All You Need to Know About Managed IT Services in Washington DC for Legal Firms

All business sectors stand to benefit from Managed IT services. With cyber threats becoming stronger and more prolific toward and in law practices, clients are demanding a greater level of security and more efficient management of their IT systems, especially given the nature of information that law firms handle. As a result, legal firms are investing more in IT and cyber risk management, including detailed security plans and risk prevention tools.

Law firms already have a lot on their plate, but cyber risk and general IT management shouldn’t be a burden if you invest in the right professionals to manage this area of operations for you. Because technology is a fact of life for all business and industry sectors, legal firms cannot ignore the pressing need for more advanced IT systems. Fortunately, you don’t have to be alone in your quest for safer, more efficient technology and information management. With managed IT services, you get to take advantage of:

• Your service provider’s technical expertise. Just as your legal firm is well versed in the ins and outs of law, IT professionals offer a unique set of expertise on the table. With constantly changing technology, you can’t afford to rest on yesterday’s technology, hence the need for experts to guide you through transitions between the ever-evolving technological needs of your operations. The technical expertise that managed IT service providers offer is invaluable, especially when it comes to compliance with industry standards and government regulations in your firm’s use of technology.

• Managed IT services will also ensure higher levels of security for your company. With the highly confidential nature of the information that legal firms process and keep, they demand the highest level of security so as to maintain the public’s confidence as well as the business’ integrity. Managed service providers can recommend and provide your legal firm with the best and latest in software security to prevent breaches from happening.

All About Microsoft’s New OS for Enterprise Servers

Part of maintaining a business in the 21^st century is trying to cope with all the tech developments and advancements that run the modern world. Just like you don’t want to be driving an old, barely street-legal/ road-safe car on modern streets plied by faster, eco-friendlier, and cheaper to maintain modern rides, you also don’t want a computer engine with bare minimum features to help your business get by. You are setting your business up for stagnation by resting on old technology.

Even when you are perfectly content with what old versions of technology are doing for your business, its backward thinking to be satisfied with what they have to offer, because newer and better systems will definitely come to cater to what they lack and even fix issues that are hindering your productivity. The same is true when it comes to Windows Enterprise Servers. One of the main reasons why you should consider constant updates is because as time goes, old systems no longer receive upgrades and eventually go unsupported, especially when newer, more robust systems come to the surface.

If you still haven’t migrated to Windows 2016, an upgrade may well benefit your operations, especially when you are looking for a hybrid-ready solution that can help gear you up for the evolving requirements and demands on enterprise IT infrastructures. If you are still not convinced about an upgrade, perhaps knowing that the latest Windows Server to reach end-of-life was only 15 years old (WS 2003) and it will not be long until the next in line 2008 R2 platform will follow WS 2003’s footsteps. End-of-life products no longer receive fixes or new features, which makes them extremely vulnerable to failures and security breaches.

With Windows Server 2016, you don’t only get the advantage of updates, but the full benefits of a cloud-ready platform, while also enjoying improvements in key areas like security and software defined datacenters.

All About How Virtual Reality Has Seen Success in Mental Health Disorders Treatments

Mental health disorders are coming to better light, thanks to efforts that are slowly, but surely removing the negative stigma about different mental conditions that afflict humanity. One of the many developments in the treatment of mental health disorders is the use of virtual reality technologies in various types of therapies. Virtual reality as a tool for introducing therapy for treating mental health issues isn’t entirely a brand-new concept. In fact, it’s been decades since VR is used to administer exposure therapy in a safe and controlled environment. Nowadays, virtual reality therapy is widely used as a mental health treatment platform, thanks to a greater availability of VR devices and more advanced VR technology. Below are some of the most common mental health therapies that benefit from VR technology: 

• VR Therapy for PTSD – VR has been widely used in prolonged exposure therapy for PTSD. In fact, the earliest uses for VR devices have been for the treatment of war veterans and soldiers who suffered PTSD in the 90s. This said, military PTSD isn’t the only kind of PTSD condition that can be treated using VR PET. The technology is also widely used for treating those who underwent other types of trauma such as sexual abuse.

• VR Therapy for Phobias and Anxiety – VR is also being used for treating a vast number of phobic and anxiety disorders through self-guided therapies and/or telemedicine.

• VR Therapy for Stress Relief – Stress and anxiety reduction therapies can also be administered with the use of VR technology, including meditative and relaxation therapies designed to remedy generalized anxiety and stress.

• VR and Cognitive Behavioral Therapies – Apart from exposure therapy, VR is also useful in administering psychotherapeutic treatments like cognitive behavioral therapies that help patients deal with disturbing and destructive thought patterns, beliefs, and behaviors.

Breakthroughs in Face Detection Abilities and Applications using Information Technology

Technologies surrounding face detection and recognition are advancing by the minute and cutting-edge integrations are surfacing, ever-increasingly, in consumer markets. Although face recognition technology had been for the longest time typecast for use in security and surveillance, its application in other sectors is progressively being studied, such as in gauging specific metrics, which companies can use to predict and influence consumer behavior, thus helping them accelerate revenue growth.

Biometrics or the automated recognition of an individual based on biological, or more specifically, physiological and anatomical characteristics helps face detection technologies identify and in turn, authenticate the identity of individuals based on images captured by a camera. Nowadays, the technology behind face recognition applications and systems use complex calculations to be able to compare the images they capture by means of compound specifications like the distance between the eyes, eyebrows, cheekbones, and other measurable characteristics.

Higher and stronger computing power also means more complex abilities for face recognition technologies. Megapixel cameras for instance, allow for capturing sharper images, which enable more accurate face detection. Face recognition accuracy is further enhanced by more reliable and robust algorithms, which now fuel face recognition software solutions and systems.

These breakthroughs in face detection are expanding applications for the technology way beyond its use in the security industry. In addition to identification and surveillance applications in police and military facilities, airports, and the like, more civic uses for the technology are emerging such as demographic analysis applications, which helps determine the total number of people in a crowd. More advanced applications even have an ability to tell apart sex, recognize age, and detect mood. Development of face detection applications are increasing in more fields, from strengthening access, security, and criminal identification technologies to enabling identity verification for payments, predicting consumer behavior for advertising, and even more ingenious applications in healthcare.

How an IT Services Provider in Virginia Can Help in Setting Up Your New Office

Business expansion is always an exciting time for any organization, but it is not without its challenges. Perhaps you want to relocate to a brand-new location or expand your existing office to include a couple more operational floors. When you are faced with the huge task of setting up or expanding your office network, IT services providers are the best people to turn to so you can have one less thing to worry about during your business setup. These professionals offer the right expertise and will help ease some pain in the process of installing your brand new or expanded system.

When the time comes that a new office setup is in order for your business, you want a service that can provide you with a comprehensive suite of services and solutions so you can implement a holistic approach to system installations. The best company will take time to assess exactly what your business needs when it comes to IT services, thus giving you an integrated view of the solutions available to meet these needs. After a complete assessment of your requirements, an IT services consultant and provider can also lay down a fair comparison of your existing or planned setup against the way that other organizations within the same industry or related industries set up their own IT infrastructure. This way, you can make a more informed decision as to what approach will best fit your needs and help you compete with the rest of the industry players in your niche.

Managed IT service providers can likewise assist you in finding the best and most reliable software and system vendors based on your industry as well as the specific needs of your organization, while providing you sound advice on what are the best policies and strategies to apply in your IT system.

Upcoming Updates of Big Data In 2018

As the digital landscape continues to move and expand in all directions, there is no accurate way to determine what will happen in 2018. However, you can be sure that big data will continue to be influential to businesses in 2018, especially as the internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) continue to be popular. Here are some of the updates on big data that you can expect this year:

• Enhancements to GDPR compliance – To avoid ICO fines, organizations must consider improving their General Data Protection Regulation, which will determine how data is collected, deleted, or stored. Making data available in a centralized location (i.e. a dashboard) can provide companies with the version of the truth in real-time, so discrepancies can easily be spotted, and consent can be provided sooner where personal information is concerned.

• Data visualization to become more crucial in business – Modern organizations continue to practice the culture of analytics, which means data is involved in their every decision. Old school approaches to business intelligence, however, do not produce more effective results due to their rigidity, slowness, and complexity—all of which result in the inability to implement data in the most efficient way possible. With modern dashboards, data visualization can be implemented to boost the ability of stakeholders to view and understand relevant information. Combining charts and graphs with accessible and powerful business analytics will provide more transparency within the organization, even in real-time.

• Data visualization may be the key to removing unnecessary data – Clean data is becoming increasingly important to businesses as it helps drive sales and marketing.  This means the absence of duplicate, incorrect, incomplete, and inconsistent data that could lead to loss of revenue, misinformed decisions, poor reputation, and wasted efforts in marketing. Dashboards can implement a data visualization strategy that can help eliminate unwanted data and enable businesses to see only the most essential information at a glance.

Virtual Reality in Health: New Technology Allows Interaction with Real Cell and Improve Drug Delivery

Virtual reality is becoming more widely adopted in many industries. Over the years, it has gone so far beyond its use in entertainment—providing healthcare practitioners new and better ways to deliver therapies (as in mental heath practices) as well as to examine other health conditions more deeply with the help of 3D technology and virtual reality devices. The VR technology from ARC Centre of Excellence in CBNS (Convergent Bio-Nano Science and Technology) is making waves in cancer study as it allows scientists to see into human cell (multiple scientists, simultaneously). This gives researchers a highly efficient tool for improving doctor interaction as well as analyzing more effectively how cancer drugs actually work.

A result of the initiative known as “Journey to the Centre of the Cell,” this VR technology for health combines microscopy images, scientific data, and animation in order to create a comprehensive virtual world of blood vessels and cells that scientists and doctors can peer into through VR headsets. The professors and investigators collaborating on the project believe that VR can go far beyond its use in gaming and retail, and they are proving their theory well through the development of the technology that allows specialists and multiple doctors to look into the inner workings of the human body so that diagnosis and treatment approaches can be more democratic. 

Early testing of the said technology is proving extremely promising in terms of creating an immersive environment that allows users to understand cellular processes and architecture on a deeper level. VR models are loaded with accurate molecular data to aid research, earning, and pubic engagement. It won’t be long until this VR technology goes beyond simply visualizing and interacting with scientific data virtually, in a 3D environment. Soon enough, the same technology can be developed into something that can truly help improve drug and treatment delivery.

A Chunk of Legal Data Can Cause Risk if Failsafe Measures are Kept Away

Knowledge, information, and data constitute an essential asset for any legal organization. In a law practice, all legal forms, discovery documents, pleadings, letters, and legal data must be protected to secure the identity, rights, and interests of all clients. Effective data management requires so much more than secure storage of these vital documents—it also requires convenient access for all authorized personnel. With today’s world becoming increasingly computerized, legal data are in greater risk of breach as operations migrate on-screen. Failsafe measures for protecting digital assets must be implemented to keep breaches and wrongful use of sensitive information at bay.

The email is probably one of the most vulnerable data locations that must be monitored and protected where legal documents and data are concerned. With electronic mailrooms serving as the most common channels for communication between legal parties, information exchanged within these channels must, by all means, remain protected and confidential. This is where document management system security comes to play. A document management system allows the efficient categorization, organization, annotation, storage, and retrieval of documents in any organizational or business setting.

Document management is so much more than secure storage. It also ensures the efficient organization and fast retrieval of information to ensure a smooth flow of data whenever documents are required for review and presentation. Document management solutions also come with other meaningful tools to help users make sense of the thousands of files and information on their hands. With an efficient document and email management system, your legal firm can effectively annotate, categorize, and organize documents for easy search and retrieval. These systems even allow protected access and sharing of information so unauthorized use of data and information can be prevented, while simplifying the process of exchanging critical information for cases handled.