IT matters to SMB success, and security matters to IT success

A tour of any modern small & medium-sized business (SMB) highlights how IT solutions are critical to business success. From email and communication systems to productivity applications, these tools do everything from reporting on financial data to organizing supply chain logistics. And yet despite this reliance, IT security is viewed as an unnecessary cost.

The problem with this is that the SMB is under attack. From the 2017 Ponemon Institute Study, statistically speaking - it is happening! More than 61% of SMBs have been breached in the last 12 months vs 55% in 2016.

As well as the obvious cost in penalties, business disruption, loss of customers and damage to brand, there is another cost for any SMB who treat security as an unwelcome requirement.

Today any SMB can quickly adopt a new technology to gain new capabilities, improve efficiency and/or reduce costs. However each new application creates a need to secure users, data and the environment that the solution integrates into.

Those that treat security as an onerous requirement that is invoked each time a new technology is contemplated will be slow to adopt – and slow to profit from – new efficiencies.

SMBs that build effective IT security frameworks are able to move more quickly and surely than their competitors. Environments without effective IT security solutions will have difficulty innovating and are likely to fall behind more nimble competitors.

Striving for Enterprise caliber solutions with SMB sensitivity

So how does an SMB – and the Managed Service Providers servicing them - build the best security to safeguard their organization, users and data?

Well the most important point to remember is that security solutions for an SMB should not be any less effective than it is for an enterprise client. The data is no less sensitive, the disruption no less serious. They need enterprise caliber defense in terms of focus and effectiveness, but with SMB sensibilities in terms of implementation and use.

To help, we’ve worked with our SMB clients and put together this infographic to show 8 SMB-friendly criteria to remember when choosing cybersecurity solutions.