Coleman Technologies Blog

Need #1: Security

In order to be successful, a business needs to have the security necessary to protect its resources. The first step to accomplishing that, is to identify any weaknesses in its infrastructure through a preliminary IT evaluation known as an IT risk assessment. This assessment can reveal where a business is the most vulnerable. At that point, these flaws can be mitigated using tools like firewalls, antivirus, and multi-factor authentication - tools that either SMBs or enterprises can (and do) use.

With SMBs increasing their use of cloud services, a large portion of this process should be fulfilled by the cloud provider. However, the business leveraging the cloud provider needs to make sure that the provider they have selected is able to uphold what they have promised as part of their service-level agreement. If this is the case, the SMB could find themselves in the position to leverage enterprise-caliber security solutions, for a cost that fits their budget.

Need #2: Data Storage

While their budgets put enterprise businesses in a much more favorable position to create an infrastructure that can contend with their operational needs, this is not to say that SMBs are left without any options. Any good data storage solution will perform well based on a few benchmarks: how well it works, how often it works, how easily it can be accessed, and how easily its contents can be searched.

The enterprise business has quite a few options to leverage, such as data tiering (where data of differing importance is stored on different servers) and higher-performing data storage solutions. If this is starting to sound expensive, it is - but again, thanks to the cloud, SMBs aren’t left without options, either. With scalable Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service being available for a much more affordable rate, SMBs are able to leverage the advanced tools that would otherwise only be available to corporate-level businesses.

Interested in leveraging some of these capabilities in your business, or want to find out more? Reach out to the professionals at Coleman Technologies! We have the experience necessary to bring your information technology to the corporate level. Reach out to us at (604) 513-9428 to learn more.

USB Cable Types

The Universal Serial Bus cable connection is perhaps the most common. Its accessories and peripherals utilize the USB port, which is seen on most devices. However, there are many different types of USB technology, each of which are supported by various connections.

Type A connections support USB 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 3.1, with transmit speeds ranging from 1.5 MB/s to 1.25 GB/s. These connections are the most common ones found on at least one end of every USB cable.

Type B connections also support USB 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 3.1. These were once used for connecting a printer or similar device to a computer, but they are being slowly phased out.

Mini and Micro both support USB 2.0, with mini USB connections being used for some older devices. Those that don’t use mini USB connections have been replaced by Micro-USB, and even those are being phased out for Type C connections.

Type C connections, also sometimes referred to as USB-C, support USB 3.1, 3.2, and the upcoming USB 4 standard.

It’s likely that the future of USB technology is USB-C taking over, mainly due to the connection type and its backwards-compatibility, enabling much faster data transfers.

Display Cables

VGA Cables

The Video Graphics Array cable is less popular these days due to its analog video signal being replaced by digital. Even so, there is likely to be a VGA port on your video card or display.

DVI Cables

VGA cables were phased out during the turn of the century and replaced by Digital Visual Interface cables. DVI is known for having many different types, all of which have their own capabilities, but they have been replaced by modern display cable types at this point.

DisplayPort Cables

DisplayPort cables were introduced with the intention of replacing both VGA and DVI cables, as they are capable of transmitting both video and audio signals. There are many different kinds of DisplayPort out there, but the important thing to note is that they are compatible with each other. DisplayPort can also be used in conjunction with HDMI and USB if there is an adapter used. These days, DisplayPort is used to attach a monitor to another device.

HDMI Cables

High-Definition Multimedia Interface cables are used to send modern standard digital signals. Five different types of HDMI exist today, but it’s most likely that you’re familiar with Type A. You may have also seen Type C for digital cameras, or Type D for mobile devices.

Networking Cables

SATA

Serial Advanced Technology Attachment cables create a connection between a computer’s motherboard and a storage device. These offer quick data transfer speeds compared to their predecessors, the Integrated Drive Electronics cable.

eSATA

eSATA cables are basically the same as SATA cables, only for external devices rather than internal components. These connections aren’t as common anymore, as USB technology has grown so quickly that it has eclipsed their speed.

Ethernet

A local area network takes advantage of ethernet cables. These cables are those that connect to your modem, router, and computer. They are easy to distinguish from other cables, as they look quite similar to telephone cables from way back when.

We hope that we have cleared up the difference between some of the everyday cables, but honestly, managing them can be a pain. Coleman Technologies can help your business make heads and tails of the various cables your organization might need to manage. To learn more about what we can do for your business, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.

Initially, the advocacy of Internet Rights was just that: the right to have access to the Internet. While this isn’t a problem for as many people as it once was, some places still don’t have fair, affordable access to high-speed Internet service. Some nations, despite providing access, have Internet laws that subdue use due to an overlaying censorship. This issue, and the monetization of collected consumer data, are two of the hot-button issues today for Internet Rights advocates.

Lead Up

The Internet is a relatively new technology, especially in the manner it is being used by people today. As a result, there are different views on how these technologies are disseminated, who profits from them, and how non-controlling entities have their rights repressed. As a result, you’ll find from the early days of Internet rights advocacy, the largest voices were from organizations that found the equitable portion of the Internet either unnecessary or repressive to the rights of consumers.

Notice that the access to the Internet was not even on the roadmap. The nature of the early commercial Internet was such that it could be successfully described as libertarian. Through the end of the 1990s, as the first round of dot com investments started to tank, it became obvious that the technology would end up bigger than anyone had anticipated and needed regulation.

In the U.S. many fights have been undertaken in the subsequent 20 years. Many of which were pushed by Internet rights advocates. One of the most famous is:

Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union (1997)

In an attempt to clean up what some people considered indecent content on the Internet (pornography and the like); and more accurately, to keep kids away from this content, Congress passed the Communications Decency Act. The ALCU, which is a well-known civil rights advocate group, filed suit. The provision was eliminated by two federal judges before being heard in front of the Supreme Court, which upheld the lower courts’ rulings. This was a major blow against censorship; paving the way for free expression on the Internet.

While the ALCU isn’t exactly an Internet Rights Advocate, the landmark case ushered in a new world of free speech on the Internet; and, it sets the tone for Internet rights advocates to this day.

Personal Privacy

Today there are many organizations looking to protect people on the Internet. Sometimes their views overlap, sometimes they don’t. One of these groups, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), is a major player in the fight to keep speech (and content) free from censorship on the Internet, the fight against the surveillance state, and most notably, the ongoing fight for individual privacy.

Businesses of all kinds, as well as government agencies have grown to take significant liberties with people’s personal information. Organizations like the ALCU and the EEF work tirelessly to get the topic of personal data privacy in front of decision makers.

Have you ever wondered how you just had a conversation with your friend via some type of app about fingerless gloves and now your sidebar on every website is now filled with fingerless glove ads? Most users don’t fully understand that organizations that you interact with online keep a profile on you. All of your actions, any personal or financial information that you share, and more is stored in a file that is often packaged and sold off by those organizations to advertising firms.

These advocates, among the other issues they stand up for, are trying to push the issue of personal data privacy. The main point of contention is that companies profit off of the information people provide, and since this information is very clearly personal in nature, it is their belief that individuals are being taken advantage of. This debate has been ratcheted up significantly with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that intends to protect individual information.

While it might be a matter of time before the U.S. gets a data privacy law in the same vein as the GDPR, Internet rights advocates will continue to act in the public’s favor on this issue, and many others.

Net Neutrality & Access to All

One of the biggest fights that Internet rights advocates are undertaking is against the companies that deliver the Internet itself: The Internet service providers (ISP). For those of you who don’t know, over the past several years the U.S. Government created mandates that forced ISPs to provide access to applications and content without favoring any, even if they are the ones that use the most bandwidth.

The theory is that the typical Internet user only does so much on the web. They typically access the same sites and use their Internet connection for the same things. This creates a situation where ISPs, using market adjustments would want to get more money per byte than if users used a variety of sites to do the same. With federal control, they were forced into charging a flat rate.

The net neutrality laws that were instituted in 2015 were repealed in 2017, as controlling bureaucrats argued that there were enough people without fair access to the Internet and the only way to persuade the ISPs to commit to investing in infrastructure that would curb this problem is by repealing the net neutrality laws. Needless to say, this caused quite a stir.

Internet rights advocates were quick to point out investment in Infrastructure is in these ISP’s best interest and giving them the ability to slow down Internet speeds as they see fit is not good for consumers. Unfortunately for most Americans, these ISPs are the companies you have to get your Internet service from if you want speeds that allow you to use it the way you want. Advocates are still trying to do what they can to educate people about the benefits of net neutrality and have set up websites with information and for people to give their support. Organizations like the aforementioned ACLU and EFF,  the American Library Association, and Fight for the Future, Demand Progress, and Free Press Action currently sponsor www.battleforthenet.com, a one-stop site for all things net neutrality.

Advocacy can go a long way toward giving a voice to people who may not think they have one. What Internet-related topics do you find to be problematic? Leave your thoughts in the comments and subscribe to our blog.

To begin, let’s briefly review the basic principles of BYOD practices. In essence, rather than providing each employee with a company-supplied device, an employee is allowed to bring in a device that they own and leverage it for work purposes.

Why BYOD Has Become Popular in Workplaces

On the surface, BYOD seems to be the perfect solution - there are even statistics that help to support this position. For instance, companies who embrace BYOD practices save around $350 each year, per employee. Furthermore, using portable devices for work (much like what would be used as part of a Bring Your Own Device practice) has been shown to save employees approximately an hour each day, increasing their productivity by about a third.

This is just the tip of the BYOD-benefits iceberg. There are much more, including:

Access to Better Technology

If you were to list any business’ technology priorities, security and productivity should top the list… but oftentimes, frugality wins the day. Budgetary restrictions and a preference for tried-and-tested solutions frequently means that investments into more recent solutions are often pushed by the wayside. After all, what if the expensive new technology doesn’t work properly? This is frequently why businesses find themselves making due with solutions that really should be replaced. On the other hand, employees likely have no such qualms when they purchase their own devices.

BYOD policies allow a business’ employees to replace their outdated solutions with the reliability of newer, more up-to-date devices… leading to happier, more productive employees.

Reduced Financial Toll on the Business

Like we mentioned, it is fairly common for budgetary concerns to be the driving factor of many business decisions. It isn’t that the company doesn’t want to replace the aging workstations scattered around the office… it just isn’t in the budget. Before Bring Your Own Device emerged, businesses were stuck in a few different money pits. Between providing their employees with devices, maintaining and replacing these devices when they went faulty, and all the other expenses that come from keeping up an IT infrastructure, employers were stuck with a hefty bill.

Nowadays, with many people investing in their own devices and their accessibility, these expenses can largely evaporate. The employer’s investment can be effectively limited to securing access to these devices, allowing funds to be spent on other meaningful initiatives.

Employee Satisfaction

We’ve all experienced the struggle of trying to do work on equipment that just isn’t equipped for what we are trying to do. It can feel like trying to play Yahtzee with loaded dice - it just isn’t going to work, no matter how much effort is put forth. This is the other side of the example that preceded this one. If the aging workstations scattered around the office aren’t replaced due to budgetary concerns, some employees are going to be stuck using them… and they aren’t going to be happy.

As we alluded to as we described the effects that access to improved solutions can bring, an employee who isn’t being hamstrung by their technology is simply going to be more productive and happier with their working situation.

Clearly, BYOD isn’t something that should be dismissed without at least some consideration, but that isn’t to say that it is a perfect solution. There are also potential issues that need to be addressed as a BYOD policy is considered.

The Potential Issues of BYOD

Distractions

For every productivity application available on the Google Play Store, there is at least one application that is decidedly unproductive… at least, in terms of your business and its operations. While you could take steps to prevent these kinds of applications from appearing on devices that you provide, there isn’t much you can do about your employees downloading whatever they want onto their own.

Loss of Control

This is a big issue for businesses, as there are a multitude of ways that their losing control over the devices on their network could impact them. The policies that once prevented vulnerabilities from being leveraged can’t just be installed on an employee’s device without their consent, which many employees may be hesitant to give. This problem becomes even larger if an employee is fired or quits - what happens to the data on their device? How can a company be sure that a current employee isn’t putting sensitive company data at risk? What if the device is lost?

Compliance Shortcomings

Finally, you have to consider how your BYOD implementation will interact with any other compliances or requirements that your business is beholden to. In the past, a shockingly low number of IT leaders and professionals were confident that their BYOD policies met the standards placed by a variety of requirements, including HIPAA and Dodd-Frank.

How Can I Leverage BYOD Securely?

Fortunately, there are a few means of adopting a BYOD approach within your business while mitigating the concerns described above. The simplest way is to simply enforce a use policy, outlining the guidelines that your employees must follow if they wish to use their personal devices for work purposes.

Coleman Technologies can help you to create and enforce these guidelines, as well as optimize your use of your IT in many other ways. To learn more, reach out to our team by calling (604) 513-9428.

Modern VR Systems

After nearly 30 years of development, VR has been adopted by a miniscule number of companies. It has, for the most part, made the biggest difference in the entertainment industry, where Samsung and Google have a lot of influence. Sony has also established itself as a major player in the VR gaming industry with its Playstation 4. In terms of business, however, these options aren’t necessarily feasible of beneficial.

Two of the most competitive options in the commercial virtual reality space are the HTC Vive (and Vive Pro) and the Oculus Rift. Oculus is owned by Facebook and has led in VR sales, while the HTC Vive and Vive Pro provides a platform for high-end computing systems that are capable of using VR. These two systems work together to provide high-end VR experiences, even if it’s mostly for gaming.

These VR options give users the ability to bring themselves into a virtual world, thus providing developers with great opportunities to build out software to capitalize on it. The applications built in VR give users the opportunity to explore the earth and space in a way that can immerse them in a simulated reality.

The Immediate Future of VR

The future of VR is leaning more in the direction of reality; unlike great journeys or expeditions to places like the moon or the bottom of the sea, VR will be used to create educational resources and training software.

Some manufacturers have already begun to anticipate this shift, using services like Microsoft’s Mixed Reality (MR) devices with hopes of business integration in 2020 a possibility. While not true virtual reality, this platform integrates virtual elements into reality, providing business professionals with great new options to achieve their goals. It’s safe to say that businesses will find some use for these virtual sandboxes to either improve performance or work out daring new ways to accomplish tasks.

What are your thoughts on VR? Let us know in the comments and be sure to subscribe to our blog.

Artificial Intelligence
AI might be primitive in a lot of ways at the moment, but this doesn’t mean that it’s not growing in popularity. Machines can get smarter the way that humans do when they perform the same function several times, but unlike humans, machines don’t have various emotions to hold them back. Here are a few ways that a business can leverage AI to its advantage:

• Processing large amounts of data
• Personalizing customer experiences
• Operational automation
• Security
• Predicting demand
• And more

Businesses might have expensive operational issues that demand AI-integrated solutions to handle them, thus expanding the market and allowing for rapid adoption. Automation in particular is being adopted at an alarming rate, and this is driving the demand for artificial intelligence.

Blockchain
Blockchain has been making headlines in the news, fueled by the cryptocurrency fads that have utilized the technology. Blockchain creates a public ledger that is distributed rather than centralized, with each block storing all of the data that is relevant to a transaction. Once this data is captured, it can’t be altered without changing all data that has come afterward. This presents considerable data security benefits.

Some businesses hope to use this increased security to their benefit using a more distributed system. The more people who utilize the blockchain, the more we learn about it, meaning more tools are created to help organizations leverage the blockchain. Here are some of the ways that organizations can utilize the blockchain:

• Managing supply chains
• Identity management
• Recordkeeping & archiving
• Data security
• And more

Blockchain is so popular that even Oracle’s head of blockchain development claims that half of businesses will find a use for blockchain in the next three years.

5G
The past 40 years have shown that wireless technology has a lot of opportunity to improve. Wireless broadband will see an increase from the 4G used today to 5G. In fact, it could potentially change the world. Data speeds could reach as high as 1GB/second or higher, giving many businesses access to the following benefits:

• Faster speeds
• Reduced Latency
• Greater Capacity
• Improved Battery Life
• And more

Innovation will drive businesses to adopt faster technologies than ever before, and Qualcomm has found that 5G will become a “general purpose technology” in the near future, used so much that it will be akin to electricity or vehicles.

Virtual Reality
The consensus is that virtual reality is pretty neat, but not practical in the business environment. Unfortunately, this is far from the actual reality of the situation, as hardware and software advances have given organizations the means to use virtual reality in ways previously unheard of. VR is great for immersing users in virtual environments that can be used for practically any purpose, including training simulations, talent management, product design, and shared experience.

What are some other emerging technologies that you think will be helpful for businesses in the near future? Let us know in the comments.

OLED Foldable Screens
Compared to the traditional light-emitting diode (LED) displays, OLED devices are a step in the right direction. LED technology works by emitting light from the electricity that circulates through it (a process called electroluminescence). The electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of this light varies depending on how the photons cross the energy gap of the semiconductor.

OLED displays work through an electroluminescent anode that is made of an organic compound situated between two electrodes. The electrodes move and recombine, emitting light through the organic layer. OLED displays deeper black levels that aid in image contrast. These devices can be made much thinner and more flexible than your traditional LED devices.

Over the past five years, manufacturers have made considerable progress toward OLED displays. Some have utilized passive matrix designs or active matrix designs to great effect. The major difference between these two is that PMOLED has control over each line of pixels sequentially, whereas AMOLED displays have a transistor that accesses pixel function directly.

Bendable Displays
The organic compounds in the OLED anode allows for a much easier manipulation compared to other designs, as long as the transistor used to carry the energy is flexible, too. Once this was confirmed to work as intended, scientists had to find a substrate layer that could flex without breaking. This is why glass isn’t used in flexible screens. Some particularly flexible OLED displays contain a plastic substrate that gives them strength and flexibility required to become a foldable device.

Foldable Options
Motorola and Apple have rumored to be producing foldable smartphones in the near future, but there are others that are taking more immediate advantage of this technology. Here are a few of them.

Samsung Galaxy Fold
https://youtu.be/7r_UgNcJtzQ

In just a week, on April 26th, 2019, the Samsung Fold will become the first foldable smartphone to reach the U.S. This device can reach 5G speeds and sports an impressive foldable screen. The screen unfolded reaches 7.3 inches with a dynamic AMOLED display, while it reaches 4.6 inches folded with a super AMOLED display on the front of the phone. The innards are also quite impressive, featuring a 64-bit octa-core processor with 12 GB of RAM, 512 GB of internal storage, and a 4,380 mAh battery.

Huawei Mate X
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_c2KGtZP64

Chinese manufacturer Huawei is providing a foldable smartphone in the form of the Huawei Mate X. The foldable display isn’t actually protected, but it is used in a way that differs considerably from the other options. With a foldable component that wraps around the device, the Mate X has a viewfinder that helps with taking pictures. This means that there is no need for a front-facing camera on this device. Other specs for this device include a Kirin 980 octa-core processor with 8 GB of RAM and 512 GB of onboard storage. This device also has a 4,500 mAh battery with a 55W fast charging standard. This product will be available in the near future, so keep an eye out for it if foldable screens are what you’re looking for in a device.

What do you think about OLED technology? What about foldable screens? Let us know in the comments.

The fact of the matter is that universities have a lot of industry-specific technology that goes into making a functional institution of higher education, and that’s without mentioning secure access to student records, maintaining the productivity suites in computer labs, and providing intuitive smart technology for better lectures. We know a guy who’s well-versed in the types of solutions utilized by institutions of higher education, and we think you might find what he has to say to be interesting.

Degree Progress Management
Each student that is matriculated into a degree program has to complete a set of requisite courses. These courses will vary drastically from program to program, but the fact remains that each student must complete these requirements if they hope to graduate with a degree. Some programs have electives (any course the student wants) or selectives (any course from a selected group of classes), which complicates the process of choosing classes and opens up the door for students to take courses that don’t necessarily fulfill their degree requirements.

To minimize the risk of this happening, real-time degree progress can be viewed through programs like DegreeWorks. This program can show students, faculty, and staff advisors how many credits and courses must be completed by a student, as well as which classes fulfill specific requirements. Students can even process “what if” reports, which can show them how their degree progress is affected by something like changing their major.

Student Retention
It’s not a stretch to say that some students enter higher education underprepared for the increased workload. Whether it’s because of students not knowing how to access the proper resources, needing educational supplements like tutors, or simply requiring a support system that the student doesn’t have at home or on-campus, student retention and persistence can be a challenge for many institutions.

In an effort to improve these statistics, student retention software can be used by faculty and staff to assign flags, create to-do lists, and make appointments with students who are in need of assistance or support. In this way, the support structure that many students need to succeed is both accessible and informative for them.

Online Learning
In today’s increasingly-connected world, online learning has become a viable alternative to traditional, or synchronous, learning. When we say “synchronous,” we mean the traditional lecture style of education, in which a student must be physically present in the classroom to participate in discussions. Asynchronous learning, which is significantly less structured and more of an “at your own pace” approach to education, has provided students with limited time and geographic resources an opportunity to learn at their own pace in a less structured environment.

Depending on the institution, the online learning application might be something like BlackBoard, Angel, or Brightspace, rebranded to suit the proprietary needs of the university. Either way, the end result is generally the same. Online learning uses a centralized environment for all of a student’s learning needs, providing access to message boards, learning modules, grade books, open educational resources, and so much more.

Again, we understand that not all of our readers have stakes in the education sector; we just wanted to share some interesting solutions that are used by professionals in this industry. Are there any other industries you want to learn more about? Let us know in the comments and be sure to subscribe for more great technology-related blogs.

To begin, we have to say that anyone that is talking about 5G as a selling point for any product or service in early 2019, you are looking at a marketing strategy. As the year goes on, however, we will be getting the first 5G networks and devices that can run on them. So, while it is true that some 5G wireless networks will be online in 2019, the lion’s share of networks will be using the same wireless platform that you’ve had for the past decade.

Fourth Generation

In December 2009, 4G wireless broadband networks went online for the first time, with the U.S. finally getting 4G LTE in June of 2010. Much like 5G will be for us, 4G was a revelation for mobile consumers of the time. At the time, 3G networks were doing 200 kilobits-to-five megabits per second and boosting to 4G’s 100 megabits-to-a-gigabit per second is a huge jump. It allowed for cloud computing and streaming media to be possible, and opened up a massive market for mobile applications, and devices that could handle these applications. The effect 4G had on society was massive.

Fifth Generation

Like the 4G networks before it, 5G networks will improve bandwidth speed, reduce latency, and provide a whole new layer of application support. It will effectively bring office Internet speeds to mobile devices. With speeds up to 100 gigabits per second, the 5G connection will be nearly 1,000 times faster than current 4G speeds. This will make any streaming communications seamless and give application developers a whole new construct to work in, improving mobile computing with each new innovation. To put this into perspective, with a solid 5G connection, you could, in theory, download a full movie in a few seconds

This gives people better network stability to ensure that business-critical mobile functions are reliable and has the speeds necessary to provide users the digital tools they need to be productive anywhere they are. The problem many organizations (and individuals) will have is that with this amazing upgrade, when your area gets 5G (Verizon has announced they are launching their 5G the second week in April in Minnesota and Chicago) you will have to get a phone that is capable of working with the new 5G networks. Thus far here is the list:

• Samsung Galaxy s10 5G
• LG v50 ThinQ
• Huawei Mate X
• ZTE Axon 10 Pro 5G
• Unnamed OnePlus 5G Smartphone

That’s it. No Apple version. No Eurpoean version. In fact, of these phones, the Galaxy s10 5G is the only one that will be available in the United States at the time of Verizon’s 5G launch in April.

Also, Verizon is also making available a 5G mod for the Moto z3 for $50. The retail price comes in at a cool $349.99 if it isn’t purchased in the promotional period.

Users should also know that if they are lucky enough to get access to a 5G network, they will be forced to pay extra for access to it. The price currently is an additional $120 per year on Verizon, other Telecoms haven’t announced a true 5G pricing strategy, even though most of them have rolled out some products claiming to have 5G capabilities on handsets that only offer 4G LTE speeds. As we stated above, these are marketing ploys.

Do you plan on using 5G when it’s rolled out? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below. If you would like to know more information about the technology behind 5G subscribe to our blog today.

New Gestures
The latest version of Android OS contains a built-in new gesture navigation system, but it might not be turned on automatically. To turn this on, go to Settings > System > Gestures. Then you must tap on Swipe on Home Button and press the on-screen toggle switch. You will see the change propagate almost immediately--the three-icon setup will change to a singular pill-shaped icon.

Navigation isn’t much different from the other builds, either. Tap the pill icon to bring back the homescreen and long press it to bring up your Google Assistant. You can then swipe up twice or long-swipe from the home icon to bring up your app drawer.

Another change that needed to occur is that Android 9.0 Pie removes the dedicated button for recent applications. Users now need to singular short swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open up a carousel gallery that shows all recently opened apps. You can then navigate by swiping between apps or using the home icon to swipe fast-left or right to move through the apps more quickly. To clear the apps, swipe up on the specific app window. To clear all of the apps, just scroll all the way to the left and tap the Clear All button to exit out of all running applications.

Android 9.0 Pie actually tries to predict what you’re likely to need next. These commands are within the apps. If you find it useful, you can drag these suggestions, found at the top of your app drawer, onto the screen. You can then find the shortcuts offered by each app by long-pressing the specific application’s icon. This includes opening an application in split-screen mode, a considerable improvement from Android 8.0 Oreo.

Device Notes
One extremely useful feature for smartphone users is the ability to open your device using a fingerprint scanner, but an even better one is when you can use the scanner on devices that don’t feature an in-display fingerprint reader to keep your screen from turning off.

The alarm clock in Android 9.0 provides some additional functionality. When your notification panel is open (swipe down from the top), you only need to tap on the clock in the system tray to open your clock app and manage the alarms.

What do you think about Android 9.0? What are your favorite features? Let us know in the comments.

Today, we’ll be discussing some of the best IT solutions for professional services.

Software as a Service
The cloud has brought about a revolution in the way professional service firms think about and manage their software applications. Software as a Service, or SaaS for short, is the delivery of software through the cloud for a monthly fee. SaaS is usually billed per user, and it includes solutions such as Office 365 and G Suite. Software developers have created solutions that can be deployed through the cloud, providing many industries with cloud-based software that is built specifically for their needs.

Mobile Solutions
Mobility can open up a lot of doors for any business. For a professional services firm, there is more to consider, though. Many of these professional service providers need to consider federal, state, and industry requirements that demand additional layers of security for sending and receiving data. Therefore, the benefit of adding mobility to an infrastructure needs to be approached with considerable caution, as data security must be prioritized.

One of the best solutions to this dilemma is a virtual private network, or VPN. A VPN provides a layer of encryption around your communications between mobile devices and the central network infrastructure for your organization. This added security protects data while it’s in transit. It’s also a great solution for a business that wants to limit its use of paper records in favor of a more digital solution.

Document Management
Having access to information gives professionals the ability to stay connected to clients and other resources as needed, whether they are in the office or not. A document management system is the ideal way to digitally store and access files in a database; and trust us when we say it is much easier to find a document in a database compared to digging it out of a filing cabinet.

Professional technicians can scan an organization’s paper files through the use of a special software to deposit them inside a database in the form of PDF files. This database and a Relational database management system give an end user the ability to search the DMS for keywords found in the documents. All of this is accessible to users through an Internet connection, making it both accessible and convenient.

Through combining DMS with a VPN and SaaS offerings, professional services companies can achieve unprecedented security and data access. To learn more about how your organization can take advantage of these tools, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.

If your business is still leveraging these titles, the clock is ticking. In order to avoid the considerable difficulties that losing support brings, you need to update your solutions very soon.

What Does SQL Server 2008 Do?

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 functions as a relational database management system (RDBMS), which means it is used to securely manage how a business’ data is stored, retrieved, and accessed. Not just a little data, either… a lot of data.

This only makes sense - why would you need a database in the first place, after all? Simple - to store a lot of data that you have (or expect to have), which also means you need a means of managing this data that is capable of integrating with the applications you use. An RDBMS can provide that means.

As SQL Server 2008 has been Microsoft’s database management software solution, and with Microsoft’s solutions supporting most of the world’s enterprise servers, this retirement has the potential to affect a lot of businesses. If yours has been utilizing either version of SQL Server 2008, you need to upgrade soon, or your business may be put in a tight spot.

The Progression of this EOL

As July 9 approaches, these versions of SQL Server 2008 draw closer to losing support. While mainstream support was actually ended in July of 2014, these solutions will finally be fully put to rest precisely five years later. Once this happens, any organization that did not upgrade would be vulnerable effectively immediately, at risk of security breaches and data loss. Furthermore, a business that experiences these issues then has to cope with the damage to its reputation, an after-effect that often leads the business’ failure.

What You Can Do

You have to work fast to upgrade your database management system. Coleman Technologies can help. We can introduce you to solutions that are far superior to the ones available in 2008, with improved integrations and intelligent systems. Sure, you could host a new RDBMS locally, but you could also leverage cloud-based database management, potentially bringing even greater speeds to your business.

Regardless of what you choose to replace it with, you need to ensure that your SQL Server is migrated by July 8, 2019. This is the only way to be sure that one of your business’ most crucial assets is protected by the adequate level of data protection and security. Again, we can help you equip your business for success. All you have to do is call us at (604) 513-9428.

3D Displays
Remember that craze with the 3D movies? Manufacturers have been trying to keep people excited about 3D technology for a long time, but it has met with little long-term success. Content creators simply can’t commit to a 3D capture or post production process. A significant lack of content, combined with consumers needing a silly pair of 3D glasses and the hardware required by the display, people just preferred to stick to what had been working in the past. High-definition displays can make 2D programming look astounding, and with such a small demand for 3D picture, the technology has been abandoned.

There have been talks about resurrecting the technology through what’s called Home3D. MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) has found a way to emulate the 3D experience without the embarrassing glasses, but without content made for 3D, you shouldn’t expect to see too much support for this technology anytime soon.

Smart Glasses
Smart glasses, like Google Glass, used to be a hot commodity, but they fell off everyone’s radar relatively quickly. While they initially were quite anticipated, there are very few smart glasses manufacturers left today. In 2012, Google Glass was being tested by several celebrities, but in today’s technology industry, there are maybe a handful of smart glasses manufacturers at the most. These companies still don’t have a clear idea of who would be the consumers for smart glasses, but they have learned that when it comes to this particular product, less is more.

One of the nails in the coffin for Google Glass was the invasion of privacy. While users might be able to come to terms with Google tracking what you say, buy, and do online, adding a camera to your glasses was simply too much for just about everyone. It was thought for a time that smart glasses could be a viable alternative to a smartphone, but the technologies behind the device simply haven’t been perfected to the point of proper implementation.

Virtual Reality
While virtual reality might be “available” today, people have been talking about it for upwards of 40 years. Other technologies being developed and discussed in the 1980s, like VHS and audio cassettes, have come and gone, but the idea of virtual reality lingers on. This is despite the fact that practical applications of VR are few and far between.

The primary use for virtual reality--gaming--has turned out to be a major failure so far. While there is some value in giving people the ability to share experiences online through VR, it hasn’t been a priority for developers, creating a similar situation to 3D technology. VR as a technology might not be completely dead in the water yet, but there isn’t much excitement out there for the technology--at least not to the point where it can be transformative (at this moment).

What are some of your favorite technologies that haven’t been as successful as you’d have liked them to be? Let us know in the comments.

Commercially available Internet services have been available since the early 1990s, but as broadband was being implemented, the Internet, and investment in the medium was strong. In an attempt to keep control of the Internet distributed among the people that utilize the service, and not massive corporations looking to gain control over it, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under chair Kathleen Abernathy adopted neutrality principles “to preserve and promote the vibrant and open character of the Internet as the telecommunications marketplace enters the broadband age” in 2005.

For seven years, lawmakers attempted to pass bills in Congress that would secure an open future for the Internet. All of these attempts failed, leaving the future of who would control the Internet up in the air. The fear was that ISPs, which are typically huge multinational conglomerates, would be able to control bandwidth with cost, as they do with their television services. Internet freedom advocates considered the price discrimination that would arise from “local monopolies enshrined in law” to be at the helm of what has proven to be the most remarkable invention in human history, counterproductive for the establishment of an open and useful construct.

Years of litigation followed. Cases such as Verizon Communications Inc. vs. FCC, which ruled that the FCC had no regulatory power over the Internet because it was, in fact, not actually a utility, and thus, governed under Title I of the Communications Act of 1934. Immediately after this ruling, the FCC took steps to reclassify Internet delivery services into a public utility, which are governed under Title II of the Act. In February of 2015, the classifications were officially challenged as voting members agreed that Internet services met the criteria of a utility under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 and the more recent Telecommunications Act of 1996. In April of 2015 “net neutrality” was upheld by officially declaring Internet services as a utility. The rules officially went into effect the following June.

The “final rule” turned out to be short lived, however. In April of 2017, the FCC proposed to repeal the policies that governed net neutrality, and return control to the corporations that invest in and provide broadband services. The proposed changes were met with heavy consternation, with over 20 million people providing comments during the public discourse phase of the process. It was later found that millions of the comments made in support of net neutrality repeal were made fraudulently by foreign actors. Despite the overwhelming dissention of the mass of people, the FCC repealed the net neutrality policies and followed it with a hefty amount of propaganda material claiming that the decision was “restoring Internet freedom”. The repeal became official in June of 2018.

What Is Going on with Net Neutrality Now?
Almost immediately after the change was made there have been several lawsuits filed and they seem to keep coming. States, advocacy groups, neutrality lobbies, and companies have all started lawsuits against the FCC both for their handling of the situation and for the repeal of net neutrality itself.

One way to ascertain if it has been a benefit is by looking at the claims the FCC made before dismantling the mandate:

1. Net Neutrality is hindering broadband investment. In 2018 what is known as the Big Four--Verizon, AT&T, Charter, and Comcast--collectively spent less in broadband projects than they did in 2017. It was the first time in three years that investment has dropped.
2. It doesn’t make sense for ISPs to throttle Internet traffic. The Big Four reportedly slowed internet traffic without telling customers not more than six weeks after the repeal. Sites like YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon Prime were the most targeted. Verizon was especially culpable as it was found to slow data speeds that led to slower EMS response times; a major problem as firefighters were battling massive fires in California.

The issue isn’t totally devoid of common ground, however. Almost everyone believes that ISPs shouldn’t be able to flex their muscles, so to speak. One way this is happening is that there is a push to restore older FCC mandates that prohibited ISPs to enact anticompetitive and harmful practices. Basically, everyone wants a fast, open, and unobstructed Internet, but the disagreement, usually on party lines, is who is responsible for the regulation.

An extreme majority of people support net neutrality. Most people want to return oversight over the Internet to the bureaucracy, as they believe that corporations whose stated purpose is to make profit aren’t the best organizations to manage something as important as access to the Internet, despite being the companies that sell that access. Time will tell who is right.

If you would like to do something about it, go to https://www.battleforthenet.com/ and sign up. Do you believe market forces will keep ISPs honest, and the Internet open? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

It Gets the Job Done
You can’t share information about your goods, services, or business if you can’t get the consumer’s attention. Digital signage has the potential to outperform other traditional media types to catch the viewer’s attention. If you don’t have enough room for all of the displays you want to share, digital signage might be able to help you better capture the message you want the viewer to walk away with.

It Makes Your Audience More Patient
If you find yourself at a loss for words, you can instead let the digital signage do the talking in certain cases. In other words, if you have a lot to get done but not a lot of time, you can use your digital signage to distract your audience long enough to enact what you need to accomplish. This is especially true in customer-facing establishments. After all, everyone appreciates something to look at while they’re waiting.

It’s More Affordable
Digital signage might require a significant up-front investment, but it saves you money in the long term thanks to its ability to change to anything you want your sign to say. There are minimal costs of upkeep related to digital signage, with the only real one being the occasional software update and the image it will display. You’ll save not just money, but spacial costs associated with the signs. Your solution will pay for itself in the long run.

You don’t even need a special display of any kind--just a simple television with the right inputs will work the way you need it to. If you’re looking to get started with digital signage, Coleman Technologies can help. To learn more, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.

Reason 1: Mobility
Let’s begin with the most obvious reason laptops are a great option - you aren’t tied to a desk to do your work as you would be with a conventional desktop. Instead, you can just pick it up and take it with you, whether that’s to a meeting on the other side of the office or home for some remote work. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen someone haul an entire desktop workstation around, but if you have, you know that it just isn’t practical to do.

Potentially travelling with a laptop is also much easier. A desktop workstation would need to be carefully stowed in a vehicle, if not shipped to its destination. While it may seem like a hassle at the airport, stowing a laptop in a carry-on is a much more secure and convenient option when all is said and done.

In short, utilizing a laptop makes a lot more sense in an increasingly mobile world than does utilizing its far less mobile cousin, the desktop.

Reason 2: Concision
If the resources are there, one might make the argument that it makes more sense to utilize both a desktop and a laptop - one for the office, and one for home and travel.

Financial considerations aside, there are other issues with this strategy. The major one is the fact that it makes it that much more complicated to ensure that everything you need is where you need it to be, when you need it to be there. There is little that is more professionally frustrating than sitting down to work and realizing that the data you need is on your other device. Hopefully, you have the access to the other device at the time to make the necessary transfer.

While properly utilizing a cloud solution would be another way to approach this difficulty, why use two devices when one will suffice? That way, you can be sure that your employees always have access to the programs and data that they need to be productive.

Reason 3: Consistency
One of the most important considerations for any office technology configuration to take into account is how compatible the many devices it contains are with each other, and the solutions needed to accomplish each day’s tasks. If each employee has a different device, not only is this no longer guaranteed, you have no guarantee that each laptop will have the same shortcuts and features. For instance, if you want to encrypt the data on laptops and allow your staff to sign in with a thumbprint scanner, not all models are equipped with that. Different devices don’t tend to change how complicated it is to manage the devices, but it can vary the experience your users have and limit the policies you can set.

Standardizing your office’s devices becomes much easier when everyone has the same device, which inherently means that everyone has the same capabilities in the office. Of course, if someone needs their device to have more specialized capabilities, they should be the exception. However, for the run-of-the-mill tasks that many are responsible for, the average laptop should suit them just fine.

If you want more help in designing your technology infrastructure and setting it up for prolonged productivity, reach out to Coleman Technologies. One call to (604) 513-9428 is all it takes to start receiving the technology services that you need for success!

An infographic by Newsweaver suggests that businesses rely on smartphones for many reasons. Here are just a few of them:

• One out of five employees for large organizations are equipped to work away from their desks.
• As of 2013, three out of five small businesses in the United States have a Bring Your Own Device policy in place.
• By 2020, four out of five small businesses will have a Bring Your Own Device policy in place.
• One out of five businesses have found that mobile workstyles have resulted in productivity increases of over 30%.

As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to provide the tools needed for your employees to be productive, whether it’s an application or a mobile device. After all, if you don’t provide your employees with the technology to be successful, they will find other ways to make productivity happen. This could mean them finding their own solutions, opening the floodgates to malware and other data disasters. Any devices used by your business should adhere to its BYOD policy and monitored to ensure they aren’t lost or stolen, along with the data on them.

To this end, we recommend you work with your employees to find the tools they need to be most productive in the workplace. Collect their feedback and apply the knowledge you gain to your business’s current technology situation. Here are some ideas for solutions to consider:

• Productivity suite software like Microsoft Office and Google’s G Suite
• Your email client
• Cloud storage
• Voice over Internet Protocol for telephony and communication
• Instant messaging
• Project management
• Collaboration suites

Coleman Technologies can help your business equip itself with all of the best technology solutions for mobile communications and productivity. For more information, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.

The Pros
There is more than one application and way to use automation. While the uses are more general than specific, they can be applied to several different kinds of goals or processes, whether it’s customer service or data processing. In this sense, automation can be used in a pretty universal way.

Efficiency
It’s obvious that certain processes take a considerable amount of time to complete, but if they are handled by automated systems, they can be completed much more efficiently than before. In other words, since you don’t have to focus on these tasks, you can instead devote the time to something else entirely. This effectively adds more time to the workday by removing routine tasks that can be handled by an automatic process.

Minimizing Repetition
If someone has to do the same task over and over again, they are doomed to lose interest and make mistakes. If these tasks don’t require focus, then the employees will likely let their mind wander, and productivity can suffer. This makes even a quick task more likely to be repeated multiple times, making it less likely to yield a return on the investment. Automation makes it more convenient and less risky to leave monotonous tasks to employees. Trust us when we say employees will thank you for taking these tasks off their plate and freeing up their schedule for others.

Convenience
When someone reaches out to your business, it’s likely they need your help with something, and they need it fast. If you can’t provide it on a convenient time frame, chances are they will take their needs elsewhere. Automation gives them the ability to get help from a chatbot or other similar automated system without the need to staff someone at all times to address immediate needs. This gives you a better chance at being able to respond to their needs when they reach out to your organization.

Potential Cons
Automation might be quite helpful for businesses, but there are some issues that should be addressed in order to ensure it doesn’t become a liability for your business. For example, some processes are simply too complex for a machine to handle in the same way a human brain can. Most automated systems are limited by design, thus ensuring that they will be limited to the task assigned to them. After all, an automated system’s purpose isn’t being fulfilled if you have to provide constant feedback to it. Here are some ways you can make sure the faults of automation sting less:

• Use automation sparingly: Some of the services that could be automated likely don’t need to be. This is particularly true for more complex issues. Consider that many of the people who contact your business have a point of contact within your organization and regular requests, meaning that working with a human might not be such a bad thing if they are available at that time. In this way, automation supplements human contact rather than replaces it.
• Have employees direct the automation: If an automation system can’t perform a task on its own, having employees direct it during more complex tasks can work to mitigate the issue. A complicated request can be made, but still processed and understood with the right direction.
• Ingrate your automation: You don’t want to stop processes midway. As long as your automation is well-designed and thought-out, tasks can be integrated with automation to ensure they are handled in the most complete way possible.

What are some ways your organization can benefit from automation? Let us know in the comments.

Threat Background
This botnet was initially discovered in September. Since then, it has infected devices to support a huge spam email campaign. BCMUPnP_Hunter is able to zero-in on victims thanks to its ability to scan for potential targets, like routers with the BroadCom University Plug and Play feature enabled. The system can then be taken over by the hacker.

It is assumed that the network created by BCMUPnP_Hunter was created to send out spam emails. The threat creates a proxy that communicates with email servers, allowing attackers to use botnets to generate profit through fraudulent clicks. What’s more is that the malware seems to have been created by someone who has a considerable amount of skill. To make things worse is that BCMUPnP_Hunter also appears to scan from over 100,000 sources, making this botnet quite large.

How Does This Prove That Patches Aren’t Working?
In order for BCMUPnP_Hunter to work as intended, it must target devices that have BroadcomUPnP enabled to take advantage of a vulnerability. The thing is that this vulnerability has been patched since 2013 when it was first discovered, meaning that most manufacturers have issued a patch since then. Therefore, the majority of devices being used by this threat are those that haven’t been patched for some reason or another.

The Lesson Learned
A simple lesson can be learned here. It goes to show that any equipment on your infrastructure that’s not maintained could be putting your business at risk. This includes making sure that you implement patches and security updates as soon as they are released. Of course, they aren’t always broadcast to the public--after all, who would want to admit that the product they have created is vulnerable to attack, and that the vulnerability is being exploited? As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to keep up with the latest threats.

Granted, not all business owners have the time or luxury to focus on something like this. For those who want to minimize the threat posed by vulnerabilities, give the IT professionals at Coleman Technologies a call at (604) 513-9428.

The Development of the PDF
The PDF is best known for promoting the sharing of information as it was created. A PDF looks the same whether it is in digital format or if it is printed to paper, no matter what OS is being used. Before this format was created, sharing information between the two was extremely difficult, but in 1990, Adobe co-founder John Warnock wrote a paper titled A Camelot Project, in which he described the limitations of sharing information. He would go on to found Team Camelot, the group of software developers that created the PDF, a file that can be universally shared across all computing platforms.

At first, however, it held very little utility as users had to purchase Adobe Acrobat in order to use the file type. Team Camelot, however, built additional functionality as the Internet got more popular, and as its utility increased, it was eventually adopted by the International Organization for Standardization and opened up to the masses.

Advantages of the PDF
Nowadays, there are multiple types of PDFs, and their utility is tied to their makeup. The types are as follows:

• Digitally Created PDFs - PDF files created in a digital environment, whatever that environment might be (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Android, etc.). These PDFs are fully customizable and editable.
• Scanned PDFs - A Scanned PDF is effectively an image of a document. They are not inherently customizable, but there is software that can be utilized to change that.
• Searchable PDFs - Thanks to Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software adding an editable text layer to an image layer, a PDF becomes searchable. This process enables greater interaction with PDFs like this. In a document management system, many document scanners come with the kind of software users need to convert a scanned PDF into a searchable PDF. As such, it is a core component of a paperless office.

PDFs have shown to be extraordinarily useful for businesses. They are convenient to use, universally compatible, and can be extremely secure.

For more great technology information, return to our blog regularly.