Neal Bradbury

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are becoming increasingly vulnerable to security risks and data loss resulting from malware attacks, DDoS attacks, server failures, and natural disaster. Here’s why — many believe they are too small to be a target for cybercriminals; and/or will never experience a fire, flood, or other catastrophic incident.

Cloud adoption among SMBs is on the rise. A recent survey by Techaisle projects that, by the end of this year, the penetration of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications among SMBs will reach 94 percent, up from 73 percent in 2016. By Neal Bradbury, Senior Director of Business Development, Intronis MSP Solutions by Barracuda

With the end of the year quickly approaching, the time has come to reflect on the trends and opportunities that have emerged in the past 12 months and look ahead to what can be expected in the in the coming year.

The concept of ransomware is not new — it has been a part of the cyber threat landscape for more than 20 years. But, what makes it important to today’s cyber-security conversation is the emergence of “crypto” ransomware, i.e. CryptoLocker, CryptoWall, Locky, TeslaCrypt, and more recently Cerber. By Neal Bradbury, Senior Director of Business Development, Intronis MSP Solutions by Barracuda

The transition to managed services from a break-fix business model can be challenging for MSPs. There is much to consider in terms of setting expectations, documenting the deliverables, and defining how the MSP’s relationships with its clients will be governed under this new model.

Productivity is something everyone aims to improve upon. Whether you are a business owner, part of the sales team, handle customer service, or manage the organization’s IT infrastructure, there is always room to improve.

Let’s face it, SMBs are cost-conscious by nature and will go to great lengths to save money. When it comes to managed IT services, for example, we’ve heard from our MSP partners that many of their SMB clients will choose to opt out of these services in order to save a few dollars in the short run. What they don’t often don’t is, after accounting for productivity losses, unscheduled maintenance fees, and even damage to their reputation, the decision not to engage in a managed services contract can end up costing them much more down the road.

Advancing technologies, increasing service requirements, and a high demand for engineering talent are making it harder for managed services providers (MSPs) and IT solutions providers to fill open positions within their organizations. Regardless of how you go about hiring and attracting the right talent, MSPs and IT solutions providers should put a formal vetting process in place and ensure you are among the “best places” to work.

There are still many SMBs that are reluctant to store their data in the cloud. And some of the most common objections voiced by SMBs when it comes to cloud storage are concerns about data security. So, how can MSPs and solutions providers overcome this objection and convince their SMBs that the cloud is secure?

Today’s SMBs tend to run a wide variety of applications, some of which are more critical to the operation of the business than others. As such, it has become increasingly important that SMBs gain a clear understanding of how the failure of one or more of these applications will affect their business, and how much downtime they can afford if one were to go offline for a few minutes, a few hours, or even a few days.