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It’s an interesting time to be working in information security. Really advanced security is within reach of even the smallest organization. With commonly available approaches and many more becoming more accessible, which technologies are right for your organization as it considers important issues of security and privacy? Which approaches are the most effective at ensuring that your data is safe? In this blog post, I will start with specific ways to build this foundation and then look at a broad survey of approaches to layer on security.

Since its launch in June 2011, Office 365 has gone through many changes. For example, its look and feel was significantly upgraded, so it looks more like Office 2013. Office 365 has also simplified the application and approval process for nonprofits to access their free plans. You may have also seen that Skydrive is now called Onedrive, and now Office is being offered online. These are just a few of many changes, and there will be more in the future. For now, I would like to share some key changes that could be useful for your organization.

We are thrilled that the Nonprofit Technology Conference, also known as NTC, is happening in DC this year! NTC is a three-day gathering, which brings together nonprofit professionals to collaborate, innovate, and maximize effectiveness. Check out all the NTC events you can find us at.

Leveraging Technology for Social Good – David Deal, CEO, shares his top tips for enabling effective organizations with technology.

This webinar from February 27th, 2014, provides an overview of an Excel-based IT budgeting approach for nonprofits that enables organizations to take a proactive approach to managing IT investment.
Key Takeaways & Insights:
o How to develop a detailed IT Budget based on types, categories, and classes of IT spend
o How a detailed IT budget can supports better cash flow and financial management
o How to segregate mandatory from discretionary IT spend for organizational agility
o Understand IT hardware lifecycle risk and refresh cycle impacts
o Understand common software licensing models and cost model impacts
o Look at managed service providers and cloud computing and their impact to the budget
o Switching the IT paradigm from cost to investment and tying to organizational strategy
Donny Shimamoto is a recognized national expert in IT management and international author/speaker on business intelligence initiatives. Donny helps many nonprofits by bridging accounting and IT to strengthen organizational governance and risk management, improve business processes through technology, and increase the effectiveness of decision through business intelligence and evidence-based management.

As most of you have heard, a significant security bug was announced on Friday affecting Apple’s desktop (OS X 10.9) and mobile (iOS 6 & 7) operating systems. This bug allows an attacker to intercept secure/encrypted traffic without detection (what is known as a “man-in-the-middle” attack).
In order for this attack to work, the attacker most likely needs to be on the same wifi network as the victim. Because most home and work wifi networks are secure, you are only vulnerable while connected to public/open networks.

There is an old Southern saying that nicely sums up Microsoft’s current direction: “You got to dance with them what brung you.” Microsoft’s success as a software company is due largely to their dominance with the Windows Operating System; an OS that dates back to the mid–80s. 30 years is an impressive achievement in IT. I’ll spare you the gory details of that history which makes for a fascinating (if geeky) read in this wonderful Ars Technica history of OS/2.
In short, everything that Microsoft achieved over 3 decades was accomplished by focusing relentlessly on dominating the Operating System (OS) with Windows and then building an iron curtain of integration and consolidation around the OS.

Check out the latest Nonprofit Tech Picks, including the NTEN Happy Hour on Feb. 26, IT Budgeting webinar on Feb. 27, Idealware’s Saleforce report and TechSoup’s Gadget Guide.

The tech sector has been experiencing a variety of significant and (pardon the cliche) “disruptive” changes. Changes that have roiled the IT Industry, putting well established companies such as Nokia and RIM (the makers of BlackBerry devices) nearly out of business, and calling into question once-dominant firms like Microsoft and Dell.
These changes are also posing serious challenges for IT Departments. IT Leaders are trying to plan for an environment that seems to be changing every 6 months. Which solutions are still going to be around over the next 5 years? Which approaches to managing IT are going to be relevant? How is the landscape going to change?

Join us for a special webinar on IT Budgeting for Nonprofits with guest presenter Donny Shimamoto. IT costs are often a mix of equipment refresh cycles, convoluted software licenses, and often confusing IT service provider proposals. Add into the mix, cloud computing and managed service providers and how do you even start to develop an IT budget?
This session will provide an overview of an Excel-based IT budgeting approach that enables organizations to take a more proactive approach to managing their IT investment.