Resources
Practical guidance, without the jargon.
The topics we help clients understand — across managed IT, specialist software, infrastructure, security and intelligence. Explore a theme, or talk to us about your environment directly.
Managed IT
- Outsourced IT versus an internal team
- Remote IT support done well
- Employee onboarding and offboarding
- Device lifecycle management
- Supporting international businesses
Specialist applications
- Supporting dental-practice software
- Medical application support
- Vendor escalation, done properly
- Documenting business applications
- Reducing application downtime
Linux & infrastructure
- Linux server maintenance
- Proxmox administration
- Server hardening basics
- Linux monitoring
- Database backup strategy
Cybersecurity
- EDR versus antivirus
- Responding to a Microsoft 365 compromise
- Phishing response
- Ransomware readiness
- Vulnerability management
Threat intelligence
- Threat-actor infrastructure
- Domain impersonation
- Credential exposure
- Corporate digital footprint
- Understanding confidence levels
Backup & continuity
- Why restore testing matters
- Recovery-time and recovery-point planning
- Immutable backup
- Microsoft 365 backup
- Business-continuity basics
These are the subject areas we cover. We publish guidance as it is written — we do not claim a back catalogue that does not exist.
Start here
Straight answers to the questions we get asked most
Most technology questions from a business owner are not really technology questions. They are risk questions wearing a technical costume: can we carry on trading if this fails, are we exposed in a way we would be embarrassed by, is this supplier telling us the truth. The answers below are the ones we give on a first call, written the way we would say them rather than the way a vendor datasheet would.
None of this is a substitute for looking at your specific environment, and we will say so where it matters. If an answer here does not fit your situation, that is usually a sign the situation is worth an hour of someone's attention rather than a paragraph.
Is EDR just expensive antivirus?
No. Traditional antivirus asks whether a file matches something known to be bad. Endpoint detection and response watches behaviour — a process suddenly encrypting files, a script reaching out to somewhere unusual, credentials being read from memory — and can isolate the machine while a human looks at it. The important part is the human: detection without someone reviewing and acting on it is just a louder alert.
Does Microsoft 365 back itself up?
Not in the way most people assume. Microsoft replicates your data so their service survives their own failures, and there are retention and recycle-bin windows measured in days. That is not the same as being able to recover a mailbox someone deleted four months ago, or a SharePoint site a ransomware incident encrypted. If the data matters, it needs a backup that is separate from the platform holding it.
How often should backups be tested?
Regularly enough that a restore is boring. A backup job reporting success only proves a job ran; it says nothing about whether the data comes back, how long it takes, or whether anyone knows the steps. Test restores on a schedule, record how long a real recovery would take, and make sure more than one person can perform it.
Do we still need a VPN if everything is in the cloud?
Often not, and clinging to one can be worse than dropping it. If your applications are cloud-hosted, identity is the perimeter: strong authentication, conditional access and managed devices do more than routing everything through a tunnel. VPNs still earn their place for reaching servers, equipment or internal systems that were never designed to face the internet.
Our email account was compromised. What comes first?
Reset the password and revoke active sessions, then check for mailbox rules and forwarding the attacker created — that is how access persists after a password change. Review sign-in activity, look for anything sent from the account, and warn anyone who received payment instructions. Then work out how the credentials were obtained, because the same route is still open.
What does a baseline review actually look at?
Users and identity, devices, cloud services and licensing, backups and whether they restore, the specialist applications the business depends on, external exposure, and the gaps in continuity if something fails. It ends with a walkthrough in plain language: what is fine, what is worth fixing, and what can safely wait.
Start here
Book a Technology & Security Baseline Review.
A clear first step: users, devices, cloud, backups, specialist applications, exposure and continuity gaps — then a human walkthrough of what to outsource next. Powered by Genyra; overseen by humans.