Posts Tagged ‘performance’

Security in 3 Dimensions

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

Data security is a key element of business success. However, the more that you look into your options, the more that you’ll realize that three components must come together to ensure your company’s IT security.

First, your company must have policies in place related to data. Your staff must be made aware of these policies that pertain to password use, data flow, network security, firewalls and virus prevention, email requirements, and the use of third-party viagra and tools. Award winning software from Check Point is one example of a product that lets you specifically target network security solutions to your business security needs. Keeping your security operations simple and affordable at the same time.

Then, your company must involve your staff. On one hand, this means making sure that they are aware of the policies that you’ve put in place. On the other, it means giving them the opportunity to contribute to policies, to provide insight into areas where security could be tighter, and ensuring that the entire team is working together to protect company information.

Finally, it’s important to have an enforcement policy in place. Be sure that you know how violations of your company’s security policy will be addressed, and ensure that the policy will be enforced consistently – whether the person violating it is a new hire or a manager with 15 years or more of experience.

Data encryption, password protected databases, user roles: all of these elements play a role in creating and ensuring IT security. However, when you have the right policies in place, your staff are on board to follow those policies and suggest additional measures that can be taken, and a strong enforcement policy is in place, your company can count on security in three dimensions.

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Bring Expectations in Line with Reality

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

End users and customers sometimes have unrealistic expectations. They expect applications to respond immediately and resource-intensive processes to be completed at the blink of an eye. The real world doesn’t work this way, of course. But, it’s worth asking yourself if there is a place in the middle. Are you leaving some performance opportunities on the table?

The network always gets the blame when end users are forced to click and wait. It’s intuitive for them to think the pipes are the cause, because they stand between the user and the application. The real bottleneck, however, could be further upstream. Before digging into your network to see if there are ways to improve performance, you need to make sure you’re looking in the right place. There’s a chance your applications – not the network – are the real reason for your users’ frustrations.

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Does Application Performance Put Your Brand at Risk?

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

Fight the initial temptation to think only about customer-facing applications. What happens inside your company can still have an impact on your interaction with the public, making it a contributing factor how your brand is perceived. Slow applications, even those that are only experienced directly by your employees, can result in lost opportunities, substandard customer experiences and a frustration that can drive them to your competitors.

The scenarios are both familiar and predictable. We’ve all spent time on the phone with a customer service rep and heard some version of: “Please bear with me. The computers are just really slow today.” An awkward period follows, consisting either small-talk attempts that fall flat or an uncomfortable silence. For self-service applications, you don’t have to worry about how to keep a customer entertained, but you do risk losing a frustrated customer who has no interest in waiting for a system to respond.

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The Real Cost of Slow Applications

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Employees complain about application speed. It chews up your time and frustrates you, especially when there is little you can do to fix the situation without making major infrastructure changes. There is a real implication, though, and it can affect your business significantly. Slow applications can impede customer interaction, constrain employee productivity and ultimately lead to missed business opportunities. To add to your top line and widen margins, you need to keep application performance robust.

It all comes down to beating the “waiting game.”

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