Ideas on cloud, cost &amp; security

The monthly routine that stops cloud savings eroding

Cost Optimisation

Finding waste once is easy. Six months later the savings have gone and nobody noticed. Here is the short monthly routine that keeps them, and what to look at in each pass.

5 min read

How much does IT support cost in Hull?

Managed IT

How IT support is priced in Hull, our indicative per-user figures with worked examples, what sits outside the price, and how to compare quotes line by line.

12 min read

How to switch IT support provider in Hull without disruption

Managed IT

Check your agreement, gather what you own, and run the handover in stages. How Hull businesses switch IT support provider without disrupting the business.

How to compare IT support companies in Hull: a buyer's scorecard

Managed IT

The questions to ask any Hull IT support company, a scorecard to use across your shortlist, and our own answers so you can score us the same way.

The DfE broadband standard: full fibre, the right speed for your phase, and a backup line

100Mbps down and 30Mbps up for a primary, 1Gbps for a secondary or college, full fibre only, and a second connection that fails over on its own. What the DfE broadband standard asks for and how to check your contract against it.

Filtering and monitoring: the DfE standard you should already be meeting, and the half that gets missed

This is the one core standard the DfE says schools should be meeting now, not by 2030. Filtering is the easy half. Monitoring, weekly reports and a named person acting on them is where inspections find the gap.

Automated decisions and the ICO: what changed for UK employers

The Data (Use and Access) Act rewrote the UK rules on automated decisions in 2026. If you use AI anywhere in hiring, performance or credit, the safeguards are now statutory rather than guidance.

5 min read

The DfE cyber security standard for schools and colleges: the seven requirements, explained

Annual risk assessment, MFA for every staff cloud account, critical patches inside 14 days and immutable 3-2-1 backups tested each term. What the DfE cyber security standard asks of a school, and how it relates to Cyber Essentials.

Digital leadership and governance: the DfE standard most schools skip, and why it comes first

A named SLT digital lead, three registers, digital in your continuity plans and a two-year strategy reviewed every year. The DfE puts this standard first for a reason: every other one depends on it.

Ten SharePoint checks that stop Copilot oversharing

Microsoft 365

Copilot grants no new permissions. It just makes every permission mistake you already had instantly findable. These are the ten checks we run before switching it on.

5 min read

The DfE digital and technology standards: what schools need to do by 2030, and where to start

Twelve DfE standards, six of them core and expected by 2030, and most schools are not sure where they stand. Here is the whole set in plain English, which ones you should already be meeting, and the order to tackle them in.

11 min read

How much does Cyber Essentials cost in 2026?

Security

The IASME certification fee is published and tiered by headcount, from £320 to £600 plus VAT. It is rarely the biggest line in the budget, so here is the rest of it, with the sources for every figure.