BITS team

Inside BITS: Q&A with an Associate System Administrator

May 23, 2022

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a BITS team member at Beacon? If you’re a client of ours, you’ve likely spoken to us over the phone and may already be familiar with some of our technicians and what they do. For this month’s blog, we interviewed Dustin Shives, our Associate System Administrator to get the scoop on what his day-to-day is like as a member of our team. Read ahead to discover the IT issues Dustin gets calls about the most often, some of his personal tips & tricks, and more!:

A Guided Tour of the BITS Experience

March 28, 2022

Come in, come in: the tour is about to begin! Thank you for joining us today for our guided tour of our newly-launched and redesigned Beacon IT Services (BITS) website. We're going to show you around and give you a fresh look at what we do and the services we provide. We know, some of you have been here before! But we hope you'll enjoy seeing how our website, design, and technology have evolved over our 20+ years in this business. And for our newer clients or soon-to-be clients, we want to give you a taste of everything that goes into making us...us!

Why You Need to Commit to Multifactor Authentication

February 17, 2022

It's February and 'tis the season for Valentine's-related everything. We won't be dishing out any relationship advice this year (this is an IT blog after all), but we do whole-heartedly recommend that you commit to multifactor authentication (MFA). It doesn't matter if your employees are working remotely across the country or if they've been in-office every day for the past 10 years. Multifactor authentication is now a business necessity that goes a long way to secure your infrastructure and financial information.

Are You Ready for 2022? Our Top 5 Tech Predictions

January 26, 2022

Here we are at the end of January already, racing ahead into 2022. Are you still keeping up with those New Year’s resolutions? Because the BITS team is still ready and raring to go this year! We’re already preparing for what the coming months will bring our way. As we leave 2021 behind us, we want to share a few hot topics that will be sticking points in the tech world during 2022.

Take it From Facebook: You Need a Cybersecurity Action Plan

October 20, 2021

Picture this: Years from now, you're sharing a holiday with your family. After overhearing you reminisce and discuss how unpredictable the beginning of the 2020s was–and hopefully how wonderful the rest of the decade was–a child in the family looks up from their tablet and asks you: "So, were you there for the great Facebook [...]

Avoid A DIY Disaster: Call in the Pros for Your IT Needs

May 25, 2021

We get it: when you’ve got a problem, the temptation to handle it yourself is strong. It’s why there’s a whole do-it-yourself (DIY) industry, devoted to giving you the tools you need to get the job done on your own. And it’s so satisfying and fulfilling, isn’t it? Fixing your house and putting together a new piece of furniture are great DIY projects. So it’s easy to say, “I can fix it”, when your computer, network, or something else in your information technology (IT) setup needs attention, right? Here’s the thing about IT DIYs though: Don’t.

Client Spotlight: W. Schillig – “BITS Keeps Us On Track”

January 15, 2021

When it comes to business, you never want there to be any downtime that can get in the way of delivering for your customers or getting the job done. And when your business is spread across the globe in multiple time zones, it’s absolutely essential that your network is reliable and working all hours of the day and night. “If somebody from one of our factories in Germany calls us at 3 AM, our computers and servers have to be running,” says David Most, Vice President of Sales with W. Schillig. Fortunately, David and his team don’t have to worry about service outages because they partner with Beacon IT Services (BITS).

IT’s Better Together: Meet The Team Powering Your Business

November 18, 2020

No matter the size or scope of your organization, success is always the result of a team effort. Where talented and driven people come together with a common purpose, amazing things happen. The Beacon IT Services team (BITS) is no different. Coming from a range of experiences and with their own wealth of knowledge and skills, every member of BITS form the kind of IT services team that you’ll come to trust with any project, large or small.

Take a Rest, We Got IT: What Your IT Team Does When You’re On Vacation

August 24, 2020

It’s 8:44 AM. You wanted to sleep in later, of course, but it was still nice to not wake up to the sound of your phone alarm buzzing. You go to the kitchen and make some coffee, then sit down on your couch, enjoying the quiet. A worry creeps into your mind. Will everything be OK while you're on vacation? No worries, you can relax. You know that even while you’re taking your much-deserved rest, your information technology partner – your IT team – is still hard at work, keeping your network and infrastructure running so your business can keep doing business.

Adjusting Your Business for a Digital Transformation

May 20, 2020

Change and uncertainty have been constant themes for nearly every business since the start of 2020. It’s hard to find an industry or sector that has not had to navigate at least some small-scale transitions due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many businesses were prepared for a pivot to an online-heavy operational model. But, many more were not. There’s no shame in the realization that your enterprise may not have been immediately ready to adopt a more digitally oriented business model. It’s hard to predict a once-in-a-century global crisis. But, now that you’re in the thick of it, what can you do to ensure that your operation is optimized for the new economic reality we are all experiencing?

Document Storage Solutions for the Work-From-Home Era

April 23, 2020

Last month, as many businesses were amending their operations to function in a global pandemic, we wrote about managing the transition to remote work and what small businesses needed to do to make the new arrangement possible. If there’s one positive arising from the COVID-19 crisis, it’s that many of us have been forced to learn the skills necessary to function in the 21st-century economy. In the last several weeks, tens of millions of employees have become intimately familiar with video conferencing, VPNs, online collaboration tools, cloud-based document storage, and more.

Work From Home: Transitioning to the New Reality

March 25, 2020

As little as two months ago, working from home was considered a job perk. Or, maybe even a recruiting tactic for prized new hires. Despite telecommuting becoming more and more accepted in office parks around the country, the custom was certainly not a taken-for-granted benefit. A lot has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic has erupted and caused worldwide disruptions to everyday life and work. As more shelter-in-place orders come down from governor’s mansions, working from home has become a mandated reality for millions of people all across the world.

Groundhog Day: 5 Re-occurring Issues Plaguing IT Pros

February 20, 2020

The jobs of IT professionals are hard enough. Forget for a moment that they operate in an industry where the rate of change is accelerating exponentially – Moore’s Law states that computing capacity doubles every two years. Put aside the fact that the threat environment which they are paid to counteract increases in complexity every year, also exponentially. Nevermind that such a breakneck pace of innovation requires continuous learning and updating of best practices and organizational policies.

What to Give Your IT Team for the Holidays

December 12, 2019

IT professionals are tasked with a very important job: protecting their companies’ digital infrastructure and digital assets from all threats and intrusions. It’s a big job. And, often, it’s a thankless one. After all, in many cases, the only interactions co-workers have with IT staff is when something is wrong.