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Multi-Factor Authentication

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is a simple solution that adds an extra layer of security to your organisation’s systems and data. Once MFA has been implemented within your organisation, users will be required to verify their identify through two different methods before they can access the system. The most common first barrier is still username and password, which is unfortunately not enough against advanced attacks. MFA then adds a second barrier such as an authenticator app (we recommend the Microsoft Authenticator app), text message, or fingerprint.

Learn more about MFA here.

Cyber Essentials Certification

The Cyber Essentials Certification is a UK Government-backed scheme that has been designed to help organisations learn how to prevent and protect against basic cyber threats. To achieve the Cyber Essentials Certification, organisations must demonstrate that they have a foundational level of security in place within its IT architecture. Many cyber-attacks are very juvenile in nature and can be thwarted with basic protection, the Cyber Essentials Certification ensures organisations have the knowledge that they need to recognise these threats. It is also increasingly becoming a requirement from organisations within the public sector, that they will only work with organisations that have the certification.

Learn more about the Cyber Essentials Accreditation here.

Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365

Microsoft provides many powerful services within Microsoft 365 (M365), but a comprehensive backup of M365 data is unfortunately not one of them. As confirmed in the Microsoft Shared Responsibility model, the backup of data is the sole responsibility of the organisation. Unprotected data is at risk of security threats, accidental or intentional deletion, and retention policy gaps. To keep your data safe, we recommend implementing Veeam Backup for M365. This eliminates the risk of losing access and control over your organisation’s data, including Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Teams.

Learn more about Veeam Backup for M365 here.

If you would like to learn more about any of the solutions discussed above or would like to arrange a chat to find out how we can help your organisation specifically, please email sales@cloudcoverit.co.uk or call 0141 280 2882.

Watch our Sales & Marketing Director Owen Smith discuss How to Protect Your Organisation from Cyber-Attacks:

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Congratulations on Cloud Cover IT’s 10th birthday! How do you feel about celebrating a decade of the business?

I feel proud of what we are continuing to build. It has been interesting to see how the company has grown over the 10 years, and not only that it has been able to adapt but also thrives on adapting as technology moves.  

Tech moves quickly, how would you say Cloud Cover IT has evolved through the last 10 years and how has the company adapted to changes?

It really does move quickly, just this morning I’ve been with my team looking at a brand-new Microsoft Power Apps feature that we think will have lots of applications for the things we build, proving that technology literally moves on a day-to-day basis.

Even going back to the very start of the company, Lance and I had a discussion about what the company name should be. We talked through various options, including Cloud Cover. I was a bit unsure as I didn’t quite know where the industry was going at that point, but it was the start of the Cloud boom within large organisations, and Lance predicted that in the next few years every organisation would be reliant on Cloud-based services. He was right, so he was ahead of the curve there.

It has been interesting to see how the different departments within the business have grown alongside the changes within different areas of IT, and how agile and quickly the business has adapted.

You joined the company in 2019 as Head of Digital Transformation. What does digital transformation mean to you, and can you tell us about the work your team carries out?

To me, digital transformation brings together two key elements: a deep understanding of what a company or team is trying to achieve, and the skills of my team in knowing where technology can help to do that better. Systems only ever work where the people who use them see real value, so as the name suggests any transformation needs to bring real value to the company and individuals doing it. The incredible digital tools available now provide a real opportunity for companies to do things better and more efficiently, allowing the staff involved to focus on bringing real value to the things that humans do better.

There is a lot of competition within the tech industry – what sets your team apart?

We established the company by saying that we would be great at the human part of IT. We achieve this by focusing on User-centric design when developing any solutions for our clients. With a background in product design, we have grown the Digital Transformation team to work with this process when we engage with any of our clients as no two are alike. By combining this with our multidisciplinary development team we aim to deliver successful Microsoft 365 Solutions.

What would you say are the main motivators for your team?

Being able to bring leading technology to our clients and seeing how our solutions are benefiting day-to-day working lives motivates us. My team are also always excited to continue learning and we enjoy keeping up with the latest technology. As we all know, Microsoft’s innovation cycles are fast and constantly moving all of their products forward – the team are always up for the challenge of trying new things and more importantly identifying where it will benefit our clients.

One thing we like to say here at CCIT is that we are the best at the ‘human part of IT’. What does this mean to you?

We all know that IT can be stressful for people as not everyone has the same level of technical understanding. For me, the human part is understanding this and being able to recognise when it is necessary to change the approach when engaging with different users to reduce any unnecessary stress caused by going too technical.

What are your proudest achievements from your time at Cloud Cover IT?

Being able to get two products successfully uploaded onto the app store within Microsoft [our Microsoft Teams apps check.it and gauge.it] has been a very proud achievement for my team and me.

What is the biggest lesson that you have learned?

That it’s far better to work as a team to come up with a solution than to try and think of one in isolation – something that has been put to the test over the last couple of years as the team has adapted to initially remote working and now hybrid working.

Do you have any advice for anyone looking to join the tech industry today?

I would recommend that newcomers start by learning low code as it is a great way to begin building that development structure in an easy environment. There are also lots of communities out there that can help and support you, utilise them.

We’ve discussed how the tech industry has changed; how do you think it will continue to change?

I believe that as the cloud continues to grow, the way users understand and consume data will head toward a more interactive future. I’m looking forward to seeing if this does happen, and the impact it will have not only on Cloud Cover IT, but the whole industry.

Are there any exciting projects that the Digital Transformation team are working on right now (that you can tell us about)?

There are a lot of exciting things happening in the Microsoft Teams and Power Platform environment right now that we are focusing on. I can’t give too many details, but there are a few things in the pipeline at the moment that will make the rest of 2022 very exciting!

Where would you like CCIT to be in 10 years’ time?

I would like to be able to look back to this point and see continuous growth between now and then. Part of this would be continuing to grow our presence both throughout the UK and internationally as we continue to grow as a company. 

Alasdair will be hosting a free virtual event on the 15th of July 2022. Book your spot here to attend ‘Lunch and Learn: Improve Employee Wellbeing with gauge.it’ and hear Alasdair discuss our new Microsoft Teams app.

You can follow Alasdair on Linked in here.

The post Celebrating 10 Years of Cloud Cover IT: An Interview with Alasdair Gauld, Head of Digital Transformation appeared first on Flyte.

Over the past 15 years or so, I have had the pleasure of working with and for many companies in various roles and positions. From In-House IT to the Managed Service providers. The big to the small.

Companies all need varying degrees of support and that choice of how we decide to protect and provide for our IT from the passing of time, security concerns, and day-to-day issues can be a tricky one to navigate. We can employ a whole team, employ an individual, hand a current staff member who is reasonably IT Savvy the keys to the server room, or look to the world of Managed Service Providers.

Each has its benefits and pitfalls.

Having your own team on payroll running around your office with your business interests being their top priority sounds like the best solution here. Right?

For the most part yes. You get the day-to-day staff familiarity, availability, historical knowledge, and care that an employee would give for his or her company. However, lurking in the shadows is that question all employers hate to ask themselves… what if this employee left? What uncalculated and irreplaceable knowledge is the business losing from their departure? What will happen to the remaining members of the team?

I’ve known many companies that have a team of 3 or 4 core IT staff that have been around through the tough times and the busy times. The failed migrations and the big disasters. The team can be found reminiscing about “the bad times” in the IT dept after a hard day’s work. They depend on each other’s gaps in knowledge, ability to work late, and a good sense of humour to get through challenging days. But like all good teams, it needs the group to succeed. Budget cuts or changes in business strategy can push some to the fringes and into the eyes and ears of other companies looking to refresh and reinvigorate these IT workers. A story that I have seen many times before. When one leaves the others are given the workload that’s leftover and the exodus begins.

It’s not all gloom and doom. If managed and cared for correctly, the in-house IT dept can be a thriving place where well-executed change and performance gains are attributes recognized company-wide.

Companies that opt for the Managed Service Provider have a different set of challenges and rewards to deal with.

Who do you award the contract to? The company in your city that can be on-site in 10-15 minutes, or the huge UK wide provider with the flashy sales pitch but next to no geographical presence in your area? A tricky call for sure for anyone tasked with ensuring that someone looks after the IT operations of your company. The reward for this strategy, if placed in the right hands of course, is a constant headcount of skilled and accountable IT support personnel. Account management and escalation points that would not exist in-house. Clout when it comes to procurement and project management expertise. A depth of technological experience that obscures traditional in-house teams. Most importantly a scalable and reliable IT presence on the books and peace of mind for you and the management you report to.

The cons of this strategy? For most this comes down to cost. There is a middle ground where Managed Services Providers sit within industry sizes, and it tends to be in the Small to Medium-sized enterprise markets where they thrive. Striking a balance between cost, risk, and reward they operate and provide an ideal solution for most businesses in this sphere.

Having sat on both sides of the fence, I cannot honestly say which one I prefer outright. I love being in an environment where I can speak face to face with my customer base, be that colleagues or clients, and working with a team that has potential and a desire to help and enhance IT for others.

Sitting here at my desk at Cloud Cover, I genuinely feel that I have both feet on the side of this virtual fence and as a result I, and the customers we serve, reap the benefits. We operate with the sincerity, care and concern of an in-house IT operation but have the in-depth knowledge and expertise of a managed service provider. We don’t run a heavy sales operation like the huge UK wide operations that make our clients feel like a drop in the ocean or just another client in a database.

Making the transition back from in-house IT to outsourced was a tricky decision for me at the end of last year. Ending an 8-year run in a seat working for your own company was a tough call but having landed here at Cloud Cover IT, I can with no doubt say that the choice I made was the right one and I don’t regret it for one minute.  

If you would like to learn more about Cloud Cover IT’s Managed Service Solution please email sales@cloudcoverit.co.uk or visit our FAQ.

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Microsoft Teams is an invaluable tool for us here at Cloud Cover IT – one that is integral to the day-to-day operation of all departments across our organisation. This fourth instalment of our How We Use Teams series focuses on how Teams is used by our Human Resources department to send company-wide communications, handle admin and manage our people more effectively.

Human Resources (HR) operations require regular communication with staff across the organisation, so it is crucial that this communication is easy, effective, and streamlined. This is true at every stage of HR work, whether that is annual leave, recruitment, staff inductions, or communicating crucial information to staff members.

Holiday requests

In the past, dealing with requests for annual leave meant flurries of emails, which led to clogged-up inboxes and general inconvenience all-round. With the holiday planner system within Teams, the process is simple. Once a holiday request is submitted by an employee, an approval form is automatically sent to their line manager, so that requests can be accepted or rejected in a matter of minutes.

Internal communications

Teams makes it simple for our HR staff to share resources across the company and keep employees up to date with the latest information. This has been more important than ever over the lockdown period, when protocol and advice is constantly changing.

Recruitment

When we are recruiting new staff, Teams is invaluable means of collating and controlling the sharing of sharing information about candidates, and for discussions within the team. Specific channels for the recruitment process can be made, so that only the relevant people are included. Once a new employee has been recruited, the communicative capacity of Teams ensures a smooth induction into the company; they can access all the info they need, the people they need to connect with, and tools to carry out their work effectively, all in one place.

Meeting management

Another aspect of Teams utilised within HR is our Meeting Rooms Power App, which automates the scheduling, reservation and display of upcoming meetings and visitors. Developed by our very own Cloud Development team, the app also allows staff to book refreshments and equipment for meetings, as well as automatically notify any members of staff who are involved. With display available across devices and locations, this service promotes flexibility, ease of access, and connectivity for employees across the company.

Returning to work post-lockdown

As we transition back into office working following the Covid-19 lockdown, HV Connector is helping us to keep every member of our staff safe and well. Temperature scanning terminals scan the temperature of each employee at the entrance to our office. If an abnormally high temperature is recorded, access is denied and an instant alert is sent by HV Connector via Teams to the employee’s line manager. Contact can then be made via the terminal intercom to support and advise the team member on the appropriate course of action. In this way, we are minimising the risk of infection in our office and protecting our staff.

For more information or to set up Microsoft Teams tutorials for your organisation, contact Alasdair Gauld or call us on 0141 280 2882.

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Microsoft Teams has been an integral part of our operations since its launch and has proved itself more useful than ever in this current period of remote working. In this third instalment of our How We Use Teams series, we speak to our Digital Transformation team about how the platform helps with their day-to-day activities.  

SPOKESPERSON: DAN GREALLY, PROJECT MANAGER
DEPARTMENT: DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

We’re more productive than ever thanks to Teams – as it brings all the powerful tools within the Microsoft stack together in one place. 

The integration of Microsoft Power Automate into Teams allows us to create workflows that automate repetitive, low value-adding tasks. It enables us to manage flows as well as automate alerts, notifications and more. Automating repetitive tasks in this way helps us to allocate our time more effectively. It also speeds up the approval process as when a task has been completed, an alert is automatically sent to Alasdair, our Head of Digital Transformation. Teams is also a major time-saver in notifying team members of new support tickets, as well as taking care of administrative responsibilities like holiday requests. 

Project Management 

We also use Teams for project management purposes. We use the Microsoft Planner app to create a project overview and a list of tasks to be completed. These tasks can then be assigned to specific members of the team in an all-in-one dashboard. This offers a simple and visual way to organise cloud projects and keeps us all on the same page, wherever we may be.  

When it comes to keeping track of our progress, we use a dedicated Product Development channel within Teams. Taking data from SharePoint, this helps us track the number of hours spent working on the project at hand. We can then use Power BI to create clear and compelling visualisations of this data in a way that is digestible and actionable. This enables us to mark project milestones, meet client expectations and stay on schedule for project completion. 

The Knowledge Share channel within Teams is a useful space for everyone to share and discover useful resources, allowing them to learn new things and upskill themselves with the help of their team members. 

For more information or to set up Microsoft Teams tutorials for your organisation, contact Alasdair Gauld or call us on 0141 280 2882.

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Microsoft Teams is the central hub for communication, collaboration and teamwork for us here at Cloud Cover IT. In this instalment of our How We Use Teams series, we went around the (virtual) office to build a real-life snapshot of how our Sales and Marketing team uses Microsoft Teams on a daily basis.

SPOKESPERSON: LANCE GAULD, FOUNDER AND CEO
DEPARTMENT: SALES AND MARKETING

Microsoft Teams is a real asset for our Sales and Marketing team for communicating both within our team and with our external partners. Video conferencing and screen sharing is all very simple, requiring just a few clicks. Plus, improvements are being made all the time. Microsoft recently increased the number of participants who can be viewed simultaneously during a meeting on Teams from 4 to 9, with plans to increase this to a maximum of 49 in the near future. With these virtual face-to-face conversations now part of our ‘new normal’, this has been extremely helpful.

Touching base with everyone via email can lead to long, drawn-out threads that clog up our inboxes and become very tiresome, very quickly. Using Team’s Chat feature, I can send messages to one or more people with just a few clicks. This is particularly useful when working on content for social media, as well as suggesting edits for digital mailers, email campaigns and various other marketing projects.

The fact that Office 365 apps (Word, PowerPoint, Excel etc) are integrated within Teams is a god-send. Documents can be worked on by multiple people simultaneously and are stored securely on the cloud. There’s no more chasing someone for a missing document or wondering where the most up-to-date version has gone, as Teams’ centralised and structured file management system keeps all our crucial resources in one place. Moreover, hosting our data on the cloud like this has eliminated any risk of losses due to physical server failures, as well as the need for us to use a slow, vulnerable VPN connection when working from home. In short, Teams has revolutionised the way we work.

For more information or to set up Microsoft Teams tutorials for your organisation, contact Alasdair Gauld or call us on 0141 280 2882.

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Microsoft Teams is the central hub for communication, collaboration and teamwork for us here at Cloud Cover IT. And we’re not the only ones; since its launch in March 2017, usage of Teams has grown to over 75 million daily active users in April this year.

In this first instalment of our new series How We Use Teams, we went around the (virtual) office to build a real-life snapshot of how our IT Helpdesk uses Microsoft Teams on a daily basis. 

SPOKESPERSON: JIM MURRAY, SENIOR IT ENGINEER
DEPARTMENT: IT HELPDESK

Teams is the connective tissue for our Helpdesk and field engineers to communicate, solve problems and tackle projects together. 

When working remotely on-site, we use Teams to share data, images and information concerning the client’s requirements or the issue at hand. This helps greatly with problem-solving, meaning we can resolve any issues quickly, minimising downtime. Having Teams set up on any device allows for field engineers to have mobile access to all of the tools and company resources they require to get great work done. 

Our custom-built Remote Worker app is invaluable for our field engineers. They begin their day by referring to the Job List which uses data from SharePoint to detail all their tasks. As they attend various locations throughout the day, they can check in and out via the app and tick off tasks as they are completed. Extra information, including job notes, images and location data, can also be added. This is visible by our Line Managers who can ensure all jobs are completed to a high standard. If the engineer fails to check in within a set time, an alert in the form of an actionable adaptive card is automatically sent via a Teams channel to the Line Manager. They can then contact the employee to check on their welfare and provide assistance or instructions if needed. This improves accountability and employee safety whilst also ensuring we always deliver on our promises to clients.

For more information or to set up Microsoft Teams tutorials for your organisation, contact Alasdair Gauld or call us on 0141 280 2882.

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More than 2000 users set up to work from home; over 2500 support requests processed; no client left without a remote working solution. Safe to say, facilitating the transition to remote working for our community has been a mammoth task for us here at Cloud Cover.

It has taken an incredible team effort, but by pulling together with great spirit, dedication and humour, we have ensured business continuity and provided peace-of-mind for our clients despite all the challenges posed by the current crisis.

It would take thousands of words (and many pots of coffee) for me to describe the countless ways in which each member of our team has contributed to our achievements this month. Instead, as we come to the end of our first month in lockdown, I would like to highlight the successes of two team members in particular – both of which I believe have gone above and beyond the call of duty and deserve a special mention. 

Jim Murray, Senior IT Engineer

In his role in charge of Infrastructure projects, Jim ensured that no client was left without a remote working solution – a truly impressive feat. Jim and the team worked tirelessly to respond to thousands of support tickets, always with a quick turnaround time and a consistently high level of client satisfaction. Jim’s commitment to the role also extended to supporting team members under pressure, helping them to handle the significant spike in support requests received. 

Jamie McBride, 2nd Line Support Engineer

Jamie demonstrated exemplary leadership qualities as head of the Support team this month. His dedication to the role and willingness to help guide our newer members of staff has been invaluable. Moreover, his impressive work ethic and team management skills were instrumental in ensuring that our customer service remained first-class. Maintaining our high standards is tough enough under normal circumstances – but to achieve this during one of the busiest ever periods for the company is worthy of special recognition.

A huge thank you to Jim, Jamie and the entire team for your continued efforts in ensuring our clients can operate business as usual. By offering a sense of normality in their working lives, you are making a real difference for them in these extraordinary times. 

Wishing you all health and positivity,
Lance

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