CMI Blog

 

Warren Buffett, American business magnate and investor, said daily reading was the key to success: “That’s how knowledge functions. It accrues, like compound interest”.

Mark Zuckerberg reads one book a week and Bill Gates, fifty books annually. If you’re searching for novel ideas or simply a way to expand upon your personal knowledge via an education on different ways of thinking, then reading is essential, and even more important for entrepreneurs. Here are our top 5 most inspiring business reads:

 

A big hardware buzzword is multi-core, with companies like AMD and Intel releasing processors with more cores than ever. They’re exciting, particularly in the gaming world, but do you need them? We examine exactly what multi-core processors do, and if they can genuinely improve your business. 

What is a multi-core processor?

A multi-core processor is a computer processor  with two or more separate processing units (CPUs), called cores, each of which reads and executes program instructions, as if the computer had several processors. 

 

Like with any piece of tech, your server is an investment that depreciates over time. On average, server performance erodes by 14% annually. By the fifth year, a server has only 40% of the performance quality it had when it was new. Lower performance and higher failure rates increase unplanned downtime by 20% annually, negatively impacting your business. So when is the best time for a server upgrade?

Your provider no longer supports your server

The average warranty term is about 3-5 years. After that time, a manufacturer is no longer responsible for providing server support. Servers older than 5 years old are at higher risk of failure.

 

As part of our ongoing battle against cybercrime, we are continually looking at the ways we can improve, as well as expand our Security Services portfolio. Recently, we have switched to Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus for our  CMI Managed Endpoint Antivirus service. Webroot is the lightest and fastest AV on the market and the only true cloud AV. It offers next-generation protection for endpoints and users alike, powered by Webroot BrightCloud® threat intelligence.

We have outlined below some of the benefits of Webroot that played a factor in our change:

1. Easy to deal with

Any vendor we partner with must be easy to deal with. We look for best of breed suppliers who are organised and have the tools, systems and processes in place to provide us with their best of breed product, so we spend more time supporting and managing our clients.

 

Data breaches and Cyber Security should be big concerns for business owners. A hacked system is more than just a hassle. With the potential to destroy your company’s network, halt business processes and put your customer transactions in jeopardy, a data breach can be potentially fatal for any business.

The recent Marriott breach, and the similar Quora breach a week later, reminded the world how crucial it is to protect your data, and demonstrated that even large businesses can fall victim to the increasingly sophisticated techniques hackers use.

 

The global volume of data is increasing exponentially along the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the ubiquity of connected devices. In the global IoT market, the installed base of IoT devices reached 23.1 billion devices in 2018. This is expected to grow to 30.7 billion devices in 2020 and to 75.4 billion in 2025. Much of the newly generated data is valuable; it can be used to optimise manufacturing operations, track assets with increasing accuracy, target existing consumer services with high granularity, and create entirely new services and business models.

IoT opens the door to endless possibilities in the world of business. Devices, appliances, and even vehicles can connect and exchange data through a wired or wireless network. Almost every Internet-connected device in your workplace can communicate with other hardware and software… but how can this help your business?

 

 

Often taken for granted as a simple extension of our laptop display, monitors are the unsung heroes of the business world. A great monitor will not only enhance the working experience of your staff, it can actually make your work force more productive.

Although many businesses may not wish to sacrifice the office space, investing in larger monitors could improve business productivity. Studies show that large or dual monitors allow people to multitask more easily, gain greater insight into the work at hand, and even strategise better, because they are able to absorb larger amounts of data at once. Being able to view more data can also decrease stress levels –  the user does not have to utilise as much brainpower in order to memorise as many pieces of information throughout the day.

With these clear benefits on display (pardon the pun) it’s imperative you pick the best monitors for your business.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is the process of optimising your website through content so that keywords and terms related to your business show up through online search results. In short, it’s making sure your content appears when people are searching for anything related to your business.

Why is this an important factor for businesses to consider? The answer is simple. While many marketing tactics rely on you reaching out to your audience, SEO gives you the power to reach people when they are actively seeking information related to your products and services – you’re reaching people who want to be reached.

 

20 years ago, we could not have imagined how natural it would be to have a device in your pocket that connects you to anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds. The first true smartphone was created by IBM in 1992, more than 15 years before Apple launched the iPhone, however, since the iPhone launched in 2007, smartрhоnеѕ have rеvоlutіоnіsеd thе wау реорlе соmmunісаtе, соnnесt with each оthеr and lіvе their lives. It іѕ rаrе thаt аn invention has such a widespread cultural impact. The smartphone has become as commonplace in our lives as white goods in the home. It’s no longer a question of if you have a smartphone, but rather which make is preferable to you. Can the same be said of its adoption in business?

The explosion of data has been a constant trend in the last decade, and businesses are still figuring out what this means for them. The term ‘Big data’ is used to define extremely large data sets that may be analysed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behaviour and interactions.

Although big data has historically been associated with large corporations, it has emerged that, as of 2017, 53% of companies are using big data analytics, up from 17% in 2015. The Telecom and Financial Services industries are fuelling the fastest adoption. Reporting, dashboards, advanced visualisation, end-user “self-service” and data warehousing are the top 5 methods used to support business intelligence and analytics.