I f you have been in the IT service business for a while, you likely have the basics down for backup. You probably have some revenue coming in from the service, and you might even have saved your clients a few times from severe data loss.
Often, the mention of Disaster Recovery produces thoughts of monsoons and hurricanes, complete chaos, no power, etc. In reality, for many businesses a disaster is simply as an event that creates an inability for the business to function. Disasters come in many shapes and sizes – the natural disasters we all think about, but also chemical spills, building fires, broken water pipes, and, on a much smaller scale, a virus-infected server.
Backup isn’t just about storing copies of your customers’ data; it’s really more about what happens when you need to restore it. You see, the more often you back up, the more up-to-date the data is when the time comes to restore it. Much of this is driven by the backup window, which is the time it takes to perform a backup without impacting system and network performance. Performance degradation is one reason backups are usually done during off- peak hours.
Organizations are being overwhelmed by malware and potentially unwanted applications (PUAs) such as spyware and adware. While malware and PUAs have been top-of-mind for organizations for years, 2017 brings a significant increase in the level of concern. Even though organizations continue to invest more and more of their IT budgets in security technologies, more attacks are succeeding. In particular, the popularity of ransomware has rapidly increased and it’s causing major operational problems and damage to organizations’ reputations.
Educating users is an undeniably effective way to protect them from phishing and other malware, but it takes much more than that to stop attacks. There are many risks to networks that user education can’t reduce—from malicious sites mistakenly categorized as benign to watering-hole attacks that infect trusted sites. To combat these challenges, businesses need well-designed antimalware that protects across the wide variety of attack vectors and infection stages. That’s where multi-vector protection comes in.
The Service Leadership Index ® (S-L Index™) shows that from 2008 through 2015, MSPs in the top quartile of EBITDA % profitability for the business model (after owner fair market compensation) consistently have about 2.6 times higher EBITDA % than median-performing MSPs, regardless of the size, age or market of the MSP.
Cyberattacks have increased in both number and severity over the past few years. The press has focused primarily on ransomware attacks. It makes sense: some research has shown that ransomware will cost roughly $5 billion USD in 2017 alone. Organizations seem to be rising to the occasion, with cybersecurity budgets growing at a rapid clip. In fact, estimates show that cybersecurity budgets will total roughly $1 trillion USD during the period of time between 2017 and 2021. If you’re an IT service provider, this gives you a massive opportunity to generate more revenue. But where do you begin? What tools do you need? And how do you even assess what each client needs to stay protected?
The retail marketplace is changing rapidly, with consumers purchasing goods online, in the store, via mobile devices, over the phone and even using multiple channels to complete a single purchase. This idea of retailers engaging consumers across physical and online channels is sometimes referred to as omnicommerce.
Ubiquitous mobile technology – from smartphones and tablets to smart watches and other devices – has forever changed the way people interact with each other and their environment. That is abundantly apparent in the retail sector, where consumers are using mobile devices to comparison shop, research purchases, access coupons, make online purchases, and pay for goods in person using mobile payment processing solutions.
Focusing your managed services business on cybersecurity creates several opportunities to increase margins; most significantly, by implementing layers of security at client sites, you can reduce costly security-related issues. Understanding that effective cyberdefense involves multiple layers of technology is crucial, as is the understanding that customer disruption is a revenue killer in the world of the managed services provider (MSP).