IT Consulting in Rolling Meadows: What It Covers and When You Need It
IT consulting is paid advice and design work that ends in a written deliverable, which is a different thing from a managed services agreement that keeps your systems running day to day. RJ2 Technologies is headquartered in Deer Park, Illinois, has served businesses since October 1998, and works across Chicagoland, Rockford and Northern Illinois, southeastern…
Cloud Migration Services in Chicago: What the Move Actually Involves
For most small and mid-sized businesses in Chicago and the northwest suburbs, a cloud migration means four specific things: email and identity move to Microsoft 365, file shares move off a Windows file server into SharePoint and OneDrive, line-of-business applications either move to a vendor-hosted version or get rehosted, and whatever is left in the…
Multi-Factor Authentication Setup for a Small Business
Multi-factor authentication setup for a small business takes roughly two weeks of real work, and the order matters more than the tool: administrators first, then a pilot group of five to ten people, then everyone else, with at least one break-glass account deliberately left out and its password locked in a safe. Use an authenticator…
EDR Endpoint Protection Vendors, Compared for Chicago Businesses
The five vendors a Chicago-area small or mid-market business will realistically be choosing among are SentinelOne, CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Sophos Intercept X, and Huntress. Four of those are endpoint detection and response platforms you can buy head to head. Huntress is different, and worth understanding as a managed detection layer that runs…
IT Compliance in Chicago: What Actually Applies to Your Business
For most small and mid-market businesses in the Chicago area, IT compliance comes down to three or four obligations, not thirty: whatever regulation covers your data (HIPAA if you touch health information, the FTC Safeguards Rule if you do any lending or financial services, PCI DSS if you take cards), whatever your largest customers demand…
Cyber Insurance Compliance Requirements for IT
Cyber insurance carriers now treat a short list of security controls as the price of admission: multi-factor authentication on everything (email, remote access, VPN, and administrator accounts), endpoint detection and response on every machine, backups that are offline or immutable and have been test-restored, email filtering, security awareness training, a documented patching cadence, and separated…
SOC 2 Compliance and IT in Chicago: What You Have to Produce
A SOC 2 audit asks your IT function for eight categories of evidence: user access reviews, documented offboarding, logging and log retention, vulnerability scanning and remediation, change management records, vendor and subservice organization oversight, incident response with proof it was exercised, and security awareness training records. For a Type II report, you have to produce…
Zero Trust Architecture, and What a Chicago MSP Actually Builds
Zero trust architecture means no user, device or network location is trusted by default, and every request to reach an application gets evaluated at the moment it is made. In practice, an MSP building one for a Chicago business is doing five things: putting phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication on every account, blocking the legacy protocols that…
The Business Case for Proactive IT Has Never Been Stronger
Happy Thursday! Today is October 15th, and as we move deeper into Q4 we want to close out this week with something that ties together a lot of the conversations we have been having all month: the difference between businesses that treat IT as a cost center to be minimized and businesses that treat it…
You Cannot Afford to Ignore Network Segmentation Any Longer
Happy Wednesday! We are past the midpoint of the week and diving into one of those cybersecurity topics that every IT professional considers essential but that most small businesses have never fully implemented: network segmentation. It sounds technical, but the concept is straightforward, and the protection it provides is enormous. What Network Segmentation Actually Does…
The Deepfake Problem Is a Business Problem Now
Happy Tuesday! Today we are getting into something that started as a concern for politicians and celebrities and has firmly arrived as a genuine business threat: deepfake technology and AI-generated disinformation. Gartner formally added disinformation security to its top strategic technology trends list for 2026, and the reason is straightforward. AI-manufactured deception is now sophisticated…
The “Super Intelligence” Conversation Is Here Earlier Than Anyone Expected
Happy Monday! This week we are leading off with something that has been generating a lot of buzz in technology circles over the past few weeks and is now officially part of the mainstream conversation: the White House’s use of the term “super intelligence” to describe where AI is heading. If that language sounds like…
Why Fiber Internet Is the Business Upgrade Most Businesses Are Still Sleeping On
Happy Friday! Closing out the week with one that is simple, practical, and honestly overdue for a lot of businesses: the case for upgrading to fiber internet. Not the most glamorous tech topic, but when your entire business runs through your internet connection, the quality of that connection matters more than almost any other infrastructure…
The IT Problem Nobody Wants to Talk About Until It Is Too Late
Almost Friday! Let’s talk about something that comes up in almost every conversation we have with a new client: the discovery that a significant piece of their IT environment has been quietly running without proper oversight for months, sometimes years. We are talking about shadow IT, the applications, devices, and services your employees are using…
Digital Twins Are Coming for Small Business and That Is a Good Thing
Happy Tuesday! Today we are covering a technology concept that has been widely discussed in enterprise and manufacturing circles for years but is now starting to reach a practical, accessible level for smaller businesses: digital twins. If you have heard the term but were not sure it applied to you, this post might change your…
Your Business Credentials Are Probably Already on the Dark Web
Happy Monday! We are kicking off the week with something that is uncomfortable to think about but critically important to understand: right now, there is a reasonable chance that employee credentials from your business, usernames, passwords, and possibly more sensitive data, are sitting on dark web forums or in stealer log databases that cybercriminals actively…
The Network Technology Upgrade That Is Quietly Transforming Business
Happy Friday! You made it to the end of the week, and we are closing it out with a technology topic that does not always get the attention it deserves but is directly impacting how businesses manage their networks, their cloud performance, and their security all at once: SD-WAN. If that acronym is new to…
The AI Regulation Wave Is Here and Your Business Needs to Know What Is Coming
Almost Friday! Let’s spend today on something that is moving fast and quietly at the same time: AI regulation. While most of the public conversation around AI has focused on what the technology can do, governments and regulators are increasingly focused on what businesses are allowed to do with it, and the rules are tightening…
Why Cyber Insurance Is No Longer Optional for Small Businesses
Happy Tuesday! Today we are talking about a topic that comes up in almost every business conversation we have, and yet it is still something most small businesses have either avoided or significantly underprioritized: cyber insurance. In 2026, the rules around it have changed, the requirements have gotten stricter, and the cost of not having…
What Gartner’s Top Tech Trends Mean for Your Business Right Now
Happy Monday and welcome to a brand new week! This morning we are pulling straight from one of the most talked-about reports in the technology world right now: Gartner’s Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2026, released just a few weeks ago. If you have not had a chance to dig into it, do not…
How Vulnerability Scans, Penetration Testing, and Zero Trust Security Will Help Protect Your Business
RJ2 Perspective Written by: Jeff Dann, President of RJ2 Technologies How Vulnerability Scans, Penetration Testing, and Zero Trust Security Will Help Protect Your Business: Introduction Cybersecurity is an important issue for any organization that relies on the internet or computer systems. While most organizations already have a basic level of security in place, it’s important…
How to Identify Dangerous Phishing Emails
RJ2 Perspective Written by: Jeff Dann, President of RJ2 Technologies How to Identify Dangerous Phishing Emails Introduction Phishing is a common scam that involves attempting to trick you into giving away personal, financial, or other sensitive information. It’s done by sending an email or posting a link online to make it look like it’s coming…
Cybersecurity: What is it and why do you need it?
RJ2 Perspective Written by: Jeff Dann, President of RJ2 Technologies Cybersecurity: What is it and why do you need it? Cybersecurity is a complex area of computer security that focuses on protecting systems, data and networks from attacks. A cyberattack is any attempt to gain access to a system or network with malicious intent. Cybersecurity…
It’s Time to Use Automation to Improve Performance Levels
RJ2 Perspective Written by: Jeff Dann, President of RJ2 Technologies It’s Time to use Automation to Improve Performance Levels Workflow process can often be a critical element to improve efficiency but often overlooked by new business owners or small to medium-sized businesses. Most companies will focus on certain buzzwords like productivity and efficiency, but how…
Cyber Threats and How They Impact You!
RJ2 Perspective Written by: Jeff Dann, President of RJ2 Technologies Cyber Threats and How They Impact You!: In the past few decades, our society has grown to depend on technology, which has been a remarkable progression for us all. However, there will still be people out there looking to take advantage of you in some…
The 6 Minimum Security Measures Every Business Needs:
RJ2 Perspective Written by: Jeff Dann, President of RJ2 Technologies The 6 Minimum Security Measures Every Business Needs: SonicWall reports there were 304.7 million ransomware attacks, 51.1 million crypto-jacking attacks, and 32.2 million IoT malware attacks in 2021. The report states that attackers targeted web applications with financial and personal information for a big payday.…
Is My Data Safe in the Cloud?
RJ2 Perspective Written by: Jeff Dann, President of RJ2 Technologies Is My Data Safe in the Cloud? What is the best way to save your electronic materials, content, photos, etc.? You don’t want to overload your computer or collect a stack of hard drives. It can become expensive and unsafe over time. So, where can…
Password Tips To Keep Your Data Safe
RJ2 Perspective Written by: Jeff Dann, President of RJ2 Technologies Password Tips To Keep Your Data Safe: No matter what application, account, or platform that you have a login for, you want to make sure your passwords are not leaving you vulnerable. Whether it’s for personal or professional purposes, you need to protect your sensitive…