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Practical IT Guides for Northern BC Business Owners
No clickbait, no AI sludge. Just what we would tell a friend who asked about pricing, security, or how to pick a new tool. Updated regularly.
The North Star blog exists for one reason: to give BC business owners and office managers the same straight answers we'd give a client sitting across the table from us. No vendor hype, no AI-generated fluff, no content written to rank rather than to help. These are the posts we'd send to a client who just asked us a real question.
We publish from Prince George, and we write for businesses that operate in the real world, with limited IT staff, realistic budgets, and actual risk to manage. Whether you're in Prince George, Fort St. John, Smithers, Whitehorse, or rural Alberta, the challenges are similar: aging infrastructure, patchy connectivity, compliance requirements that don't care about your headcount, and a threat landscape that doesn't discriminate by geography.
For fleet operations, use the ELD configuration evidence worksheet to separate installed observations, documentary references and unresolved follow-up without treating an inventory as certification.
Overview
What You'll Find Here
AI Automation, Which AI tools are actually paying back for small businesses in 2026, and which are still promises. We cover real use cases, data handling risks, and how to write a policy before someone in your office signs up for a tool that shouldn't see your client files.
Backup, The 3-2-1-1-0 standard explained, what BC wildfire season means for your recovery plan, and why a backup that exists but hasn't been tested is worth very little.
Compliance, PIPEDA, BC PIPA, CASL, and cyber insurance questionnaires. What the rules actually require, in plain language, with checklists you can work through without a lawyer on retainer.
Cybersecurity, MFA rollouts, EDR vs. antivirus, passkeys, DMARC/SPF/DKIM, zero trust, and remote work security. The controls that actually move risk for a 10 - 50 person business.
Managed IT, What a good MSP actually costs in BC, what the first 90 days of an engagement looks like, and how to avoid getting locked in.
Microsoft 365, The security baseline every M365 tenant should have. What's turned off by default that should be on.
Infrastructure, Server room checklists, office move planning, VoIP buying guides, SD-WAN vs. VPN, rugged field IT for forestry and oilfield operations.
Strategy & Cloud, Technical debt patterns, cloud cost overruns, and how to build a realistic IT roadmap for a business that isn't a tech company.
Overview
How We Write
Every post is reviewed by someone who actually does this work. We flag when a topic requires legal or accounting advice you shouldn't take from a blog post. We don't invent statistics. When we use industry benchmarks, we say where they come from.
Posts are updated when the underlying technology or regulation changes, you'll see a "last updated" date at the top of each one.
If a post raises a question specific to your situation, the right next step is a conversation, not more reading. Call us at 672-983-1174 or book a free assessment at northstarit.ca. We're based in Prince George and serve businesses across Northern BC, the rest of BC, Alberta, and Yukon.
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Rules change. These are the bodies that publish them, so you can check the current text rather than take our summary for it.
Microsoft 365 operations: practical records you can reuse
Turn access and continuity decisions into documented checks. These guides include editable worksheets, source references and explicit limits.
- Emergency administrator access drill and evidence template: rehearse account custody, sign-in and alert ownership without deliberately locking out your administrator.
- Employee offboarding handoff and acceptance template: separate access removal, approved data access, mail continuity and business acceptance.
Business safeguards: procedures and evidence worksheets
Use these original templates to document a decision, test a recovery or prepare an email-authentication change. Each guide states its scope and links to official sources.
Accept a restored SharePoint project site
Six checks for files, permissions, dependencies and usable project work.
Inventory senders before DMARC enforcement
Capture alignment evidence and agree change gates for business mail streams.
Website migration: check the map before release
Redirect-map workbook and free browser checker: review planned URL moves, missing destinations, conflicts, chains and cycles. Includes a fictional CSV; no upload or email required. Live routing still needs separate verification.
New research
Evidence-backed Canadian technology guides
Use current primary sources, practical checklists, and transparent decision frameworks.