old hardware when it no longer serves any purpose at your business. Often that hardware still has some monetary value, so it often gets sold. Even if you don’t sell your old hardware yourself, some other entity might do it for you. (You might not even be aware that that “electronics recycling firm” is reselling their usable salvage!) Sometimes hardware really has no use and ends up in dumps or being stripped for parts and resellable metals. But often if there’s any li...

One day it could save your business This week on the blog, we’re talking about something that could be vital to your business’s continued existence: data backups. Now before you close this tab and move on with your day, hold on: we get it. Data backup and recovery isn’t the most interesting topic in the world—not anywhere close. But in terms of business importance, it’s right up there at the top of the list. Consider these 3 reasons why your business absolutely needs to be backing up data. But first—what’s a data backup anyway? What Is a Data Backup? A data backup is any copy of the data on a device or system that can be used to restore information and functionality if the device or system stops functioning (whether due to theft, sabotage, failure, disaster, or any other scenario). At home, data backups usually live on an external hard drive sitting in a drawer, or they live on a consumer-oriented cloud service (like iCloud, Google Drive, Carbonite, and so forth). At work, data backups...

The final curtain call for Windows 10: What you need to know Right now, Windows users are living in a time of transition. For the time being, both Windows 10 and Windows 11 are available, and Microsoft is still supporting the older version even as it invests in the newer one. However, Windows 10’s days are numbered, and Microsoft recently made a significant announcement: the tech giant will not be releasing any more major or feature updates for Windows 10 . This is big news, but it isn’t reason to panic. In this week’s post, we’ll tell you: What this announcement means What it doesn’t mean in terms of device security What the right move for your organization looks like Let’s dive into what exactly “no more feature updates” means. Microsoft’s Windows 10 Announcement Explained Microsoft’s recent announcement means that 2H22 (the major update that came out in the second half of 2022) would be the last major release for the Windows 10 operating system. What that means for you and your team...