Does your company have an IT budget? What are your tech spending categories? Keep reading for great insights on what should be included.
We interviewed Cynthia Hemingway, the Chief Financial Officer for Fourlane, about her perspective on being both a provider and consumer of IT.
Trying to keep IT costs low, or prioritize a fixed monthly cost? Let’s discuss how a managed IT services provider can help you manage your IT budget.
Net Friends CEO, John Snyder, shares hard-won knowledge to help others in business find a shorter path to success.
Net Friends CEO, John Snyder, shares hard-won knowledge to help others in business find a shorter path to success.
If 2020 taught us anything, it's that we are in this together. We asked a few Net Friends to share what this last year has taught them. See what they said...
Madison shares, "When diversity is embraced in the workplace, new ideas and perspectives help improve efficiency and effectiveness."
Without an annual assessment, most businesses have no visibility over their assets, resource constraints, or other critical insights about their environment.
Independent Audit Verifies Net Friends’ Internal Controls and Processes
"Women can really be leaders in the field, because the best IT people are good listeners and take care of the details that are really important to customers."
Your business’ IT requirements will always fluctuate. Here are the top four situations where you will need expert tech staffing to help you pivot.
After years of parallel growth with our software sister company, we became a stronger business with greater clarity and focus on our best-in-class IT solutions.
What does the primary focus of your IT company say about the operational maturity of your IT environment?
What tools do you have in place and optimized to support your risk-informed responses?
"We need more women in these IT positions to help guide and be a mentor for other women to succeed in this industry," Rachel remarks.
Does your business have a Technology Roadmap for your Digital Transformation journey?
Are you focused on minimizing network downtown or avoiding unnecessary disruptions?
Ryuk is a sophisticated strand of ransomware that not only encrypts network drives, but it also deletes shadow copies on the endpoint. Here's how to prevent it!
The story of how we went from a scrappy group of six technicians at Duke to a radically innovative IT partner that brought HIPAA expertise to the table.
Who should be the IT decision-maker in your business? How do you decide whether to outsource or hire for your IT needs?
Maze is a sophisticated strand of ransomware that steals data and exfiltrates it to servers controlled by hackers.
The primary lever of extortion in leakware is to threaten to release a target’s confidential data. Here's how you can protect yourself against these attacks.
With over 15 years of hiring perspective, John Snyder, Net Friends CEO, shares his thoughts on the common traits he looks for when hiring new talent.
Do you want your business to be competitive in the market? Here are 3 great reasons why you should hire an IT Managed Services Provider today!
Line-of-business (LOB) software is the Achilles heel of small business backup strategies. Don't forget to secure critical data from your LOB tools too.
Small and medium-sized businesses often hire managed IT service providers to reduce costs and leverage external expertise, assets, & direct vendor partnerships.
As Aruba puts it "the 'Magic' is in the customer experience" after being positioned as a Leader in the 2020 Gartner Wired and Wireless LAN Magic Quadrant.
Net Friends selected a potent combination of tools that allows us to offer our small business customers enterprise-grade security without enterprise pricing.
When we discovered Cortex XDR as the best detection & response tool on the market, we knew we'd do everything we could to create access to it for our customers.
How our Founder, David, fostered a culture of entrepreneurialism and experimentation that few IT Support companies have pursued...
A typical small business' IT budget should be somewhere between 3-7% of its total revenue. Here are 5 key questions to consider before investing in your IT.
How on earth did we “predict” the pandemic? All “Back to the Future” jokes aside, the simple fact is we didn’t predict anything. What we did was more practical.
Net Friends Provides Triangle Businesses Exclusive Access to Aruba Networks Wired and Wireless Infrastructure Product Suite
This year, we are grateful for every interaction that reminded us that we are in this together!
In November 2020, Gartner released its Magic Quadrant for Network Firewalls with Palo Alto Networks securing the top position yet again in the Leader quadrant.
Business coach Mark Henderson Leary is the podcast host of "You're Doing It Wrong," where he interviewed John Snyder about implementing EOS at Net Friends.
You never forget your first cybersecurity incident. It was the summer of 2001, & I was working as a field tech, supporting several medical research departments.
The “Business Premium” plan is affordable and gives us access to powerful cloud-based security tools that we could call upon to keep your data more secure.
The top three reasons why we selected Kirkpatrick Price as our SOC 2 Type II auditor and how that led us to a powerful risk assessment tool.
How the Axio360 tool helped us quantify risks and give key stakeholders the power to make informed decisions in response to potential risk events.
How the Axio360's quant tool helps us explore various risk scenarios and directly quantify the costs for those events should they occur.
After our SOC 2 Type II audit, we started engaging with new risk categories that led us on a journey towards discovering a powerful risk assessment tool.
In 1999, I was a new tech at Net Friends, enjoying my time supporting dozens of research departments at Duke University.
Have you heard that over 90% of data breaches begin with an attacker sending email? This statistic is unfortunately about four years out of date.
One of the most rewarding aspects of working alongside an incredible team of talented people is that you discover the diverse experiences that people bring.
Establishing our Palo Alto Networks partner status allowed us to differentiate ourselves as an MSP and MSSP in the local and regional market.
In 2016, we hired a former educator with a Masters in curriculum development and instruction to join our team as our first Training Coordinator.
I first met Grant Leonard back in 2002. We hired him at Net Friends as a contractor to help with all sorts of IT security projects and initiatives.
This battle-tested process is what lets us give our NetVisor customers a single monthly rate, guaranteed for up to three years.
Ransomware simulation and mitigation is likely to be the element of MPT that even companies with limited security awareness find most compelling.
Just in time for Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released an update to Special Publication 800-53.
"Wanna grab a free lunch?" my boss asked me. "Of course" was the only possible answer any new college graduate loaded down with student debt could give to that.
At Net Friends, we are committed to normalizing mental illness as a topic of discussion and focus for our company.
If your current IT provider isn’t operating within a defined Technology Stack, it means they are not supporting you optimally.
Net Friends is proud to support Walk for Hope again this year as our way of continuing to support mental health awareness.
Microsoft Office 2010 will reach “end of support” status on October 13, 2020. If you still have users working with Office 2010, we recommend you upgrade now.
Every September, Net Friends celebrates our anniversary. We use this time to reflect on what we’ve accomplished over the years.
With an above-average hurricane season ahead of us this year, now is the time to prepare for any adverse weather that could impact your business.
Net Friends is introducing NetCore Elements, a monthly subscription service featuring Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewall and security protections.
Your MSP must be willing to make difficult commitments in order for their Technology Stack to help customers produce returns on the investment.
As businesses worldwide shifted to work-from-home configurations at the start of the pandemic, this left many with little choice but to adopt “BYOD” solutions.
Net Friends is the first managed service provider (MSP) in the Research Triangle region to deploy a complete Technology Stack for local businesses.
Net Friends announced as first strategic partner in Axio360 Partnership Program featuring Axio's industry-leading platform for assessing cyber risk exposure.
Net Friends is partnering with Palo Alto Networks, the global cybersecurity leader, to deliver true next generation firewall security.
Net Friends is ready to help you get the most out of your existing Office 365 plan or upgrade to one that meets your new telecommuting needs.
Over 90% of all cyberattacks begin via email. Within minutes, Net Friends can implement a full suite of security controls that can protect you against exploits.
Protecting your credentials is a challenge in the best of times. There are so many clever tactics malicious attackers use to get your staff’s passwords.
We’ve been hearing for years that telecommuting is the future of work. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the future is here – whether we like it or not.
In response to the COVID-19 crisis, we are announcing special packages designed to help you transition to working remotely with minimal loss of productivity.
As Rahm Emanuel once said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”
Many small business owners have not performed the due diligence that will ensure their telecommuting policies are ready for a significant shift.
Our managers designed a practice drill that put each staff member in their preferred remote environment to verify they could perform their duties.
Many businesses are encouraging/requiring employees who can work remotely to do so because of the current pandemic. Here are some questions you should consider.
Net Friends has authorized staff to work remotely at their own discretion while we adapt to the elevated threat level caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Net Friends, a North-Carolina based IT service and solutions provider, today announced that it has completed its voluntary SOC 2 Type II audit.
Angel Knight, a freshman from Claremont McKenna College, joined us at our HQ this week to shadow Colin Cannell, an alum of her school.
“I’ve never seen a network diagram that didn’t require a guided tour by the person who made it,” said Randy, our SOC 2 auditor, back in March 2019.
Any business interested in becoming SOC 2 Type II compliant will need top-notch partners in their corner to bring the expertise and focus necessary.
Passwords have repeatedly proven to be insufficient on their own to prevent targeted hacking attacks or misuse of our password-protected information.
October is Cybersecurity Month, and we’ll be blogging about the preparations we made for our SOC 2 Type II audit this past September.
When shopping around for a Managed Services Provider (MSP) to handle your IT needs, you might be inclined to skim the contract they give you...
From your Net Friends IT Security Experts: The Top 5 Cybersecurity Steps you can take to improve your IT security for 2019.
Strategic partnership with Castra Consulting and Bandura results in a major boost to Net Friends’ perimeter security and managed security services.
We would like to take a moment to recognize our #VetFriends, who have selflessly served our country so we can enjoy freedom every day.
Unfortunately, health care emergencies don’t wait out a storm. High stress, high risk, high stakes.
One year after the Equifax breach, the GAO filed an extensive 40 page report on the details of the Equifax breach and the government’s response to it.
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