Author Archives: Matthew Held

About Matthew Held

Matthew Held has passionately lead and delivered technology projects the way customers want for more than a decade. Under his leadership, Manawa Networks has grown into a successful IT consultancy that provides IT consulting and advisory services in the Greater Toronto Region. Mr. Held oversees the company’s strategic direction and growth initiatives in business development, vendor and partner relationships and talent recruitment. He co-founded the company seeing an opportunity to offer greater value by bringing talented specialists together under one umbrella. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Ryerson University. In his spare time, Matthew fundraises for Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, is an avid cottager and plays recreational squash, basketball and hockey. He enjoys experiencing cultural diversity and has travelled all over the world.

Is It Time For Your Business to Move to the Cloud?

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Matthew Held

Why does it seem like everybody is moving to the cloud? If you’ve ever used hosted e-mail services like Hotmail or Gmail, you’ve experienced the benefits of cloud computing. You can access your e-mail from anywhere there’s an Internet connection, you can even access it with your cell phone.  It’s available 24-7 anywhere in the world. And if the cloud provider is handling your data, you do not need to worry about backing up your data because it is their … Read More →

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What’s the Difference between Backup, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery?

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Matthew Held

Not Backing up Your Data Can Put You Out of Business In this information age, your data and your computer systems increasingly ARE the business. Imagine if you suddenly no longer had access to that data or those systems. How long could your organization continue to function? For some businesses, law firms for instance, the simple loss of e-mail could significantly hinder their business and result in loss of big customers. A manufacturer might also be quickly shut down without … Read More →

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Power User Habits, Tips n Tricks #2 – Formatting USB Flash Drives: FAT32 or NTFS?

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Matthew Held

Flash Technology is EverywhereIn an earlier “Business Insider Tech Tip”, Is it Time to Migrate to SSDs (Solid State Drives)?,  we discussed the pros and cons of flash NAND technology-based Solid State Drives (SSDs). The same technology is used in USB flash drives (portable “thumb” drives), which is also the same technology found inside Compact Flash (CF) and Secure Digital (SD) cards used in digital cameras. Your Desktop in Your PocketThese USB, CF and SD flash memory drives and cards … Read More →

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Is it Time to Migrate to SSDs (Solid State Drives)?

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Matthew Held

Faster, Better, More Expensive? It’s time to get a new laptop. You are looking forward to something lighter, with a faster processor and more storage. Should you get it with a conventional Hard Disk Drive (HDD), or one of those new Solid State Drives (SSD)? The marketing messages make SSDs sound like the next big thing, but are they worth the extra expense? What exactly are they anyway? And how are they different from conventional HDDs? HDD Basics Hard disk … Read More →

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Father and Son Receive Best Christmas present ever from Good Samaritans

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Matthew Held

Tom Hanks in Forest Gump, famously said, “Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” For me, the holiday season this year was feeling rushed, stressed, busy, and let’s not forget the last minute shopping. That was until a single unexpected event changed everything. I’d like to share a story about the best Christmas present I could have asked for, and in fact, have ever received. It was simply to have … Read More →

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