Tip of the Week: Managed IT Abbreviations Don’t Have to Be Confusing

It’s always important to know about what you’re investing in before you take the leap of faith. In the world of business and managed IT, we understand that jargon and abbreviations can potentially kill a sale. This is what we call “geekspeak,” and while it’s generally avoided as much as possible, it can cause some business owners’ eyes to glaze over and zone out.

Here, we’ll attempt to hammer out six popular terms we might use frequently in the IT industry to keep you in the loop and help you understand exactly what we’re talking about.

SMBs (Small and Medium-Sized Businesses): This is a common term used to signify a specific group of companies with somewhere between 1-to-500 employees; specifically, our target audience. Our managed services are designed to help SMBs like yourself achieve enterprise-level functionality with affordable IT solutions.

ROI (Return on Investment): When you commit to a particular service, like tech support, you’re making an investment that you’re hoping will benefit your company. When the service meets your expectations, it’s called a return on your investment. Basically, this signifies that your business hasn’t wasted revenue and the service is a worthy investment.

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol): This is basically a fancy word for a phone system which broadcasts your voice over an Internet connection. It’s one of the many IT solutions we offer. A valuable benefit VoIP systems offer is that they eliminate costs associated with legacy phone systems, and can integrate with several extensions like video conferencing and more.

UTM (Unified Threat Management): This term is used to refer to our collective threat management solution, the UTM. It includes a firewall, antivirus, spam blocking, and content filtering solution designed to eliminate threats on your network before they cause problems. Ferrum Technology Services can equip your business with this device, which helps your company worry less about network security.

BDR (Backup and Disaster Recovery): This is one of the most important investments a business can make. A BDR solution is designed to take backups of your business’s data, then transport it off-site for redundant storage. This allows for quick and efficient recovery when you’re ready to get back in business following a disaster. The BDR device can even act as a server in a pinch, allowing you to continue functioning properly when you need to most.

BCP (Business Continuity Plan): Not to be confused with a BDR solution, the business continuity plan is designed to keep your business in the game for as long as possible when experiencing a major disaster. This plan encompasses not only your technology, but also your strategy for turnover, major illnesses, and anything else which would disrupt operations and workflow. In other words, your BCP should be a comprehensive plan which takes into account multiple variables (regardless of how unlikely), all to protect your company’s continuity.

Hopefully that clears things up a bit for some of you. At Ferrum Technology Services, we strive to help you understand technology, and we encourage our clients to get the most out of it. If you continuously find yourself being held back by your technology issues, give us a call at (847) 697-3282.