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New Year, New Tech: Top IT Upgrades To Supercharge Your Business In 2025

January isn’t just for fresh starts and ambitious resolutions - it’s the perfect time to evaluate your business’s technology needs. As we step into 2025, staying competitive means leveraging IT solutions that boost efficiency, improve security and prepare you for the demands of a rapidly changing, AI-focused digital world.

The cost of outdated or inefficient IT systems is steep: According to a report by ITIC, the average cost of IT downtime for an SMB is $1,670 per minute per server! There are also other costs that we can’t measure in direct dollars, but the loss is still felt. This are the cost of constant disruptions to business through dropped calls, lagging Internet, improperly organized cloud systems, etc.

With that in mind, here are the top IT upgrades that can set your business up for success this year.


1. Move To The Cloud - Enhance Flexibility And Reduce Costs

Cloud solutions are no longer just about file storage; they’re the backbone of modern business operations. If you don’t use them, you are not only behind but working inefficiently. From improving collaboration for remote teams to ensuring business continuity in the event of an outage, moving to the cloud offers:

Scalable resources tailored to your needs.

Businesses using cloud technologies report a 20% average reduction in IT spending, according to Flexera.

2. Strengthen Your Cybersecurity Strategy

With cyberthreats evolving daily, it’s critical to stay one step ahead. Cybercrime is expected to cost businesses $10.5 trillion annually by 2025, according to Cybersecurity Ventures. Protect your business with:

Endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions.

Proactive threat monitoring through a managed security service provider (MSSP).

Prioritizing cybersecurity is not just about protection - it’s about maintaining trust and avoiding costly downtime or reputational damage.


Outdated devices can bottleneck productivity and expose your network to vulnerabilities. If your computers, servers or networking equipment are several years old, consider replacing them with more efficient and secure alternatives.

Compatibility with Windows 11 as Windows 10 support ends in October 2025. (Work on this SOONER than later so you aren’t scrambling at the deadline!)

Hardware designed for advanced applications like AI and cloud computing.


4. Leverage AI-Powered Tools For Operational Efficiency

Artificial intelligence is no longer a luxury - it’s a necessity for businesses looking to streamline operations. AI tools can:

Enhance customer service with smarter chatbots.

Provide real-time data insights to inform decision-making.

And so much more! For example, AI-driven tools can help your IT team identify and resolve issues before they impact your business and even handle customer service questions or complaints.

Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) brings your e-mail phone, video conferencing and chat tools into one integrated platform. The result? Better collaboration, reduced miscommunication and significant time savings.

Pro Tip: Look for UCaaS solutions with built-in security and integration capabilities to ensure seamless adoption across your team.


Every business has unique needs, and IT upgrades are not a one-size-fits-all solution. While these suggestions provide a starting point, the best results come from building an optimized system tailored to your specific goals and challenges.

That’s where a FREE Network Assessment can make all the difference. By evaluating your current infrastructure, identifying inefficiencies and prioritizing your investments, you can make informed decisions that maximize your IT budget and create a system designed for efficiency and growth.

Ready to future-proof your business to scale up in 2025? Call us at 303-423-4500 or click here to schedule your FREE Network Assessment today and take the first step toward a smarter, more secure IT environment.

The article highlights essential IT upgrades for businesses to stay competitive in 2025. It emphasizes the importance of cloud adoption for flexibility, cost savings, and improved collaboration, alongside strengthening cybersecurity to mitigate evolving threats and costly downtime. Upgrading outdated hardware, leveraging AI-powered tools for efficiency, and adopting Unified Communications (UCaaS) are recommended to streamline operations and enhance productivity. The piece underscores that tailored IT solutions are crucial, urging businesses to assess their infrastructure and prioritize investments for growth and security. A free network assessment is offered as a starting point for future-proofing IT systems.

Seeing the Whole Picture: Why the NewPush Platform Matters More Than Ever

There’s something quietly powerful about clarity.

In cybersecurity, we talk a lot about tools—scanners, dashboards, alerts, audits. But ask anyone who’s lived through a real security event, and they’ll tell you: what we really need is perspective. Not just more data, but a clearer view of what it means. Not just another platform, but a way to actually see the whole picture—and act on it.

That’s the promise of the NewPush Platform. And in a world where threats evolve faster than policies, where compliance feels like a moving target, and where IT leaders are stretched thinner than ever, it couldn’t have come at a better time.

The Problem: Fragmented Tools, Fractured Visibility

If you work in security or infrastructure, this will sound familiar: you’ve invested in a suite of tools—vulnerability scanners, identity providers, endpoint detection systems. Each one offers a slice of visibility. But no one’s telling the full story.

You find yourself switching between interfaces, reconciling reports, and making high-stakes decisions based on partial context. Meanwhile, your team is chasing alerts, your auditors want evidence, and your leadership just wants to know: Are we safe?

This is the quiet chaos of modern cybersecurity—where the problem isn’t the absence of data, but the absence of coherence.

NewPush saw that. And built something different.

The Vision: A Platform That Connects, Not Complicates

At its core, the NewPush Platform isn’t just a tool—it’s a connective layer that brings order to complexity. It integrates with the tools you already use. It pulls in data from across your security ecosystem. And then—this is the key—it organizes it into something useful.

Not just dashboards for the sake of dashboards. But contextual visibility. Risk that’s measured, not assumed. Identity that’s governed, not guessed. Vulnerabilities that are prioritized, not buried in spreadsheets.

It’s called the Connective Platform™ for a reason. Because what it really delivers is connection—not just between systems, but between strategy and execution. Between the data you have and the insight you need.

Who Uses the NewPush Platform—and Why It Works for Them

If you’re imagining this as a solution just for large enterprises or cybersecurity veterans, pause for a moment. Because the brilliance of the platform is in how widely (and wisely) it applies.

Higher education institutions use it to navigate tight budgets while protecting sprawling networks of students, faculty, and research systems. Finance teams use it to ensure zero trust doesn’t mean zero usability. Startups use it to scale securely without reinventing the wheel. Even public sector teams—where compliance pressures are constant—find value in the way the platform automates evidence gathering and audit readiness.

What unites these use cases isn’t the industry. It’s the need to understand risk in real time—and act on it without adding new burdens to already-stretched teams.

Because the truth is, most organizations don’t need more alerts. They need more alignment. And that’s where this platform shines.

Consider a CISO trying to prepare a board-level report. She’s pulled data from six tools, tried to normalize conflicting definitions, and still can’t say with confidence where the greatest vulnerabilities lie.

Now imagine she’s using the NewPush Platform. Instead of patchwork, she sees a unified view—critical risks surfaced, identities mapped, remediation progress tracked. When the board asks, “Where do we stand?” she doesn’t hesitate. She answers with clarity—and credibility.

Or take a compliance officer facing a tight audit window. Instead of chasing paper trails, he opens a portal and generates reports that prove access control, patch history, and threat response in minutes. No last-minute scrambles. Just readiness.

In both cases, what the platform delivers isn’t just functionality. It’s peace of mind.

Another thing that sets NewPush apart? Empathy.

This is a platform built not for some idealized, future-state organization—but for the real ones. The underfunded IT departments. The fast-growing startups. The higher ed CIOs managing 3 a.m. outages and faculty pushback on MFA adoption.

NewPush gets that. It doesn’t ask you to rip and replace. It integrates. It listens. It evolves with you.

And maybe most importantly, it doesn’t assume you have a dedicated security analyst on every floor. Instead, it gives every team—from the help desk to the SOC—tools that feel human, not just technical.

That might sound like a soft benefit. But in my experience writing for change leaders across sectors, it’s what actually gets adoption. Because clarity is contagious. And when your people can see what matters, they start protecting what matters.

Beyond Technology: A Partner You Can Count On

Spend five minutes talking to a NewPush customer, and one theme comes up again and again: trust.

Not just in the technology, but in the team behind it. Fast responses. Transparent pricing. A proactive approach that feels less like a vendor and more like a partner.

For many clients, that relationship spans years—even decades. And that says something.

Because in cybersecurity, what we’re really looking for isn’t perfection. It’s a partner who won’t disappear when things get hard. A team that shows up, stays steady, and keeps asking: How can we make this better?

NewPush brings that mindset to everything it does.

The NewPush Platform doesn’t promise to solve every cybersecurity challenge. No platform can. But what it does promise—and deliver—is this:

A smarter way to manage identity and risk

A human-centered experience built for real-world complexity

A relationship rooted in responsiveness and trust

And maybe, just maybe, a little less noise—and a little more peace of mind.

So if you’ve been feeling overwhelmed by disconnected tools, uncertain about your security posture, or just tired of trying to build a coherent picture from incomplete data—NewPush is worth a look.

Because in this work, clarity isn’t a luxury. It’s a lifeline.

The NewPush Platform is more than a security tool—it’s a strategic lens that brings clarity to complex cybersecurity ecosystems. In this article, Maya Quinn explores how the Connective Platform™ helps organizations—from higher ed to finance—unify fragmented tools, visualize real-time risk, and align teams around what matters most. Built for the real world, trusted by leaders, and powered by empathy, it’s a platform that turns chaos into confidence.

Where Innovation Gets Its Hands Dirty: Why NewPush Labs Is a Playground for Serious Learners

In the world of technology, there’s a kind of learning that only happens when your hands are on the keyboard, your eyes are on the logs, and your heart skips a beat because something just broke—and you get to figure out how to fix it.

That’s the learning that sticks. And that’s exactly what NewPush Labs was built to support.

If you haven’t explored it yet, NewPush Labs is more than a test environment. It’s a digital sandbox for builders, learners, and leaders who need space to experiment with real tools in real conditions—without the pressure of a production system or the limitations of a locked-down demo.

And in a time when IT professionals, students, and security teams are all under pressure to adapt fast, tools like this aren’t just nice to have—they’re essential.

A lot of platforms claim to offer "hands-on experience." But too often, that experience is tightly scripted—click here, configure this, follow the steps—and leaves no room for real exploration.

NewPush Labs takes a different approach. It gives you a fully provisioned, production-like stack—complete with modern tools like Grafana, Loki, Traefik, and Casdoor—and invites you to learn by doing.

There’s no artificial scaffolding here. No pre-cooked exercises. Just an open, extensible environment where you can spin up apps, break things, troubleshoot, test configurations, and build your confidence along the way.

This is where DevOps gets real. Where students become contributors. Where experienced engineers sharpen their instincts by getting a little messy.

It’s not sterile. It’s not staged. And that’s exactly why it works.

The short answer? People who are ready to try.

Some are early-career developers who’ve studied containers but never deployed one on their own. Others are educators looking for a way to give students meaningful infrastructure experience—without spending a week just getting environments set up. You’ll also find security professionals here, modeling authentication flows or testing observability stacks before rolling them out in production.

But beyond the titles and job functions, they share something deeper: curiosity paired with commitment. These are people who understand that you don’t really know Kubernetes—or access control, or CI/CD pipelines—until you’ve seen them in motion, failed a few times, and kept going.

And that’s what Labs offers. Not a hand-holding tutorial, but a safe, generous space to get things wrong on your way to getting them right.

Built by Practitioners, Not Just Product Teams

What makes NewPush Labs different isn’t just the tech it includes—it’s the thoughtfulness behind the experience.

You can feel it in the details. The way the interface balances clarity with control. The fact that you can access a terminal directly in the browser or define stacks with tools like Ansible. The way it supports modern SSO and TLS out of the box, so you’re learning best practices, not just concepts.

It’s not about showing off features—it’s about empowering flow. The kind of creative, exploratory work that’s only possible when the environment supports you instead of standing in your way.

The Labs team clearly understands what it’s like to be in the trenches—managing uptime, mentoring junior staff, leading rollouts under pressure. They’ve taken that empathy and baked it into every part of the Labs experience.

For security teams, NewPush Labs becomes a kind of digital rehearsal space. Want to see how a new ingress policy would behave? Want to simulate different identity models or get hands-on with observability tools? You can do it here—without risking your production system or waiting on formal approvals.

For instructors, it’s a way to level the playing field. Whether your students are learning from a university classroom or a kitchen table, they all get access to the same professional-grade environment—no extra hardware, no expensive licenses.

And for the self-taught, the career-changers, and the endlessly curious, Labs is a launchpad. You don’t need a fancy job title or corporate credentials to walk in and start learning. You just need a browser and a question you want to answer.

When I think about the kind of future we’re all trying to build in tech—one that’s more inclusive, more resilient, and more human—I keep coming back to access.

Who gets to practice? Who gets to play? Who gets to fail safely and try again?

NewPush Labs answers that with a quiet but powerful invitation: you do.

Whether you're a CTO or a student, a sysadmin or a bootcamp grad, if you want to deepen your craft, this is a place where you’re welcome to do the real work of learning. Not just watching. Not just reading. But building.

Because that’s what changes people—and that’s what changes systems.

NewPush Labs is open-source, free to use, and ready when you are.

Whether you’re teaching, testing, or tinkering, the tools are already waiting for you.

👉 Launch NewPush Labs
👉 Explore our GitHub
👉 Get in touch if you’d like a guided tour or want to integrate Labs into your course, team, or training environment.

If you’re anything like the folks I’ve worked with—CIOs, engineers, educators, and innovators alike—you know how rare it is to find a space that feels both powerful and welcoming.

Not a walled garden. Not a lecture hall. But a real lab. A place where innovation doesn’t just start—it grows.

So go ahead. Get your hands dirty. You might be surprised by what you learn—and by what you build.

NewPush Labs is a powerful, open-access environment designed for hands-on learning, real-world testing, and confident exploration of modern tech stacks. In this featured article, Maya Quinn explores how Labs empowers developers, educators, students, and security professionals alike by offering a production-grade space to experiment, prototype, and grow—without the usual barriers. It’s not just a sandbox—it’s where innovation gets real.

Shadow IT: How Employees Using Unauthorized Apps Could Be Putting Your Business At Risk

Your employees might be the biggest cybersecurity risk in your business – and not just because they’re prone to click phishing e-mails or reuse passwords. It’s because they’re using apps your IT team doesn’t even know about.

This is called Shadow IT, and it’s one of the fastest-growing security risks for businesses today. Employees download and use unauthorized apps, software and cloud services – often with good intentions – but in reality they’re creating massive security vulnerabilities without even realizing it.

Shadow IT refers to any technology used within a business that hasn’t been approved, vetted or secured by the IT department. It can include things like:

Employees using personal Google Drives or Dropbox accounts to store and share work documents.


Teams signing up for unapproved project management tools like Trello, Asana or Slack without IT oversight.


Workers installing messaging apps like WhatsApp or Telegram on company devices to communicate outside of official channels.


Marketing teams using AI content generators or automation tools without verifying their security.

Because IT teams have no visibility or control over these tools, they can’t secure them – which means businesses are exposed to all kinds of threats.

Unsecured Data-Sharing – Employees using personal cloud storage, e-mail accounts or messaging apps can accidentally leak sensitive company information, making it easier for cybercriminals to intercept.


No Security Updates – IT departments regularly update approved software to patch vulnerabilities, but unauthorized apps often go unchecked, leaving systems open to hackers.


Compliance Violations – If your business falls under regulations like HIPAA, GDPR or PCI-DSS, using unapproved apps can lead to noncompliance, fines and legal trouble.


Increased Phishing And Malware Risks – Employees might unknowingly download malicious apps that appear legitimate but contain malware or ransomware.


Account Hijacking – Using unauthorized tools without multifactor authentication (MFA) can expose employee credentials, allowing hackers to gain access to company systems.

Most of the time, it’s not malicious. Take, for example, the “Vapor” app scandal, an extensive ad fraud scheme recently uncovered by security researchers IAS Threat Labs.

In March, over 300 malicious applications were discovered on the Google Play Store, collectively downloaded more than 60 million times. These apps disguised themselves as utilities and health and lifestyle tools but were designed to display intrusive ads and, in some cases, phish for user credentials and credit card information. Once installed, they hid their icons and bombarded users with full-screen ads, rendering devices nearly inoperative. This incident highlights how easily unauthorized apps can infiltrate devices and compromise security.

But employees can also use unauthorized apps because:

They find company-approved tools frustrating or outdated.

They want to work faster and more efficiently.

They don’t realize the security risks involved.

They think IT approval takes too long – so they take shortcuts.

Unfortunately, these shortcuts can cost your business BIG when a data breach happens.

How To Stop Shadow IT Before It Hurts Your Business

You can’t stop what you can’t see, so tackling Shadow IT requires a proactive approach. Here’s how to get started:

1. Create An Approved Software List
Work with your IT team to establish a list of trusted, secure applications employees can use. Make sure this list is regularly updated with new, approved tools.

2. Restrict Unauthorized App Downloads
Set up device policies that prevent employees from installing unapproved software on company devices. If they need a tool, they should request IT approval first.

3. Educate Employees About The Risks
Employees need to understand that Shadow IT isn’t just a productivity shortcut – it’s a security risk. Regularly train your team on why unauthorized apps can put the business at risk.

4. Monitor Network Traffic For Unapproved Apps
IT teams should use network-monitoring tools to detect unauthorized software use and flag potential security threats before they become a problem.

5. Implement Strong Endpoint Security
Use endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions to track software usage, prevent unauthorized access and detect any suspicious activity in real time.

Don’t Let Shadow IT Become A Security Nightmare

The best way to fight Shadow IT is to get ahead of it before it leads to a data breach or compliance disaster.

Want to know what unauthorized apps your employees are using right now? Start with a FREE Network Security Assessment. We’ll identify vulnerabilities, flag security risks and help you lock down your business before it’s too late.

Click here to schedule your FREE Network Assessment today!

Shadow IT — employees using unauthorized apps and tools without IT approval — is one of the fastest-growing cybersecurity risks for businesses today. While often done with good intentions to boost productivity, using unapproved software opens companies to serious threats like data leaks, malware infections, compliance violations, and account hijacking. Because IT teams can’t secure what they can’t see, businesses must proactively manage Shadow IT by creating approved software lists, restricting app downloads, educating employees, monitoring network traffic, and strengthening endpoint security to avoid costly breaches and regulatory trouble.

The Biggest Mistakes I See Business Owners Making In IT And Cybersecurity

A client recently asked me, “What mistakes do you see business owners making the most when it comes to IT and cybersecurity?”

After years of working with businesses of all sizes, the biggest mistake I see time and again is treating IT and cybersecurity as an afterthought. It doesn’t matter how many data breaches are in the news; I see business owner after business owner either underestimating the real risks of cyberthreats or assuming that setting up some basic protections is enough. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but it’s not enough. A single breach, ransomware attack or IT failure can cripple your business overnight. And yet, too many companies take a reactive approach – prioritizing security only after something goes wrong – which, guess what, is more tiresome and more expensive.

Another common mistake? Thinking free software is “good enough.” Look, I get it. Free antivirus programs, consumer-grade routers and DIY security setups seem like an easy way to save money, especially when you’re a small business and inflation is everywhere. But those “savings” quickly evaporate when your business suffers a data breach, faces compliance fines or loses critical client trust. If you wouldn’t run your business on a free spreadsheet app, why would you trust your entire security infrastructure to bargain-bin software?

Then, there’s the issue of underestimating the cost of downtime. Many businesses assume they can afford to be offline for a few hours if something breaks. But when your network goes down, your team can’t work for hours or even days, your customers can’t access your services and you start hemorrhaging money. A solid IT strategy isn’t just about security – it’s about ensuring operational continuity so that when disaster strikes (and to some degree, it will), you don’t have to scramble to recover.

And finally, the most overlooked mistake is failing to plan for the long game. IT and cybersecurity aren’t set-it-and-forget-it investments. Threats evolve, technology changes and hackers get more sophisticated every day. If you’re not proactively assessing, updating and reinforcing your security posture, you’re already falling behind.

At the end of the day, you need to protect what you’ve built.

So, what’s the solution? I’ll give it to you straight.

Stop taking shortcuts. Invest in professional-grade IT and security solutions, not band-aid fixes.

Think long-term. A solid cybersecurity plan isn’t a onetime project – it’s an ongoing commitment.

Get expert guidance. You don’t have to (and shouldn’t) navigate the complexities of IT security alone. Surround yourself with people who know what they’re doing and can help you stay ahead of the curve.

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