Insights & Resources
Don’t Miss the Latest Success Stories, Articles about Modern IT, and Our Experts’ Advice
Future-Proofing Your Technology Investments
iShift Insights brings you news, events, articles, and best practices for managing modern enterprise infrastructures. To learn more how we can help optimize and modernize your IT ecosystem, review the iShift Services – we can provide guidance for your digital transformation no matter where you are in your journey to modern IT.
iShift and Cynomi Provide Advice on Better Cybersecurity
As cyberthreats and compliance requirements escalate, it is critical for businesses to address vulnerabilities proactively and prevent costly breaches or regulatory penalties. Recently, cybersecurity leaders from the US, Canada, and Europe came together for a hands-on...
iShift Insights – the Halloween Edition
Cybersecurity Awareness Month might be ending, but that doesn’t mean you should be hanging up your armor for the year. If anything, recent trends are screaming, "Stay alert!" In fact, Halloween gives you the perfect excuse to check under the digital bed for any...
The Journey to Better Cybersecurity
Judging by the daily reports about what’s happening in the digital world, the risk of cyberattacks is at an all-time high. Furthermore, with growing compliance regulations, it’s crucial to address vulnerabilities before they lead to devastating breaches or costly...
Understanding Some Common Misconceptions about Regulatory Exams and IT Audits
An IT Audit Covers about 60% Your InfoSec Posture One of the most common conversations I have with Boards and Senior Leadership is regarding broad assumptions that their IT audit or regulatory exam is a sufficient measurement for the effectiveness of their information...
The Crucial Need for a Cybersecurity Strategy in Light of Recent Ransomware Attacks
Heightened Ransomware Activity on a Global Scale In a digital age where the boundaries between the physical and virtual worlds blur, security of our data, protection of our brands, and a clear understanding of our risk postures has never been more critical. The recent...
An iShift WorkShop with Platform9 and OpenStack
0-60 with Platform9 and OpenStack: A Hands-On-Lab for VMware Admins Created as a joint project between NASA and Rackspace in 2010, OpenStack was devised as an inexpensive open-source alternative to VMware. In spite of this positive original intention, however,...
New SEC Rules on Cybersecurity Disclosures – Q&A
SEC New Rules Effective September 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted new rules aimed at enhancing and standardizing disclosures regarding cybersecurity risk management, strategy, governance, and incidents by public companies that are subject to the...
Virtualization Is Here to Stay but the Rules of Engagement Have Changed
1998: VMware and the Virtualization Revolution Without a doubt, virtualization technology has become a cornerstone in modern IT infrastructure. It enables organizations to optimize resources, enhance flexibility, and streamline management processes. It is constantly...
Cybersecurity 101: A Plan is Not a Strategy, and a Strategy is Not a Plan
Cybersecurity 101: Some Basic Definitions When I started this blog series, I introduced some essential terms related to cybersecurity. In today's installment, I would like to delve into two of these pivotal terms - Plan and Strategy. In my capacity as a vCISO, I...
iShift and Axia Cooperative Partner to Deliver Innovative Technology Solutions to Public Agencies Nationwide
Scottsdale, AZ – February 26, 2024. iShift, a leading technology company specializing in innovative cybersecurity and technology solutions based in Arizona, proudly announces a new strategic agreement with Axia Cooperative for Microsoft and VMware professional...
Introducing “A Word from the Office of the vCISO” Series
New Adventures in the New Year 2024 started with some exciting things that I want to share with you. For one, I became a “digital nomad.” This allows me to escape the bitter winters of Illinois, perfect my golf game, as well as help people with the most pressing...
iShift Launches Innovative vCISO Practice to Commence 2024
As organizations navigate an increasingly complex and dynamic cybersecurity landscape, the need for a comprehensive and agile security strategy is more critical than ever. iShift's vCISO practice is designed to meet this demand by offering a proactive and tailored...
Cybersecurity Expert Rich Dussliere Takes the Helm of iShift’s Innovative vCISO Practice
Accomplished cybersecurity expert and seasoned technology executive Rich Dussliere will play a pivotal role in fortifying iShift's commitment to innovative Information Security solutions Scottsdale, AZ – January 16, 2024. iShift, a technology company focused on...
Tech Nightmares and Horror Stories from the Cloud
Here we are at the end of October and Halloween is just around the corner. This month also marks the 20th birthday of Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Created in 2004 as a collaborative effort between government and industry, the initiative is all about providing...
iShift Recognized in Inc. 5000 Annual List of Fastest-Growing Private Companies in the Country
Scottsdale, Arizona, August 15, 2023 – iShift, a boutique IT firm offering engineering, managed services, and IT staffing services to help clients overcome infrastructure challenges, announced today it has been included in the Inc. magazine annual Inc. 5000 list, the...
Why Is Hiring Tech Talent So Damn Hard?
In spite of significant layoffs of IT professionals in the tech sector, sourcing the right talent for strategic projects continues to present significant challenges. Learn more about the reasons for this paradox and what strategies you can employ to mitigate the...
Are You Comfortable Talking about Archiving, Retention, and Governance?
EV Certified Engineers on the Path to Extinction You are aware that you have no access to certified Enterprise Vault engineers, right? The reality is, they don’t exist because no one is wasting time learning EV anymore. At some point in time, you had some engineers...
VMware Customers Are Scared, Should You Be?
Should you leave VMware after the buyout by Broadcom? BIG questions. By now, you have heard that Broadcom is buying VMware or at least it’s in the works. This news sent shockwaves through the computer industry, raising concerns among VMware customers worldwide. The...
Office 365 Email Migration: The Last On-site Exchange Server
Why do I need an on-premises exchange server for Office 365?I’m just coming off an Office 365 email migration project, and once again, a question came up that I thought I’d address. To put it in very simple terms, clients are baffled why once their Office 365 email...
The 5 Rs in Cloud Migration and What’s the Right R for You?
Clients Want to Know More about Cloud Migrations I know most of my posts tend to focus on email and email archiving migrations, probably because I’ve been doing them since last century. However, as I’ve been helping clients modernize various aspects of their IT...
Top Business Challenges Facing Healthcare in 2023 and Technology Solutions by iShift to Tackle Them
Healthcare in 2023 – an Ever Changing and Challenging Landscape In the post-pandemic context, many healthcare organizations are left with the feeling that they are trying to hit a moving target in order to best serve their patients. At the same time, they are...
Our Key IT Initiatives for 2023 as Your Co-Innovation Partner for Modern IT
The holidays have come and gone and now it's time to look ahead to the new year. At iShift, we are looking forward to the possibilities that 2023 holds. In 2022, our talented technical team assisted dozens of organizations in their strategic endeavors to expand their...
Does Traditional Third-Party Message Security Make Sense in an M365 Environment?
M365 and Email Security In my last post, I discussed the risks of storing your data in a legacy archive repository that is end-of-life, broken, or somehow inaccessible. I’d just finished retrieving data stored in an unsupported platform for a client faced with a...
What We Are Seeing on the Tech Talent Landscape in the First Half of 2022
1 Shortage of Skilled IT Professionals Continues In the past six months our IT Staffing unit has been very busy helping our clients find technical talent. We wanted to make sure their strategic IT projects didn’t lag behind and their business goals remained on track....
Your Data Is On Fire if You Can’t Access It When You Need It
Extreme? I don’t think so. If your data is stored in a platform that is not supported, end-of-life, broken, or inaccessible in some way, it might as well be burning to the ground. That's the reason for this article. In addition, I wanted to share with you a recent...
iShift Makes the 2022 Inc. 5000 Annual List of Fastest-Growing Private Companies in the Country
Scottsdale, Arizona, August 16, 2022 – iShift, a multi-cloud technology solutions company that provides cloud engineering, cloud migration, cloud management, and specialized IT staffing services, announced today it has been recognized on the Inc. magazine annual Inc....
Lack of IT Expertise Shouldn’t Stop Your Cloud Transformation Projects
Scarcity of IT Expertise Insufficient talent pool aside, there is the matter of knowledge, proficiency, and experience. As organizations begin to apply the full potential of Cloud innovation and more sophisticated Cloud capabilities, the skills gap in their IT staff...
Tech Talent Shortage Shouldn’t Stop Your Cloud Transformation Projects
Insufficient Talent Pool Technical talent continues to be scarce both in terms of quantity and quality. This trend is unlikely to change in the next few years. According to an analysis of the latest labor market data by CompTIA, the US unemployment rate for in the...
Broadcom is Acquiring VMware: The Shifting Role of the Data Center (Part 2)
More than ever, data centers are changing. With the VMware sale in 2023, this might be the time to get a plan in place for your data center. You have options, discuss them with us. Last week VMware sent out a communication to its partners confirming their agreement to...
Broadcom is Acquiring VMware: Should You Be Worried? (Part 1)
Companies have questions about VMware’s new direction after its acquisition by Broadcom. As a long-time VMware partner, we are committed to guiding our clients figure things out moving forward. Now that it’s official and VMware will soon be part of the Broadcom...
Data Migration: Not a Matter of If, a Matter of When
Merging Companies? Acquiring Companies? What are you doing with all the data?At some point in a company’s lifecycle, data migration is bound to happen. Mergers, acquisitions, technological innovation, transitioning to cloud, business process optimization, regulatory...
Microsoft 365 Price Increase: Save Now, Promotions End June 30
Things to Know about the Recent Microsoft Licensing Changes Last year Microsoft announced an increase in subscription pricing as of March 1, 2022. A price hike is never a good thing, but there is a silver lining. Through the Microsoft New Commerce Experience (NCE),...
Understanding Microsoft Licensing: Frequently Asked Questions
Understanding Microsoft Licensing Over the past weeks, we have been providing you with insights about Microsoft Licensing changes that were introduced in 2022. We touched upon the implications of the end of the Open License Program as well as the introduction of the...
New Commerce Experience: Do you know about the Microsoft Price Increases?
New Commerce Experience from Microsoft In addition to discontinuing the Open License Program which we discussed in our previous article, Microsoft is going to begin charging more for month-to-month contracts, so organizations need to sign up for annual deals to keep...
Microsoft Open License is changing: Are you sure you know how this affects your organization?
An End to Microsoft Open License Program As you have probably heard, Microsoft ended its Open License Program on January 1, 2022. The Open License Program allowed smaller organizations to purchase Microsoft software licenses for products such as Office and Windows on...
iShift Helps DMG Improve Efficiencies with Transition to a Modern Workplace
Migration to Microsoft 365 implemented by iShift brings productivity-enhancing benefits to the largest integrated multi-specialty group practice in ArizonaSOLUTION SUMMARY Founded in 1994, District Medical Group (DMG) is the largest integrated multi-specialty group...
iShift and Preferred Strategies Partner to Enable Businesses to Make the Most of Their Enterprise Information in the Cloud
iShift and Preferred Strategies Announce New Partnership for Azure Implementation of QuickLaunchScottsdale, AZ – iShift and Preferred Strategies have joined forces to seamlessly deliver an innovative cloud-based implementation of Preferred Strategies’...
If It’s Your Data, It’s Your Responsibility to Protect It
Why Deploying a Backup Solution Is an Essential Component of Your M365 InfrastructureMy focus today is on some of the threats companies have to be aware of as they migrate to the public cloud. There is a common misconception that once you migrate to the cloud, your...
Do It Right the First Time: The Case for Engaging with an External IT Program Manager
IT Projects Tend to Face Delays and Incur Cost Overages Numerous examples in the history of IT project implementation prove that even the most capable IT leaders can fail. Usually, the main reason is that the pace of change is more than what they can handle. This...
iShift Awarded a VMware PSO Subcontractor Status
acknowledgment of iShift's proficiency as VMware subject matter expertsScottsdale, AZ – iShift, a multi-cloud technology solutions company that provides cloud engineering, cloud migration, cloud management, and specialized IT staffing services, announced today that it...
Overcoming Your Cloud Skills Gap
innovative cloud services that put you in controlImpact of the Pandemic While cloud computing adoption has been expanding consistently in the last five years, urgent changes to business operations brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated cloud implementation...
Sourcing Talent for Enterprise-class IT Projects
Contingent Workforce as the New NormalThe 21st century brought a dramatic shift to the notion of the “traditional workforce.” In 1999, about 5.6 million workers held contingent jobs (short-term or temporary) which represented a mere 4.3% of the total workforce. Fast...
iShift Achieves VMwareMaster Services Competency in Data Center Virtualization
The Program allows VMware partners to differentiate in specific solution areasScottsdale, AZ – iShift, a unique technology and cloud solutions provider, is proud to announce it has recently achieved the VMware Master Services Competency in Data Center Virtualization....