, Sep 23, 2021
Attributed to Markus Erb, Logicalis Group VP of Services
As businesses rise to meet the challenge of the always on digital workspace, the pressure on IT staff is growing. With more people working from home and using their personal devices, businesses are exposed to greater levels of risk. Indeed, given that 91% of all cyberattacks originate with email, it’s critical for businesses to balance the need for empowering employees in their work lives, whilst mitigating security risks that this way of working presents.
This problem is not going away anytime soon. According to Cybersecurity Ventures, cybercrime is expected to cost the world $10.5 trillion annually by 2025 and to grow 15% every year. Building an infrastructure that manages to support and process this ever-growing amount of data, while also protecting a business from attacks, is a challenge for many businesses that may need external support to ensure success.
Growing complexities of cybersecurity
To cope with this shift in the market and changes to traditional workplaces, more businesses are investing in their digital transformation strategies. Whether businesses are turning to the cloud, AI, or edge computing, to digitally transform they will need to migrate, process and protect their data. While these tools can propel the innovation of a business, if not implemented, monitored and maintained correctly, these strategies can result in compliance breaches, decreases in profitability, loss in productivity, data, and reputation.
Crucially, by processing greater quantities of data more and more remotely, businesses are vulnerable to more cybersecurity attacks, with ransomware attacks dramatically increasing during 2021. In fact, 93% more ransomware attacks were carried out in the first half of 2021 than the same period the previous year. Whilst the surge in attacks is suggested to have been fuelled by a rise of the ‘triple extortion’ technique, often, attacks are the result of a weak infrastructure.
While businesses advance their digital transformation initiatives, cybersecurity cannot be overlooked. However, the complex array of digital products and tools championed as essential to remain secure can often be challenging for businesses to manage with multiple dashboards, alerts, proactive management and IT/security expertise needed to maintain systems. And this is all before businesses have begun to see ROI.
Though, mitigating cybercrime is not an impossible task. Businesses can strengthen their IT and optimise data security strategy by turning to a Managed Service Provider (MSP) for support.
Managed services as solution
Partnering with an MSP to enhance, secure and manage IT can be a solution enabling businesses to extract strong ROI in new technologies whilst releasing internal resource for other strategic projects. An MSP can provide a broad range of knowledge and experience mapped to their specific business needs. MSPs access to expert security knowledge, its disaster training and understanding of a diverse range of IT emergencies means they can proactively manage systems and respond quickly to crises – reducing unplanned downtime significantly.
Most importantly, an MSP can work with a business to develop a curated and tailored strategy, that considers the challenges they face and the goals they are trying to achieve. By collaborating with an in-house IT team, an MSP can bolster an existing IT strategy and ensure that cybersecurity is integrated into any business development plan.
Considerations ahead of partnering with an MSP
Before partnering with an MSP, however, it is important to consider the needs of a business and prepare effectively. By understanding existing challenges, a business can determine what help they need, who to turn to for support, and whether the solutions being offered meet the demands of its customer base.
Just as a company should consider cybersecurity challenges, they should also take into consideration their desired business outcomes. While ad-hoc solutions can be effective in the short-term, they only treat the symptoms, rather than the cause of an organisation’s cybersecurity weakness. Likewise, it is important not to neglect the human impact. By relying on an external provider to protect its sensitive data, businesses have to prioritise who they can trust. Building a long-term relationship with an established MSP will make more room for innovation and business growth to occur now and in the future.
Finally, invest in compliance. While many businesses are developing their digital transformation strategies and seeking new products and solutions, it is important they build in compliance. Not only will it protect reputation and avoid any legal ramifications, but it will also strengthen security.
Why working with an expert partner ensures success
While digital transformation can be initially challenging to navigate, due to growing volumes of data to store, process, and analyse, cybersecurity shouldn’t stand in the way of success. Instead, partnering with an MSP can be an easier (and more cost-effective) solution for businesses seeking to build and maintain a more robust IT infrastructure.
Ultimately, the best defence is a good offense. By turning to an MSP to monitor, maintain, optimise and enhance IT, companies can both protect themselves and their employees, while also guaranteeing their security infrastructure is aligned with their business goals. The support of an MSP can bring reduced complexity, ensure secure and optimised environments without risk of downtime, and provide the ongoing expertise of a partner that is consistently developing innovative solutions, investing in trained and certified workforce, and services to give its customers a competitive edge.