Category Archives: Manage Service

What Are My Mailbox Size Concerns with Office 365?

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Businessman and his administrator doing a routine check on their organization's computers - checking their Office 365 mailbox size.

Be sure your admin is checking your organization’s mailbox sizes regularly.

Microsoft Office 365 offers a variety of features to its users, but one feature that is often overlooked until it becomes a problem is mailbox size. Whether you are running a small business or a personal email account, having the right-sized mailbox is critical to ensure that email messages are delivered on time and without any issues.

Many people start using Office 365 with a small mailbox and then realize their mailbox has become too full. At that point, it cannot be easy to find out how to increase your mailbox size in Office 365.

So, what are your mailbox size concerns? Here we explore and explain some of the common questions around Microsoft Office 365 mailbox size.

How Do You Check Mailbox Size in Office 365?

Office 365 only offers a limited amount of storage space. However, the default size varies according to the subscription pack you choose and the type of mailbox. While some default sizes are 50GB, others are 100GB.

As you can see, it is a limited space that sooner, might not be able to serve your needs anymore. And that’s why it is good for your admin to regularly check the mailbox size to avoid issues like the inability to send and receive messages.

However, the Office 365 Admin Center does not provide any tools to manage mailbox sizes, including your own. Office 365 natively uses Microsoft Exchange Online, which allows you to manage user mailbox sizes.

To get the usage report from the Microsoft 365 Admin center, here’s how to go about it:

  • Go to Microsoft 365 Admin Center
  • Click on the Reports tab, then Usage and select Report
  • Go to Exchange, and there you get the Mailbox Usage

So, the Mailbox Usage report you get from the Admin Center will indicate the consumed storage space. Luckily, you can still access the real user mailbox size, shared mailbox size, and resource mailbox usage report via the Exchange Admin Center (EAC) or Exchange Online via the Other Exchange Reports in the left pane.

And this is how to view the actual Mailbox size report:

  • Login to Microsoft 365 Manager Plus.
  • Click the Reports tab.
  • Traverse to Exchange Online, then the mailbox Reports in the left window.
  • Within the Size Reports group, tap on Mailbox Size report.
Can I Increase My Office 365 Mailbox Size?

Yes, you can. Any user can increase their mailbox size in these two ways:

  • You can allot it an Exchange Online Plan 2 license to augment the storage limit from 50GB to 100GB.
  • Allow Exchange Online Archiving. You will get an extra 50GB of space, and with the auto-expanding archiving, you can get even unlimited space, but it’s contingent on your Microsoft 365 license.

Growing your mailbox to your maximum share isn’t the only way to make your mailbox space. Also, Exchange Online lets you use retention policies to keep or do away with data automatically, depending on the criteria you select.

There are also backup and archiving tools available online to decrease the data stored in your cloud. These tools allow you to preserve data discoverability and hinder the mailbox from congestion.

How does Archiving Operate?

There are two ways to archive:

  • By creating an archiving policy. The policy operates by retention, where the old data is automatically archived or depending on the retention tags your company allocates data.
  • Sending the items yourself (manually).

The plan you choose will determine how much storage space you have per mailbox and the other features you will receive. Each plan also allows archiving mailboxes, which hold emails that are no longer in daily use but still needed for reference.

Archiving is charged based on storage size, so it is good to look at cheaper plans if you’re not expecting your employees to need more space.

Conclusion

Office 365 is a very capable email server. Users with larger mailbox sizes may want to take a moment to consider their storage options with Office 365. Smaller mailbox sizes may be more than sufficient for their needs.

You can do most things on it on Exchange, such as auto-responders, archiving, and other capabilities. And Microsoft has found workarounds to make it possible for even those with mailboxes over the threshold. As long as you’re willing to be cautious about some of the issues surrounding this solution, your organization can use Office 365 and have mailboxes upwards of 25 GB.

Well, are you stuck with any network issues? Feel free to get in touch! We at SystemsNet are a reliable source for your network issues.

Understanding Business Downtime

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Professional in an office showing stress while dealing with a business downtime.

Dealing with service downtime

Downtime is a factor that will determine the success of your business. It is the total time elapsed when a piece of equipment or a machine is not functional. There are two kinds of downtime:

Planned Downtime

This kind occurs outside the scheduled business trading hours. Weekends are appropriate for this kind of this downtime. Effective planning for this kind of downtime requires companies to know when their demand cycles occur.

Unplanned Downtime

Unplanned downtime occurs when there is an unanticipated failure of a process or equipment. This kind of downtime occurs when companies are less prepared to address it quickly. It usually occurs at the busiest time of the day.

How Does Downtime Affect Your Business?

The cost of downtime can be very high when not managed. The cost varies from industry to industry. Nevertheless, it does not affect only your income. Here’s how downtime affects different industries:

Manufacturing Industry

In manufacturing, downtime could lead to a lack of raw materials. It will also increase the cost of holding inventory. Manufacturers will experience loss in production during downtime. Reducing downtime in manufacturing will increase your production levels.

Distribution Industry

The supply chain requires an efficient workforce. Employees need to focus on their tasks to increase efficiency. However, downtime leads to issues that divert the focus of employees. It will lead to an increase in labor cost per unit.

Service Industry

Downtime could lead to damage to a brand’s reputation for your service industry. Clients who have had experience in your system could write a negative review of your brand. These clients could damage your brand image further by sharing their experiences with friends and family. It might push away your current and potential clients.

Online Industry

Loss of opportunity can be very devastating. This is usually the case for industries such as online shopping that experience downtime. Downtime could also lead to data loss. Cyberattacks are also common during downtime.

Advertising and Marketing Industry

Downtime causes a loss of traffic for marketing sites. Visitors of these sites also lose trust in the company. It takes a lot of effort and money to rebuild that trust.

What Causes of Downtime?

Knowing the typical causes of downtime helps to avoid future inconveniences. Technology is the leading cause of downtime. In particular, IT downtime is the most popular in businesses. IT issues from any of the following may cause downtime:

Hardware Failure

Out-of-date hardware results in hardware failure. It cannot execute complex applications. This can result in data traffic flow congestion. To avoid hardware failure, replace your old hardware with the latest collection.

Software Updates

Systems and processes need to be updated regularly to maintain their efficiency. However, relying on outdated software will lead to scheduled downtime. Out-of-date software is also vulnerable to bugs. Bugs in a server’s operating system will cause server downtime.

Employee Error

Human error is the most frequent cause of IT downtime. These errors occur when employees fail to follow laid-down protocols. Although human error can not be completely avoided, it can be controlled. You can consider documenting each task step-by-step to ensure that a standard procedure is always followed.

Internet Outages

Most businesses today rely on the internet to deliver their services and products. Internet outages are therefore a significant cause of downtime for businesses. Network congestion and faulty routers are some of the causes of internet outages. Failed link-to-internet provider also leads to internet outages.

Understaffed IT Departments

Businesses require enough IT experts to monitor their network, applications, and servers. Understaffed IT departments are unable to perform tasks effectively. Companies ought to hire dedicated experts to manage their IT needs.

Let Us Support You

Preventing downtime should be a top priority for your company. You need to have a team of experienced individuals monitoring and being proactive to prevent downtime and that is where SystemsNet comes into play. Ensure you contact us today to get started.

Business Continuity: How to Plan for Downtime in Today’s Market

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An IT team on-call working on a laptop while dealing with a company's system downtime.

Building prevention plans for your company’s downtime risks.

Right now, downtime is a concern for nearly every business in all sectors. With shipping delays and material shortages at an all-time high, we are seeing a ripple effect of delays and shortages throughout the entire national (and international) marketplace.

Construction teams can’t finish houses due to lumber shortages. Vehicle manufacturers can’t complete their yearly production due to microchip shortages. Local restaurants are experiencing food delivery delays. Even tech companies can’t keep up with their schedules due to an IT labor shortage.  Downtime can and often does come from delays outside of your control. But what about the downtime that is inside your control?

There is more to downtime than delays. A company experiences downtime any time that services or the ability to work is interrupted. Power outages, road-stopping storms, malware attacks, and even software upgrade failures can all cause downtime. how can your business build a sufficient business continuity plan to prepare for the most likely downtime risks for your sector, industry, and company?

Determine Your Downtime Risks
  • Power and Internet Outages
  • Shipping and Materials
  • Extreme Weather
  • Equipment and Software Failure
  • Failed Software Upgrades
  • Cybersecurity Attacks

Most companies have the highest risk of downtime in the face of digital and technical failures. Power and internet outages are the most profound. But human error, equipment failure, and even failed software upgrades can all take down your business systems at exactly the wrong moment. Cybersecurity poses a rising threat for all sectors while the widespread shortages (from lumber to IT technicians) creates an equally widespread risk of downtime as a result.

Determine which types of downtime are the biggest risk for your company. You don’t have to choose just one. Any significant risk-factor is worth preparing for to create your business continuity plan.

Build a Prevention Plan for Each Downtime Risk
  • Backup and recovery planning
  • Deeper inventory and early ordering
  • Cloud-based data archives
  • Third-party partner solutions
  • Emergency generators and other fallback systems

Now that you have your list of downtime risks, start your prevention planning. A more robust network of backups and fallback systems are exactly what you need to make sure that if one thing goes wrong, your entire business isn’t brought to a halt.

This is your chance to build stronger systems, backup systems, and move many of your solutions to the cloud where a local disaster or device failure can’t damage your processes or backup systems. You might have a second internet provider, an emergency generator, or set up network monitoring so that system failures cannot happen without detection.

Third-party solutions are a great way to provide business continuity by networking your business functions.

Create Response and Recovery Plans: Red Folder Time

What happens if one of your major systems does go down? Your CRM upgrade eats itself and suddenly all your files are corrupted, or a shipment is delayed and production comes to a stop. What next? It’s time to build your red-folder file; your system of solutions should “the worst” happen in any possible circumstances.

Create a solution or network of solutions for every possible type of downtime. This is another place where third-party solutions are idea. It’s always a good idea to call for backup when your local systems are down and you need to keep the doors open and the phonelines on. You may have a bad-weather emergency generator service – those who deliver generators when the power goes out. You may have an IT team on-call to handle your software and hardware failures can be essential – especially if you don’t have on-staff IT to provide solutions.

Build robust backup and fallback systems. Find business continuity partners and work with third parties who can provide that fallback support when your business continuity is at risk.

Here at SystemsNet, we can help you prepare for business continuity for your hardware, software, and cybersecurity concerns. From backup recovery to software update protection, we’ll make sure your system and business stay online so you can focus on your other red folders like supply line and shipping concerns. Contact us today to take care of your technical business continuity planning with SystemsNet.

What Does Downtime Mean for Your Business?

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Two IT technicians having difficulty repairing IT system in a server room - a concept of business downtime.

Your IT system could be the main culprit behind your frequent downtime.

Many business dictionaries agree on the definition of downtime to mean the period in which your equipment, machinery, or workforce is not working. The reasons why you experience it can range from maintenance to technical failure.

This definition of downtime can apply to mainly labor-intensive industries such as construction, distribution, or manufacturing. However, it can also apply to the systems at the heart of your business operations.

Your IT system could be the main culprit behind your frequent downtime. How does this happen? Let’s take a look.

 

Hardware Failure

Wear and tear are inevitable forces when it comes to moving parts of any equipment or machinery. It is not a stretch to imagine that those parts are going to fail at one point or another. This is why routine maintenance is important to keep your equipment in good working order.

Sometimes, though, some of these components can experience a catastrophic failure. Your IT system, which has been monitoring operations all this time, could force your entire operation to shut down. This is to prevent any further damage from destroying your hard work.

The result is unplanned downtime.

 

Software Updates

You’ve probably heard of this statement before, whenever the likes of Microsoft release a new Windows version or major update; let the guinea pigs test out the new software updates before upgrading your own. The purpose is to suss out whether there are bugs that can disrupt your operations or experience.

You may not have that luxury when it comes to enterprise and industrial software. Even with numerous test runs before installation, some bugs may appear during actual operations. The bugs can have various effects on your operations, from silly mistakes and slowing down operations to downright causing havoc.

 

Employee Error

Most modern systems have an IT structure baked into them. It is responsible for the control and monitoring of the myriad components that make it up. While this kind of automation has been important in terms of automating and streamlining production processes, it still needs human input now and then.

That’s where the major weakness lies; with the operator. It is not uncommon to have an employee enter the wrong information into the controls. Depending on the operation parameters, the mistake the worker makes could range from a minor inconvenience to an expensive breakdown both in time and money.

 

Internet Outages

The IT systems running your operations are superb. The level of convenience they offer your company is unparalleled, and frankly, you wouldn’t have it any other way. The best part is, you can monitor operations over the internet, and even make changes when needed.

An internet outage occurring at the wrong time can mean loss of access to information crucial to the running of your operations. Not only does this affect output, but it can also lead to downtime when the system is waiting for input from you.

 

You Don’t Have to Suffer Downtime.

Some things can inevitably go wrong from time to time. However, how quickly you get back up is a great determinant of success. Not only is downtime a loss of productivity, but it also means you have less output for the market. It ultimately ends up impacting your company’s bottom line.

What you require is a team of qualified and experienced experts monitoring your IT systems, and being proactive to prevent your systems from experiencing downtime. That is where we at SystemsNet come into play.

We have designed packages that can suit various small and medium enterprises such as yours. Are you interested in such a program, but have no idea where to begin? Get in touch with us. We’d love to help you succeed.