Collaborate Securely with Akins IT

Shawn Akins • November 25, 2024
Connect with us

Security Insights

Over the past year, as remote work has become more commonplace, so have cloud-based products that enable streamlined collaboration such as Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams. These cloud tools are making it easier than ever for teams to work together effectively, but as the data we create grows, so does the need for solutions that simplify the ability to sift through, manage, and protect it. 


It can take a massive amount of time to manually manage all the security parameters needed to protect collaborative data. This time-consuming, complex task is even more complicated for anyone that is in the process of digitally transforming their workspaces. Thankfully, we can help! 


Security Assessment

Virtually every organization has sensitive data they need to collaborate on. Examples include contracts, personal employee/customer data, and credit card information. This can be exposed during daily collaboration through sharing links, Teams memberships, and various other means. Our data security assessment will tell you everyone who has access to your sensitive information and when they have/had access to it. With our security services, we can also identify, classify, and secure your data.


Backup and Disaster Recovery

If your team inadvertently deletes an item in Microsoft Teams, Dynamics 365, Salesforce, or Google Workspace, you’ll be glad you spoke with us about this service. 55 percent of SMBs were hit with ransomware attacks in 2020 alone. We offer an extra layer of protection against many common accidental data loss events and malicious actors across your collaboration systems that are otherwise impossible to recover from. 


Secured Microsoft Teams Environment

The fast-paced nature of collaboration and the ubiquity of sharing options in Microsoft 365 means mitigating the risk of data exposure is an ongoing concern. We will work with you to set up a secure environment for internal and external sharing in Teams that leverages powerful automation to prevent data leaks before they occur.



Microsoft 365 Migration and Consolidation

We are strong proponents of consolidating data and collaboration into Microsoft 365 and Teams. Having data in multiple systems such as Dropbox, Box, Google Workspace (G Suite, Gmail) or file servers increases the risk of exposure or loss. It’s also a pain for you to keep switching between platforms depending on what you need! Our migration and consolidation service not only gets you up and running in Microsoft 365 and Teams smoothly, but we are able to ensure you have all the data you need in one place. 



By Shawn Akins October 20, 2025
October 20, 2025 — Early today, Amazon Web Services experienced a major incident centered in its US‑EAST‑1 (N. Virginia) region. AWS reports the event began around 12:11 a.m. PT and tied back to DNS resolution affecting DynamoDB , with mitigation within a couple of hours and recovery continuing thereafter. As the outage rippled, popular services like Snapchat, Venmo, Ring, Roblox, Fortnite , and even some Amazon properties saw disruptions before recovering. If your apps or data are anchored to a single cloud, a morning like this can turn into a help‑desk fire drill. A multi‑cloud or cloud‑smart approach helps you ride through these moments with minimal end‑user impact. What happened (and why it matters) Single‑region fragility: US‑EAST‑1 is massive—and when it sneezes, the internet catches a cold. Incidents here have a history of wide blast radius. Shared dependencies: DNS issues to core services (like DynamoDB endpoints) can cascade across workloads that never directly “touch” that service. Multi‑cloud: practical resilience, not buzzwords For mid‑sized orgs, schools, and local government, multi‑cloud doesn’t have to mean “every app in every cloud.” It means thoughtful redundancy where it counts : Multi‑region or multi‑provider failover for critical apps Run active/standby across AWS and Azure (or another provider), or at least across two AWS regions with automated failover. Start with citizen‑facing portals, SIS/LMS access, emergency comms, and payment gateways. Portable platforms Use Kubernetes and containers, keep state externalized, and standardize infra with Terraform/Ansible so you can redeploy fast when a region (or a provider) wobbles. (Today’s DNS hiccup is exactly the kind of scenario this protects against.) Resilient data layers Replicate data asynchronously across clouds/regions; choose databases with cross‑region failover and test RPO/RTO quarterly. If you rely on a managed database tied to one region, design an escape hatch. Traffic and identity that float Use global traffic managers/DNS to shift users automatically; keep identity (MFA/SSO) highly available and not hard‑wired to a single provider’s control plane. Run the playbook Document health checks, automated cutover, and comms templates. Then practice —tabletops and live failovers. Many services today recovered within hours, but only teams with rehearsed playbooks avoided user‑visible downtime. The bottom line Cloud concentration risk is real. Outages will happen—what matters is whether your constituents, students, and staff feel it. A pragmatic multi‑cloud stance limits the blast radius and keeps your mission‑critical services online when one provider has a bad day. Need a resilience check? Akins IT can help you prioritize which systems should be multi‑cloud, design the right level of redundancy, and validate your failover plan—without overspending. Let’s start with a quick, 30‑minute review of your most critical services and RPO/RTO targets. (No slideware, just actionable next steps.)
By Shawn Akins October 13, 2025
How a Zero-Day in GoAnywhere MFT Sparked a Ransomware Wave—and What Mid-Sized IT Leaders Must Do Now
By Shawn Akins October 13, 2025
The clock is ticking: Learn your options for Windows 11 migration, Extended Security Updates, and cost‑smart strategies before support ends.
More Posts