RiverTrail Technology Blog

Imagine waking up tomorrow and finding out that your company's fleet of delivery vehicles is no longer street legal, and you are forced to replace them all using only one specific, notoriously unreliable manufacturer.

You'd be frustrated, to say the least. Well, a very similar scenario is currently unfolding in the world of business networking.

You wouldn’t toss your business’ secrets in the trash; so why do it with your old devices? As your company upgrades its technology, those retired tablets, keyboards, and headphones might seem like clutter, but they’re packed with sensitive data and environmental risks. Safely disposing of old hardware is the final, crucial step in your data protection strategy.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” If your business is still living by this mantra, then you’re far behind your competition, who have likely already embraced the concept of proactive > reactive IT. You aren’t going to get ahead when you’re dealing with hardware that’s aging before your eyes, and the increased costs and frustrations caused will impact your business in ways you can’t imagine.

We’re at a weird point in the technology world (but honestly, when is it not at least a little convoluted?). Right now, modern technology has been slowly shifting between a few different technologies and consumers and businesses are stuck in the middle trying to figure out what to do and how to future-proof their hardware investments.

If you look at the loadout of ports on a new laptop or desktop and you are confused, we don’t blame you. Between awkward naming conventions for ports, a lack of education on the differences between these technologies, and brand new legislation for companies like Apple to ditch their proprietary technology to use something more standard, it can be daunting to make sure you get a device that connects to the other devices you already have.

We’re going to break down these new ports, from USB to Thunderbolt to HDMI, and help you make the right decisions before you purchase that new device.