Overall, I have been in IT for 5 years. I began at Apex as an apprentice and have been working full time here since graduating last year. I balanced my studies with working here part time for around 4 years.
What made you decide to get into IT?
I have always been interested in technology and have always pursued this in my educational studies. After starting at Apex part time while at University, I felt the accomplishment of helping people with IT issues. This further garnered my interest in IT.
How do you see the IT landscape for small and medium business will change within the next 3 – 5 years?
I believe security and automation are going to become much more prominent for these types of businesses. For example, we are already seeing security solutions like 2 factor authentication growing in use. We are also using products to automate health checks and report back to us on issues before they happen.
How do you think Microsoft Office 365 has changed the way businesses work?
From the administration side of things, I feel as though we as engineers are able to support businesses much more effectively. I also feel that there are many additional features available in Office 365 to support specific requirements such as MFA, Azure Active Directory, Teams. I feel like it is more cost effective for customers to use Office 365 rather than traditional standalone licenses, as they can change their license count and types on the fly for when their business needs change.
How do you think the landscape of cyber security has changed within the last 2 years?
Whilst we have always been security centric as an IT company, I feel other businesses have become more security conscious since GDPR. I feel that data encryption has certainly become more commonplace, and businesses are always being challenged by cyber criminals which continuously evolve their methods.
What do you think the priorities should be with businesses moving to the cloud?
I feel that detailed planning needs to be a top priority before moving services and data to the cloud, especially so that business can cope with any downtime or with learning new systems. Apex ensure that detailed project planning is completed prior to moving any businesses to the cloud
What are the biggest challenges faced by businesses that are using cloud technologies like Office 365?
I feel the biggest challenges are coordinating teams within businesses to use the new cloud technologies correctly. Communication is key as problems can occur when new processes are not adhered to.
Is there still a space for traditional on-premise servers in businesses? And why?
I believe there is still a space for on-premise servers in businesses, primarily due to many businesses using software that may not integrate correctly with the cloud. However, cloud platforms like Azure are constantly growing to provide similar solutions which customers are often finding, they can replace their on-premise solutions.
What are the most common support issues you face with Office 365?
I find that the most common support issues are mainly guiding users through using new features that they have not had prior experience with in Office 365.
How are mobile devices affecting the way customers work?
Collaboration technologies are becoming more prevalent on mobile devices. For instance, Microsoft Teams is more commonly being used on mobile devices to communicate and share on the go.
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