Kendall Friel writes RJ2's cybersecurity and IT articles, turning what the engineering team sees every day into something a business owner can act on. She holds a BBA in Marketing from the University of Iowa. Kendall writes on threat awareness, security hygiene, and the practical side of protecting a small or mid-market business.
Happy Wednesday! Let’s get practical today. Forget the enterprise-level case studies and the billion-dollar IT budgets. Let’s talk about what the smartest small businesses are actually running in 2026, the lean, powerful technology stack that is helping them compete with companies ten times their size. The Modern SMB Tech Stack The most effective small business…
Good morning and happy Monday! Let’s start this week with a topic that sounds dry but has the potential to put real money back into your business budget: the IT audit. Stay with us. What Is an IT Audit, Really? An IT audit is not about judgment. It is not about someone coming in to…
Happy Friday! We made it. And to send you into the weekend with something genuinely exciting, let’s talk about the technologies that are not on the front page every day but are absolutely reshaping the world under the surface. The under-the-radar innovations that are quietly building the next generation of everything. The Technologies Doing Big…
Happy Wednesday! Let’s have an honest conversation today, the kind that feels a little uncomfortable but is genuinely worth having. Is the technology in your business working for you, or have you somehow ended up working for it? When Technology Becomes the Problem Technology is supposed to make your life easier, your team more productive,…
New week, same goal: keeping your business protected. But this Monday, the conversation is urgent. AI-powered cyberattacks are no longer a future concern. They are the current reality, and small businesses are squarely in the crosshairs. The Numbers That Should Stop You in Your Tracks Let’s start with some facts that are hard to ignore.…
Happy Friday! Let’s close out this week talking about something that affects nearly every team in every business: the reality of distributed and remote work, and whether your technology setup is actually supporting your people or quietly working against them. The Remote Work Infrastructure Problem Remote work exploded out of necessity, and most businesses have…
Hump day, let’s make it count! Today we’re going somewhere a little more futuristic, but not as far away as you might imagine. Let’s talk about quantum computing and why businesses that are not paying attention right now might find themselves scrambling later. What Even Is Quantum Computing? Traditional computers, the ones running your business…
Happy Monday! Let’s start this week with a question that every business owner should be able to answer confidently but most cannot: if a cyberattack hit your business today, what would happen? Not in a doom-and-gloom way. In a practical, let’s-figure-this-out way. The Readiness Gap Is Bigger Than You Think A 2026 survey of small…
Happy Friday! As we wrap up another week, let’s explore something that does not always make the big tech headlines but is quietly transforming how businesses and entire industries handle data. Welcome to the world of edge computing. What Is Edge Computing, Exactly? For years, the standard model was simple: collect data, send it to…
Hump day! Let’s talk about something that sounds boring but is genuinely one of the most important conversations you can have about your business: your backup and recovery strategy. Or more accurately, whether you actually have one. The Backup Myth Here is a conversation that happens more often than anyone in IT would like to…