Why a Good Firewall is Essential for Business Success?

A good firewall solution or service is now very important for managing business infrastructure and data; especially in today’s highly competitive and technology-driven business environment. The increasing number of external and internal treats to enterprise network and data indicates that enterprises have to secure their technology investment. A good firewall is a solution for lots of problems.

1. Securing confidential data: customer details, employee details and reviews, business plans, product data, money transaction details and analytics are only some of the enterprise data that needed to be shared on the network for smooth functioning; and thus are vulnerable for external or internal intrusion. The loss or leak of data may harm the business reputation or can cause business downtimes.
2. Data Manipulation and loss: this is perhaps even worse situation. Loss or human-manipulation to stored information can cause some serious business issues that include downtimes, poor decision making or inappropriate service to customers.
3. Securing IT infrastructure: The opening up of enterprise network to outside intruders can send a business to stone-age. Intruders can delete or edit data, delete or modify applications and application settings, place malicious softwares or spywares, or in worst cases can steal various private credentials.

So controlling the access of users, employees, customers and outsiders to enterprise data is very important. A good firewall solution can offer you all these benefits. When choosing a solution choose the one that is best suited for your enterprise requirements.

SWAN Solutions and Services is a leading Indian enterprise firewall solutions provider helping businesses with firewall solutions of leading brands like SonicWALL Network Security, Palo Alto Networks and Citrix.

Why Businesses Need SFA or CRM Systems?

Sales Force Automation (SFA) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) are two of the most important business management strategies widely followed across the globe. Specific programs are procedures are developed over the years to facilitate the implementation of these strategies. Today almost all medium to big business enterprises utilize either a SFA or CRM or both systems. Many of todays SFA and CRM systems offer features of both systems with real-time tracking and analysis.

Sales Force Automation as the name suggests is the automation of the total sales process which can include almost all processes from inventory management to sales and after-sale-services. Customer Relationship Management is the automation of all customer service and customer oriented processes from marketing to customer service and customer satisfaction management. Many processes are common in both SFA and CRM; and that’s why many software developers are combined both systems to create single powerful systems.

There are many reasons for businesses using SFA or CRM systems, these include

1. Automation saves both time and cost involved in key business processes.
2. Automation increases productivity and ensures availability.
3. The detailed customer database and previous contact information help offering better customer service.
4. Managing sales teams and leads are easy and even remote management is easily possible. Moreover lead routing and follow-up becomes very easy and trouble-free.
5. Real-time reporting and analysis help managers to make quick and better decisions.
6. Simplification and centralized processes ensure better management.

SWAN Solutions and Services is a Mumbai based IT infrastructure management company offering a great variety of business, network, application management solutions and services.

Windows or Linux - Which Server is Good for Your Business Needs

Windows is the most preferred operating system for PCs and Laptops; and Linux is the most preferred operating system for Web servers and DNS servers. But when it comes to enterprise network servers and storage servers, both operating systems compete neck to neck. And it is very difficult to decide which operating system is better suitable for your enterprise needs.

Windows Vs Linux Servers

Cost: Well, Linux rules here. Linux is effectively free. All server OSs from Windows comes with a licensing fees and multiple system implementations needed higher cost. With Linux there are no limits of implementations.

Application Integration: Windows is slightly better with application integration and availability of applications. Linux also has a range of enterprise computing applications available; but finding and configuring those may require higher expertise.

Performance: Linux is very flexible, often virus-free and fast performing OS. Also Linux works perfect with different levels of hardware components. We can add, modify or delete programs and components without restarting the server. Windows is stable but not that much flexible.

Troubleshooting: All the security patches of Windows servers come from Microsoft and are released on a quarterly basis. Linux patches come from its developers and community and are released often. For troubleshooting issues Microsoft has paid help-desk support. Many Linux versions also has paid help-desk support but online forums and communities are better and cheaper options.

The Choice: If your enterprise needs low-cost, very stable and dedicated servers, then Linux can be the best choice. But implementation and administration needs good expertise. Windows is costly but more user-friendly for a regular computer administrator.

SWAN Solutions and Services is a leading Enterprise Server Dealer in Mumbai offering both Linux and Windows servers. SWAN also offers structured cabling and networking services to business of many types and sizes.

How Remote Desktop Access Solutions Help Businesses?

Remote desktop access solutions have added great flexibility to business. The ability to access and manage computers, applications and data remotely help businesses in many ways. Also the introduction of many cost-effective solutions made the practices very popular.

The greatest advantage of remote desktop solutions is the accesses to your or company files and data. With right solution and implementation you can always stay virtually in touch with your computer. Another advantage is proper monitoring and management. You can easily supervise every staff activities or business performances.

Remote desktop access also helps in implementing new businesses technologies like video conference, online meetings and intra-company communication. The system can also be used to training employees, offering company or network wide applications or data, troubleshooting computers or applications, ensuring better data security and integrity and for virtualization.

There are a range of different remote desktop access solutions with differing features and functionality. Choosing the right solution for your needs is important. Although there are many free or low-cost solutions available, most of these solutions are not suitable for enterprise uses. When implementing a solution ensure easy-of-access and its security features.

SWAN Solutions and Services a leading Indian company based in Mumbai offering different Remote Desktop Access Solutions for business enterprises.

The Need of Business Continuity Solutions

High availability is one of the main objectives of implementing a business IT network infrastructure. But ensuring high availability of business applications and systems is a very difficult task that needs proper planning and implementation. Business continuity solutions help businesses to achieve this task and much more.

In today’s high competition and digitalized business environment, systems failures and recovery can harm business performance and customer satisfaction. Business continuity solutions integrate different business applications, monitor application performances, backup business data, replicate data, and make sure the availability of data and application access across the enterprise.

The advantages of business continuity solutions include,

• No or low business down-time and reduced complexity.
• Efficient utilization of available resources.
• Lower business operation and IT infrastructure management costs.

The level of success with business continuity solutions depends highly on choosing the right system; and effective implementation, configuration and integration of it. Often the initial implementation needs support of good infrastructure management service providers.

SWAN Solutions and Services is a dealer of Neverfail Disaster Recovery solution in India. SWAN supports a range of different business applications and network infrastructure setups.

How Desktop Virtualization can Help Businesses?

Desktop virtualization is one of the most followed enterprise IT infrastructure management strategies in which the client or user desktops are standardized or personalized across the enterprise. Generally, the programs - better regarded as the applications - are installed and managed in a remote computer and the client users are allowed to access them using the client desktops.

There are many advantages of desktop virtualization.

1. Virtualization ensures uniformity and accessibility across the enterprise.
2. Virtualization makes personalization of client systems less important. As any user can access the applications and data from any client system; there is no need of installing programs in individual computers.
3. Virtualization offers better data security and protection from treats because all data and applications are stored in one place.
4. Virtualization can make a range of different devices like desktops, laptops, smartphones and tablets to work as one.
5. Virtualization reduces cost of infrastructure management as client systems need not much management.
6. Virtualization helps in increasing productivity by less downtime and more connectivity.

In order to reap all the success of the desktop virtualization there should be a sound virtualization strategy. All or most business processes should be made available on virtualization and there should be strict client access management privileges to ensure data and application security. So when choosing a desktop virtualization service, choose the provider with a good track-record.

This blog is written for SWAN Solutions and Services, a leading Desktop Virtualization service provider in Mumbai, India.

USB Storage Devices and Enterprise Data Security

USB storage devices commonly known as pen-drives, flash-drives or memory-sticks have become so popular that they are now everywhere and in everyone's hands. Although, to discussed widely yet, these storage drives cause some very serious problems to enterprise data and network security. New studies have found that more than 70% of business globally loss sensitive data because of improper use or misuse of USB drives. The issue may be worse in India because of lack of property security concern among employees.

A majority of data loss or leakage is because of computer worms, malwares and other harmful programs which enter enterprise computers from USB storage devices. These unwanted programs can cause system delays, program errors, data breaches or OS errors. If the computer is connected to a network, the program can initiate a chain reaction, which spread to all connected computers. Other major reason for data leakage is because the availability of sensitive business data outside enterprise security systems.

Enterprises can secure sensitive data from these USB treats by many means.

• Using data encryption: encrypting enterprise data can solve almost all types of USB treats. Viewing encrypted files require decrypting and proper authentication. So even if the data is leaked to outside, it is very difficult to access that.
• Protecting data and data locations: locking sensitive information location from copying can minimize data leakage.
• Use updated anti-virus and anti-malware programs: so that enterprises can stop worms and other programs from accessing the computers or entering into those.
• Use separate devices from home and office: direct employees not to use USB flash drives on enterprise computer systems. Or if necessary to use separate USB drives for personal and business uses.

SWAN Solutions is a leading enterprise data and network security company offering top-class services to Indian enterprises. SWAN also offers top-notch network audit services.