IT Trends Blog for the Latest Tech News and Updates

Quercus IT has been serving the Edmonton area since 2005, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support, and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.

How You Can Protect Your Business If a Mobile Device Disappears

How You Can Protect Your Business If a Mobile Device Disappears

The mobile device is deeply ingrained in modern life, society, and culture, so it will be present in the workplace. This can be a very useful thing… with the right preparations, your employees can become a lot more mobile in terms of their potential productivity.

However, mobile work isn’t without its dangers. Perhaps the most obvious risk is that a device will be lost, whether it's left behind in a rideshare or pilfered as a latte is retrieved from the barista. Either way, your business will have suffered a data breach.

Let’s talk about how this outcome can be avoided with some proactive planning, thanks to mobile device management. 

Continue reading

Why Information Overload Is Stalling Your Small Business

Why Information Overload Is Stalling Your Small Business

We’ve been told since we were young that knowledge is power. For entrepreneurs,  information is like oxygen. There is a tipping point to having too much data, however, where helpful insight turns into analytical paralysis. If you feel like you’re working harder than ever but your business isn't moving, you might be suffering from information overload. Here is how too much knowledge is actually hurting your bottom line.

Continue reading

Is That Email Legit? How to Check for These 3 Phishing Red Flags

Is That Email Legit? How to Check for These 3 Phishing Red Flags

Most contemporary cyberthreats originate from social engineering. Typically, this involves deceptive phishing messages designed to lure users into compromising their own safety. While these attacks can occur across various platforms, email remains the primary weapon of choice for attackers.

To stay protected, let’s examine the key red flags that suggest an email is actually a phishing attempt.

Continue reading

How a Custom Email Domain Builds Instant Trust and Authority

How a Custom Email Domain Builds Instant Trust and Authority

Many entrepreneurs start their journey using a free personal email address. While this works for a startup of one, continuing to use generic addresses as you grow creates a significant branding gap. More importantly, it introduces massive security and ownership risks that can jeopardize your company’s future and long-term scalability.

Continue reading

It Pays to Have a Backup that Hackers Can’t Mess With

It Pays to Have a Backup that Hackers Can’t Mess With

Let’s say that today was the day a cyberattack successfully infiltrated your business network. Not good, but if you have a proper data backup, you should be safe… unless the party responsible prioritizes deleting your backup files.

While we would never recommend a business skip the data backup process, it is important to recognize that traditional backups have this critical vulnerability. To remedy this, we do recommend implementing immutable backups.

Continue reading

5 Ways to Use AI as a Business Growth Enhancer

5 Ways to Use AI as a Business Growth Enhancer

Generative AI is no longer just the cool new thing; it’s a powerful tool for business growth that organizations like yours should be leveraging. If you don’t use AI, you’ll be at a disadvantage compared to your competitors who do, and that’s no good. That said, there’s a massive difference between those who dabble in AI and those who use it masterfully, and that difference is going to grow more significant over time.

Today, we’ve got five tips to help you use AI in a proficient way so you can beat out the competition.

Continue reading

The Business Reality of Hardware Lifecycles

The Business Reality of Hardware Lifecycles

Most business owners treat their office computers like breakroom microwaves: they expect them to work until they physically stop turning on. It’s a logical approach for a toaster, but in the professional world, a computer becomes "old" long before it actually breaks.

Continue reading

Why Password Length is More Important Than Complexity

Why Password Length is More Important Than Complexity

With automated threats on the rise and taking over the cyberthreat landscape, you need as many ways to stay safe online as possible. Naturally, one of the most talked about topics is login security. There’s a lot of good password advice out there, but the most helpful piece isn’t repeated often enough: just make it longer.

Continue reading

How to Manage BYOD (Without the Headache)

How to Manage BYOD (Without the Headache)

With smartphones as accessible as they are, it’s no small wonder how company-only policies have all but faded into obscurity in the workplace. Whether you allow it or not, you can bet that your team is using their smartphones to get work done, whether it’s checking email from their couch or sending you a quick DM. In other words, you need a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy, as it is practically the new accepted standard.

Continue reading

Before You Dispose of Your Hardware, Make Sure You Dispose of Your Data

Before You Dispose of Your Hardware, Make Sure You Dispose of Your Data

When the time comes to upgrade any of your business tech, it makes sense that most of your attention would be on maximizing the value you get out of your new hardware. However, it is critical that you also continue to think about your discarded hardware… specifically, the data it contains.

In short, deleting files simply isn’t enough. You need to be confident that any information is truly purged or physically destroyed when you’re replacing your hardware.

Continue reading

A Strategic Guide to Safely Using IoT in Your Business

A Strategic Guide to Safely Using IoT in Your Business

Modern gadgets make running a business easier. From smart thermostats and lightbulbs to connected coffee machines, the Internet of Things (IoT) brings a lot of convenience to the workplace. However, because these devices are built for speed and low cost, they often skip the security features your business actually needs.

Essentially every smart device in your office is a potential digital back door for hackers. Let’s take a look at how IoT—as helpful as it can be—can also be a big problem.

Continue reading

Wikipedia Fights Back Against the Surge of AI-Generated Lies

Wikipedia Fights Back Against the Surge of AI-Generated Lies

For decades, Wikipedia has been the internet’s Old Reliable—the human-vetted gold standard for facts. But a high-stakes clash between veteran editors and the Open Knowledge Association (OKA) has just exposed a glitch in the Matrix: a surge of AI-generated hallucinations that threaten to poison the well of public knowledge.

What began as a noble quest to translate the world’s encyclopedia has morphed into a cautionary tale about the high cost of cheap information.

Continue reading

3 Steps to Using AI Responsibly

3 Steps to Using AI Responsibly

AI is undoubtedly a powerful tool, providing quick solutions for everything from summarizing lengthy meetings to imagining what our pets would look like as cartoon characters. However, this power comes at a significant environmental cost, with each interaction consuming massive amounts of energy. Understanding this impact is crucial for adopting more sustainable technology practices.

Continue reading

Give Your Business Technology the Concierge Experience

Give Your Business Technology the Concierge Experience

As a business scales, a break-fix mentality becomes a massive anchor. It may have worked when you first hung out your shingle, but you aren’t just managing laptops anymore; you’re managing cybersecurity threats, cloud migrations, and data compliance.

This is where Managed Services Providers (MSPs) come in. The MSP may be an outside contractor, but it really is a specialized engine you plug into your business to handle the technical stuff.

Continue reading

5 Unintuitive Security Hacks to Keep Your Data Safe

5 Unintuitive Security Hacks to Keep Your Data Safe

Are you unknowingly leaving important data out in plain sight? Too many businesses will implement incredibly powerful security solutions only to ignore the basics of physical security. It’s time to address the hidden vulnerabilities that patches and updates won’t solve by scrutinizing your physical infrastructure.

Continue reading

We Aren’t Miracle Workers (But We’re Pretty Darn Close)

We Aren’t Miracle Workers (But We’re Pretty Darn Close)

For a fun little exercise, imagine you’ve just signed up for our managed IT services. Everything’s well and good, but then, something goes wrong with your computer. What gives? Aren’t we supposed to prevent issues from occurring in the first place? It’s easy to get discouraged when freak situations like this occur, but it’s important to highlight what proactive IT solutions can do, and more importantly, what they can’t do.

Continue reading

The 3 Legal Risks That Could Tank Your Business

The 3 Legal Risks That Could Tank Your Business

It sounds like the perfect get-out-of-jail-free card: “I’m so sorry for that error, the AI wrote it!” Unfortunately, that excuse works about as well today as the dog ate my homework in third grade. While AI is an incredible tool, you are still the one holding the leash. If your AI makes a mess, you’re the one who has to clean it up.

Let’s break down why AI makes mistakes and how those slips can turn into real-world headaches for your business.

Continue reading

The Landscape of Managed Services Has Shifted (Here’s What That Means for You)

The Landscape of Managed Services Has Shifted (Here’s What That Means for You)

As we push onward into 2026, it’s helpful to remember that the “good old days” are not necessarily as good as we remember them to be. When you would call your technology provider to deploy a patch or upgrade a system, you weren’t necessarily being “proactive”; you were being reactive without realizing it. In fact, managed service providers have evolved their model to reflect major disruptions in the tech industry.

Continue reading

Better Authentication is Always Your Fingertips

Better Authentication is Always Your Fingertips

Even if you’re doing everything right, business cybersecurity is a challenge. Mistakes are common. Passwords are forgotten, and physical buttons can go missing. That said, there is one form of authentication that you can’t help but have with you: yourself.

Biometrics have been experiencing a surge in popularity as a means of authentication. Let’s explore why that is.

Continue reading

Align Business Goals with IT Procurement with a vCIO

Align Business Goals with IT Procurement with a vCIO

If you had to be honest with yourself, does your technology strategy revolve around your business’ plans, or is it tied more closely to your inevitable hardware failures? Many businesses still operate in the break-fix sense. When a laptop breaks, they replace it… but this reactive spending is costing your business in the long run, and it all but ensures you’re two steps behind. To stay competitive, you need tech goals that align with your business, supported by a Virtual Chief Information Officer who understands your business inside and out.

Continue reading
Request a Consultation

Quercus IT strives to provide the best comprehensive IT, Computer, and Networking services to small businesses. We can handle all of your organization's technology challenges.

Contact Us
Contact Us

Learn more about what Quercus IT can do for your business.

2-15015 123 Ave NW,
Edmonton, Alberta T5V 1J7

Call us: (780) 409-8180

News & Updates
We are absolutely thrilled and proud to announce that Brandi Bartlett has been recognized as one of the 2025 Business in Edmonton LEADERS! This prestigious honor is a true testament to her years of dedication, insightful approach, and impactful leade...
Web Analytics