The unique requirements in the finance industry present challenges for technology. Financial markets are fast-paced. If a transaction or trade isn’t made in milliseconds, customers can miss out on an opportunity, which also negatively impacts the financial institution. Important financial decisions need to be based on real-time information.

2018 is already shaping up to be an exciting year for medical technology. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Top Health Issues of 2018 report points to a number of ways digital medicine will be at the forefront of health care transformation in the new year. PwC points out that while previous technology has been used to make hospital administration more efficient, the focus in the future will be on improving patient experiences.

As much as companies would like to prevent every risk to their on-prem data centers, traumatic incidents are unavoidable. Equipment fails, employees make mistakes, hackers breach your defenses, and natural disasters hit. 

When an incident can’t be predicted or prevented, a strong backup and recovery solution is your only chance to restore operations and regain the information you need to make decisions.

In 2017, a lot of exciting changes happened at FirstLight. Mergers with Oxford Networks and Sovernet Communications have enabled us to add to our already extensive fiber optic network, making us one of the leading fiber-based providers in the Northeast. 

It’s the start of the new year, and companies want to get a jump on the hot technology trends that are about to emerge. Technology trends create new challenges for IT infrastructure by placing additional demands on storage and networking. To prepare for and meet these challenges, companies need to start rethinking their approach to IT architecture.

How confident is your business in its backup and recovery solution? Many companies set up their backup and recovery strategy and simply put faith in its ability to work in the event of an outage. 

The colocation market is growing by leaps and bounds. Gartner predicted that spending on colocation would rise to $74.5 billion by 2020, a substantial increase from the $53.9 billion reported in 2016.

The Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) market is booming. WhaTech predicted that the IaaS market will rise to $56.05 billion by 2020, at an annual growth rate of 29%. This is a huge leap from the $15.79 billion figured in 2015. Market drivers include traditional benefits such as cost savings, reduced administrative burden, and increased scalability. However, the market has also been stimulated by the discovery of a new range of uses for IaaS. 

Lawyers can sometimes be slow to adopt the latest technologies. However, changes to the American Bar Association (ABA) Model Rules of Professional Conduct mandate that law firms serve their clients to the best of their ability by achieving competence in technology. In 2015, the ABA Model Rules were amended to include clauses that require lawyers to understand the benefits and risks of technology.  

Electronic health records (EHRs) have become the standard for maintaining patient medical histories. Everything from doctors' notes to medical imaging scans can be kept on file for reference during diagnosis and treatment. However, storing these records is only part of the equation. To make use of EHRs, health care providers must make them easily and securely accessible to both patients and members of a treatment team.