How MSPs can fight the spiral of commoditization
Each day, a new cloud service or API seemingly comes into play, deeming themselves essential in their particular industry. In the MSP world, RMMs, anti-virus, and backup services have all undergone commoditization. It used to cost thousands to offer a...
Supply chain attacks on the rise
You’ve turned your client’s network into a virtual fortress. There are firewalls, double authentication protocols, an up-to-date patching regimen, and frequent pen-testing. You’ve pretty much eliminated the threat of hackers within your client’s critical network, right? Think again.
Survey shines light on chronic need for actionable cybersecurity intelligence
A survey of 577 IT and IT security practitioners in the U.S. conducted by The Ponemon Institute on behalf of AttackIQ, a provider of security testing tools, suggests there’s a major opportunity for managed service providers (MSPs) to provide security...
Your next hack could arrive by snail mail
When you think about getting hacked, you probably imagine hackers using stolen credentials, undertaking a phishing attack, or exploiting a vulnerability in your network. What you probably don’t expect is for them to come through the front door, and access...
Sales & Marketing
Are you missing new clients due to errors on your website?
According to an article on SiteImprove, 131 of 135 websites analyzed (97 percent) had broken links and errors on their web page. The websites they focused on were all Fortune 1000 companies, who have the resources (money and staff) to...
Can MSPs really use LinkedIn for lead generation? Absolutely – and here’s how
As someone who has always made an effort to stay up-to-date with the latest best practices in marketing, it can’t be denied that there is currently a MAJOR buzz around not only LinkedIn, but the site’s role in successful B2B...
Using alternative marketing efforts to captivate prospects
Thanks to our work in appointment setting, we make thousands of calls on behalf of our MSP clients every day. The sheer volume of calls generates enormous amounts of data on their prospects, giving us the opportunity to identify trends...
Security
Tech Time Warp: SoBig.F worm creates some big problems
It’s amazing that the unwitting computer users of 2019 are still clicking on suspicious attachments considering the havoc such files have been wreaking for decades. Back in August 2003, the SoBig.F virus — the sixth variant of the SoBig worm...
A low-tech standby for cybersecurity
With all the cybersecurity tools in the arsenal of the average MSP, there’s one that often gets understandably overlooked: paper and marker. Yes, patching, anti-virus protection, double authentication, and firewalls are the most crucial elements of your cybersecurity regime, but...
Targeted ransomware attacks creates new opportunities and challenges
Every successful high-profile ransomware attack that winds up gaining a lot of mainstream media coverage is generally good for managed service providers (MSPs) that specialize in helping organizations recover from such attacks. In the last few days, coverage of ransomware...
Better Business
The new normal – being more flexible as an MSP
How do you deal with customers who need variable resources? The ones who, for part of the day, or on a cyclic basis of once per week, month, or quarter, show a spike in usage of CPU, network, or storage...
Ask an MSP Expert: Should my MSP have its own company vehicles?
Q: I’m an MSP owner and business is booming. In fact, I’m planning on hiring two technicians to assist me in servicing customers. Should I have them take their own cars on service calls or should I purchase company vehicles?...
To grow your MSP business, you need to lead by example
As the owner of a managed service business, do you understand the importance of leading by example? In an previous article, I wrote about why your MSP should eat its own dog food. Of course, this doesn’t mean you should...
Tech Insight
VMware Cloud on AWS momentum starts to swell
Following a few early VMware missteps, it would appear that cloud momentum surrounding VMware, on the eve of the annual VMworld conference next week, is finally starting to increase. A survey of 1,156 IT and business professionals published today by...
5 steps to adopting a cloud services model
Cloud computing has transformed the way companies do business. It’s no longer a solution for just enterprises, as it’s expected to exceed $270 billion by 2020 and 44 percent of the growth will come from small businesses. And it’s anticipated...
How RPA can help drive automation in legacy businesses
Increasingly, companies are looking for ways to automate repetitive internal processes, but most can’t simply rip and replace the systems that they have in place and go for the latest and greatest AI technologies. It’s simply too risky, disruptive, and...