VCRs are used to backup and restore entire machines, or specified disks/folders/files, whether the machines are virtual or physical.

Backup as-a-service is one of the most popular cloud services on the market today. It makes sense to have a duplicate set of all your data securely stored off-site, yet within easy reach when disaster strikes.

With us… absolutely! Some other Cloud providers sneak a clause in their contracts which states that the data belongs to them. Be careful of these providers.

Very secure. Firstly, it is encrypted with 2048-bit encryption (which is deemed fit for military purposes). Secondly, our cloud servers run 24/7 anti-intrusion monitoring software, along with high-spec firewalls and anti-malware scanners – the kind that most businesses simply can’t afford.

Firstly, after sign-up, you will need to install special software on your machine to enable the auto-backup feature. This is quite easy and we can also talk you through it over the phone.
Next, a full backup of all the files that you want to be securely backed up will be created. This could take some time as well as a fair amount of bandwidth, depending on the amount and type of data.
After that, only the changes that you make will be added to your backed-up data. In the event of accidental or malicious changes to the data on your physical machine on which the data resides, we can easily roll back those changes to the versions of data that existed just before the event. In plain English – if your office machines get hacked, and some of your files get deleted or altered, these changes will be saved by the backup program, but we can easily reverse these changes and restore your data to its former, correct state, because we keep backups of the backups.

Cloud backup is the latest innovation in data storage. Imagine a machine that never breaks down and never gets old. Impossible for a single machine, but a group of machines working together can accomplish that. As some of the machines in the group get older, they are replaced, but the group (i.e. the Cloud) never switches off. Now imagine storing your data on such a system.

DIY database users often end up becoming slaves to their system, with myriads of demands on their time in the form of repartitioning, replicating, recovering, resizing, provisioning, monitoring and integrating – can you afford that? With Venom IT managing your database for you, you can expect time savings, less complexity and more scalability, all at a lower upfront cost. And bear in mind, our security and Internet speed are way better than yours. No, really. And that’s important when it comes to database hosting.

Database as-a-Service – in other words, we will host your SQL, MySQL or Access data base for you

Venom IT is a reputable IT company based in Manchester. Our company has been in the IT industry since 2009. Our mission is to deliver innovative Cloud computing solutions that alleviate issues and strengthen our client’s business prospects.
We also offer 24/7 support and our network security credentials secure and protect our clients from potential cyber-attacks. We are a trusted Microsoft silver partner and we are Cyber Essentials accredited, ensuring that our services are totally secure. We offer a complete IT service for Businesses of any size so there’s no need for more than one point of contact – when it comes to IT, we do it all.

We have gone through rigid assessment in order to become a Microsoft Silver Certified Partner and ISO 9001 and Cyber essentials certified. These certifications guarantee the quality and security of our systems and services.

The Cloud is a safe platform for storing your data. At Venom IT, we provide ultra secure solutions to businesses to integrate and manage their processes and services over the Cloud. We store our client’s valuable data in the UK using a 2048-bit encryption; this guarantees you that the sensitive data is safe from potential hackers and can never be decoded and viewed by unauthorised users. We have also passed Cyber Essentials, a UK-government supported certification, which strengthens our credibility in the IT industry.

In case a problem arises, rest assured that our IT experts can attend to your needs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
We will attend to your concerns immediately and have an SLA of 2 hours, meaning no problem will be left unsolved. If you hire Venom IT to take care of all your IT worries, you can be sure everything will be dealt with in no time at all, allowing you to focus on your Business.

All “smart” mobile devices can easily connect to your hosted services, whether they be your virtual desktop or your hosted email account, so you will never be out of touch. In most cases (very old, tin boxes excluded) any device with Internet connectivity can also access your virtual machine as well as your email via the Outlook Web app

Yes! Your shiny new virtual machine is protected by round-the-clock security guards, and comes with military-grade encryption (2048-bit) and banking-level security (IL4)

Sometimes, yes, depending on the task and spec of the machine. The reasons why a cloud-based virtual machine is superior to a physical machine are its reliability, security and zero maintenance. Additional points in favour of using a VM rather than a physical machine are: no capital layout, space saving and a reduced need for in-house IT wizards.

With us… absolutely! Some other Cloud providers sneak a clause in their contracts which states that the data belongs to them. Be careful of these providers.

Venom IT is a reputable IT company based in Manchester. Our company has been in the IT industry since 2009. Our mission is to deliver innovative Cloud computing solutions that alleviate issues and strengthen our client’s business prospects.
We also offer 24/7 support and our network security credentials secure and protect our clients from potential cyber-attacks. We are a trusted Microsoft silver partner and we are Cyber Essentials accredited, ensuring that our services are totally secure. We offer a complete IT service for Businesses of any size so there’s no need for more than one point of contact – when it comes to IT, we do it all.

We have gone through rigid assessment in order to become a Microsoft Silver Certified Partner and ISO 9001 and Cyber essentials certified. These certifications guarantee the quality and security of our systems and services.

No matter where your Business is located, our IT support technicians will remotely assist you with any issue you throw at us. Our remote support software allows us to connect to your computer to fix your problem no matter where you are.

The Cloud is a safe platform for storing your data. At Venom IT, we provide ultra secure solutions to businesses to integrate and manage their processes and services over the Cloud. We store our client’s valuable data in the UK using a 2048-bit encryption; this guarantees you that the sensitive data is safe from potential hackers and can never be decoded and viewed by unauthorised users. We have also passed Cyber Essentials, a UK-government supported certification, which strengthens our credibility in the IT industry.

In case a problem arises, rest assured that our IT experts can attend to your needs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
We will attend to your concerns immediately and have an SLA of 2 hours, meaning no problem will be left unsolved. If you hire Venom IT to take care of all your IT worries, you can be sure everything will be dealt with in no time at all, allowing you to focus on your Business.

Firstly, thank you. Secondly, once your order has been placed, one of our technicians will contact you and help you decide on a migration plan and schedule. From there on, you may sit back and relax (or carry on with your other work) because we’ll take care of everything.

Nothing. Your monthly subscription includes the initial setup, support, device integration and archiving.

All “smart” mobile devices can easily connect to your email account, so you will never be out of touch. In most cases (very old, tin boxes excluded) any device with Internet connectivity can also access your email via the Outlook Web app

Do you have round-the-clock security guards who protect your data centre? Venom IT does.
What encryption level does your server use? 256-bit? 512-bit? Our servers at Venom IT use 2048-bit encryption, which is considered fit for military purposes.
What security rating does your data centre have? No Security rating? IL1? IL2? Venom IT data centres are rated as IL4, which is considered fit for banking purposes.
Additionally, consider the fact that we have a dedicated team of experts, which means we can react faster to cyber threats and recover disasters more quickly.
When it comes to controlling critical business elements such as user accounts, quotas and folder management, however, you are still at the helm with our intuitive web-based control panel. When it comes to the boring-but-important geek stuff, we take care of patching, security and backups, leaving your hands free to focus on what you do best.

Yes. SharePoint is a collaboration tool that integrates with MS Office, and is mostly used for document sharing, management, remote access & storage. SharePoint can also be used for integration of other MS apps such as Skype for Business and MS Project, or even web building.

Maintenance is usually scheduled for 11pm-4am, and you will be notified prior to that. During this time, you may lose access for brief periods. All incoming emails are diverted to our failover servers, which means you won’t lose any emails, although there might be a slight delay before they appear in your inbox.

In the unlikely event that you use up all 50Gb, you will have the option to upgrade to a 100Gb mailbox. In the even more unlikely event of using up your 100Gb allotment, you will be asked to archive some of your older emails.

• Tip: In our experience, in the very few, rare cases where people have exceeded their 100 Gb data limit, it was invariably due to using the mailbox incorrectly. Rather than emailing large documents to yourself for backup, invest in a proper, cloud-based backup system that automatically saves changes and can roll back accidental or malicious changes.

MS Exchange 2013 offers 50Gb and MS Exchange 2016 offers 100Gb. Older emails can be archived indefinitely and there is no limit on that.

Of course you are. Keep in mind though that there’s a reason why email service is sometimes free. Here are a few questions to help you decide whether you should stay on a free service, or switch to MS Exchange:

• How many email users and accounts do you have? If there are 5 or more, you might want to consider MS Exchange – please read on.
• Does your email provider offer free 24/7 UK-based, telephonic emergency support?
• Does your email provider offer free 9am-5pm UK-based, telephonic tech support?
• Does your current email provider offer 100Gb mailbox size?

A few other considerations are:

• Exchange is a dedicated system rather than a shared system, which means that changes you make are almost instantaneously synced across all devices.
• Exchange also offers superior integration with other productivity tools such as email & messaging, calendars, MS Office apps and workflow automation.
• Security – your data is exponentially safer due to stringent security measures and automated backups.
• Larger attachment size – with attachments of up to 40Mb, you can more easily send and receive important documents.
• Predictable costs and simplified IT environments mean you can focus on what you do best, and not worry about unexpected IT events that could otherwise have impeded your business.

Yes. At a small, one-off fee per user, we can easily migrate all your old emails onto your new Exchange email.

MS Exchange is more than just email: It integrates apps like Outlook, messaging and other MS Office apps, whilst offering near-instantaneous syncing across all devices. Because of being hosted off-site (by a company such as Venom IT) it also offers exponentially better security.

Apart from the virtual server itself, you also get:

• Internet connectivity to the server
• Firewall
• Unlimited bandwidth
• 2 IP addresses, with additional IP addresses available upon request.

It depends largely on the workload you need it to handle. Shared servers are cheaper, but for a reason.
Dedicated servers offer so much more:

• Better performance
• Better security
• Can be customised
• Full admin & control

Yes to both, and it’s free.

Yes, of course. We can either do a roll back (at no charge) or give per-hour tech support.

Our technicians here at Venom IT will create your hosted virtual server, install the operating system, assign an IP address and hand it over to you. From that moment onwards, the server is yours, and you will have full admin rights to do additional software installations, configs etc.

Yes and no. You will have root access to your hosted server (which is a virtual machine) but not to the physical servers that it is hosted on (for rather obvious security reasons).

Let’s say that two people can carry one telephone pole. If one of them tripped, the work would stop. Now imagine twenty people carrying a bundle of ten telephone poles. If one of the people trips and falls, the other nineteen can easily carry on while the person who tripped gets back up and re-joins the ranks. That is the difference between having your own server and having a hosted cloud server.

A hosted server is a virtual machine, and the workload of creating all these virtual machines is spread over several arrays of physical servers, called ‘cabinets’. In the event of one of these physical servers failing, the other servers will simply pick up the slack and continue as normal. This is called ‘failover’. Our data centre is monitored 24-7-365, which means that even the tiniest of problems are immediately taken note of and addressed in order to provide continuity of service.

On your side, there will be no difference whatsoever to the performance of your virtual server, even though, behind the scenes, we will be hard at work repairing the broken physical server. That is the true magic of Cloud Computing.

Let’s say that two people can carry one telephone pole. If one of them tripped, the work would stop. Now imagine twenty people carrying a bundle of ten telephone poles. If one of the people trips and falls, the other nineteen can easily carry on while the person who tripped gets back up and re-joins the ranks. That is the difference between having your own server and having a hosted cloud server.

A hosted server is a virtual machine, and the workload of creating all these virtual machines is spread over several arrays of physical servers, called ‘cabinets’. In the event of one of these physical servers failing, the other servers will simply pick up the slack and continue as normal. This is called ‘failover’. Our data centre is monitored 24-7-365, which means that even the tiniest of problems are immediately taken note of and addressed in order to provide continuity of service.

On your side, there will be no difference whatsoever to the performance of your virtual server, even though, behind the scenes, we will be hard at work repairing the broken physical server. That is the true magic of Cloud Computing.

Because your server is a virtual machine that runs on a massive server network, it can be upgraded within minutes. Turnaround time, however, is usually one working day or less, depending on workload and whether there are any additional requirements for your new server.

Yes, absolutely. You can upgrade (or even downgrade) to another plan at any time.

Usually, one working day. There are factors such as custom configurations, add-ons or additional applications that could take a bit longer.

With us… absolutely! Some other Cloud providers sneak a clause in their contracts which states that the data belongs to them. Be careful of these providers.

Essentially your desktop/laptop is cloned and replicated in our Cloud infrastructure complete with all its Apps, programs and documents. Once that is complete your physical desktop is wiped and you access your hosted desktop via the Internet. This adds a layer of security & accessibility and gives you the convenience to work from anywhere using any device.

In short, it means working away from your office, but during normal or extended work hours. This could mean working from home on certain days (e.g. to fulfil family obligations, pregnant mums, health issues etc.) or working from an Internet café in a foreign country while away on business there.

A virtual desktop can run on any device that has internet connectivity and Remote Desktop Service (RDS) – which means most smartphones and tabs, as well as PC (minimum Windows XP) and Mac.
 

Yes! Your shiny new virtual machine is protected by round-the-clock security guards, and comes with military-grade encryption (2048-bit) and banking-level security (IL4)

Yes and no. For security reasons, we prefer to not allow customers to install their own apps, yet at the same time we understand the occasional need for customers to do this. There are two ways in which we can handle such requests:

1. If you send us all the relevant licensing information, we can do the installation for you from our end (free of charge).
2. We give you a limited time window during which you can install your apps yourself, after which the system reverts back to its default, high-security setting.

Sometimes, yes, depending on the task and spec of the machine. The reasons why a cloud-based virtual machine is superior to a physical machine are its reliability, security and zero maintenance. Additional points in favour of using a VM rather than a physical machine are: scalability, no capital layout, space saving and a reduced need for in-house IT wizards – Venom IT provides full support.
For certain applications (such as intensive graphic/ 3D design) the VM will typically be somewhat slower than a custom-built physical machine, however, many of our customers (such as architects and designers) feel that the trade-off between the slightly lower speed and the much better security and accessibility makes it worth switching to VM.

In most cases yes. Please click here for a complete list of known supported software. Bear in mind that apps that are not listed could very likely run without any problems. Functionally, a virtual machine is very close to a physical machine, and can perform almost all the same tasks that a physical machine can, and often faster than a physical machine with identical spec.

We charge a small one-off fee per user to migrate your existing desktop onto your new cloud desktop.

Nothing. Setup is free.

We have gone through rigid assessment in order to become a Microsoft Silver Certified Partner and ISO 9001 and Cyber essentials certified. These certifications guarantee the quality and security of our systems and services.

No matter where your Business is located, our IT support technicians will remotely assist you with any issue you throw at us. Our remote support software allows us to connect to your computer to fix your problem no matter where you are.

We offer a 30 day free trial which uses Citrix Reciever to connect to your hosted desktop.
To start your free trial Call today 0330 202 0220 or fill in the form on the us page.

The Cloud is a safe platform for storing your data. At Venom IT, we provide ultra secure solutions to businesses to integrate and manage their processes and services over the Cloud. We store our client’s valuable data in the UK using a 2048-bit encryption; this guarantees you that the sensitive data is safe from potential hackers and can never be decoded and viewed by unauthorised users. We have also passed Cyber Essentials, a UK-government supported certification, which strengthens our credibility in the IT industry.

In case a problem arises, rest assured that our IT experts can attend to your needs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
We will attend to your concerns immediately and have an SLA of 2 hours, meaning no problem will be left unsolved. If you hire Venom IT to take care of all your IT worries, you can be sure everything will be dealt with in no time at all, allowing you to focus on your Business.

Infrastructure as-a-Service and Platform as-a-Service are very similar. With IaaS, we basically rent you the hardware, along with physical maintenance and virtualisation, but you decide how to manage and implement any software, operating systems, middleware, apps and data. With PaaS, we take even more of the hassle off your hands – you can simply ‘PaaS’ everything onto us. All you have to manage are your data and your apps, while we take care of the rest.

There are several additional functions of our Internet Filtering service that could be very useful to your business – functions that are usually not provided by off-the-shelf antivirus software. With our Internet Filtering service, in addition to the usual Content Filtering, you can:

• Monitor and control the Internet usage of each individual employee. This is not spying, but sensible management of resources (time and bandwidth) that you pay for. This also means you can allow the free flow of ideas and collaboration, whilst limiting time-wasting activities that would otherwise go unchecked.
• Filter out certain sites that are visited too often, during work time, such as social media sites
  Block media streaming (for both productivity and security reasons)
• Proactively block compromised or fake websites that contain harmful viruses or other security risks
• Monitor web traffic and downloads (again, for both productivity and security reasons)

Venom IT is a reputable IT company based in Manchester. Our company has been in the IT industry since 2009. Our mission is to deliver innovative Cloud computing solutions that alleviate issues and strengthen our client’s business prospects.
We also offer 24/7 support and our network security credentials secure and protect our clients from potential cyber-attacks. We are a trusted Microsoft silver partner and we are Cyber Essentials accredited, ensuring that our services are totally secure. We offer a complete IT service for Businesses of any size so there’s no need for more than one point of contact – when it comes to IT, we do it all.

We have gone through rigid assessment in order to become a Microsoft Silver Certified Partner and ISO 9001 and Cyber essentials certified. These certifications guarantee the quality and security of our systems and services.

No matter where your Business is located, our IT support technicians will remotely assist you with any issue you throw at us. Our remote support software allows us to connect to your computer to fix your problem no matter where you are.

The Cloud is a safe platform for storing your data. At Venom IT, we provide ultra secure solutions to businesses to integrate and manage their processes and services over the Cloud. We store our client’s valuable data in the UK using a 2048-bit encryption; this guarantees you that the sensitive data is safe from potential hackers and can never be decoded and viewed by unauthorised users. We have also passed Cyber Essentials, a UK-government supported certification, which strengthens our credibility in the IT industry.

In case a problem arises, rest assured that our IT experts can attend to your needs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
We will attend to your concerns immediately and have an SLA of 2 hours, meaning no problem will be left unsolved. If you hire Venom IT to take care of all your IT worries, you can be sure everything will be dealt with in no time at all, allowing you to focus on your Business.

Think of IT Support as Roadside Assistance for computers. You wouldn’t drive around without proper precautions, would you?
In the world of IT, things can just as easily go wrong as in the real world. Do you have the tech know-how to deal with IT hassles, problems or disasters? Our dedicated team of specialists does, and are on standby to take your call and talk you through any problems you might experience with your IT installations and networks. The cost of downtime whilst trying to fix things yourself or finding the right contractor to do the job, often far outweighs the cost of the small monthly fee you pay towards your IT Support package.
Phone us now for a price on one of our standard packages or a quote on a bespoke package.

Venom IT is a reputable IT company based in Manchester. Our company has been in the IT industry since 2009. Our mission is to deliver innovative Cloud computing solutions that alleviate issues and strengthen our client’s business prospects.
We also offer 24/7 support and our network security credentials secure and protect our clients from potential cyber-attacks. We are a trusted Microsoft silver partner and we are Cyber Essentials accredited, ensuring that our services are totally secure. We offer a complete IT service for Businesses of any size so there’s no need for more than one point of contact – when it comes to IT, we do it all.

We have gone through rigid assessment in order to become a Microsoft Silver Certified Partner and ISO 9001 and Cyber essentials certified. These certifications guarantee the quality and security of our systems and services.

No matter where your Business is located, our IT support technicians will remotely assist you with any issue you throw at us. Our remote support software allows us to connect to your computer to fix your problem no matter where you are.

Make sure that your printer is connected to your PC and make sure that it is set as default printer.
Go to the Start Menu > Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Right click on the printer that you want to make default > Click “Set as Default Printer”.
If you’re using a Citrix desktop, please contact our support team on 0330 202 0220 and we’ll resolve the issue ASAP.

The Cloud is a safe platform for storing your data. At Venom IT, we provide ultra secure solutions to businesses to integrate and manage their processes and services over the Cloud. We store our client’s valuable data in the UK using a 2048-bit encryption; this guarantees you that the sensitive data is safe from potential hackers and can never be decoded and viewed by unauthorised users. We have also passed Cyber Essentials, a UK-government supported certification, which strengthens our credibility in the IT industry.

Outsourcing your IT needs comes with various benefits, which include:
• Reducing and controlling operating costs
• Innovative solutions and equipment provided by the third party IT company
• Advice, expertise and ideas from an entire team, rather than a single IT employee
For more information on the benefits of outsourcing your IT, call us on 0330 202 0220.

Your Exchange password can be changed in a few simple steps.
1. First go to owa.myexchangeonline.co.uk and log in.
2. Go to the top right corner and click options.
3. Click General > My account > Change your Password.
4. Enter your current password and then enter your new one.
5. Click save and you’re done!

In case a problem arises, rest assured that our IT experts can attend to your needs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
We will attend to your concerns immediately and have an SLA of 2 hours, meaning no problem will be left unsolved. If you hire Venom IT to take care of all your IT worries, you can be sure everything will be dealt with in no time at all, allowing you to focus on your Business.

Yes, and so do we. Cables are, however, much faster and also much more secure than Wi-Fi. For certain office applications, cabling is really the only sensible solution, especially where sensitive/ confidential data is processed. Wi-Fi is notoriously easy to hack and does not always give the best reliability.

Venom IT is a reputable IT company based in Manchester. Our company has been in the IT industry since 2009. Our mission is to deliver innovative Cloud computing solutions that alleviate issues and strengthen our client’s business prospects.
We also offer 24/7 support and our network security credentials secure and protect our clients from potential cyber-attacks. We are a trusted Microsoft silver partner and we are Cyber Essentials accredited, ensuring that our services are totally secure. We offer a complete IT service for Businesses of any size so there’s no need for more than one point of contact – when it comes to IT, we do it all.

We have gone through rigid assessment in order to become a Microsoft Silver Certified Partner and ISO 9001 and Cyber essentials certified. These certifications guarantee the quality and security of our systems and services.

In case a problem arises, rest assured that our IT experts can attend to your needs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
We will attend to your concerns immediately and have an SLA of 2 hours, meaning no problem will be left unsolved. If you hire Venom IT to take care of all your IT worries, you can be sure everything will be dealt with in no time at all, allowing you to focus on your Business.

Venom IT is a reputable IT company based in Manchester. Our company has been in the IT industry since 2009. Our mission is to deliver innovative Cloud computing solutions that alleviate issues and strengthen our client’s business prospects.
We also offer 24/7 support and our network security credentials secure and protect our clients from potential cyber-attacks. We are a trusted Microsoft silver partner and we are Cyber Essentials accredited, ensuring that our services are totally secure. We offer a complete IT service for Businesses of any size so there’s no need for more than one point of contact – when it comes to IT, we do it all.

No matter where your Business is located, our IT support technicians will remotely assist you with any issue you throw at us. Our remote support software allows us to connect to your computer to fix your problem no matter where you are.

In case a problem arises, rest assured that our IT experts can attend to your needs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
We will attend to your concerns immediately and have an SLA of 2 hours, meaning no problem will be left unsolved. If you hire Venom IT to take care of all your IT worries, you can be sure everything will be dealt with in no time at all, allowing you to focus on your Business.

That depends on the systems in place. For total security and safety of data, three things are needed:

1. A secure origin
2. A secure server to handle the data traffic
3. A secure end point

This means your work office, the server through which you connect and your “away office” all need to be secure. As you can imagine, this is easier said than done.
To illustrate this, imagine that someone sent you a letter containing highly confidential information. The sender was sitting alone in the office with the door closed when it was written. The courier is super-reliable and never opens people’s letters while carrying them, and hand-delivers letters to the recipient no matter where they are in the world (let’s pretend the courier wears a red cape and can fly). Unfortunately, you are sitting in a coffee shop surrounded by people, and with cameras everywhere when you receive your letter. Opening the letter poses the risk of exposing your confidential information, not so? But what if the letter was written in a secret language that only you and the sender can understand? Then it would be perfectly safe for you to open and read the letter, wouldn’t it?
Similarly, Venom IT can help with securing your office (the sender) against data intrusions, and we provide a world-class cloud-hosted service (the courier) with banking-level security ratings (IL4) and military-grade encryption (2048-bit).
The real trick is securing the endpoint, or remote office, which is often beyond your or our control. To provide a secure solution, we implement what is known as a VPN (Virtual Private Network) that uses end-to-end encryption (the secret language) to ensure the safe transfer of your data back and forth, even if things in the remote office aren’t ideal.

In short, it means working away from your office, but during normal or extended work hours. This could mean working from home on certain days (e.g. to fulfil family obligations, pregnant mums, health issues etc.) or working from an Internet café in a foreign country while away on business there.

Venom IT is a reputable IT company based in Manchester. Our company has been in the IT industry since 2009. Our mission is to deliver innovative Cloud computing solutions that alleviate issues and strengthen our client’s business prospects.
We also offer 24/7 support and our network security credentials secure and protect our clients from potential cyber-attacks. We are a trusted Microsoft silver partner and we are Cyber Essentials accredited, ensuring that our services are totally secure. We offer a complete IT service for Businesses of any size so there’s no need for more than one point of contact – when it comes to IT, we do it all.

We have gone through rigid assessment in order to become a Microsoft Silver Certified Partner and ISO 9001 and Cyber essentials certified. These certifications guarantee the quality and security of our systems and services.

No matter where your Business is located, our IT support technicians will remotely assist you with any issue you throw at us. Our remote support software allows us to connect to your computer to fix your problem no matter where you are.

The Cloud is a safe platform for storing your data. At Venom IT, we provide ultra secure solutions to businesses to integrate and manage their processes and services over the Cloud. We store our client’s valuable data in the UK using a 2048-bit encryption; this guarantees you that the sensitive data is safe from potential hackers and can never be decoded and viewed by unauthorised users. We have also passed Cyber Essentials, a UK-government supported certification, which strengthens our credibility in the IT industry.

In case a problem arises, rest assured that our IT experts can attend to your needs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
We will attend to your concerns immediately and have an SLA of 2 hours, meaning no problem will be left unsolved. If you hire Venom IT to take care of all your IT worries, you can be sure everything will be dealt with in no time at all, allowing you to focus on your Business.

Software as-a-Service is really an all-in-one, hands-free solution for the company that wishes to streamline its IT operations and save costs. SaaS is managed & hosted remotely, and is usually accessible over the internet. Another advantage of SaaS is its initial low cost (as opposed to buying the all the kit right off the bat) and future proof, seeing as how we here at Venom IT are constantly upgrading our hardware, and offer free Microsoft upgrades on most of our services. SaaS is also highly scalable – which means you can easily add or remove users, and at Venom IT, we don’t lock you in with punitive contracts; we charge for what you use, and don’t charge to provision new users nor to decommission defunct users.

You can schedule your meetings in advance via Outlook, or you could create impromptu meetings using Skype itself. Simply create a new conversation, select all the relevant participants, and message them/ call them by right-clicking on the group icon that will appear and selecting “Call Group”, “Send IM”, or any of the other commands. Instead of creating a new conversation, you could also use an existing group that was previously created.

Yes, our friendly staff will help you with any questions and setting up your devices.

This is usually part of MS Office, but may also require the latest version of Skype for Business Server to be installed.

Rather badly. Skype for Business is linked to a primary account and changing that can cause various issues. It would be better to keep your existing business email account for Skype and create a new Skype account for your new email address, and gradually phase that one in (i.e. booking new meetings/ conference calls on the new account, whilst still keeping the old account open for meetings/ conference calls that have already been set.)

No. Rather use secure email service such as provided by Venom IT’s hosted email service for sending sensitive data.

A wide variety of devices can be used, such as the built-in speakers, microphone and webcams that are found on most laptops, or you could use free-standing microphones, speakers and webcams.
For the sake of more privacy and convenience, many users adopt headsets instead. Headsets are fairly cheap, and we can help you choose from a wide range of devices that will best suit your needs.
Webcams are not crucial – you will still be able to see the video feeds from the other participants, but they won’t be able to see you.

After Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype, Lync has been upgraded and rebranded as Skype for Business.

Firstly, Skype for Business (previously called Lync) provides a separation between family life and work. Secondly, Skype for Business offers more features, specific to business use. These include:

• Cost saving – the most obvious reason to switch to Skype for Business is that you can make Skype-to-Skype calls to anyone anywhere in the world for free, or at greatly reduced cost if they are using other internet platforms or ordinary landlines; all you pay is a flat rate per user, and the small additional cost when phoning landlines.
• Skype for Business syncs with other MS Office products – you can for instance book meetings or group calls in advance, using Outlook. If you have another meeting scheduled on Outlook, Skype can be set to automatically show you as busy or unavailable should someone try to call you during that time.
• Virtually meet with up to 250 people – yes, 250! Share documents, pictures etc while conducting meetings with people from anywhere else in the world. In addition to this, meetings can be broadcast to up to 10 000 users, meaning you can stream audio, video, and PowerPoint presentations, track sentiment and enable third parties to add audience polling, formal Q&A, and other functionality
• Flexibility – stay in touch with your staff no matter where they are. Staff can freely roam within the office and not be tethered to a desk or a specific phone. Calls can also be delegated, meaning your assistant can handle calls that you are too busy to take.

*All parties to the call need to be on Skype for Business or the free version of Skype.

Venom IT is a reputable IT company based in Manchester. Our company has been in the IT industry since 2009. Our mission is to deliver innovative Cloud computing solutions that alleviate issues and strengthen our client’s business prospects.
We also offer 24/7 support and our network security credentials secure and protect our clients from potential cyber-attacks. We are a trusted Microsoft silver partner and we are Cyber Essentials accredited, ensuring that our services are totally secure. We offer a complete IT service for Businesses of any size so there’s no need for more than one point of contact – when it comes to IT, we do it all.

We have gone through rigid assessment in order to become a Microsoft Silver Certified Partner and ISO 9001 and Cyber essentials certified. These certifications guarantee the quality and security of our systems and services.

No matter where your Business is located, our IT support technicians will remotely assist you with any issue you throw at us. Our remote support software allows us to connect to your computer to fix your problem no matter where you are.

In case a problem arises, rest assured that our IT experts can attend to your needs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
We will attend to your concerns immediately and have an SLA of 2 hours, meaning no problem will be left unsolved. If you hire Venom IT to take care of all your IT worries, you can be sure everything will be dealt with in no time at all, allowing you to focus on your Business.

No, VoIP is an independent system. All it needs is an Internet connection, router and VoIP phone. You can, however, use your computer as a VoIP device, should you choose to (such as for call centres).

Generally speaking, we are able to offer a porting service, which means you keep your number. There are, however, a few telephone companies with whom we do not have porting agreements (or they don’t offer the service). In such cases, you will be assigned a new number. Porting takes 2-3 weeks, and incurs a small once-off charge for the setup.

No. Calls to VoIP phones cost the same as to a landline.

In general, VoIP is very reliable as long as certain criteria are met:

• Sufficient bandwidth and Internet speed
• Correct equipment (we will assist you with that)
• Not too many users crowded onto too small an infrastructure. Different VoIP routers can handle different workloads. Here too, we will advise you of what’s the best option for your business, taking into account your internet speed and the number of users
• For multiple users, the VoIP system should ideally have its own, separate Internet connection, rather than sharing the same Internet connection that you use for emails, browsing etc.
• A UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) to supply continuous electrical power to the VoIP router in your office in case of power outages. You should, by virtue of good office practice, have a UPS anyway.

Yes, if you subscribe to our call forwarding service.

You will need broadband with at least 2Mbps connection speed (although the higher the better). You will need higher speeds for more users. According to Ofcom, average UK internet speed is 36Mbps (Aug 2017), which means most users would be able to switch to VoIP without any problems.

Yes and no – it depends on the server that hosts your VoIP system. Having said that, Venom IT’s servers are of the highest-rated in the world, which means you can use our VoIP systems with confidence. We would also recommend letting us do a general security check of your business systems to ensure that you get the maximum security on your phone lines. When set up correctly, VoIP is generally considered to be even more secure than normal landlines, due to its built-in encryption component.

Ideally not. There are better ways of sending faxes with fax-to-email services. Please have a look at our list of services for up-to-date pricing on fax-to-email.

Let’s start with the “can make” calls:

• Free local calls to landlines
• Free national calls to landlines
• Free calls to more than 35 countries (see the full list here)
• Free calls to mobile numbers

The list of “can’t make” calls is very short – technically, it has nothing on it. There are, however, certain numbers that might be blocked, depending on your plan.
 

• Please note that you pay extra for premium numbers such as voting services, tipster services, psychic readings & horoscopes, adult call lines, competitions and certain customer support services that charge per minute. You can visit gov.uk for a full list of number prefixes and their explanations.

In most cases, VoIP is a lot cheaper than normal phone lines. If you seldom use your phone, VoIP might not necessarily be the answer. If on the other hand, like so many other businesses, you do use your phone a lot, then have a look at our package deals – you are quite likely to be pleasantly surprised.

Voice over Internet Protocol is a system that uses the Internet to make normal voice calls. VoIP is more sophisticated than ordinary landline phones, and offers more features whilst typically costing significantly less.