Securing your company’s data is essential. Businesses are constantly avoiding cyber threats, security alerts, and maintaining infrastructure. With so many things going on, your IT team can sometimes miss vital security threats.

To combat this issue, Microsoft has introduced Microsoft Azure Sentinel. This SIEM tool is a cloud-native service that provides intelligent security analytics at cloud scale for your company.

Collect data across your enterprise easily

Azure Sentinel allows you to aggregate security data with built-in connectors, integration of Microsoft signals and industry log formats such as comment event format and syslog.

You’re able to import your Office 365 data at no cost to you and combined it with other security data.

Security concerns about Heartbleed and Microsoft Internet Explorer have been a large topic in the news cycle lately. It is important to understand that any site can be affected by a security defect. However, defects can only be exploited if users are not following proper web surfing practices. In other words, in order to exploit any defect, a user would have to navigate to a malicious website, with the malicious code on it.

WebSan Solutions offers peace-of-mind monitoring and security counter measures to ensure our hosting infrastructure follows best practices and your data is always safe in our secure SAS 70/ SSAE 16 certified data centre in Toronto, Canada. Our servers are free of any malicious code and are checked on a regular basis.

The WebSan Cloud protects your data from security attacks and spreading security concerns. If you have any questions, please contact us and we will happily answer your concerns.

Doriana Kote, Web Marketing Coordinator, WebSan Solutions Inc., a Channel Elite Awards Winner for 2013

Security concerns have taken the Internet by storm the last couple of days since a new bug called "Heartbleed" has been exposed by Codenomicon, a Finnish security company, and Google.

Heartbleed is an exploit that compromises secure communications using OpenSSL which is typically configured on servers in a *nix environment. The bug has exposed millions of usernames, passwords and reportedly credit card numbers. It was named Heartbleed because it affects an extension to Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) which engineers simply nicknamed Heartbeat. The two companies disclosed knowledge of the Heartbleed bug on Monday, but they noted that it went unnoticed for as long as two years.

SSL is one of the most commonly used encryption tools on the internet, deployed by almost 66% of all websites. If you ever see a little padlock symbol in your browser then it is likely that you are using SSL.

It's as if someone left their house not knowing the lock on the front door was broken.Could someone walk in? Yes. Have they actually walked in? No one knows.

The WebSan cloud is not affected by this issue; we run state of the art security counter measures and ensure our hosting infrastructure is up to date with all security patches as well as SAS70/SSAE16 compliant. Our mandate is to keep your data safe and secure!

As 2013 comes to a close, we are all considering our New Year’s Resolutions to make 2014 the best year ever. This is a great opportunity to consider last minute adjustments for fine-tuning your business. Remember to follow all the recommended year-end procedures so that all associated systems are ready for the challenges of the New Year.

• Reconcile all your books - Prepare your Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss Statement, Statement of Cash Flows and Statement of Retained Earnings.
• Complete the posting procedures and the closing procedures for all relevant modules.
• Post the final adjusting entries in General Ledger.
• Make a backup.
• Print any year-end financial statements that are required.
• Set up a new fiscal year.
• Close the fiscal year.

Another thing to verify as part of the year-end closing process is the company’s backup procedures. Many organizations have poor or non-existent backup procedures. If there is a hardware failure, the organization may not have a secure offsite copy of its business data to ensure things can pick back up quickly. WebSan provides top cloud security with our Hosted Dynamics GP solution, maintained in our state-of-the-art SAS 70 certified data centre located in Toronto

If you want to learn more about year-end procedures in Microsoft Dynamics GP, join our webinar on Thursday, December 19^th, at 11:00 am EST and learn how to successfully close your books.

We help you make it a success every year!

Doriana Kote, Marketing Assistant, WebSan Solutions Inc., a Channel Elite Awards Winner for 2013

Learn more about Dynamics GPView Dynamics GP PricingFree Dynamics GP Training

Cloud computing has become the rule and not the exception for applications in today’s business world. It is with no doubt the default IT platform and the reality is a lot of organizations use multiple cloud environments delivered within different platforms.

The challenge of managing these cloud environments in a consistent way has created the need for what is known as cloud brokerage. That is, a third-party, vendor-neutral business that serves as a single point of contact when working with multiple providers. Cloud service brokers help users benefit from best-in-class offerings from different providers, while keeping the back end simplified.

Another trend is to certify trustworthy cloud providers. Certified clouds will lead to better take up and wider use of different services with the assurance they bring. After the NSA revelations, there has been an increasing need for cloud security in the business world that can be reassured by cloud certifications. WebSan Solutions has already amplified the importance of security by maintaining its hosted Dynamics GP solution in its state-of-the-art Tier II SAS70/SSAE16 certified data centre located in Toronto, Canada.

Finally, cloud - based applications are gradually gaining ground against on-premise software. Taking into account there is a Google or IOS application for almost everything in today's business world, people can work on one device, either it is a desktop, tablet or mobile and then stop and pick up right where they left off on a different device in another location.

If you are doing business in finance, health care or the government, which are in need of highly protected data management procedures, you know security is an essential part when you are looking for a cloud solution.

According to Gartner’s report, the cloud-based security services market totaled $2.1 billion in 2013 globally. Gartner also expects the market to grow up to $3.1 billion until 2015.

“Encryption will be a new area of growth, but it remains a complex activity. The strongest interest will be in encryption products from cloud security brokers, which are relatively easy to deploy and have options for on-premises encryption management”, said Ruggero Contu, research director at Gartner

This projection anticipates an increasing demand for cloud security services. The good news is at WebSan Solutions your data is secure and accessible when you need it! We offer a hosted-enterprise business software solution, leveraging the vast capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics GP. Our Hosted Dynamics GP solution is maintained in our state-of-the-art Tier II SAS70/SSAE16 certified data centre located in Toronto, Canada.

Doriana Kote, Marketing Assistant, WebSan Solutions Inc., a Channel Elite Awards Winner for 2013

We have all heard about the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) phenomenon in which employees bring their own computing devices to their work, such as their laptops, tablets or even smartphones to complete their job tasks more conveniently. Now Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) is arising and reshaping the world of IT management.

Bring your own cloud is a concept about employees being allowed to use public or private third-party cloud services to perform certain job roles, according to techopedia. Many of the services are web based and cross-platform with Dropbox being probably the most famous among them. Other popular personal cloud services are iCloud, Google Drive and SkyDrive. Additionally, these private cloud services are free to use under a certain storage limit, usually between 2 and 5 GB which is enough for storing emails, documents and other raw data.

Therefore, these BYOC services offer an efficient option for storing files off-device for greater protection, automatic backup and constant availability. However, at the same time they provide an avenue for corporate users to compromise security by storing important data outside the company’s secure barriers. The concern here is not about the Bring Your Own Cloud trend taking over the Bring Your Own Device. The real question is:

How securely can the two concepts coexist in a corporate environment, where you cannot really stop users from using private cloud services when they bring their own devices?

Doriana Kote, Marketing Assistant, WebSan Solutions Inc., a Channel Elite Awards Finalist for 2013

When there’s a question that needs an answer, we are quick to Google it to find a solution. If you wanted to inform your boss about the benefits of moving to Cloud ERP, how would you go about it? Just remember your trying to convince someone that might need more convincing than your average person because of the magnitude of the move. So make sure you clear up some of the perceptions they might have beforehand to ensure the best results.

Here are a few perceptions that you might come across:

1. Cloud ERP Software is only for small businesses

Cloud ERP Software is for all types of businesses from small to large companies. Moving to the cloud was more popular for SMBs because it was easier to convince them of the value and impact that it could have on their business. With larger businesses, there were more hurdles to overcome and more people to see before they were convinced. Some benefits of Cloud ERP for any type of business include:

• The cloud is everywhere. So it doesn’t matter if you’re a Multi-National company or a mom and pop shop. Cloud software can serve remote offices without the addition of more servers and IT staff.
• Cloud security has advanced greatly. Companies can guarantee your data is always secure. Here at WebSan Solutions we have a secure network, in our SAS70/SSAE16 certified data center.

2.“Cloud” and “Hosted” are the same thing