My home office has gone through significant changes from where it started in 2005. Back then, we had a small business server for file and printer sharing and our email server. The risk of downtime and the cost of upgrading resulted in our move to Office 365 for email in 2009. We still maintained our files on network-attached storage with cloud-based back. In 2018 we moved our files to SharePoint online, which has been working great for us the past two years.
Updates in 2020
Microsoft Teams has proven to be invaluable to us this year. To ensure we have the best online meeting experience, we upgraded our mics to the Blue yeti and upgraded our webcams to 1080p.
Updates Planned for 2021
As part of our annual IT review, I am now looking at what upgrades we need to consider for 2021. Our system worked well through 2020, with only one significant issue. Our PC purchased for the conference room and used for online meetings, webinars, and recording was dramatically underpowered. The following is a summary of each substantial section of our review.
Software
Our accounting practice will continue to move clients, where applicable, to cloud accounting. The online solutions meet the needs of our clients and simplify operations for both our clients and us.
Our write-up and tax software are working well, and with the data stored on SharePoint, we do not see a need to move to cloud solutions for either.
Our office runs on Microsoft 365, providing us with Microsoft Office Pro Plus, file sharing and storage, Microsoft Teams, calendar sharing, email, and an online booking site for clients. We have selected the Microsoft 365 E3 subscription to provide improved security, including data loss prevention and restricted access.
With the combination of retention policies in SharePoint and Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, we can operate as a paperless office.
The team at K2E Canada Inc. moved to LastPass for Teams, providing us with improved passwords and easy sharing to common sites the team uses.
The result is no changes are planned for software in 2021.
Our write-up and tax software are working well, and with the data stored on SharePoint, we do not see a need to move to cloud solutions for either.
Our office runs on Microsoft 365, providing us with Microsoft Office Pro Plus, file sharing and storage, Microsoft Teams, calendar sharing, email, and an online booking site for clients. We have selected the Microsoft 365 E3 subscription to provide improved security, including data loss prevention and restricted access.
With the combination of retention policies in SharePoint and Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, we can operate as a paperless office.
The team at K2E Canada Inc. moved to LastPass for Teams, providing us with improved passwords and easy sharing to common sites the team uses.
The result is no changes are planned for software in 2021.
Firewall and Wi-Fi
We have been using a PFsense firewall for several years; its advanced configuration options are an excellent fit for our office.
A couple of years ago, we migrated our guest wireless system to Nest Wi-Fi. The advantage of this system is the easy setup and configuration with the power of a mesh network. Performance is excellent and a great match to our cable internet connection. With most of our devices not Wi-Fi 6 compatible, there is no need to upgrade.
A couple of years ago, we migrated our guest wireless system to Nest Wi-Fi. The advantage of this system is the easy setup and configuration with the power of a mesh network. Performance is excellent and a great match to our cable internet connection. With most of our devices not Wi-Fi 6 compatible, there is no need to upgrade.
Hardware
Scanners
We are using Canon ImageFormula scanners and will continue with them for the next couple of years.
Laptops
With its docking station, detachable keyboard, and digital pen, the Surface Pro is our standard laptop.
My Surface Pro 4 has worked well for the past five years, but it will be upgraded in 2021. The need for additional ram and a new processor is evident when compared to the performance of my partner’s Surface Pro 7. The replacement will be the new Surface Pro 8, expected to be released in the first quarter of 2021. The upgrade will be an i7 with 16GB of Ram and 256GB SSD.
My Surface Pro 4 has worked well for the past five years, but it will be upgraded in 2021. The need for additional ram and a new processor is evident when compared to the performance of my partner’s Surface Pro 7. The replacement will be the new Surface Pro 8, expected to be released in the first quarter of 2021. The upgrade will be an i7 with 16GB of Ram and 256GB SSD.
Desktops
Our office desktop computers are a mix of Dell and custom builds. These computers are a mix of different generations of i5 and i7 processors with a minimum of 8GB of ram.
The conference room desktop, an i5 with 8GB of ram, has been moved to a workstation and replaced with a seven-year-old custom build. Despite the processor’s age, an i7 4th generation, the system works well because it has 32Gb of ram.
With new desktop processors being released in the first half of 2021, we will wait to upgrade this old machine. The upgrade will be either the 11th generation i7 or a Ryzen 5000 series with a minimum of 18GB of ram, reusing the existing SSD, and a dedicated video card such as the Radeon Pro WX 4100.
The conference room desktop, an i5 with 8GB of ram, has been moved to a workstation and replaced with a seven-year-old custom build. Despite the processor’s age, an i7 4th generation, the system works well because it has 32Gb of ram.
With new desktop processors being released in the first half of 2021, we will wait to upgrade this old machine. The upgrade will be either the 11th generation i7 or a Ryzen 5000 series with a minimum of 18GB of ram, reusing the existing SSD, and a dedicated video card such as the Radeon Pro WX 4100.
Summary
Our IT setup has taken a long time to mature to the point we are at now. The goal has always been to keep the design as straightforward as possible while maintaining high availability, security, and remote access. With just a couple of hardware updates, we should be in good shape for 2021.
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