As the world braces for recession, you need your team in fighting shape to take on the economic challenges to come. An efficient use of resources while still maintaining high service standards is more important than ever. But that’s a tall order for IT leaders who may be managing a fully remote workforce for the first time. The processes and habits that worked to boost your team’s productivity while your direct reports all sat within earshot may not cut it when workers are remote.

For companies who can’t—or just don’t—host all of their information and applications in the public cloud, VPNs are a gateway to business-critical resources that employees need to do their jobs when they’re not in the office. Since we’re in the middle of a global pandemic, most of us can’t go into our offices. But bills still need to be paid, customers still need to be contacted, and internal resources like line of business applications need to be accessed.

In the new normal of the COVID-19 pandemic, a spare room is an office, a handshake is a threat, and a full shelf of toilet paper at the grocery store is nothing short of a miracle. In these unusual times, IT teams are stepping up and stepping outside their job description to help their users adapt to the shifting landscape in which we live and work.

In 2016, we wrote about the exponential value of computer networks and the importance of IT professionals as champions of the network, “doing their part to secure, maintain, and advance the engines that keep everything running.” Today, those words ring true in ways we could never have predicted four years ago.

If you sit back and look at what you’ve actually achieved over the last couple of weeks, you should feel very proud of yourself and your team. With virtually no warning, you’ve supported your clients well through the greatest business upheaval in modern times. You’ve probably set up countless VPNs. And no doubt you’ve been hunting around for new laptops, just like everyone else. While the COVID-19 situation is changing daily, the dust is starting to settle a little.

Web proxies intercept traffic from your systems as they move to other systems, analyze the packets, then send the data along. There are a lot of reasons why you might want to intercept packets. Originally the main use case for a proxy was as a caching server. In this use case, the first time a person in your network goes to a website, the static content (particularly graphic images) gets downloaded and cached. Then, because the content is local, the next person to hit that site will get a fast response.

By now you’ve likely been flooded with dozens of client requests to set their employees up to work remotely. While it sounds like a simple request, it’s often easier said than done as many clients are missing the resources they need to effectively work from home. During COVID-19, if you’re searching for ways to quickly enable your clients to work and collaborate remotely while keeping their networks stable and secure, you’ve found it.

Your phone is ringing off the hook. Another client is calling, trying to figure out how to ensure their team can continue to be productive in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though these are extraordinary times, your role as the IT professional hasn’t really changed. Your job is to make sure your clients are productive and they can still access the resources, tools, and applications they need to do their jobs.

You’ve likely heard a thing—or two (ba dum tss!)—about two-factor authentication, or 2FA. After all, it’s become a bit of a hot topic recently as the nature and number of security breaches has evolved. Compromised user data regularly surfaces on the dark web, giving malicious actors access to your password(s) for a couple bucks. That’s why passwords just don’t cut it as your only security effort anymore—and that’s where 2FA comes in.

I speak to a lot of MSPs every day, and I’m always asked for advice on meeting new prospects. Finding new clients is one of the biggest challenges they all face. “Have you tried asking your existing clients for referrals?” is my stock answer, and with good reason—prospects referred to you by an existing client are four times more likely to buy than any other opportunities you’ll chase. Here are my tips on supercharging your referrals and winning new business.