Part One Of a Five-Part Series One thing that seems constant regardless of the organization is the struggle to reconcile the relationship between vendors and the business. Every theory and strategy out there. Some want a different vendor for each architecture: the different eggs in different baskets theory. Some take every purchase as a challenge to get an ever-cheaper price: the pit them against each other theory. While others go with my personal favorite, “I like to spread it around:” the I want everyone to like me and get an equal cut of my budget theory.

In the spring of 2016, a monkey caused a nationwide power outage in Kenya, leaving the entire country without power for 15 minutes. While we don’t have many monkeys in the US, the list of potential disasters that can affect your business is nearly endless (power outages, natural disasters, broken water pipes and of course human error). Now that healthcare records are electronic, it’s important that the industry look beyond disaster recovery and build a full business continuity plan to remain fully operational in the event of a disaster.

Update (2/14): Cisco has an update on its clock signal component issue, and has announced that those elgible for defective device replacement include:

As we enter the new year, experts predict cybersecurity spending to surpass $1 trillion from 2017 through 2021, as companies struggle to keep up with a global spike in cybercrime. With this trend expected to continue for the foreseeable future, it’s no surprise that businesses everywhere are shifting their budgets to accommodate for the growing cost of cybersecurity.

According to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index, there will be 3.4 networked devices per capita by 2020. This represents 26.3 billion networked devices and nearly a 40% increase in just five years. To handle this flood of new devices, many companies today are utilizing the cloud to connect devices to the corporate network. Is it any surprise that cybersecurity has become one of the top priorities for businesses?

The holiday season is here once again, but just like everything else in today’s digital-first world, technology is changing the way things are done. While there are still those that do their shopping at physical stores and send holiday cards via the US Postal Service, an increasing number of people are now using a more convenient, digital approach.