Blue Ridge Technology

Is this the end of passwords… forever? The move to simultaneously simplify and enhance security has been a long time coming. We’ve said it before: passwords are a terrible way to protect your business accounts. Microsoft, Apple, and Google all agree— and they’re finally going to work together to do something about it . This is going to be a pretty big shift once it arrives, and with the Big 3 involved, there’s every reason to believe this new system could become the new standard across most of your accounts and business services. And that’s very good news! Here’s what you need to know about this coming change: what it is, when it will roll out, and how to prepare. The Problem with Passwords We won’t go too deep here because we’ve talked about it so often already, but the short version is this: passwords are awful. They’re hard to remember and easy to steal or crack. They lead to all sorts of security breaches, data theft, and more: as many as 81 percent of data breaches are due to weak...

Three new Teams features to look forward to We love Microsoft Teams here at Blue Ridge Technology. In fact, we think it’s one of the smartest new products Microsoft has introduced in years. This powerful collaboration app offers the kind of instant, lightweight team-based communication businesses love from Slack, combined with reliable videoconferencing of Zoom or Skype. But under the hood, Teams goes far deeper than Slack or Zoom ever could. Microsoft’s app just has so much to offer — and its full integration with the rest of the Microsoft 365 office and productivity suite is a game changer for businesses already using 365. We aren’t the only ones that love Teams: the app now enjoys over 270 million users every single month. And Microsoft keeps innovating, regularly adding new features to Teams. This week, we’re sharing three upcoming features coming soon to your Teams environment so you’ll be ready to take full advantage when the updates hit. #1: Automatic SharePoint Updates The firs...

Three clever tricks to get more out of Teams Microsoft Teams is an impressively powerful productivity and collaboration app that’s included with every Office 365 and Microsoft 365 plan. We love the countless ways Teams is helping our customers work smarter and collaborate more naturally — whether their employees are on-site, remote, hybrid, or a mix of all three. Any app with a feature set as deep as Teams will have a bit of a learning curve. Users can easily get started with the basics without much guidance, but there are all sorts of hidden or less obvious tricks, shortcuts, and add-ons that can transform Teams into something even more powerful. Looking to get more out of Teams? Here are 3 great tricks you might not have heard of before. 1. Boost Your Own Messages with Mark as Important It’s great that businesses today have so many mechanisms for collaboration. But sometimes this proliferation can lead to notification overload. With chats and messages ringing in across multiple Teams...

Businesses are spending more on IT this year Right now, prices are going up everywhere — from the gas pump to the grocery store to the latest consumer and business tech and hardware. That’s just a part of life during a period of prolonged inflation. And before you ask, no, we aren’t using this blog post to announce price hikes here at Blue Ridge Technology. But we do want to talk a little about how inflation and other factors (like continued tech innovation) are affecting what companies spend on IT. If you’re not yet a Blue Ridge customer, right now is the perfect time to switch to us as your new IT partner. Costs are escalating all around you, so why not switch to a provider that will take the time to right-size your IT spend, finding areas where you can save and strategic areas where you can focus your spend? Reach out today if you’re ready for that conversation. Otherwise, let’s talk about the overall spending trends for a minute. IT Spend Will Reach New Highs This Year New research...

Are your team still working at 10 at night? This week’s post is for the bosses, founders, and leaders out there. Have you ever wished for a way to improve your employees’ productivity without sacrificing their well-being? Even better, what if you could do so in a way that led employees to say “thank you!” in the short term AND improved your company culture in the long term? We think there’s a pretty straightforward way to do all of that, and all it takes is a simple change from you (and the other leaders in your organization). The Issue: After-Hours Work If there’s a central issue plaguing office / white-collar / knowledge-economy workers today, it just might be after-hours work. We’re not talking about the night owls or early birds who want to put in some time when most folks are asleep. If those hours work for your business, great—those people may be better off for it. No, we’re talking about the biggest portion of your workforce, the ones who’d say they work 9-to-5 jobs (or some var...

You need this feature if your browser looks like this Have you noticed how much you use your web browser these days? If you’re like most business leaders, you’re using it more than you used to, and for more types of tasks, too. As more and more of the apps and services your team uses to get work done transition to the cloud, the humble internet browser has gradually transformed into a versatile powerhouse app. It’s actually pretty amazing how much our browsers can do for us today, and the continued transition to the cloud shows no signs of stopping. But all this new activity within your browser can create a problem: too many tabs. With 15, 25, or even more tabs open, it can take forever to find the tab you’re looking for — and one errant click could close some mission-critical web app before you save your work! Thankfully, Microsoft has been teasing a solution for a while, and it finally showed up in a recent test version of Microsoft’s Edge internet browser. It’s called Workspaces, an...

Russian cyber-attack threat: White House advice to protect your business Cyberattacks are on the rise, and there’s an increased threat of attacks coming out of Russia right now, according to the Biden administration. As Russia grows increasingly combative and sanctions grow, the state and affiliated groups within it may crank up cyber intrusions soon. Many of these attacks are likely to be aimed at infrastructure like water or electricity or at other targets with ties to the federal government. But even businesses that don’t fit that profile should take this moment to secure their digital assets, according to the administration. Here’s what you need to know about the current recommendations coming out of the White House . Multi-Factor Authentication Matters If you haven’t yet implemented multi-factor authentication, or MFA, for your logins and key accounts, now is the time to do so. Without MFA, all the bad guys have to do is steal or guess the right combination of a username and a pas...