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Five Reasons Why SMBs will invest in an MSP in 2022 

As times change, business owners need to adapt. Here are some reasons why an SMB may be considering an MSP

1. Modernizing IT 

As SMBs move to modernize their IT, they don’t have the expertise to keep up with the complexities of managing and maintaining their IT environment.

2. Employee Growth

Despite the pandemic, many organizations are growing rapidly. But unfortunately, some can’t keep up with the growth. For example, they can’t continuously upgrade and install the number of endpoints, onboard new employees, or educate them on the best security practices.  

3. Not enough IT support

Many SMBs do not have an internal IT employee, and one of their employees must take it on as an extra job responsibility which decreases productivity. If they do have an IT employee, they often are faced with more pressure than they can handle alone.

4. Outside threats

 Over half of businesses have faced some type of financial cyberattack in the last year; most SMBs don’t have the resources to combat these risks internally.

5. Compliance

Compliance is a tricky concept for most SMBs. Working with an MSP can help them adhere to the often changing regulations.

Since most businesses rely nearly entirely on the internet to perform their day-to-day operations, an important goal for SMBs is to strategize and prioritize digital transformation. Unfortunately, this is no small task and can be very overwhelming for SMBs. However, a Managed Service Provider can take on the entirety of IT management, allowing them to mitigate risk, get the best return on their technology investments, and educate their employees.

If you are interested in learning more about how Now Micro can help you manage your IT more effectively, or you’d be interested in receiving a free network assessment, reach out to Sydney Ellison at sydneye@nowmicro.com or check out our website.

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The Consequences of a Cyberattack on SMBs

Nearly every company relies on the internet for its business operations, which means almost every company is at risk for a cyber-attack. In last week’s blog post, we discussed why Cybercriminals are targeting SMBs, but what are the consequences of falling victim to a cyberattack or data breach for SMBs?

Downtime

After a cyberattack, an SMB is likely to face significant downtime, which means their employees cannot do their jobs. While one can expect revenue to take a substantial hit from downtime, employee productivity usually is the most significant consequence. Employers are still required to pay their employees, they may be missing deadlines, and downtime may cause excess stress on their employees.

The cost of downtime = minutes of downtime x cost per minute.

Damage to hardware 

In the event of a cyberattack, malware, or data breach, not only is your data at risk, but it can also cause damage to your hardware such as PCs, Servers, and more. In addition, the repair or replacement of hardware can be very costly.

Fines and penalties

Legal and regulatory requirements seem to be constantly changing, which can be very overwhelming for a business owner. However, business owners must comply with these rules and regulations, and when they don’t, they are subject to fines and penalties costs.

Damage to reputation and loss of customers

When a company falls victim to a cyberattack, their customer data is often compromised, leading to a loss of customer trust, which leads to customers taking their business elsewhere. Data breaches also hurt attracting and obtaining new customers when the news is public.

High costs

In the event of a cyberattack, an SMB is likely to experience downtime, damage to hardware, fines and penalties, damage to reputation and loss of customers, and more. Each of these consequences has its own cost, and sometimes it is enough for a business to close its doors for good. Forbes states that the average cost of a single data breach on an SMB is $149,000. Additionally, 76% of SMBs have experienced a cyberattack in the last 12 months.

We’ve said it before, and we will say it again: It is no longer a question of if your business will be the target of a cyberattack, but when. Can you afford the consequences of a data breach?

Working with a Managed Service Provider can help you better secure your network and prevent cyberattacks from happening. To learn more about our managed services, visit our website or reach out to Sydney Ellison at sydneye@nowmicro.com.

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4 Reasons to Conduct a Network Assessment

Q1 is a great time to check IT systems and determine how to revamp them for the year. Performing a network assessment is essential when gauging areas for improvement. A network assessment looks at disk & memory utilization, BDR sizing calculation, warranty summary, device stabilization requirements, software and device inventory, active directory user list, and much more. Read more to find out how a network assessment can help your organization.

1. View a detailed and comprehensive report and analysis of your company’s existing IT infrastructure.

If you’re seeking out a network assessment, you are likely trying to learn everything about your organization’s system and see where you’re succeeding or where you’re falling short. A network assessment will look at network performance, security protection, server/storage performance and determine which issues are network-related or user-related. It’s essential to get a comprehensive report on your network so that you can catch hard-to-find errors and fix them.

2. Create a strategy for your IT systems and people.

You’ll likely be working with a managed service provider to execute a network assessment, which will benefit you. A managed service provider has a team of IT experts to gauge the network assessment results and then offer guidance. MSPs, such as Now Micro, work with a variety of clientele and will be able to customize their offerings based on what your organization needs. Once the strategy is in place, your IT issues will be solved in no time.

3. Discover money-saving opportunities.

By filling in the gaps of your IT strategy, you are saving time and money. For example, most IT management is protection, prevention, and modernization. These new changes will save your organization from an IT disaster and save resources that would have been used in recovery and fixing errors.

4. Get an explanation for C-suite Executives.

Sometimes C-suite executives need raw data to convince them to approve significant upgrades. A network assessment will lay out all the data you need to get them on your side. As stated in Reason #3, the improvements may be a high cost upfront, but over time, the company can save money by keeping their IT up to date and not constantly paying for repairs when disaster hits.

If you would like to have a network assessment of your organization’s IT infrastructure, visit Now Micro’s managed services website and click on the “Free Network Assessment” button to get started or email our Managed Services point of contact, Sydney Ellison, at sydneye@nowmicro.com.

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Configuring LAPS (Part 2)- Configuring and Deploying Group Policy

This post is the second part of a two-part series on configuring and deploying the Microsoft Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS). The first post covered the steps needed to configure Active Directory to support LAPS. That post can be found here . This post will cover the steps needed to enable the LAPS functionally on devices.
 Continue reading “Configuring LAPS (Part 2)- Configuring and Deploying Group Policy”

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Configuring LAPS (Part 1)- Configuring Active Directory

Why is Local Administrator Password Management Needed?

The question of how to deal with users having administrative rights on computers or other network resources is one that has many different answers and has evolved over time. While the scenarios around network and domain administrative access may be more complex, the local administrative rights scenario should be very similar for almost everyone.

Continue reading “Configuring LAPS (Part 1)- Configuring Active Directory”

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Email Notification for Security Changes in ConfigMgr

Have you ever had a deployment or maybe a security change that happened with no one noticing? Maybe you’re working with a team and someone accidentally deployed to the wrong collection. We all have busy schedules, it’s not easy stay on top of changes or deployments in Configuration Manager. Therefore, we need to take advantage of the built-in status system. This post will walk you through creating a status filter rule that sends an email whenever a security setting is created, modified, or deleted in ConfigMgr.
Continue reading “Email Notification for Security Changes in ConfigMgr”

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Decommission ADFS: How to switch from ADFS to Password Sync for Office 365

Recently, two new methods for Office 365 SSO have become available: Azure AD Seamless SSO, and Azure AD Domain Join. Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) had (and still has) its place within Office 365 environments, but it is not nearly as attractive and easy to use as the new methods. Continue reading “Decommission ADFS: How to switch from ADFS to Password Sync for Office 365”