LESSONS LEARNED IN 2019

Happy New Year! We’re so excited to start the new year with all the crazy lessons we learned last year. Last year was definitely a year of growth, some painful, some surprising, but we wanted to spare you from the pain and share with you some of the greatest things that we learned and took away from last year.

First, here’s a recap of what we did in 2019. Last year we launched our SOC, we launched our mainland efforts and grew our team to 19 including contractors and part-time employees. Our growth has allowed us to sponsor children from 3rd world countries and also help some non-profit local companies.

One of our favorite foundations is Project Hawaii, (please read more in our Insider Scoop section). This year we’ve done more outlook migrations than we can count and we’ve dealt with windows end of life. We’ve also had way more threats to Hawaii businesses than we’ve ever seen!

LOREN’S LESSONS

  1. Don’t assume newly purchased hardware will work just because it’s new!
  2. Don’t wait until software goes “end-of-support” to upgrade. It will be more expensive and stressful the longer you wait.
  3. For IT managers with tech backgrounds…learn to speak CEO. Understanding tech is not enough. You need to understand business cases, budgets and timelines.
  4. Virtualize when possible. Bare metal operating system installations should be a last resort.
  5. The cloud is more secure, reliable and redundant than 80% of all business networks. Not moving to the cloud because of security and availability concerns is typically a misconceived notion.
  6. Most cloud security breaches are due to misconfiguration by the customer. Be sure to have a professional (like HTH! ), review your cloud deployment.

ANNE-MARIE’S LESSONS

  1. Have weekly, monthly and quarterly processes. Have a process for everything. This includes updating and checking your AV on all machines, patching on a regular schedule, and planning company meetings.
  2. Create a system of checks & balances for those processes to make sure they are being implemented.
  3. Plan ahead of growth. Anticipate your resource needs AHEAD of time. When you really need the help, it will be too late.
  4. Don’t just be prepared, be over prepared to avoid the overwhelm.
  5. There’s is always more you can do and achieve. “You Didn’t Only Come This Far, to only come this far” – Jesse Itzler

CHUCK’S LESSONS

  1. You can’t micromanage your team and be successful. Delegating with clear instructions and expectations and trusting in your team members helps everyone grow.
  2. Partnerships can be key to growth. HI Tech Hui can attribute much of our growth to our fantastic partners.
  3. Don’t upset your customers. Reflecting on our core values, we never want to stop “WOWing” our customers because we’re busy, or make them feel like we’ve outgrown them.
  4. Cybersecurity is not a product or a solution, it’s a strategy. What’s the point of having all the right security tools when you can not correlate or take action on the data that is being presented. You can have the best firewall and antivirus out there but if it’s not configured correctly and re-validated on a regular scheduled basis then it can all be obsolete.
  5. Most companies are NOT taking cybersecurity seriously. This could be your local stores that you shop at (and give your credit card to), your vendors, or your contractors. Be careful, don’t be afraid to train and educate.

– A Message from the HI Tech Hui Team

Download a copy of the JANUARY 2020 NEWSLETTER.

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