One thing we can all agree on is that the changing technology landscape requires businesses to accelerate their adoption of new technologies. This in turn creates a need to acquire expertise in these new technologies quickly to keep pace with competitors. But for a company that wants to stay lean and agile, bringing onboard experts for every new technology isn’t feasible and this is where outsourcing can play a crucial role. Keeping costs and agility in mind, utilizing a Managed Service Provider (MSP) until you can build your in-house team is the ideal solution.
But what can an MSP do for modern businesses? How can managed IT services help businesses stay relevant and competitive? Let’s take a look at the business trends, the emerging problems, and what role MSPs can play...
Emerging Technology Trends
The Future Is In The Cloud
You must have noticed this already that businesses are moving to the cloud; not just your office data and web servers but all your service providers such as Microsoft 365, G Suite, Dropbox, etc. are in the cloud. How quickly and at what magnitude have businesses been migrating to the cloud? Let’s take a quick look at the stats according to Cisco Global Cloud Index (2016-2021), by 2021:
It is expected that global cloud data center IP traffic will reach 19.5 zettabytes (1 Zettabyte = 1 trillion Gigabytes).
Cloud data center traffic will represent 95 percent of total data center traffic globally.
Cloud data centers will be processing 94 percent of all workloads and compute instances while traditional data centers will process only 6 percent.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) workloads and compute instances will constitute 75 percent of the total cloud workloads and compute instances.
The future, as we can see, is clearly in the cloud. Like any other piece of technology, the cloud also requires expertise for migrations, maintenance, security, compliance, and day-to-day troubleshooting. Most companies are hard-pressed just to manage their day-to-day IT operations and basic help-desk activities, so dealing with the complex migration of workloads from on-premises servers to the cloud will put an immense burden on their internal IT team. Therefore, it is best to outsource the migrations, maintenance, security, compliance, and day-to-day troubleshooting related to the cloud to managed services providers that perform cloud migrations and provide on-demand engineering services.
The complexity of the cloud and the choice of the unique cloud variants depend on various factors such as industry type, business needs, security and compliance requirements, etc. The expertise of an MSP, early in the decision-making process- be it initial research and exploratory evaluations or creation of cloud strategy and technology decisions, will ensure that you have all the right answers upfront and are well equipped to leverage the advantages of the cloud.
Changing Cybersecurity Landscape
How critical do you think cybersecurity is for your business? Well, according to the World Economic Forum, business leaders in advanced economies recognize cyberattacks as the #2 global risk, second only to fiscal crises. Recently, we’ve seen an alarming rate of increase in cyber-attack, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This trend will most definitely continue with an ever greater number of cyber-attacks on businesses.
What’s more worrying for businesses is that besides the known vulnerabilities and attack vectors, cyber-criminals are finding new ways to exploit the gaps in security arising from the adoption of new technologies and work environments.
Cyber-Attacks On Cloud Services
The rapid growth in the adoption of cloud computing, especially Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) has brought a large number of business systems to the public cloud. For the business, this decreases the operational costs as well as reduces the time to market for the company’s services. However, along with business systems, a large amount of sensitive data also makes its way to the cloud.
This has put a big target sign for cyber-criminals who have ramped up their attacks to get their hands on the data. One small misconfigured setting is all it takes for the data to be encrypted by ransomware, siphoned off, corrupted, or deleted. In 2017, Microsoft Azure users experienced a 300% increase in cyber attacks.
As you move more and more of your infrastructure to the cloud, the security of those assets must be on the top of your list.
Rise of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) have been recognized as excellent tools for the detection and mitigation of malicious programs. Machines are being trained through human inputs as well as through trial and error to recognize threats. However, not all uses of AI and ML have been for the good of humanity. They haven’t gone unnoticed by cyber-criminals and the use of AI and ML have begun to pose major challenges to cybersecurity. Cyber-criminals are turning to model stealing, adversarial inputs, and data-poisoning as countermeasures to evade these new technologies. As these technologies evolve the criminals are also evolving. So it requires consistent effort to stay ahead of the game.
Multi-Factor Authentication Techniques
Passwords have served as the first line of defense for protecting your accounts and information technology assets for a long time. Lately, passwords are seen as less secure owing to large-scale data breaches, poor password hygiene, and social engineering attacks. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) provides a simple and convenient way to add another layer of security to your accounts and digital assets.
Multi-factor authentication requires you to use more than one method or process to confirm your identity before you get access to your account or device. There are a number of options verification techniques such as one-time-password (OTP), facial recognition, biometric authentication, etc. that can be used. If you are interested in learning more about MFA, you can find more information in our previous blog post: How To Set Up 2FA
In spite of the advantages of MFA, most businesses are yet to implement or make MFA mandatory. According to CISCO 2020 CISO Benchmark Study, only 27% of organizations are currently using multi-factor authentication (MFA). From endpoint security to fraud prevention, MFA is a must-have security tool. However, your endpoint protection doesn’t have to end there, you can add more factors to your MFA or use identity and access management to make your endpoint security more robust.
Rise Of IoT And Smart Devices
Even though we don’t realize it, the internet of things (IoT) devices are all around us- in our offices as well as homes. From smart locks and smart thermostats to voice assistants such as Siri and Alexa to CCTV cameras to cars with autopilot capabilities, IoT devices are everywhere. According to CISCO experts, by 2021 IoT connections are expected to reach 13.7 billion.
This widespread adoption of IoT brings with it new security challenges owing to which in 2019, cyber-attacks on IoT devices grew by 300%. Another emerging and rapidly growing threat comes from IoT botnets that are capable of launching stealthy DDoS attacks and spreading malware. This growing rate of attacks on IoT devices is very troubling for security professionals. According to a survey conducted by 451 Research, for 55% of IT professionals, IoT security is their top priority.
Compliance
Compliance In The Cloud
As more and more critical functions and data are being moved to the cloud, there will be a growing need to demonstrate the same level of security and compliance in the cloud as companies do in their off-cloud environments. The scalability, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of the cloud have been very lucrative for businesses and they have moved much of their physical assets to the cloud.
However, moving functions that require greater security and regulatory compliance to the cloud is a bigger challenge. Deploying infrastructure as code while keeping the absolute necessity of heightened security and meeting regulatory compliance requires a whole new skill set. Leveraging the cloud is a competitive requirement, however, that needs to be achieved while adequately addressing regulatory compliance such as HIPAA and SOC2 requirements.
Privacy And Data Protection
Privacy and data security have been huge concerns and receive significant attention from the media and the general public. This growing concern has been reflected in the actions of government agencies and regulatory authorities as they bring in new regulations at federal as well as state levels such as the California Consumer Privacy Act.
The boundary between privacy and data security is becoming increasingly blurred as can be seen in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and HIPAA requirements where companies need to demonstrate adequate security measures to protect consumer data. We can expect the privacy regulations to continue to expand and to become more stringent forcing businesses to employ continuous improvement in their data protection systems and processes.
Compliance And Emerging Technology
As emerging technology such as 5G, IoT, blockchain, AI, etc. go mainstream, regulatory bodies begin to increase their interest in understanding the risks and bringing them under the scope of existing regulations or introducing new regulations. For example, a team of researchers has developed a “nutrition label style" prototype IoT security and privacy label. While this isn’t a regulatory requirement yet, companies using such technologies need to keep their eyes and ears wide open for regulatory signals.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released an introductory document providing the foundation for a planned series of publications on more specific aspects of cybersecurity and privacy risks associated with IoT. It is the first of a series of documents and staying informed will help businesses make informed decisions about impending regulatory requirements.
Getting Your Business Future Ready
Adopting new technologies early can help your business stay competitive. But with early adoption also comes the need to acquire expertise in these new technologies quickly. In the present context, businesses need expertise in cloud security and compliance in the cloud, competency in migration projects, and an understanding of the complexities of SaaS offerings.
This is likely too much to acquire for businesses that need to stay lean and agile. Even if a company has the resources to develop all required skills, they may not have enough time to hire and train staff. If they do try, they will likely be left watching as more agile competitors sail past them in the market. Additionally, your technology outlook cannot be static, it needs to adapt and keep pace with the changing technology landscape.
The ideal solution for this wide range of existing as well as emerging technology needs is a proactive adoption of the right solutions that will help keep your business lean, make it more agile and future-ready. This is where a managed IT service provider can help you. Think of it as the cloud of technical expertise that you can rent and leverage instead of creating an inhouse team that would burden your operations, administration, and human resources.
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About The Author
Hari SubediMarketing Manager at Jones IT
Hari is an online marketing professional with a focus on content marketing. He writes on topics related to IT, Security, Small Business, and Mindfulness. He is also the founder and managing director of Girivar Kft., a business services company located in Budapest, Hungary.