Confidential computing starts to gain traction in the cloud
A survey of 452 IT and security professionals conducted by the Cloud Service Alliance (CSA) finds more than a quarter of organizations (27 percent) surveyed are already using confidential computing platforms to better protect data, with another 55 percent planning...
MSPs must keep up with evolving healthcare regulations
For MSPs with healthcare clients in their portfolio, there is an ever-growing and sometimes onerous list of rules, regulations, and laws that must be followed. Failure to do so can result in reputational ruin, hefty penalties, or both.
Ask an MSP Expert: Best practices for cybersecurity hygiene
Many managed service providers (MSPs) already know that cybersecurity is essential in today’s digitally transformed business environment. However, cybersecurity may have a different meaning depending on who you are speaking with inside your customer’s organization. To get the best advice...
Solving the MSP sales struggle
Let’s be honest, MSPs don’t have a great track record when it comes to sales. Most MSPs have been able to grow by referral because our addressable market has been very forgiving. Our prospects are bigger and the economy has...
Sales & Marketing
MSP marketing part 2: Maneuver marketing
In Part 1 of this mini-series on MSP marketing, we looked at attrition marketing, the most basic form of marketing MSP services. Now in Part 2, we’ll take a trip in the world of maneuver marketing using the example of...
MSP marketing, like mining, comes in three forms – Part 1
In the movie Patriot, Benjamin Martin, played by Mel Gibson, warns his comrades not to go muzzle-to-muzzle against the English army and still hope to win. It just couldn’t happen. Similarly, MSPs are better off not going head-to-head with their...
Why MSPs should work smarter – not harder – with their marketing
Not too long ago, I had the opportunity to sit down with one of our new customers at Tech Pro Marketing. We’ve helped countless MSPs use marketing to win new customers over the years, and I was excited to be...
Security
MSSPs will be at forefront of wave of security platform consolidation
Managed security services providers (MSSPs) are going to soon be at the forefront of a wave of consolidation of cybersecurity platforms as more organizations not only look to reduce overall costs but also streamline security operations. A survey of 280...
Hackers head back to school
Every August, across the United States orange school buses rumble from their summer slumber, school cafeteria workers put on their hairnets and march back into the kitchen, and students grab their backpacks and books and make their way to their...
Zero Trust, XDR, and digital transformation: Interview with Fleming Shi
For anyone involved in tech and security, it’s hard to avoid a blizzard of messaging and advertising around Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and Extended Detection and Response (XDR). But it can be remarkably difficult to understand exactly what a...
Better Business
Cutting through the complexity of MSP profitability
Do you know if any of your customers are losing you money? It is often reported that any organisation’s profits follow the Pareto principle: 80 percent the profits come from the top 20 percent of the customers. Although this is...
Are you portraying yourself as a strategic partner?
Being an MSP has changed markedly over the years. In the early days (going back as far as being an application service provider or ASP), it was a given that most of the business would come from a web search....
SMB cybersecurity confidence creates a challenge for MSPs
A survey of 600 SMBs (small-to-medium businesses) with revenue between $1 to $40 million, conducted by Provident Bank, finds that about half of the respondents believe their organization is fully prepared for a cyberattack. An equal percentage of respondents, however,...
Tech Insight
Pioneers in Tech: Mina Rees, a mid-century technology trailblazer
Like so many “pioneers in tech,” Mina Rees did not let much dissuade her from her ultimate goals. Born Aug. 2, 1902, in Cleveland, Ohio, Rees grew up in New York City. After graduating summa cum laude from Hunter College...
Tech Time Warp: The truth about shatter attacks
In this week’s Tech Time Warp, we’re looking back at August 2002, when security researcher Kristin Paget published a whitepaper on the dangers of “shatter attacks,” and Microsoft had more than a few quibbles with it.
Tech Time Warp: Koobface Worms Its Way Through Facebook
For this week’s Tech Time Warp, we’re going back to August 2008—when you were still juggling Facebook and MySpace profiles—unsuspecting social networkers found their machines infected by Koobface, a particularly nasty computer worm. Koobface (an anagram for Facebook) caught its victims...