As we get a little closer to the end of the year, I thought firstly it was worth letting you know our availability over the holiday season:
Christmas Hours 2024
- Tues 24th December: 8am – 1pm
- Christmas Day: Closed
- Boxing Day: Closed
- Fri 27th December: Closed (with emergency cover)
- Monday 30th December: 8am – 6pm
- Tuesday 31st December: 8am – 6pm
- New Years Day: Closed
- Thursday 2nd January: 8am – 6pm
Note: the business will be officially closed on the 27th, but we WILL have some emergency cover on duty just in case. Just call the usual number and they can engage extra resources as necessary.
M4 MacBook Repairability
Apple have been subject to a lot of criticism over the last few years regarding the lack of repair options if their products fail. Specifically, the lack of CHEAP repair options, as these devices have required professional servicing methods to replace what are standard swap-out components in windows machines. The heavy-handed use of glue and stretch-release adhesive tabs has been a focus for many complaints.
Apple have shifted stance on lower-end machines – iPhone, MacMini etc – but commenters are saddened to see a return to soldered memory, and complicated removal procedures of other components to get to items that more commonly break.
I guess if you’re willing to splash out on an M4, you are also willing to pay substantially more for their repairs !
Is AI Ready for the Work Environment, yet..?
One question I get asked a lot is what can AI – things like CoPilot – actually be used for in the work environment. I struggle to generate any ‘killer’ answers to that at the moment, even though I have a CoPilot license myself. It seems I’m not the only one too, as an increasing amount of negative headlines are starting to appear recently:
- “AI PCs make users less productive”
- “Job seekers call BS on the workplace AI revolution”
- “One thing AI can’t generate at the moment – compelling reasons to use it for work”
Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty you can actually do with something like CoPilot, and it’s really only limited by your ‘imagination’. The trouble is, as an SME, you are going to have to put some time into thinking just what you are going to practically use it for individually on a daily basis, and that may involve a bit of personal research on the web to see what others are doing in the first instance.
Alchemy’s Hosted Platform
Our Hosted Solution has been the backbone of our service offering for many years, allowing clients to run their business software in a secure environment, or manage employee computing on a company-wide basis via a dedicated bespoke remote desktop solution, as two main strings to its bow.
It has been through many technical changes, upgrades, improvements, and is still fulfilling its purpose, exceeding the standards we set internally, and in the marketplace in general.
Nothing stands still of course, so naturally we’ve been looking at what’s next for it – what ‘Gen 4’ may look like – and how we can continue to exceed industry SLAs on the services it runs.
Those clients currently using the Hosted Platform in whatever shape or form will of course be the first to know what direction we’re heading in with it, and how it will affect them, if at all !
<watch this space>
Panda AD360 Replacement
If you are currently using Panda for Device Security with us, then expect a message from me as it comes up for renewal over the coming months, as we are looking to replace it with something better.
Panda has a been our go-to device security product for a number of years and has been a faithful servant in that respect. As we feel it has fallen behind a bit in the marketplace, and others have stepped forwards, we have taken the decision to swap-out Panda for an Acronis EDR solution – one that not only offers a better level of protection at the same price-point, but one that enables additional layers to be added at future points in time, should they be required. Security doesn’t stand still, so we need a product that can move forwards to match… and this is where we feel Panda is now lacking.
That’s all for November’s issue. If you have any suggestions for areas you’d like mentioned in the next one then just fire them my way.
As always, here if you need us.
