TIPs on how to secure small and medium business in times of recession

COVID19 has significantly impacted the global economy driving multiple countries that were once booming, into recession.  Many economies across the world are highly dependent upon small and medium sized businesses and sole proprietors – organizations that have been severely impacted over the last 4 months.

At the same time, cyber-attacks across the globe are increasing, many using COVID19 as the phishing email topic to generate clicks to harvest credentials or to deploy malware or ransomware to an unsuspecting victim’s laptop, desktop or network. This is a double whammy for SMBs having to now deal with yet another unseen digital threat.

Small and Medium size businesses are focused on cashflow, revenues, servicing customers, keeping employees and survival. They are also trying to find ways to pivot their business or strategy and determine how they can survive and thrive in these uncertain times. SMBs can take simple, rapid steps to help protect themselves over the next 30-180 days and set the stage for recovery. Below is a simple recommendation that will help Small and Medium sized businesses secure and protect themselves as we enter the recession and begin re-entry post COVID19:

Consolidate Information Technology, Applications and Security Infrastructure – (Seek Single Vendors)

As small and medium size businesses navigate through the recession, one way to reduce operating costs is by consolidating business applications, information technology and security infrastructure around single vendors.

For example, businesses can consolidate email protection, endpoint anti-malware/anti-ransomware protection, data and endpoint encryption (desktop/laptop/server) and next generation firewalls under a single vendor. Through this type of consolidation, the SMBs can reduce costs, improve cashflow, improve security posture and increase operational efficiencies. Below is a summary of the impact that this one decision can create within a Small and Medium sized business:

1. Save executive and employee vendor management time and expense by consolidating vendors.
2. Save IT system management, monitoring and break-fix time and expense by consolidating applications and technologies under one (or fewer) vendor.
3. Reduce upfront out of pocket costs by leveraging bundled pricing.
4. Increase operational benefits by having synchronized security (security applications and devices communicating together to help identify-defend-protect against restrict threats).
5. Reduce manpower or external consultant expense by working with a single vendor.
6. Reduce IT administration, support and management costs by utilizing a single-pane-of-glass for tracking and managing all of the various technology and applications.

Consolidating business applications, information technology and security infrastructure and moving towards a consolidated security solution through a single vendor, greatly reduces the cost and complexity around securing and protecting the business.

Under the consolidation strategy outlined above, Security activities such as configurations, backups, logs, troubleshooting, tuning, and reporting, are now managed under a single-pane-of-glass console, saving significant operations, reporting and maintenance time as compared to a multi-vendor environment.

As small and medium sized businesses re-enter the market and drive growth through the recession, this consolidation will free up cashflow and internal resources so they can focus on growth and expansion activities versus IT administration activities. This can be a critical first step in moving the business forward.

If your business would like to save time, reduce costs, and position itself to thrive in these uncertain times by consolidating Security infrastructure and vendors, contact us and we’ll guide you through the process!