Recent Posts
Identify Sensitive Data and Risks in Your Organization with a Compliance Accelerator
Many companies today handle sensitive data and private information, and they therefore carry increased risk in the event of a data breach. It’s crucial to identify sensitive data and risks that come with that data, for good business practice as well as legal compliance. That’s not necessarily an easy thing for organizations to do, though.…
Why Compliance is Crucial for Small to Medium-Sized Businesses
What comes to mind when you think about business compliance? Maybe you have a vague awareness that there are regulations to adhere to, but you’re a little fuzzy on the details. Perhaps tackling compliance is on your to-do list, but your (lack of) enthusiasm for it keeps pushing it back…kind of like taxes. Or, worse,…
A Compliance Accelerator to Help You Build an Information Governance Strategy
Many start-ups and small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) hit the ground running, taking care of hiring, marketing, inventory, workflow, countless other aspects of running a company…and within all of this, information governance is often put on a back burner. Yet today’s workforce is full of data which is constantly accumulating. Companies can use this data in many ways—but…
Introducing Our Compliance Accelerators
Are you concerned with new compliance regulations or the wave of news around data breaches? These issues are pressing concerns for businesses today. With so much data collected online, data privacy is an important area to be mindful of and manage properly. This is not only ethical good practice, it’s also necessary for various compliance…
New Compliance Regulations in 2023
This year we will see several new compliance regulations in the United States. As always, it’s important to be aware of these regulations and make sure your organization is compliant with them in order to conduct business safely and avoid legal issues. Domestic companies of all sizes can expect to see a surge and continuation…
CIO Coverage Names Infused Innovations One of Top 10 Leading Microsoft Partners to Watch in 2023
CIO Coverage Names Infused Innovations One of Top 10 Leading Microsoft Partners to Watch in 2023 Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] CIO Coverage Magazine has chosen Infused Innovations for its featured Top 10 Leading Microsoft Partners to Watch in 2023. The prediction for 2023 is that Microsoft and its partners will continue to excel in…
Make the Most of Microsoft Threat and Vulnerability Management (TVM) by Automating with Intune
Let’s say you just bought and deployed Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE) to use as part of your Extended Detection and Response (XDR) service. Or maybe you got the E5 Security license for its cross-domain capabilities. You’re taking a look through security.microsoft.com to check out the possibilities and you stumble on the Threat and Vulnerability…
Discover Potential for Your Business with a Computer Vision Accelerator
Computer vision describes the process when a computer using artificial intelligence algorithms can identify and process images (photos, videos, etc.) and then create an appropriate output from the analysis because the computer can actually “understand” the content. Specifically, computer vision can rapidly detect, identify, classify, and verify objects. As industries continue to move forward, computer…
What is Computer Vision? The Technology Behind this Intelligent Tool
Computer vision is a machine learning technology that allows a computer to process visual images in such a way that it can “understand” and give meaning to them. Then it can perform tasks related to the sorting and identification of related images. Applications for this AI capability are continuing to grow, and forward-thinking companies have…
What is Moonshot Thinking and How Can it Transform Your Business?
Do you ever incorporate moonshot thinking into your planning? It’s easy enough to gather the gist of the idea: a moonshot is a long shot—something difficult to achieve—and thinking about it is the first step toward reaching it. But this is also an intentional strategy that businesses can use to think outside the box and…
How Enterprises Can Use GPT Technology to Drive Their Business Forward
It’s becoming ever clearer that technologies like ChatGPT, one of several new artificial intelligence systems which appears to wield advanced proficiency in using natural language, will open up a plethora of new opportunities for individuals, organizations, and society. It is easy, however, to be stunned by the seemingly infinite number of possibilities that this technology…
ChatGPT Gets Chatty!
This month I’ve done a series on OpenAI’s generative text model, ChatGPT—simple use cases to try out, its current limitations and problems, and how it might change the ways we think, learn and operate. Now it’s time to let Chatty (my nickname for the übersyllabic chatbot) speak for itself. To demonstrate the kinds of responses…
ASRmageddon: What Happened and How We Responded
On January 13th, Microsoft deployed a new definitions update for Microsoft Defender. This caused an issue for some users, as Defender began to flag and delete shortcuts in the “C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs” folder on devices with the Attack Surface Reduction (ASR) rule “Block Win32 API calls from Office macro” set to Block. The widespread nature of this…
A Step in the Evolution of Human-Machine Relationships
The essay is dead. Programming is dead. Google is dead. Have you heard any of these statements (or perhaps more along those lines?) in regard to the effects of powerful generative AI models like ChatGPT? Before we gather at the cemetery, let’s consider a quote by Florida Scott-Maxwell: “Every seed destroys its container, or else…
The Problem(s) with ChatGPT
ChatGPT has quickly become a big buzzword, and by now many of us have given the generative AI model a try. We’ve been amazed at how eloquently it can write. We’ve marveled at that cursor laying out an answer in less time than it took us to formulate the question. We’ve brainstormed ways it can…
ChatGPT Use Cases You Haven’t Thought of
When we published a blog about GPT-3 last year, we thought it would be fun to have the generative AI model itself write parts of the article. With the release of the new GPT3.5 update’s ChatGPT at the end of November, there’s been an explosion of attention on AI-generated text, with many authors bringing it…
2022 Breakthroughs and What They’ll Mean for 2023
We’ve had a lot of big innovations and discoveries this year, and some of them are pretty mind-boggling. The ways they’ll impact our future will be intriguing, amazing—and sometimes scary—to see. One thing is for sure: there’s huge potential in advancements that have recently been made. With the right path-forging and responsible use, these could…
What Will Tomorrow’s IT Workers Look Like?
Technology is evolving rapidly, and so is the field of IT. Given the last couple years of pandemic upheaval, today’s slippery job market, and big advancements in AI, workplaces are changing. IT workers are perhaps the most ready and eager group to meet this change, tending to be forward-thinking and adoptive of new innovations and…
5 Innovative Technologies that are Changing Healthcare
In 1953, my grandmother gave birth to twins in the backseat of her car. She lived far away from the hospital and barely made it there in time to deliver the first one in the parking lot. Everyone was in for a surprise after that, because in those days ultrasounds hadn’t even been invented and…
Giving Data Meaning with Data Storytelling
There’s more data out there than ever before, and today’s organizations have tools to glean large amounts of it that can lead to great business benefits. But without the right analysis and data storytelling, all of that information can remain a jumbled heap that doesn’t translate into any action. Many data analysts who have backgrounds…
Ransomware as a Service? A Dark Web Economy for Cybercrime
We know that ransomware continues to be a big (and costly) problem to those who are targeted. Just who is carrying out these attacks, and how? Much of the ransomware activity taking place today does so through an interconnected network of actors working in a gig-like economy. Malicious actors with little more than a laptop…
Happy Employees Mean Happy Customers—and Higher Revenue
Companies are often looking to improve customer experience and satisfaction as an overall business strategy. There are a number of ways to achieve this, such as keeping open communication with clients and striving to make the answer “yes” when customers have ideas or requests. But research also tells us there’s another avenue that starts even closer to home:…
Can Blockchain Revolutionize the Scientific Process?
In terms of promise and success, blockchain technologies have been all over the map this year. Use cases for the arts have flourished, and new platforms allowing things like NFT trading for theater fans have emerged. Cryptocurrency, blockchain’s original purpose, has been on some big rollercoasters—most recently culminating in the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, which is likely…
Ensuring Privacy with Microsoft Priva
With so much personal data stored online today, privacy is a big concern both for individuals and for businesses in terms of compliance. Regulations like the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) apply beyond those borders and affect how organizations can store personal information, while giving consumers rights to manage how…
Scary Cyber Attacks in 2022 and the Driving Forces Behind Them
It’s no secret that cyber crime has grown tremendously over the past few years. Unfortunately, malicious actors have taken advantage of (and sometimes caused) social upheavals around Covid-19, elections, economic instability, and war. Throughout all of these challenges people have spent a lot of time online, and a lot of business has been done there too—it’s a…
Innovation Spotlight: The Broadway Exchange, an NFT Platform for Live Theater
Sometimes new technologies open up possibilities in surprising places. The expansion of digital and virtual options in the past couple years has broadened the ways we can experience events: it’s become normal to meet virtually with people across the country, we can make appearances at gatherings by unprecedented means, and there are a variety of ways…
What is a Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP)?
With the evolving digital space and the work we do in it, numerous security solutions have been utilized over the years to address the challenges of each part. Devices and servers need to be protected. Defenses against attacks like phishing and ranswomware should be put up. As digital transformations took place and moved data and…
Defender Announcements from Microsoft Ignite 2022
At Microsoft’s IT conference this year, there are plenty of announcements about its security suite Microsoft Defender. This umbrella solution covers a variety of services and integrates with other Microsoft products, now better than ever. Here’s some big Defender news that was announced at Microsoft Ignite 2022. Defender for DevOps Customers using DevOps have given…
Big Announcements from Microsoft Ignite 2022
Microsoft Ignite 2022 is in full swing. This annual conference is Microsoft’s time to communicate with IT professionals about new announcements and offerings. This year the event is back in-person at the Seattle Convention Center for those who are able to make it there. Anyone else can attend virtually, and for those who don’t have…
Use Power Automate to Make Sharing to LinkedIn (and Other Places) a Breeze
It’s such a chore to have to find interesting things to post to LinkedIn so I can stay relevant with all my connections! If I don’t post anything, how will my followers know I still exist? What if I told you that you didn’t have to doom scroll through your RSS reader to find interesting…
What’s New in the Windows 11 2022 Update?
Windows 11 has always been an operating system for hybrid work. When it came out in October 2021, it was already the most secure Microsoft OS yet, and it came to a market that was increasingly revolving around remote work and hybrid options. And for the first several months of its use, Microsoft wanted feedback…
The Complete Office 365 and Microsoft 365 Licensing Comparison
Full Microsoft 365 licensing comparison matrix of subscriptions that includes features and pricing for Office 365, EMS and Windows 10 Enterprise plans.
Software Macros: the Good and the Bad
Software macros allow you to automate repetitive tasks, saving time and simplifying workflows. But they have commonly been an easy way for attackers to spread viruses too. Earlier this year Microsoft began blocking Office macros in internet files by default (and then temporarily back-tracked, and then blocked once again) in order to protect against this…
Take a Break! Why Work Breaks are Crucial, Especially if You’re Working from Home
It’s easy to pile on the hours when you’ve got a lot of work to do. And for those working remotely from home, work/life boundaries can become blurred, causing work tasks to interfere with healthy downtime. Back-to-back meetings can have remote workers sitting in front of their screens in high-focus mode for hours, without a…
Blocking the Russian Hacker Group SEABORGIUM
As the war in Ukraine continues, now having reached six months since Russia’s invasion, cyber criminals in Russia are also persisting in their more longstanding digital efforts in key areas around the globe. For the past several years, Russian actors have aggressively interfered in the cyber space of Europe and the United States. One of…
Infused Innovations Ranks No. 1564 on the Inc. 5000 for 2022
Inc. Magazine Reveals Annual List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies: the Inc. 5000 NEW YORK – Inc. Magazine revealed its annual Inc. 5000 list last week, announcing that Infused Innovations ranked No. 1564 on the list. With a three-year growth rate of 409%, this marks continued significant growth for Infused Innovations, and it’s the third…
7 Tips for Creating the Best Customer Experience
One of our passions is delivering an excellent experience to our customers: we like to get to know them, tailor solutions to just what they need, and make the whole process a positive one for them. We have some tried-and-true methods for making this happen, and these can be helpful for any business working with…
Microsoft Viva Engage: Social Networking for Work
43% of company leaders believe that that the single biggest challenge of remote work is relationship building among team members in separate locations. And a social element is important for employee connection, a sense of humanness, and company culture building. Workers are happiest and most comfortable when they can share not only this week’s client…
The Most Common Cyber Threats to Be Aware Of
Cyber crimes are all over the place. Hackers are just waiting to make a big profit off of vulnerable parties, devices and networks. Every organization needs to be on guard for attacks that will inevitably occur. Small- and medium-sized businesses in particular are often prime targets, and they’re usually not prepared for what’s coming. Since…
Tech Tips for Smooth Travels
Many of us have avoided travel throughout the the past couple years of Covid craziness and are now ready to get moving again. Maybe you and the family have been waiting to explore a new destination, or you’re excited to see distant loved ones that you’ve been unable to visit. Perhaps you’re finally able to…
5 Big Announcements from Microsoft Inspire 2022
Microsoft’s largest partner event of the year is going on now. Inspire is the annual conference bringing the partner community together and creating new opportunities for growth and collaboration. At this digital event you can celebrate achievements in the community, find out Microsoft’s biggest priorities for the year ahead, and gain the chance to develop…
Infused Innovations Places #1 in Channel Futures’ 2022 MSP 501 New England Regional Ranking
Infused Innovations Places #1 in Channel Futures 2022 MSP 501 New England Regional Ranking—Tech Industry’s Most Prestigious List of Managed Service Providers Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] MSP 501 Regional Rankings Identify Best-in-Class Businesses in Geographic Areas In June, Channel Futures announced the winners of its annual MSP 501 list. This comprehensive list is…
Infused Innovations Welcomes Bill Urwin as Senior Sales Consultant
Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] INFUSED INNOVATIONS WELCOMES BILL URWIN AS SENIOR SALES CONSULTANT North Kingstown, RI: Infused Innovations announces the hiring of Bill Urwin in the role of Senior Sales Consultant. Bill Urwin has joined Infused Innovations as Senior Sales Consultant, adding to the company’s growing sales and marketing team in a crucial role.…
Innovation Spotlight: Agriculture Meets Education Through FarmBot Technology
One of today’s areas of innovation with expanding potential is robotics. There are many applications where this technology can be used to boost efficiency and precision, freeing up human hands. FarmBot is a company that uses robotics for small-scale farming, often in settings that aid in research and education. Not only can this help with…
Inside Our Innovation Lab
At Infused Innovations, we aim for great customer relationships and we pride ourselves on being one of the best managed service providers in the world. It’s important to be able to deliver up-to-date, trustworthy and reliable advisory services to clients that we get to know well. There’s another side of what we do, though, that’s…
The LEGO Group’s Experience on Windows 365 Cloud PC
The world’s largest toy company is one built on blocks, color, and imagination—and now it’s building a company cloud infrastructure that makes it easier for any kind of user to access from anywhere. The LEGO Group was founded in 1932 in Billund, Denmark, and is still headed by the same family. Its name derives from…
Infused Innovations Ranks #11 on Channel Futures 2022 MSP 501
Infused Innovations Ranks #11 on Channel Futures 2022 MSP 501—Tech Industry’s Most Prestigious List of Managed Service Providers Worldwide Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] Annual MSP 501 Identifies Industry’s Best-in-Class Businesses On June 17, 2022, Channel Futures named Infused Innovations as one of the world’s premier managed service providers in its prestigious…
What is GPT-3 and How Should it be Used?
GPT-3 is the third-generation predictive text model from OpenAI, and it is one of the most powerful predictive text models available today. It has been trained on a large amount of data, and it can generate very realistic and coherent text. GPT-3 has many applications, including machine translation, text generation, and question answering. It is…
A Brief History of Infused Innovations
Back in the 1980s, there were already signs that young Jeff Wilhelm might someday build a successful, forward-thinking, outside-the-box innovation company. His dad had a computer at home—a new thing back then—that sparked Jeff’s curiosity. When his elementary school teacher gave a creative writing assignment, other classmates wrote various fictional stories. Jeff turned in a…
Infused Innovations Welcomes LeAnn Claahsen as Director of Sales and Marketing
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 10, 2022 Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] INFUSED INNOVATIONS WELCOMES LEANN CLAAHSEN AS DIRECTOR OF SALES AND MARKETING North Kingstown, RI: Infused Innovations announces the hiring of LeAnn Claahsen as Director of Sales and Marketing. LeAnn Claahsen has joined Infused Innovations in a critical role as the Director of Sales & Marketing.…
New Capabilities in Microsoft Teams
If you use Microsoft Teams, you love it. That’s just how it goes, because its one-stop capabilities for chat, calls, meetings, file sharing, collaboration, scheduling and work organization make life so much easier. The folks at Microsoft are always working to improve it, too. New capabilities in Microsoft Teams are constantly emerging. Made for frontline…
Top Announcements from Microsoft Build 2022
At Microsoft Build 2022, the tech giant’s annual conference geared towards developers and software engineers, there was a lot of exciting news discussed in the various roundtables and online connection zones. Here are some of our favorite announcements from the conference. Applied AI: Azure Form Recognizer We know that AI continues to gain new capabilities,…
Will Robots Take Away Human Jobs?
It’s been a question on people’s minds for a while now: many have wondered what work might look like in the future when robots become more prevalent, and what will happen to those people whose jobs can be replaced by them. For some, a rise in the adoption of robotics brings angst that societies will…
Integrate External Attack Surface Management (EASM) with Microsoft Sentinel
RiskIQ, an External Attack Surface Management (EASM) company that Microsoft acquired last year, helps customers assess and monitor all of their areas of potential attack across their enterprise. This covers not only endpoints but also multiple cloud environments, SaaS platforms, and in the supply chain as well. It identifies vulnerable assets, remediating them before attackers…
Infused Innovations Welcomes Kristi Robison as Client Strategic Advisor
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 10, 2022 Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] INFUSED INNOVATIONS WELCOMES KRISTI ROBISON AS CLIENT STRATEGIC ADVISOR North Kingstown, RI: Infused Innovations formally announces the hiring of Kristi Robison as Client Strategic Advisor. Kristi Robison has joined Infused Innovations as an addition to the growing Client Strategic Advisory services arm of the company. …
Innovation Spotlight: Ukrainian Pastry Chef Dinara Kasko’s 3D-Printed Cake Designs
My Mother’s Day cake this year was a special treat: slicing into it revealed a multi-layered dessert of vanilla cake, lemon curd caramel, and mango gelée, topped with tesselating swirls of mango mousse and flecks of gold. Its impressive design was thanks to a silicone mold created through pastry chef Dinara Kasko’s 3D-printed cake process.…
What Can Your Organization Achieve with Innovation Services?
Imagine your work could be totally transformed. How would you transform it? For those willing to think outside the box, this is a real question to ask—an open-ended question that could lead to surprising results. Creating new and remarkable ways of doing things is very possible, with emerging technologies developing every day. It takes innovative…
Microsoft Purview Combines Data Governance and Compliance
The world is becoming increasingly interconnected and digitally oriented. This is the case across industries and different aspects of our lives—healthcare, insurance, shopping, work. With such dependence on this connection from any location through digital means, there are lots of bases to cover in terms of data organization, security, and compliance in regulation standards. To…
Microsoft Will Raise Prices for Nonprofits and End On-Prem Grants
In March, Microsoft made a number of changes to its licensing and pricing for Office 365 and Microsoft 365 business subscriptions. Now, effective September 1, 2022, Microsoft will raise prices for nonprofits as well, as the company recently announced. Here’s a breakdown of the price increases, the reasoning behind them, and why they’re being raised…
3 Surprising Ways Technology Can Help Animals
If you’re like many of us here at Infused Innovations, you love both technology and animals. Are they usually discussed together? No. But there are some really cool innovative tools can be used to benefit animal welfare. Technology can help animals in a number of ways: the possibilities developing today are offering new insights and…
Microsoft Defender for Cloud: the Only Offering that Natively Supports Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud
The three largest cloud infrastructure providers are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud (in that order, according to market share). They each offer an array of capabilities and conveniences—on top of data storage, customers can use them to build applications, run projects, track analytics, and more. Many customers, especially enterprises, have aspects…
What’s all the Hype About NFTs?
You’ve probably heard about NFTs becoming one of the next big things in the digital world. Non-fungible tokens, as the full name goes, are a way to attach scarcity to digital items—thus creating value. This allows for them to be bought, collected, traded, invested in and so forth. But since they’re also non-tangible, this concept…
Azure Firewall Basic Geared Towards Small and Medium Sized Businesses
Firewalls have long been a first line of defense for network security. The barrier that they create between internal and external networks acts as a sort of living fortress wall, monitoring the traffic and deciding what to let in. A firewall can take the form of hardware or software-and in the case of Azure Firewall,…
The Enterprise World Names Infused Innovations Top Most Trusted Security Automation Solution Companies
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Enterprise World Names Infused Innovations Top Most Trusted Security Automation Solution Companies Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] The Enterprise World Magazine ranked the Top Most Trusted Security Automation Solution Companies for small to medium-sized businesses and Infused Innovations is proud to have made the list. Infused Innovations is growing at a…
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Intel TDT Combine for a New Ransomware Defense
Ransomware continues to be a growing and evolving threat. As some cyber attackers become increasingly sophisticated, things like ransomware kits allow even hackers with a low level of skill to take part in this malicious activity. With relatively little investment, they end up reaping big gains. And once that happens, they have all the more…
The Role of Technology in Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
During World War II, Ford Motor Company stopped its civilian automobile production and redirected its assembly lines toward military machinery instead. It was one way that a private company used its resources to aid government and country efforts. Decades later, today’s warfare involves more than physical machinery. Russia’s horrific attack on Ukraine is a culmination…
Windows Hello for Business Cloud Trust is in Preview
Windows Hello for Business is an enterprise login tool that verifies identity with biometrics: facial recognition or fingerprints. This eliminates the need to enter passwords, which saves time & hassle and increases employees’ productivity. Last week, Microsoft announced its Windows Hello for Business cloud trust, which applies to hybrid environments. This new authentication model considerably…
Infused Innovations Launches New Innovation Services
Infused Innovations Launches New Innovation Services NORTH KINGSTOWN, RHODE ISLAND, February 23, 2022 Infused Innovations announces the launch of its new Innovation Services practice for clients and forward-thinking organizations. Infused Innovations, a digital transformation consultancy leveraging the Microsoft ecosystem, today announced the launch of its new Innovation Services to help organizations push the boundaries of…
Forrester’s Total Economic Impact™ Report for Microsoft Zero Trust Security Solutions
Two big aspects in work environments have changed considerably in recent years: huge amounts of workers have shifted to more remote or hybrid work, and cyber crimes have increased drastically in response to vulnerabilities related to this. Such a scenario makes it crucial for businesses to adopt a rigorous Zero Trust cybersecurity stance to protect…
Facts and Misconceptions About Zero Trust
Cybercrime reports have gone up over 300% in the last couple years. And a surprisingly large number of breaches happen with company employees involved, often because of mistakes like falling for phishing baits. Any insider in the company can potentially be a point of vulnerability that can expose the whole network. That’s why a Zero…
What’s Your Vision of the Metaverse?
The other day I had my first dream about the metaverse. Some friends and family were going to play a game, much like laser tag, that incorporated virtual elements into our physical space. I was new to the game, though, and when I asked a friend how to play, he rudely told me to look…
What You Need to Know About Microsoft Licensing Changes in 2022
Last year Microsoft customers got a heads up that subscription pricing would increase starting on March 1, 2022. Now that we’re closing in on that date, it’s time to take a look at budgeting and make any last licensing choices before it’s too late. The good news is that there are opportunities to save if…
How to Create an Environment of Innovation at your Company
There are lots of changes happening in today’s workplaces. Where and how work is done is affected by new needs and expanding capabilities. It’s truly a time of growth and transformation. Is your organization taking advantage of this time to flourish in new ways? Or are you having trouble moving forward? Now is a perfect…
What is Blockchain?
Blockchain technology has many uses and offers a decentralized method to store data and conduct transactions. This decentralized nature, in contrast to working through a central governing host, brings better transparency, privacy, and owner control. Without a central entity overseeing data, it’s distributed among users. For this reason, it’s also called distributed ledger technology (DLT).…
What Are Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs)?
When you log into an account with Google or Facebook, you’re doing an identity verification through a central intermediary. While it may seem convenient to log in with these established accounts, it comes with concerns for privacy. These large intermediaries will gather metadata as you use the account—things like when and how long you used…
5 Tech Terms for 2022
Happy New Year! 2021 had its challenges and its highlights, bringing us now to a new year that many have been looking forward to. And when it comes to looking forward, technology is the realm where you can always expect new innovation and possibilities. What will we hear about in the tech world in 2022?…
Technology Highlights of 2021
2021 was another year of ups and downs, full of both concerning issues and exciting advancements. In terms of technology, we are going through some big transformations and seeing things that seemed very futuristic not long ago. Here’s a look at some of the technology highlights of 2021 that stood out to us as we…
What Are Verifiable Credentials?
In today’s highly digital world, we’ve come to rely on digital copies of documents. We keep and send digital files to reduce paper waste and speed up transmission. We store photos on hard drives or the cloud so we don’t have to print all of them, and those that are printed can always be duplicated…
New Microsoft Teams Essentials Competes with Zoom
Video calls are now a commonplace part of our lives. From work to school and every kind of virtual meeting in between, we’ve done a lot of them in the past couple years. For many people, Zoom is what they’re most familiar with—it quickly rose to household fame when everyone scrambled to adopt remote practices…
Cyberattacks in 2021 Doubled Those of 2020
If 2020 was the year of Covid chaos, 2021 was the year of cybercrime explosion. Of course, both of these roller-coaster years were much more complicated and neither can be summed up in one simple term like that. But it’s true that cyberattacks have risen dramatically this year, making even 2020 look tame in comparison.…
Silicon Review Magazine Names Infused Innovations Top 50 Best Workplaces of the Year 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Silicon Review Magazine Names Infused Innovations Top 50 Best Workplaces of the Year 2021 Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected]ns.com The Silicon Review Magazine ranked the 50 best workplaces of the year 2021 for small to medium-sized businesses and Infused Innovations is proud to have made the list. “It’s important now, more than…
New Improvements to Microsoft Secure Score in December 2021
Today’s cloud services allow for convenient, hassle-free data storage and application running. The challenge that comes with this digital environment, though, is the potential for security compromises. Microsoft Secure Score is a helpful way for Microsoft users to track their security posture across all of their solutions. As with other Microsoft tools, it’s always being…
CIO Bulletin Recognizes Infused Innovations in Top 50 Most Influential Companies of the Year 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CIO Bulletin Recognizes Infused Innovations in Top 50 Most Influential Companies of the Year 2021 Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] CIO Bulletin ranked small to medium size businesses for their influence throughout the year 2021 and Infused Innovations is proud to have made the list. “These companies have worked tirelessly to create…
Gratitude at Work is Good for Businesses
It’s Thanksgiving week and the time of year when individuals and families take extra time to reflect on what they’re grateful for. It helps us gain perspective and keep a positive mindset as we head into the winter months. But it’s not just helpful at home—gratitude at work is good for organizations, too. That’s why…
Using Machine Learning for Music Therapy
We all know instinctively that music has tangible effects on our bodies and minds. Upbeat songs motivate us to exercise or take on a challenge; softer, less rhythmic music might relax us or get us ready for bed. Researchers have done studies that measure these effects on the body through skin and brain monitoring. A…
A Guide to Microsoft Product Name Changes
If you’ve ever been confused by Microsoft’s offerings, their names, or what they include, you’re not alone. Even as a Microsoft Gold Partner, we have to stay on top of the seemingly ever-changing product terminology. Just as Microsoft is always looking to improve their technologies, it seems that what they call them is also under…
Top 10 Announcements from Microsoft Ignite November 2021
Microsoft Ignite November 2021 is in session this week, so it’s your chance to catch up on Microsoft enterprise news. If it feels like Ignite just happened not long ago, that’s because Microsoft is actually holding two Ignite conferences this year (the other one was an extra spring conference in March). Hosted virtually once again,…
Why You Should Never Link Your Personal Email to Work
With busy work and life schedules, we often want to make things as easy and convenient as possible. You might get the urge to link your personal email to work as one of those ways to simplify. Just one inbox to check, wherever you are, and you get all the messages you need—right? But if…
Security vs Productivity: The Gradient for XDR and Conditional Access to Capitalize
It wasn’t too long ago that if you had antivirus software running on your computer, and the IT department had a moderately good firewall at the border of your network, that was considered “secure enough.” Staff would come into the office and be on the secured network, and they would get their work done. Then…
MITRE D3FEND and Azure Mappings: Counteracting ATT&CK Methods
Whenever I read about MITRE ATT&CK and D3FEND, a part of my brain goes, “[email protected]?” But another part is excited about such a comprehensive reference framework to nail down the moves that cyber attackers make—and to map responsive counteractions in defense. With funding from the NSA, MITRE D3FEND was released this summer to fill in…
What is MITRE ATT&CK?
By now, we know it well: cyber threats are a major concern with great potential for damage. There are so many different ways that adversarial actors can gain access and cause breaches to networks, devices, and organizations. MITRE ATT&CK is a structured breakdown of the techniques that cyber attackers use, as well as a catalogue…
Infused Innovations Welcomes Bob Borges as Chief Technology Officer
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 14, 2021 Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] INFUSED INNOVATIONS WELCOMES BOB BORGES AS CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER Emphasizing the firm’s focus on technical strategy and service delivery. North Kingstown, RI: Infused Innovations formally announces the hiring of Bob Borges as Chief Technology Officer. As Chief Technology Officer, Bob will oversee the technical service…
Microsoft Expands its Defender for Endpoint to Windows Server 2012 R2 and 2016
Microsoft has several different operating systems for servers. Businesses and organizations have different needs, and Microsoft understands that. For a variety of reasons, some companies may not be able or want to upgrade their servers to newer operating systems. But they still need to be protected against modern attacks, which are only growing more adept.…
Great Customer Relationships Means Great Communication
For those who want to build a customer-first culture at their organization, communication is crucial. This means more than just answering the phone and responding quickly to emails. It’s important to be aware of many different aspects and know just how your customer fits in. For really great communication, you should know the individuals, titles…
Infused Innovations Appoints Erica Bosse as VP of Operations and Customer Experience
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 6, 2021 Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] Emphasizing the firm’s focus on client experience North Kingstown, RI: Infused Innovations Appoints Erica Bosse as VP of Operations and Customer Experience In this position, Erica Bosse will be responsible for aligning and leading organizational operations to fully support Infused Innovations’ focus on the…
Empowering Nonprofits Through Challenging Times
It’s not always the most visible sector, but nonprofit organizations bring in over 10% of the gross domestic product in the U.S. and employ more people than most other industries (behind only retail and food services). On top of the direct employment they provide and the beneficial actions they take in society, nonprofits are also…
Infused Innovations Appoints Phil Magnuszewski as First Chief Innovation Officer
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 29, 2021 Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] Emphasizing the firm’s focus on innovation and client solutions North Kingstown, RI: Infused Innovations named Phil Magnuszewski as the firm’s first Chief Innovation Officer as of last week. Phil Magnuszewski will build a suite of innovation products and offerings for clients, form viewpoints around emerging…
The Great Resignation and What it Means for Your Company
The last couple years have been draining. An ongoing pandemic has put people on edge and lacking a level of social interaction they took for granted before. Societal and political roller coasters have often brought division and gloom. Work and schooling done at home (and then, maybe, back in person with new constraints) have caused…
10 Cybersecurity Stats You Need to Know
Cyber attackers are smart, capable, and only becoming more so as time goes on. With increased vulnerability from public health fears and shuffled work settings, individuals and companies have suffered a great deal of attacks in the last couple years. And that’s on top of what was already a teeming problem. Some of the numbers…
The Workplace Is Changing — Are You Ready?
The Workplace Is Changing. Are You Ready? A couple of months ago, I wrote about the “New Normal” and how technology is being reimagined for hybrid work. Since that time, there have been starts and stops with corporations hoping to get people back to the office by September. As we all know, globally the various COVID…
Gartner’s Unified Endpoint Management Leaders
If your organization hasn’t consolidated control of user devices to Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) yet, Gartner predicts that you are likely to within the next three years. Just last year less than 5% of companies were using UEM, but with current trends it looks like the majority of them will adopt the technology by 2024.…
Infused Innovations Welcomes Mike Miller as Senior Engineer
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 8, 2021 Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] INFUSED INNOVATIONS WELCOMES MIKE MILLER AS SENIOR ENGINEER Emphasizing the firm’s focus on customer support as well as modern workplace and security North Kingstown, RI: Infused Innovations formally announces the hiring of Mike Miller as Senior Engineer. As Senior Engineer, Mike will serve as a…
Has Delta Got You Wedding-Hesitant? Consider Appearing as a Hologram
Hopefully you’ve enjoyed a nice, long Labor Day weekend. Maybe you even did some traveling, or went to a wedding. On the other hand, if you’re like many who are still hesitant to get back to such activities because of the relentless spread of Covid-19, you may have opted to stay in your own neighborhood…
Infused Innovations Welcomes Dave Kissee as Engineer
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 1, 2021 Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] INFUSED INNOVATIONS WELCOMES DAVE KISSEE AS ENGINEER Emphasizing the firm’s focus on client support North Kingstown, RI: Infused Innovations formally announces the hiring of Dave Kissee as an Engineer. As an Engineer, Dave will be responsible for user support, triage, ticket dispatch, escalation decision-making, and…
Pricing for MDE P1 – Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is Getting a New SKU
Endpoints continue to be one of the most common targets of cyber attackers. Ransomware and malware are always evolving and becoming more sophisticated, and their danger to endpoints only increases. With this growing threat, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE) is now available in more purchase options. Originally included with an E5 license and then made…
Building a Customer-First Culture
At Infused Innovations, we strive to be not only security-first but customer-first as well. It’s at the core of our company values—and great customer experience is becoming more crucial for business in general. 86% of customers will pay more for a better experience, and 88% of companies are now prioritizing CX, as it’s sometimes called…
What is the Metaverse and Why It’s Going to Save the World
At first glance, the term Metaverse seems like something straight out of the Marvel Universe. In reality, the Microsoft Metaverse is the culmination and integration of a set of applications both in the intelligent cloud and at the edge — working in harmony to bring this concept to life right here on planet Earth. The vision of the…
How Mixed Reality Can Help with Autism
You may have heard about mixed reality beginning to play a role in work industries and scientific research. With the introduction of Microsoft Mesh at the Ignite 2021 conference, we saw examples of holographic 3D structures and deep sea explorations taken on land. Those working in machinery can use virtual tools to augment their workflow…
Pricing Update for Microsoft 365
Office 365 was first released in 2011, and it’s grown a lot since then. Microsoft has added 24 apps and 1,400+ new features over that time—without any substantial price increases. After a decade of innovation and rebranding itself several times, Microsoft is announcing its first commercial pricing update for Microsoft 365. Customers have some advance…
Infused Innovations Appears on the 2021 Inc. 5000 List, Ranking No. 2345 With a Three-Year Revenue Growth of 181%
Inc. Magazine Reveals Annual List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies—the Inc. 5000 NEW YORK, August 18, 2021 – Inc. magazine revealed that Infused Innovations is No. 2345, with a three-year revenue growth rate of 181%, on its annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. The list represents a…
What You Need to Know About Azure AD Connect V2.0
What is Azure AD Connect V2.0? It’s the latest upgrade in a long history of Microsoft’s organizational management offering, Active Directory (AD). Built for Windows servers, AD’s main purpose is authenticating credentials and controlling respective levels of access according to permissions. In an on-premises environment, a domain controller (DC) is the server that runs these…
Infused Innovations Ranks 21 on CRN’s 2021 Fast Growth 150 List with 123.15% Growth Rate
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Infused Innovations Ranks 21 on CRN’s 2021 Fast Growth 150 List with 123.15% Growth Rate Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] CRN’s Fast Growth 150 list ranks solution providers with gross annual sales of at least $1 million by their two-year growth rate. With this list, CRN recognizes the fastest-growing North American technology…
Azure Defender for IoT Boosts Protection with Microsoft’s ReFirm Labs Acquisition
Good morning!* For the sake of imagining the Internet of Things, I’m going to envision that you were woken up this morning by your smart alarm, you glanced at your watch to give you a sleep or heart rate summary from your night, then you checked on your little one via your baby monitor before…
IoT Vulnerabilities (and What to Do About Them)
For every person on this planet, there are about four and a half IoT devices. The Internet of Things is all over the place, from intelligent watches to smart home appliances to medical sensors and beyond. And it’s only becoming more prevalent, quickly: nearly 130 new IoT devices are hooked up every second. These devices…
The New Normal: Technology Reimagined for Hybrid Work
The pandemic showed us the need for Unified Communications. With millions of people suddenly being forced to work remotely, companies were required to adapt to this “new normal.” This meant licensing and adopting new technologies and using them in new ways to allow employees to do their jobs effectively while remote. The New Normal: A…
Windows Virtual Desktop is now Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD)
If you pay much attention to Microsoft products, you know that Microsoft loves to rename and rebrand. That’s because they’re constantly evolving their offerings, improving and expanding them in such a fluid way that something as static as a name can’t hold for too long. In this case, Windows Virtual Desktop is becoming Azure Virtual…
The Future of Work: Hot New Terms from Satya Nadella’s Inspire 2021 Keynote
With new technologies arising and innovation happening rapidly, we’re seeing some big changes in how people work. Satya Nadella’s Inspire 2021 keynote speech at the partner conference last week highlighted that. He brought up some terms that reflect where we’re at and where we’re headed in our work practices. All of them tend to revolve…
Infused Innovations Wins 2021 Microsoft US Partner Award for Modern Work & Security
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Infused Innovations Wins 2021 Microsoft US Partner Award for Modern Work & Security Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] Infused Innovations has been chosen as a winner of the Microsoft US (MSUS) Partner Award in the Modern Work & Security category. The MSUS Partner Award was created to supplement Microsoft’s Partner of the…
Top 5 Announcements from Microsoft Inspire 2021
Microsoft Inspire 2021 is in session. Their largest partner event of the year, this annual conference is an opportunity to network, learn from industry leaders, and find out the latest news in Microsoft’s offerings. Like last year, this event is held digitally and you can still register for attendance if you want to catch the…
Infused Innovations Ranks Top 10 Most Innovative Companies to Watch in 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Infused Innovations Ranks Top 10 Most Innovative Companies to Watch in 2021 Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] CIO Views is a business magazine that mainly focuses on emerging CIOs, their journey, views on current economic states, and all other relevant subjects that refer to the business world. They provide interesting insights…
How Has the MSP Industry Changed Since Covid Began?
Last week we were pleased to announce our ranking as #16 in Channel Futures’ annual MSP 501 list. Channel Futures has also given us some interesting insights into the way the MSP industry has changed over time, based on their data from this year’s MSP 501. Perhaps not surprisingly, there have been some big…
Channel Futures Names Infused Innovations #16 in MSP 501 Worldwide for 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Channel Futures names Infused Innovations #16 in MSP 501 Worldwide for 2021 Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] Channel Futures is a media platform that provides insights and analysis within the world of information and communication technologies. Every year, its team puts together a list of the most influential and fastest-growing managed…
Infused Innovations Welcomes Connor O’Neill as Director of Advanced Analytics
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 23rd, 2021 Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] INFUSED INNOVATIONS WELCOMES CONNOR O’NEILL AS DIRECTOR OF ADVANCED ANALYTICS Emphasizing the firm’s focus on expanding data and analytics business solutions North Kingstown, RI: Infused Innovations formally announces the hiring of Connor O’Neill as Director of Advanced Analytics. As Director of Advanced Analytics, Connor will…
What is Content Disarm and Reconstruction (CDR)?
Much of cybersecurity depends on detection—like the detection & response solutions we’ve written about recently. But there’s another, less common way to approach malware threats. Content Disarm and Reconstruction, or CDR, strips down a file’s active content and rebuilds the file with only known, safe elements. Sometimes called file sanitization, CDR delivers a clean, “sanitized”…
Responsibilities of the Tech Industry
With changing societal habits and rapid advances in technology, governments often lag behind in creating structures that keep runaway possibilities in check. Issues from data privacy and disinformation to artificial intelligence have become areas of concern where regulation would ideally keep technology ethical. But since there’s such a gap between technology’s growth and government action,…
Forrester Ranks Microsoft a Leader in Cloud Security Gateways
Here we are already, rounding out the second quarter of 2021. In this time of year you may be asking: who comes out at the top of Forrester’s Q2 Wave Assessment for Cloud Security Gateways? The Forrester Wave looks at technology providers in a particular category—say, Security Analytics Platforms—and ranks them on both x and…
Lessons Learned from a CEO: Business Impact from the Year 2020 & COVID
Let’s be honest, the year 2020 was a year for the books. Quite literally, this year will be written throughout history books that our grandchildren will read. From a pandemic to an international lockdown forcing schools, shops, and restaurants to shut down, it’s safe to say the pandemic has had a significant impact on our…
Top 10 Announcements from Microsoft Build 2021
It’s Build week—Microsoft’s annual conference for developers and software engineers. If you like to follow Microsoft technologies or make use of Azure, you’ll want to know the news from this digital event. Here are some of the top announcements from Microsoft Build 2021. Continuous Access Evaluation in Microsoft Graph Continuous Access Evaluation (CAE) is now…
Microsoft 365 XDR
Disclaimer: It’s not actually called Microsoft 365 XDR. (But a lot of people like to type that into a search engine.) MD XDR encompasses the entire security suite while the M365 security suite is referred to as Microsoft 365 Defender. We agree with you–it’s just as confusing as the prior ATP product names. Extended Detection…
What Are the Differences Between MDR, EDR and XDR for Cybersecurity?
You may have been hearing about XDR in recent months—this is a rising technology that improves upon MDR and EDR, which themselves are great advancements from older solutions. Gartner predicts that the majority of enterprises will have replaced legacy security software with one of these advanced solutions by 2023. So what do all these offerings…
How Artificial Intelligence is Saving the Earth
It’s no secret that we need to take better care of the Earth. There are currently 150 million metric tons of plastic in the ocean. Humans have caused 322 animal extinctions over the past 500 years. And about 17 percent of the Amazonian rainforest has been destroyed over the past 50 years due to deforestation. When it comes to…
Infused Innovations Welcomes Matt Sepko as Senior Engineer
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 3rd, 2021 Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] INFUSED INNOVATIONS WELCOMES MATT SEPKO AS SENIOR ENGINEER Emphasizing the firm’s focus on excellent service North Kingstown, RI: Infused Innovations formally announces the hiring of Matt Sepko as Senior Engineer. As Senior Engineer, Matt will be responsible for defining and driving customer technology strategies. He will also develop and deliver on tactical and strategic initiatives for…
XDR Pioneers and Leaders
One of the strongest cybersecurity offerings today is Extended Detection and Response, or XDR. It combines and centralizes security data from several sources: Security Information and Event Management (SIEM); Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR); Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR); and Network Traffic Analysis (NTA). Because these elements are all working together, visibility and and…
7 Ways Microsoft Azure is Stronger Than AWS
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is clearly a leader in cloud services. It offers solutions for all kinds of industries, from manufacturing to travel & hospitality. In terms of its technological offerings, there’s storage, application building, analytics, and more. But as powerful as Amazon is in the world of the cloud, it’s got competition in Microsoft…
Work & Tech Habits That Are Good for the Environment
With Earth Day coming up this week, we’re thinking about some of the ways that we as both innovators and consumers of technology can shape our habits in Earth-friendly ways. It’s easy to overlook simple things that can collectively make a big impact. Here are a few tech habits that make work and home life…
5 Ways to Reduce Your SOC’s Alert Fatigue
With increasing digital and cloud-based work, cybersecurity threats are a continuous and growing concern. Large companies often have dozens of security products from multiple vendors in order to stay on top of these threats. Because of this reality, security operation centers (SOCs) face a deluge of alerts coming from every direction—so many, in fact, that…
A Look at How Deepfakes Work
It’s no April Fools’ joke—deepfakes are a real concern. This misleading practice, which inserts fake faces or speech into videos or photographs, is becoming more sophisticated in its precision. The rising capabilities of the technology behind deepfakes are making them easier to produce and harder to detect. Exactly how do deepfakes work? Here’s a look…
Technology Leaders Embrace the End of Objective Reality
Recent developments in both digital technology and societal trends have led to a world of multiple realities: you can “be” somewhere you’re not really, and fake news can “be” real. (And of course the reverse has also been argued—that real news is actually fake.) Many consumers of technology and news media alike are struggling to…
Infused Innovations Welcomes Brian Smith as Client Advisor
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 30, 2021 Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] INFUSED INNOVATIONS WELCOMES BRIAN SMITH AS CLIENT ADVISOR Emphasizing the firm’s focus on client business outcomes North Kingstown, RI: Infused Innovations formally announces the hiring of Brian Smith as a Client Advisor. As a Client Advisor, Brian will be responsible for helping to support clients throughout their Digital Transformation journey with Infused Innovations. In addition, Brian is working directly with client…
Microsoft Compliance Manager Now Available for GCC & GCC High
Government organizations are subject to a number of regulations that can be complicated to keep track of. Those who work in and with government agencies often have difficulty navigating these requirements without good tools to do so. Microsoft Compliance Manager helps organizations monitor and stay on top of these compliance requisites. Now Compliance Manager is…
What is Project Origin?
One of the major problems arising out of today’s digital world is that of disinformation. This has been a growing issue over the past decade, particularly when carried out by political actors and foreign governments attempting to shape events to their advantage. With the isolation and remote work that COVID-19 brought last year, the dissemination…
Microsoft Mesh: A New Mixed Virtual Reality Platform
If you grew up watching Star Wars holograms—or if you’ve seen any of the myriad sci-fi movies where characters make use of holographic charts floating in front of them—you’ll probably be impressed to see that this technology is becoming a reality. At the recent Ignite 2021 conference, we were introduced not only to security announcements…
Azure Defender & Sentinel Announcements from Ignite 2021
Microsoft’s Ignite 2021 conference featured a host of announcements, from the new employee experience platform Microsoft Viva to the impressive, forward-looking Microsoft Mesh. Aside from the dazzling innovations, leaders at the conference also announced strengthened security protections in Azure Defender and Azure Sentinel. We covered some of our favorite overall announcements from this year’s Ignite…
Top 10 Announcements from Microsoft Ignite 2021
Microsoft Ignite 2021 is here…and it’s early this year! Generally held in the fall, Microsoft didn’t want to keep developers and other technology followers waiting this time around. As they put it, we need these kinds of conferences now more than ever. And, as CEO Satya Nadella said in his keynote, “When you change the…
Forrester’s TEI Report on Azure Security Center: 219% ROI Over Three Years
Forrester’s Total Economic Impact (TEI) reports are studies that assess just that: the overall economic impact of purchasing and using certain technology tools. They’re based on interviews with customer organizations who use a particular product, looking at the economic effects of the choice over three years. Last fall we wrote about Forrester’s TEI report on…
What is Microsoft Viva?
After SharePoint Syntex was released last year, Microsoft’s Project Cortex is yielding another new product: Microsoft Viva. Basically, Microsoft Viva is an employee experience platform designed to make work processes smarter and more efficient, boosting employee connection and well-being. It makes use of rapidly expanding AI technologies like cognitive search and knowledge mining to efficiently…
What is a Change Advisory Board (CAB)?
Some organizations choose to designate a team of IT specialists to ensure smooth service transitions that do not interfere with company business. A Change Advisory Board, or CAB, is this group of people. Service transition is a phase of IT service management (ITSM) within an Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). This is a framework of…
Building Lasting Customer Relationships
For many organizations, relationships with customers is central to business operation. There are so many reasons for companies to prioritize building long-term customer relationships. From a purely financial standpoint, it’s estimated to cost five times more to create a new customer than it costs to retain an existing one. In business-to-business (B-to-B) relationships, customer experience…
The Benefits of AI for Businesses Today
Perhaps you’ve read articles here and there about artificial intelligence incorporated into today’s work tasks, but it’s largely off your own business radar. You might see it as a tool that enhances operations under the surface of software, still somewhat unknown in your concrete organizational decisions. AI is becoming increasingly pervasive and going far beyond…
Infused Innovations Welcomes Erica Bosse as Director of Customer Success
Infused Innovations FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 27, 2021 (401) 267-4460 [email protected] INFUSED INNOVATIONS WELCOMES ERICA BOSSE AS DIRECTOR OF CUSTOMER SUCCESS Emphasizing the firm’s focus on client business outcomes North Kingstown, RI: On Wednesday, Infused Innovations formally announced the hiring of Erica Bosse as Director of Customer Success. Erica will start immediately in this new role. As the Director of Customer Success, Erica will be responsible for driving value for Infused Innovations’ clients throughout their Digital Transformation…
Microsoft Defender for Mobile Endpoints
We’ve written about Microsoft Defender for Endpoints and Microsoft Defender XDR. The Defender stack is a cybersecurity platform that encompasses several elements of antivirus protection. These are generally targeted toward enterprise computer networks in cloud-based or hybrid business environments. But Microsoft Defender is also available for mobile endpoints. Last summer it first became available for…
Tech Intensity: Expanding Beyond Digital Transformation
One of the big tech buzzwords in 2020, and leading up to it, was digital transformation. Perhaps a good one to ponder as we move into 2021 is tech intensity. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has often mentioned this latter term during his keynotes. (He coined it in 2018 and brought it up again more recently…
Forrester Wave Gives Azure Sentinel a Leader Placement
Gartner isn’t the only technology research group that classifies Microsoft as a Leader. Forrester Research has also named Azure Sentinel a Leader in its recently released report, The Forrester Wave™: Security Analytics Platform Providers, Q4 2020. The Forrester Wave is similar to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant chart in that it classifies technology vendors on a scale…
Tech Trends We Can Expect in 2021
Hindsight is 2020. And many people are glad to put that chaotic year into the realm of remembrance. But we still face the same ongoing challenges as we move into 2021, and our new year will be colored by everything that came before it in the last one. Can our experiences of 2020 help us…
Create Your Zero Trust Business Plan
The recent Solarigate news has many of us chilled and concerned about how to protect ourselves and our organizations. It’s clear that we can’t take cybersecurity for granted and we can never be too careful with our data and networks. That’s why we strongly recommend adopting a Zero Trust policy. Within this type of security…
Budgeting for Microsoft Defender XDR and Zero Trust Security
Building a Zero Trust Security framework with 20+ vendors has zero chance of success. This is why budgeting for Microsoft Defender XDR for Zero Trust Security must be at the forefront of a modern cybersecurity strategy for organizations of any size that are running Microsoft Windows or Office 365. Microsoft Defender XDR allows you to…
How Do You Protect Against Supply Chain Attacks? Assume You’re Breached
The recent news of the SolarWinds and FireEye breaches has left some IT managers wondering how they can better protect against supply chain attacks. The short answer is to assume you’re already breached and use a defense-in-depth strategy to limit your exposure to an attack. (Also referred to as a Zero Trust strategy.) Before we…
Microsoft is a Leader in Five Gartner 2020 Magic Quadrants
It’s no new surprise that Microsoft is a leader according to Gartner, but we can’t help noticing that the company has earned this distinction in five of the 2020 Magic Quadrants: Enterprise Information Archiving Cloud Access Security Brokers Access Management Endpoint Protection Platforms Unified Endpoint Management Let’s take a quick look at each of these…
Security and Productivity Don’t Have to Be Opposites
Some of the most common challenges we hear from our clients have to do with a perceived battle between security and productivity. We hear CISOs saying, “I can’t implement security because it makes my staff crazy / slows them down / kills their productivity.” Or, alternately said, “My employees can only be productive if I…
Who’s at the Top of Gartner’s 2020 UEM Magic Quadrant? Intune.
If you’re not familiar with Gartner’s Magic Quadrant, it’s an interesting way to look at technology companies and where they land in terms of completeness of vision and ability to execute. The chart is broken into four quadrants: niche players, visionaries, challengers, and leaders. A lot of vision without the ability to follow through makes…
Forrester Finds Over 200% ROI in Azure Sentinel After Three Years
A Forrester Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study published this month analyzed the financial effects for companies using Microsoft’s Azure Sentinel. Forrester interviewed customers who previously used on-premises SIEM solutions and have now switched to the cloud-based Azure Sentinel. The organizations participating in the study specialized in IT services, big data, financial services, and e-commerce on…
What Exactly is Behind a Digital Transformation?
You may have had technology providers offering or promising your company “digital transformation.” This sounds great: your organization will undergo a modern renewal of cyber integrity, emerging more technologically fit than ever before. But what does this actually mean? It’s often used as a catch-all / solve-all term without much substance behind it. Perhaps this…
Microsoft and Infused Innovations Want to Help Your Organization Work Towards Environmental Sustainability
You may have read our article on persuasive technology and the popular documentary The Social Dilemma. But according to the head of our Innovation Lab, Phil Magnuszewski, David Attenborough’s A Life on our Planet is “the most important documentary of the year.” Perhaps this is because even among all our social and political challenges, the…
AI for Earth: Examples of Technology Leading Environmental Change
Here are some examples of how leaders around the globe are using technology and AI to bring about environmental change.
Gartner’s 2020 Hype Cycle for Cloud Security
Over the past several years, companies have gradually been moving their data and work processes to the cloud. Some have been reluctant to make this move, though, most often because of concerns about cloud security. Even for the most avid supporters of cloud-based work, security is an important issue. And accordingly, Gartner has a Hype…
An Election in Today’s Tech Age: from Social Media to Artificial Intelligence
Election day in the U.S. is just around the corner. We’ve seen all the usual pre-election activities: lots of campaign news coverage; an influx of calls, texts, and mail urging us to vote for particular candidates and measures; the signs up around the neighborhood declaring homeowners’ stances. But we’ve now entered an age where there’s…
A Look at AI in Gartner’s Hype Cycle
Artificial intelligence has definitely received a lot of hype in recent years. This has been a long time coming in regard to the general concept of AI. Imagine the first articles you ever read about AI, or the increasing multitude of films that feature various robots as characters. When it comes to more specific and…
Diversity Drives Success in Organizations
It was this day in 1492 when Christopher Columbus first reached the island of Guanahani in the Bahamas. We’ve come a long way since then, and people now largely recognize that he wasn’t the first to discover the Americas. In fact, many places in the United States now call this holiday Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead,…
Persuasive Technology: How Can We Make It More Ethical?
Have you read much about captology? It’s not a term frequently used, but it addresses a pervasive issue in our now very digital world. Captology is the study of persuasive technology—it was coined in the 1990s by BJ Fogg based on an acronym for Computers As Persuasive Technologies. It looks at any technological devices or…
Lost Your Internet Connection? Try These 5 Tips
Let’s see if you can relate… You’re in the middle of an important work meeting and it’s your turn to share the details of a major project you’ve been working pretty hard on. Right as you get the spotlight to share with your team, the connection gets choppy. Your team says “you’re cutting out, we…
What is Project Cortex?
How many times has someone on your team tried to collaborate on a document in SharePoint and had to ask where the document is? Or, how often have you found two people working on the same task but in different departments? Coming soon, Microsoft’s Cognitive Services and AI will be tackling these exact issues. Microsoft’s…
What’s New with Cognitive Services and AI at Microsoft Ignite 2020?
Microsoft’s annual Ignite conference for technology leaders is underway. Curious about what’s been said about AI at Microsoft Ignite 2020? We were too. With the growing relevance of AI today, it makes sense for it to be a prevalent topic at Ignite. Here’s a look at some of the biggest news in AI from the…
Top Announcements from Microsoft Ignite 2020
We’re always here to give you timely highlights of conference events. This week is Microsoft Ignite 2020, the tech giant’s annual gathering for technology leaders. A day into the event, here’s a recap of some of the most important news. Satya Nadella’s Keynote: Building Digital Resiliency Azure Automanage and New Availability Zones If your…
EA or CSP Licensing: Which is a Better Choice for Your Company?
We understand Microsoft 365 licensing. Probably even better than the Microsoft product teams. Need proof? Check out our industry-recognized Microsoft 365 comparison chart. Our team actively responds to community questions on our blog and also via the r/Office365 subreddit. If you’re still skeptical, keep reading. There are a few different ways to purchase Microsoft offerings.…
Artificial Intelligence Applications That Can Save Lives
Over the past several years, artificial intelligence has become a subject of increasing curiosity. It’s grown in the public imagination as well as in technological research and professional use. New AI technologies are being developed so rapidly that we often don’t realize the extent to which they can contribute to both productivity and health. There…
Insider Risk Management with AI and ML
Additional remote work and online activity have made individuals and organizations more vulnerable to cybersecurity threats. Many organizations overlook these threats, and often when they do address them, they focus on outside attacks. They can easily fail to see potential risk that lies within their own internal network. And these internal threats are more common…
Microsoft Not Acquiring TikTok
Update: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Microsoft is not acquiring TikTok and plans to announce Oracle as the winner. Good news for your teenage kids: their favorite new app may soon undergo some big security improvements. Actually, they may not even be paying attention to the strengths or weaknesses behind this trendy video-sharing…
Forrester Study Shows 123% ROI from Microsoft Azure AD
Part of a successful business is being able to find and implement the options that will bring the best returns on investment (ROI), both in security and financial gains. One of the pertinent investments that businesses face today is in digital security, especially with the spreading out of employees working at home due to COVID-19.…
Remote Work Leaves Many Organizations Open to Cybersecurity Risks
With COVID-19 as an ongoing threat, people have moved to remote work at home more than ever before. Many have made this change unexpectedly, feeling their way in a process they weren’t planning on adopting. For those who didn’t work remotely before, adapting to the new scenario while maintaining productivity and well-being have been common…
CBRS Deployments set to Drive Innovative Wireless Solutions
Citizens Broadband Radio Service (or CBRS for short) is the basis on which organizations can build their own private 4G/5G networks. Built in a 150 Mhz section of the radio spectrum between 3550 MHz and 3700 MHz (commonly referred to simply as “3.5 GHz”), the freeing up of the CBRS band stems from the 2010…
Working from Home’s Effect on the Brain
If you’ve shifted to remote work over the past few months, you may have wondered about—or noticed—working from home’s effect on the brain. Maybe you feel like it’s been exhausting, and you wouldn’t be alone in that impression. Not only have many employees personally reported difficulty in their transitions to work at home—there are brainwave…
Microsoft Announces Zero Trust Implementation Partnership with Infused Innovations
Microsoft and Infused Innovations have announced a joint partnership to accelerate Zero Trust deployments in the Microsoft cloud. Infused Innovations is now the only managed service provider that offers both Zero Trust implementation and ongoing services in the Azure Marketplace. Through this partnership and with this unique advantage, the two companies look forward to helping…
Infused Innovations Named Top 10 Most Trusted Cybersecurity Company in 2020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 17, 2020 Infused Innovations Named Top 10 Most Trusted Cybersecurity Company in 2020 by Industry Wired Magazine Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] Industry Wired magazine published its list of the top 10 most trusted cybersecurity companies in 2020 and Infused Innovations is excited to be at the top of the list. With the ever-increasing risk for cyber-attacks,…
Infused Innovations Ranks No. 1348 on the Inc. 5000 List for 2020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 12, 2020 Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] Inc. Magazine Unveils Its Annual List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies—the Inc. 5000 NEW YORK, August 12, 2020 – Inc. magazine today revealed that Infused Innovations is No. 1348 on its annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. The annual…
Using Machine Learning to Beat a Video Game
Our brains are always reacting to stimuli and continually adapting those reactions for improved outcomes. In the first years of our lives, this process taught us how to get food, move around efficiently, and learn what was safe to play with. It took a lot of sensory input and repetition before we could eventually use…
Infused Innovations Continues their Commitment to Responsible AI
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 28, 2020 Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] Certification Process to Support Practice Growth North Kingstown, RI: Infused Innovations has successfully completed one of the first steps towards the new Microsoft AI Engineering certification. Successful completion of the new Microsoft AI-100 exam demonstrates its support and investment in the Microsoft AI Platform and Azure AI Engineer certification track. The new Azure AI Engineer Associate certification is the foundation for implementing AI solutions using machine learning & cognitive…
Compliance Comparison of Remote Assist Apps with MCAS
Microsoft Cloud App Security (MCAS) is the most powerful Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) tool in the Microsoft security portfolio after Azure Sentinel and Log Analytics. This gives it a significant role in identifying and responding to cybercrime taking place within applications. MCAS not only supports breach investigations, but it also has a catalog…
Top Azure Announcements from Microsoft Inspire 2020
It’s a big week for Microsoft partners and others who like to follow the tech company’s developments. Microsoft Inspire 2020 just took place on July 21-22, as a free digital event in light of COVID-19 restrictions. Much of the important news revolves around Azure, Microsoft’s overarching set of cloud services designed for use up to…
Accessibility in Microsoft 365
Today’s companies have diversities of all kinds—not just race and gender but age and ability as well. Everyone should have the opportunity to do their best work, regardless of their particular abilities and challenges. Infused Innovations is committed to helping users of all capabilities achieve more and be more productive. We see this as part…
Fake Bosses, COVID-19, and Darth Vader: Interns Learn to Safeguard Against Every Threat
“Safeguard against every threat…” It’s what the CEO advised our five-year-old interns Joey and Walt to do. In the past several weeks they’ve learned a great deal, all while working from home under COVID-19. If you haven’t checked out this cute video series, you can watch their adventures on our YouTube page. Here we’ll go…
Telephone Plans in Microsoft Teams
If you’re familiar with Microsoft Teams, you probably know it as a hub for communication and collaboration within the workplace. It serves as a convenient place to do group or individual chat, calling, and file sharing. But Teams offers even more than that. It’s also a good platform for education and distance learning, and even…
Responsible AI for Responsible Democracy
Imagine for a moment, as you may have already done at some point, this scenario: artificial intelligence has reached a level of sophistication where it can manipulate and oppress human beings, interfere with democratic elections, spread false and distorted information, and promote its own advancement at the expense of those in weaker positions. Now, erase…
Using Power BI to Analyze COVID-19
Microsoft’s Power BI—short for Business Intelligence—is often used to drive business decisions and strategies through graphs and other interactive visualizations. These applications include forecasting sales, expenses, hiring, etc. In working with Power BI, I’ve come to realize that while this tool is remarkably helpful, its use tends to be limited to these specialized business spheres.…
Microsoft Tools Every Intern Should Know About
Here at Infused Innovations we have a couple new interns, and…well, they’ve got a lot to learn. Walt and Joey are only five years old, though, so we’ll cut them some slack. They’ve actually been doing fabulously in our short-clip video series designed to inform others of some resources every intern should know about. We…
How Well Do You Know Your Customers? Gain a 360-Degree Customer View
If you run a business that relies on customer loyalty, you know how important your customer data is. You may be running a customer relationship management (CRM) solution to keep track of your customers’ experiences with your company. But in many cases, the separate elements of this data are kept in “silos” that make a…
Statement from our CEO: We Stand With Those Calling for Justice, Equality, and True Democracy
The events of the past several days have made us at Infused Innovations question whether we can continue doing our jobs in information security and AI without addressing the social vulnerabilities that have increasingly been exposed in our nation and our world. The answer is: no, we cannot. What we stand for—responsible innovation, global sustainability,…
Updates in Windows 10 version 2004
Microsoft has put forth its Windows 10 version 2004 update, or its Spring 2020 release. (The number 2004 refers to 2020 April—even though it was released in May. Microsoft notes that it chose to use 04 over 03 in order to avoid confusion with the year 2003. Still confused? The first two digits refer to…
Top 10 Security Best Practices for Azure in 2021
Threat landscapes are constantly evolving. There are new AI & ML products on the market to address these constantly evolving threats. Let’s start with the basics and make sure the front door is locked. Here are the top 10 security best practices for Azure that we deploy for every client at Infused Innovations. 1. Create…
Top Microsoft Build 2020 Announcements
We love it when a big tech conference rolls around with exciting new announcements. (See our write-ups on Microsoft Ignite and RSA!) This one, Microsoft Build 2020, is especially interesting because of our current situation. In the last two months, the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred as much digital transformation as we might otherwise expect in…
Microsoft Teams for Education
Raise your hand if you’ve been frustrated with the distance learning platforms your child uses for school at home. If we were on a Zoom call, I think we’d see nearly everyone raising their hand (the kids included). And that’s not mentioning higher education, where college students and university professors often feel like they’re grasping…
A Zero Trust Guide for Azure AD
In today’s digital world—especially with the additional remote work taking place under shelter-at-home practices—it’s crucial to have a strong security framework. We’ve discussed before how a Zero Trust policy provides solid protection against attacks. But implementing this practice does take extra work. Let’s go over some guidelines that can help get you started with this…
Microsoft Spring Releases: Work Anywhere, Secure Everywhere
For those working in information technology and security, it’s always exciting to see what new products and improvements are being released. Now more than ever, under novel circumstances with so many employees working from home, many of us are anxious to see what these latest releases can offer to help us navigate remote work smoothly…
Security Poverty Lines
When we think of the term “security poverty lines,” we rarely think of organizations’ abilities to maintain good hardware and cybersecurity. Yet this is a largely unrecognized problem for many of today’s companies. In a podcast on Security Nation, head of of advisory CISO services at Duo Security Wendy Nather discusses the problem of the…
Addressing Common Concerns of File Integrity Monitoring
There are some common concerns of File Integrity Monitoring that are worth addressing. Also called change monitoring, FIM is a security technique that uses a known baseline as a measure for verifying the current safety of an operating system and its software. Basically, it defines a safe “normal” and gauges current activity based on whether…
The Future is Now: How AI and Robotics Can Help Fight Disease
Most people think that technologies like AI, drones, and robots are years away from really becoming usable. We’ve been seeing them in sci-fi movies and imaginative fiction for a while now, but for the most part these robotics still seem to have a futuristic feel to them. What many people don’t realize, though, is that…
Using Zoom? You Just Failed Your Compliance Audit
Have you been on a Zoom group call recently? I have—not for work, but my kids’ school class has done online show-and-tell over Zoom, and my extended family has organized virtual gatherings with it. Schools and universities use it as their go-to platform for online teaching. Friends are using it for happy hour meetups. And,…
Teams and OneDrive keep Microsoft at the Top of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant
Seeing Microsoft at the top of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant isn’t surprising. Microsoft was a leader for Gartner’s Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) evaluation last summer. And in the fall, it came out on top once again for the Magic Quadrant on Content Services Platforms. We cited Microsoft 365 and Intune as key components driving Microsoft’s achievement…
Microsoft 365 Compliance Center Addresses New Privacy Regulations
In 2018, the European Union enacted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the first major policy protecting consumer data. That spearheaded greater attention and concern over the issue of data privacy, and other places around the globe have since followed the EU’s lead. The state of California is one of those places, having recently instituted its…
Pros and Cons of the Zero Trust Model
The Zero Trust model is a security framework that operates like its name suggests: it follows the policy of trusting no one, including those within the network. Every entity (inside or outside the network) is assumed to be a potential threat and should not be considered safe until it is checked and verified. Thus, every…
Work From Home to Reduce your Exposure to COVID-19
As the novel Coronavirus continues to spread, we’re hearing this advice more and more: work from home to avoid spreading COVID-19. Just a month after it was first detected in China, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern on January 30. According to the Centers for Disease Control and…
Why Ransomware Is Still a Problem
There’s a misconception out there that ransomware is declining and becoming a threat of the past. This assumption can be dangerous, though, because it’s not accurate—as our own interns have learned. Ransomware attacks did decline over the course of 2018, but that lull didn’t end up being a continuous trend. Increased ransomware attacks and…
Microsoft Defender For Endpoint Standalone is Now Available! (Formerly MD ATP)
Note: Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection (MD ATP) Is Now Defender For Endpoint Update: As of August 2021, MDE P1 is also available bundled in Microsoft 365 E3/A3. Only two years overdue, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint standalone is now available! Since announcing Microsoft Defender for Endpoint for MacOS and Linux last year, Microsoft was still…
Microsoft Plans to be Carbon Negative by 2030
Scientists have overwhelmingly shown that our climate is warming and that human-related carbon emissions are a cause of it. But with some politicians and leaders still denying these realities, who will stand up for the facts? How can change be enacted to correct this massive issue? Thankfully, Microsoft is willing to take leadership not only…
Top Announcements at RSA 2020
Life is buzzing in San Francisco and the RSA conference is in full swing! RSA is an annual data security conference that’s big news for IT and security folks. We gave you the inside scoop on Microsoft’s top RSA announcements at this year’s conference. Now let’s see what other tech companies have to present to…
Top Microsoft Announcements at RSA 2020
The security-centric RSA Conference kicks off this week in San Francisco. Following the conference news is a great way to stay updated about the latest security developments being offered in technology. Let’s take a look at the exciting top Microsoft announcements at RSA 2020. Note: RSA was just purchased by the Symphony Technology Group last…
Data Privacy is Good Global Citizenship
Privacy is one of the big issues to consider in our digital world. Did you know there’s even a Data Privacy Day? It’s been around since the European Union set it for recognition back in 2007, with the U.S. jumping onboard in 2008. Those of us who are particularly concerned with the issue of privacy…
10 Ways to Use Microsoft 365 for Campaigns in 2020
As we near this year’s U.S. presidential election, one big concern on people’s minds is whether the process will be secure and free from outside interference. Microsoft has responded to this concern with its Defending Democracy Program, its most recent development being Microsoft 365 for Campaigns. This is a simple and powerful service meant for…
Step-by-Step Guide to Build, Train & Deploy ML Models with Custom Vision
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are more than just buzzwords. Every day these technologies fuel advancements that impact our lives, optimize and automate operations, and help make business decisions—especially under the threat of COVID-19. Azure Cognitive Services allows developers to transparently build AI and ML into their applications. In this article, I am…
Microsoft Adds Campaign Views in Office 365 ATP Stack
Microsoft’s Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is a robust anti-malware and virus email filtering service. With the addition of its new feature campaign views in Office 365 ATP, it just got even stronger. Now ATP can follow patterns and crafted templates to detect attacks that make use of a larger strategic plan, rather than…
NSA Reports a Critical Windows Vulnerability
The NSA Reports a Critical Windows Vulnerability warning of a critical vulnerability in Microsoft Windows’ cryptographic functionality. This is the first time that the National Security Agency has publicly taken credit for the discovery of a vulnerability, and it urges users to patch their systems immediately. The NSA report, released on January 14, says that…
AccountGuard and Microsoft Security for Political Campaigns in 2020
If you’re like any of the other 250 million adults in the U.S., you’re probably worried about political campaign interference. This is a concern that transcends party lines and business categories. And with today’s technologies and cyber capabilities, it’s a dangerous reality. It is widely known that Russian hackers interfered with the 2016 U.S. presidential…
Top 3 Anti-Ransomware Guards for Windows 10 in 2020
Ransomware attacks are increasing exponentially. Infused Innovations sees this trend continuing into 2020 and we want to share a few ways that we protect our clients. The three anti-ransomware guards for Windows 10 that we’ll look at today are: Windows Defender Credential Guard Windows Defender System Guard Controlled Folder Access I’ve selected these three tools…
Infused Innovations Named Top 10 Security Provider in 2019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Infused Innovations Named Top 10 Security Provider in 2019 by Enterprise Security Magazine Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] Enterprise Security magazine published their list of the top 10 security automation providers in 2019 and Infused Innovations is excited to be at the top of the list. With the ever-increasing risk for cyber-attacks, organizations are now relying on security automation solution…
California Consumer Privacy Act Goes into Effect January 1, 2020
With the advancement of technology and the digital nature of our lives today, privacy has become a pressing issue. Consumers want to know that their private information and data are safe. Despite this growing concern, the U.S. Congress has failed to take legislative measures protecting privacy. But California has stepped forward and addressed the concern…
Infused Innovations Is Excited To Announce New Director Of Marketing
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Infused Innovations is Excited to Announce New Director of Marketing Infused Innovations (401) 267-4460 [email protected] North Kingstown, RI: On Monday, Infused Innovations formally announced the promotion of Melissa Crouch to Director of Marketing. Located in San Diego, CA, we are excited to welcome her as our newest member of the west coast team and leader of our Women…
Microsoft’s Azure Arc
One of the big announcements that Microsoft made at its Ignite conference this year was about Azure Arc, which allows you to use Azure capabilities across clouds, platforms, and locations. As a presenter at the conference put it, “Azure truly is the world’s computer,” and many are already calling Azure Arc a game-changer. So what…
Infused Innovations Earns the Microsoft Security Competency
The Microsoft Security competency has been awarded to Infused Innovations for their recently announced Intelligent Threat Protection service. ITP is a security orchestration, automation, and response service that sits on top of the Microsoft security stack, and includes other strategic partnerships such as Jamf and KnowBe4. By earning this Security competency, which Microsoft also recently…
Get Your Organization Ready to Leave Passwords Behind
So many passwords, such a headache and waste of keystrokes…I’m ready to drop these things completely. Chances are, you or your employees have felt this way to one extent or another. If you are a CISO or security manager, you’ve probably gone even further and thought to yourself: there’s got to be a more secure…
Infused Innovations Launches Managed Infused Threat Protection
Infused Innovations is announcing their new managed Infused Threat Protection (ITP) service that is replacing their Secqur Aether platform. Along with the rebrand, Infused Innovations is adding the recently released Microsoft Azure Sentinel service to their arsenal. Azure Sentinel provides a cloud-native security information event management (SIEM) and security orchestration automation and response (SOAR) solution…
Start Moving to Modern Authentication
Microsoft has announced that it will end support for Basic Authentication in Exchange Online next year, on October 13, 2020. Various protocols will change their authentication methods, including Exchange Active Sync (EAS), Post Office Protocol (POP), Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), and Remote PowerShell (RPS) in Exchange Online. Applications that use any of these APIs/protocols will be…
Writing an Effective Security Incident Response Procedure
If you’re a chief information security officer, you need to write security incident response procedure documents (I’ll call them SIRPdocs). And your job can depend on the ability to write them well—Gartner suggests that up to 75% of CISOs who suffered publicly documented security breaches without well-tested security plans may have lost their jobs in…
Microsoft Flow is Now Power Automate
Automation is a big topic today in the tech world. If you’ve heard of Microsoft Flow, that may be thanks to its robotic process automation (RPA) capabilities and how it can connect legacy and modern applications within a business. As announced at the Ignite conference 2019, Microsoft Flow is now called Power Automate, in line…
Step-by-Step Guide to Install FSLogix on WVD
With the recent GA of Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) Microsoft has extended its ability to deliver important endpoint capabilities to users anywhere in the world. Designed to improve upon the standard Windows Virtual Desktop capabilities, installing FSLogix on WVD can enhance and simplify these sorts of non-persistent environments. Benefits of Installing FSLogix on WVD Maintain…
Microsoft 365 Plans for Non-Profits
Non-profit organizations often underestimate their risk of cyber attacks. This leaves them more vulnerable than they realize and oftentimes an easier target than other kinds of companies. Yet failing to prioritize cybersecurity could have major effects—data losses, financial catastrophe, damaged reputation or even the need to shut down the organization altogether. Studies show that non-profits…
Microsoft Ignite 2019’s Top Announcements
Microsoft Ignite is the annual conference where the tech giant gets to show off its exciting new developments. The company’s many announcements are of interest to IT professionals, developers, and big Microsoft fans. We love hearing about new streamlined improvements and innovative previews offered. This year’s conference seemed to present more news than ever—Microsoft provided…
Windows Autopilot for Workstation Imaging
The typical process of acquiring new devices and configuring them for company use is a bit of a headache. It goes something like this: your IT admin gets the devices, wipes them of their default settings, re-images them with custom images using Ghost or Acronis, obtains drivers, configures the relevant applications and settings, and finally…
PSA: Patch BlueKeep and DejaBlue Now
Microsoft issued two of the same warnings to its users this year: patch BlueKeep and DejaBlue on your vulnerable Windows systems. When the first and then the second warning went largely unheeded, the National Security Agency (NSA) published a rare advisory on June 4 urging Microsoft Windows administrators to update their operating systems. An NSA warning of…
MAM and Intune: Sandboxing Corporate Data
In line with all of Microsoft’s products, Intune is designed to deliver top security for corporate data while optimizing user productivity. In this case, we’re focusing specifically on mobile devices and their apps. Intune is Microsoft’s Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) component that manages that area. Let’s take a look at the difference between mobile…
Microsoft 365 Plans for Education
Educational institutions face the cybersecurity risks of other organizations and more. Because of certain factors inherent to the nature of educational places, these institutions are at a greater security risk. Limited budgets, privacy concerns, intellectual property, and specific compliance regulations create an atmosphere that’s different from most organizations. The multiplicity of college departments makes for…
What is Azure Sentinel?
Just as a soldier stands guard, ready to defend against surprise attacks, so stands this duo of SIEM + SOAR for your Security Operations Center (SOC). And like a hawk with an overhead view, it does so from the cloud. Throw in a bit of AI, and you have Azure Sentinel. It provides intelligent security…
Connect to WVD from Anywhere
Connect to WVD (Windows Virtual Desktop) from anywhere, on any device. Learn how to turn your iPad Pro into a WVD thin client with a bluetooth mouse.
WVD Pricing Guide (Windows Virtual Desktop)
WVD was released in preview back in March, and our step-by-step guide to deploy WVD is one of our most popular posts. Pricing for WVD has been known for a few months, but today Microsoft formally announced that Windows Virtual Desktop is now Generally Available (GA) worldwide. Let’s take a look at the total cost…
Pricing for Azure Sentinel is GA
After being in Preview since February 2019, Microsoft just announced the General Availability and pricing for Azure Sentinel today! As a Gold Microsoft Partner with competencies in Azure Cloud Platform, DevOps, Security, and Enterprise Mobility, we’re excited to announce that we are adding co-managed SIEM and SOAR to our Secqur Aether services starting on day…
Shared Responsibility Matrix for Cloud Services
When migrating to the cloud, organizations sometimes mistakenly assume that the cloud service provider (CSP) takes on the role of securing their data and maintaining compliance. While the CSP does have many responsibilities in these areas, it’s important to remember that the customer is also responsible. The service model you choose dictates your accountability in…
Shadow IT Discovery with Microsoft Cloud App Security
Apps! You run the world! I can just hear Beyonce’s voice in my head–mainly because I just listened to it on Google Play Music. And by continuously monitoring Shadow IT Discovery with Microsoft Cloud App Security (MCAS), which is built-in natively on Windows 10 devices, Azure also knows that I just listened to Google Play…
Cybersecurity Automation with Azure Sentinel for SIEM and SOAR
Traditional security operations centers could get away with pre-set prevention technology and detection mechanisms based on prior knowledge of attack methods. But in the past few years threats have developed rapidly in both number and sophistication. It’s no longer enough to look at intelligence as a one-way product addressing occasional threats. Moreover, not all threats…
Microsoft Intune for Unified Endpoint Management Leads in Gartner’s UEM Magic Quadrant 2019
When vision and capability are combined, magic happens. Perhaps that’s why the research company called their visual assessment the Magic Quadrant: it places companies on a scale measuring their completeness of vision with their ability to execute, and then gives them a label of a niche player, challenger, visionary or leader depending on where they…
Financial Cybersecurity for Modern Hacks on World Banks
We hear about a large world bank hack almost every week these days. From the recent Capital One breach to the European Central Bank attack, how can you trust that your bank is safe? The financial industry must follow a number of compliance frameworks on their IT systems to secure and protect data. Unfortunately, we…
A Guide to Ransomware Protection with Microsoft 365
Protecting modern IT systems from ransomware is fairly simple now with Microsoft 365. Microsoft uses AI models and machine learning to process 6.5 trillion daily signals with a team of 3,500+ full-time security engineers that invest $1 billion annually in R&D. To put that in perspective, a managed SOC like Arctic Wolf processes “only” 20…
Embracing and Growing An Innovation Mindset
If you think of buzzwords that different people like to apply to their businesses, “innovative” is often at the top of the list. However, there’s a good reason for this. For an organization to be innovative, it implies that they: All of these are traits that your average customer base can appreciate. However, if anything,…
Microsoft’s Windows Defender AV Earns “Top Product” Award in June 2019 Antivirus Comparison
Microsoft’s Windows Defender AV just received the top score and “Top Product” award from the independent German institute, AV-Test. Wow, that’s not something you hear very often! In fact, one of the most common statements that we hear when discussing cloud security with Microsoft 365 is: “Microsoft made the security abomination that is Windows XP,…
Go Passwordless With Microsoft 365
Using SMS for MFA and resetting passwords every 90 days is a losing game. People write passwords on sticky notes, and your phone carrier will let hackers port your phone number to a new SIM card. Going passwordless with biometric unlocks is the only way forward. Your phone can unlock with your fingerprint or FaceID,…
The Fundamentals of a Strong Cybersecurity Framework
The intent of implementing a cybersecurity framework is to increase the effort of an attacker to gain privileged access. By breaking the attacker’s economic attack model, you can effectively secure an attack vector. If we look at the statistics regarding data breaches, the sheer number of incidents has grown exponentially over the last 10 years…
Step-by-Step Guide to Configure Valimail for DMARC Monitoring With Office 365 and Azure SSO
Last month, Microsoft announced that anyone with an active Office 365 subscription can configure Valimail for DMARC monitoring for free! Great! But what the heck does that mean? In simple terms, it means you can eliminate 40-70% of phishing and spoofing attacks on your domain, and you’re going to help make the Internet a safer…
Zero Trust Security Concepts and Microsoft 365
88 records were lost or stolen every second in 2017, and that number is only likely to increase. The two most common settings for these breaches to take place are healthcare and banking as a distant second. As companies move to ensure their entire supply-chain is compliant to meet strict regulations, such as GDPR and…
Guide to Deploy Gen2 VMs in Azure
This week Microsoft announced the public preview of support to deploy gen2 VMs in Azure. Gen2 VMs have been around since Windows Server 2012 R2 for on-premises Hyper-V deployments. However, there are some serious limitations during the Azure preview. Let’s look at the benefits first. Why Should I Deploy Gen2 VMs in Azure? For security…
Guide to Deploy Office 365 ProPlus in Windows Virtual Desktop
I deployed Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) four times the day it came out and shared my thoughts about it. One of the first questions I received was how to deploy Office 365 ProPlus in Windows Virtual Desktop. That’s because if you run the web installer on any multi-user computer with Terminal Services, you’ll receive the…
Step-by-Step Guide to Deploy Microsoft Sentinel
Note to readers: this guide was created in 2019 and is being kept online as an example of the process. The product (now Microsoft Sentinel) has evolved over the years, and a well-built, best-practice deployment is not a “15 minute guide” level of effort. Please reach out to us if you’re interested in using Sentinel…
Infused Innovations Earns Microsoft DevOps Gold Competency for their Azure DevSecOps Platform: Infused Threat Protection
We are proud to congratulate the Infused Innovations engineering team for their continued demonstration of expertise across the Microsoft cloud ecosystem. As Infused Innovations expands its service offerings into new areas, we have taken a three-pillar approach to our internal processes: automate for agility & consistency, deploy to the cloud for availability, and make sure…
Step-by-Step Guide to Securing Windows Virtual Desktop in Azure with Conditional Access and MFA
One of my biggest complaints about using Azure AD P1 to issue Azure MFA challenges on a traditional RDS deployment via RADIUS authentication is that it issues an MFA challenge on every login. That’s almost as frustrating as trying to understand Microsoft Licensing. Fortunately, securing Windows Virtual Desktop in Azure with Conditional Access and MFA…
Step-by-Step Guide to Deploy Windows Virtual Desktop in Azure
Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) was finally released to public preview GA (UPDATED 9/2019), so here’s your step-by-step guide to deploy Windows Virtual Desktop! For those of you that have been living under a rock (or spending time with your friends and families), WVD is Microsoft’s new Desktop-as-a-Service offering to provide Windows 10 virtual desktop infrastructure…
Threat Hunting with Azure AD Premium Subscriptions
Every cloud security workshop that I perform with a client to enable Microsoft’s Enterprise Mobility + Security (EM+S) suite typically yields an unpleasant surprise. I had the CFO of one company demand the immediate implementation of Roles Based Access Control (RBAC) after seeing the granularity of the audit capabilities of Cloud App Security. During my…
Troubleshooting Code Challenges and SQL with Azure App Insights
Sometimes we are engaged to solve tough infrastructure performance problems. We’ve all been in situations where the infrastructure team is blaming the developers, the developers are blaming the infrastructure, and the product or project manager is frustrated because nothing is getting solved. Fortunately, tools like Azure App Insights can quickly identify performance issues with SQL…
Better together: Conditional Access with Azure MFA (Multifactor Authentication)
As enabling multifactor authentication is the number one security recommendation to improve your Microsoft Secure Score, let’s take a look at why it’s better to deploy Conditional Access with Azure MFA together. We’ll walk through deploying Azure MFA for all of your users in a single day and most users won’t even notice! Isn’t Office…
You’re on the Wrong Microsoft 365 License for your Business
Well, you’re probably on the wrong Microsoft 365 business license. If you’re on one of the following plans, then skip this article: Microsoft 365 E5 Microsoft 365 E3 plus Microsoft 365 E5 Security (Previously called Identity Threat Protection) Microsoft 365 Business plus Azure AD P2 But if you’re like most organizations that we speak to,…