The dark side of generative AI: Unveiling the AI threat landscape
Generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) has unleashed a new threat landscape for cybercrime. Threat actors now weaponize large language models (LLMs), which once served primarily legitimate purposes. Underground forums and dark web marketplaces are buzzing with “dark LLMs” — custom...
AI tools spark surge in security service needs
The rapid spread of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) tools has reached a tipping point, raising serious cybersecurity concerns, and creating opportunities for managed service providers (MSPs). A survey of 200 North American security leaders conducted by OpinionRoute on behalf...
MSPs: Never start with technology when selling your managed services
As someone who has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on sales coaching while growing my own business into one of the fastest-growing marketing companies for managed service providers (MSPs), it’s fair to say that I’ve paid my dues as...
Tip Tuesday: Crafting a BCDR policy that actually works for hybrid environments
A business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) policy is essential for protecting client environments from disruptive events. Traditional BCDR plans explain how to recover critical functions and restore data, but they often stop short of addressing the full complexity of...
Sales & Marketing
Ask an MSP Expert: How AI can help you personalize outreach and repurpose content
Artificial intelligence (AI) excels at spotting patterns and automating workflows, but what about the messy, one-off challenges that arise in real sales conversations? This is where skepticism can creep in. However, with the right approach, AI can still serve as...
Is your sales team losing deals they should win?
You’re trying to grow, and it feels like the sales team should be helping you get there. But too often, they’re chasing the wrong leads, following up inconsistently, or losing deals that should have been won. Add to that many...
How MSPs can fuel faster growth with AI + cold outreach
Dave leads a B2B services firm with a dedicated sales team of three. Over the past year, they’ve invested time and resources into cold outreach, hiring sales reps, and launching marketing campaigns. Despite these efforts, the results have been underwhelming,...
Security
The hidden cost of a fragmented security stack
For manages service provider (MSP) customers, the promise of comprehensive cybersecurity protection often comes with an unexpected burden: managing their ever-expanding collection of security tools that don’t talk to each other. What starts as a strategic approach to layered defense...
Late-summer CISA alert roundup
At least once or twice a year I like to sift through the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) alerts and share some of the latest with SmarterMSP.com. The end of summer is one of the best times to do...
Threat Spotlight: Tycoon phishing kit reveals new techniques to hide malicious links
Phishing emails often feature malicious links (URLs) that lead victims to fake websites where they are infected with harmful software or tricked into giving away personal information such as their account credentials. Uncover how these attacks work in the latest...
Better Business
AI agents unlock new management opportunities for MSPs
A report from International Data Corp. (IDC) projects that spending on agentic artificial intelligence initiatives will reach $1.3 trillion by 2029. Over the next five years, developers, and organizations will increase the number and complexity of third-party and custom-built AI...
MSPs caught in the tug-of-war over legacy systems
Each Labor Day, the cost of IT labor invariably becomes a topic of discussion. After all, even in the age of artificial intelligence (AI), the single biggest segment of any IT budget remains staffing. The cost incurred depends greatly on...
Data center drought: MSPs scramble for capacity
In the months and years ahead, many IT leaders will urgently turn to managed service providers (MSPs) to help them find IT infrastructure resources to run their workloads. An analysis of the data center colocation market was published by JLL,...
Tech Insight
Pioneers in Tech: Dennis Ritchie left us many tech riches, including the C language and UNIX
The October 2011 passing of Dennis Ritchie—creator of the C programming language and co-creator of the UNIX operating system—was largely overshadowed by Steve Jobs’ death the week prior. Yet Ritchie’s quiet genius laid the foundation for much of modern computing....
Tech Time Warp: Star Trek was not the final frontier for many tech ideas
As ubiquitous as Star Trek is—spawning so many spin-offs and movies that only a true Trekkie could list them all off the top of their head—it’s a fun bit of trivia that the original series (known as “TOS” to fans)...
Tech Time Warp: The lovable and luggable Compaq Portable
August 27 marked the 32nd anniversary of the release of the Compaq Presario. This was a family of PCs that included a monitor, a modem, and, for many, their first America Online CD-ROM. Learn more in this edition of Tech...
