Arraya Insights

by

Hey, good news! More than half of IT leaders (58%) believe their company’s revenue is going to increase in 2015 from where it was last year. Naturally that means technology budgets will follow suit and IT will finally have a little breathing room to make some much-needed upgrades, right? Let’s hold on a minute before we pop the cork on that champagne, shall we?

The 2015 IT Budget Report from Spiceworks was a mixed bag for IT leaders who’ve spent the last few years working under the directive to do more with less or the same. On the one hand, IT is optimistic in the report about the financial status of their companies as a whole. However, they’re considerably less bright-eyed about their own department’s finances. In fact, just 33% of those surveyed expect their IT budgets to increase from 2014 levels. Roughly 45% predict their budgets will stay the same this year, while 12% think theirs will decrease. [Read more…] about IT Budgets Getting Tighter in 2015: How to Manage

by

Since you’re on this site and reading this blog, then the likelihood is that you’ve heard a thing or two about Arraya Solutions. You’re probably at least a little familiar with the IT services and solutions we provide to our customers, the awards and recognition we’ve won, and the industry leaders we’re proud to call our partners.

But all that familiarity aside, there may still be a few things you don’t know about us. It doesn’t matter if you’re a new customer to Arraya – or even if you’ve worked with us for a while – there’s always more to learn about a company and more layers to peel back.

So in the spirit of openness, here are three things you may have always wanted to know about Arraya, but were too afraid to ask.  [Read more…] about Arraya FAQ: 3 Questions You May Have Been Afraid to Ask

by

It looks like 2015 is going to be the year of the cloud! Just like 2014. And 2013 before that. And so on. Actually, we’ve had a lot of years of the cloud lately, so much so that the term “the cloud” is starting to become one of those buzzwords IT leaders make New Year’s resolutions to say less. But no level of fatigue can diminish the real-world benefits a company can experience by embracing the cloud, or if you prefer, the platform whose name can’t be spoken.

One area where it can play a major role is in disaster recovery. Downtime is something else most companies would be more than happy to leave back in 2014. If something goes wrong with your company’s technology, IT knows the importance of getting things back to normal quickly – and minimizing any damage to or loss of data. [Read more…] about Is Cloud-Based Recovery Right for You? 4 Ways to Tell

by

Heads up: The time has come to say goodbye to Advance Notification Service (ANS). Well, at least the public version of it anyway. Microsoft has announced plans to bring an end to the publically-available version of ANS and only make it available to select customers.

ANS was conceived over a decade ago to play a part in the company’s regular “Patch Tuesday” patch releases. Its mission: Get the early word out to the widest possible audience about all of the different security updates Microsoft planned to release each month. Customers could access this info prior to Patch Tuesday through a blog and a website.

However, according to a blog post by Microsoft, changing technology environments and customer needs caused the company to evaluate its notification delivery methods. After collecting feedback from customers, Microsoft determined many weren’t using ANS as often as they had in the past. The tech giant attributed this to enhanced testing and deployment strategies. [Read more…] about Microsoft Pulls Plug on Publicly-Available ANS

by

We’ve covered a lot of ground in our series on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s “Federal Health IT Strategic Plan 2015-2020.” We’ve gone over the scope of the plan and four of its tops goals: expanding the adoption of health IT, advancing the security and interoperability of health information, strengthening healthcare delivery, and advancing the health and well-being of individuals and communities. In this, our final post in the series, we’re going to take a look at the last big goal set by the government in the plan: advancing research, scientific knowledge, and innovation.

Healthcare IT is just the thing needed to open to the doors to a whole new level of analytics and research. That data can then be used to help providers and patients make more-informed and effective choices. But before an organization can truly benefit from that data, the infrastructure needs to be in place to not only allow them to do so, but to encourage them to as well.   [Read more…] about Feds Set Sights on Increased Health IT Innovation

by

Typically the saying “everything old is new again” gives a person a reason to hang on to possibly embarrassing old clothes or CDs. Unfortunately, that saying also has implications in other areas, such as digital security. For example, pros who take their eyes off a threat they thought they’d bested may just have it come back to haunt them later.

Consider this recent example.

The Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC) has identified a rise in the number of macro-based threats. Macros are scripts which automate tasks, to infect targets with malicious code. In the olden days – pre-2001 – cyber ne’er-do-wells would send spams email containing a macro which was designed to install malware on a victim’s computer. If victims opened the file, the macro would run automatically, allowing the malware to potentially wreaking havoc on their systems. [Read more…] about Hackers Find Way to Bypass Windows Security Feature

by

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: “This year will be the year the business world finally kicks email to the curb and embraces a newer, more secure alternative communication tool.” It’s one of the tech field’s favorite yearly prognostications and thus far email has continued to go strong. So, will 2015 finally be that year?

Don’t count on it, says one recent survey.

Just the opposite seems to be true. It looks as though email may be one of the things the internet-using workforce can least afford to lose. Email was named by internet-using workers as their most important tool, according to a study conducted by Pew Research. Roughly 61% of workers said email was “very important” to their ability to get things done. That percentage gave email a fairly comfortable lead over the rest of the field. [Read more…] about Will 2015 Be the End of the Line for Email?

by

At this point in our series on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s “Federal Health IT Strategic Plan 2015-2020” we’ve detailed the overall scope of the plan and three of its tops goals: expanding the adoption of health IT, advancing the security and interoperability of health information, and strengthening healthcare delivery. Up next, we’re going to look at another goal on Uncle Sam’s radar, namely advancing the health and well-being of individuals and communities.

Oftentimes patients are viewed strictly as the recipients of care, not as partners in the process. This viewpoint restricts their ability to take the reins on their healthcare and play a more active role in decision-making. The government believes by altering that dynamic to a more person-centric approach, it will lead to better care and healthier individuals and groups.   

The belief is that Health IT will play an important part in changing the way patients and providers view an individual’s role in his or her own care. [Read more…] about Advancing Community Health through IT: 2 Targets

by

Imagine your ideal managed services relationship. Any managed services provider worth its salt is going to take work off of your IT team’s plate and make life a little easier on it in the process. But a best of breed managed services provider is not only going to make life easier, it’s going to take things one step further.

At Arraya Solutions, that extra step, or our “secret sauce” if you prefer, is our personal, down-to-Earth approach to delivering the solutions and services our customers rely on. For example, something as easy as sketching out a solution on a white board to help a client understand what’s up.

The goal? Ensure everyone is on the same page and stays that way. That approach is what we feel helps us to stand out from the rest of the managed services field. [Read more…] about A Day in the Life of a Managed Services Team Member

by

So far in our series on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s “Federal Health IT Strategic Plan 2015-2020” we’ve detailed the overall scope of the plan and broken down two of its top goals: expanding the adoption of health IT and advancing the security and interoperability of health information.

In this post, we’re going to focus on another of the goals described in the report: strengthening healthcare delivery. As it stands now, healthcare delivery can sometimes be fragmented. Patients often need to bounce between multiple providers. Some of these providers may have little to no info on a person and his or her history. Also there’s often only little financial incentive for providers to carefully coordinate care across multiple locations, according to the report. [Read more…] about Stronger, More Rounded Healthcare Delivery Through IT