Monthly Archives: March 2021

How Will a Managed Service Provider Help Your Business?

Manage Service, , ,
Male IT professional working with a company's IT infrastructure and data security using a computer.

What is a Managed Service Provider (MSP)?

A Managed Service Provider (MSP) is a person who is specially trained in remotely managing a company’s IT infrastructure. They provide specific network and security solutions that assist with data loss, security breaches, and remote firewall administration. The key takeaway from their role is that they play an invaluable part in strategic IT planning and preventing destructive computer networking decisions that could have a negative impact on a business.

In this article, we will focus more on the role of this service provider, which bears an important responsibility. Indeed, at the present time, the productivity of a company depends very much on its IT infrastructure, which makes the MSP a central player in the success and development of the company.

Managed services or IT service outsourcing?

While some companies can afford to have a dedicated IT department, not all organizations can. And that’s not always the most relevant solution, either. The Managed Service Provider takes on the role of the enterprise IT department. Thus, he or she must carry out the management and maintenance of the IT department.

The mission of the MSP (Managed Service Provider) includes administrative oversight, intended to detect problems before they arise. Indeed, to ensure the sustainability of the infrastructure, it must constantly maintain the level of service necessary for the needs of the business. This, therefore, involves application updates, regular hardware checks, and software changes when relevant.

A remote service provider that saves significant time

The MSP, therefore, works externally and mainly remotely, through cloud computing. The managed service provider has a team made up of experienced people, but also very sophisticated tools. It is therefore able to operate remotely and benefits from regular automated reports which allow it to detect potential problems. He or she can thus solve them before they generate damage. It is therefore rare for MSP technicians to travel to the site, although this can happen in the event of a hardware failure.

Using sophisticated tools, the managed service provider performs software updates automatically before the expiration date. As a result, it avoids wasted time related to bugs and failures caused by software that is not up to date. It also allows you to benefit from the latest versions and thus limits security vulnerabilities in the system.

An offer adapted to the needs of the company

As the managed service provider is not an employee of the company, he or she is able to make an offer modeled on the real needs of the structure. Often, its offer depends on the number of workstations or users of the infrastructure to be managed. The contract can therefore be scalable according to the needs of the business. This operation, therefore, offers flexibility that is much more advantageous for the company than having its own IT department. Especially since it limits the administrative procedures and internal staff management.

Conclusion

This is a win/win formula, as the MSP usually does not have to intervene for outages, but if they do, it is included in their package. As a result, the more quality watch it performs, the better its profitability will be, because interventions will be less common. For the company, this approach provides the assurance of quality monitoring to ensure the proper functioning of the system.

The definition of managed services and the role of the MSP are no longer a mystery to you. In relation to outsourcing, managed services offer a more in-depth approach, and free you from all worries related to IT infrastructure. This allows you to focus on your core business without risking failures that could impact the development of your business. Contact us to learn more!

SentinelOne Security: Providing Protection Against Threats

Security, ,
IT programmer typing binary codes in his computer for security system and cybersecurity.

Cybersecurity threats are around every corner and you need more than antivirus to protect your business

Benjamin Franklin is credited with the saying, ”If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” While he probably was not referring to cybersecurity, this frame of mind can certainly be applied to this industry. Planning can certainly make the difference between having protection against malicious activity in real-time and being a victim of a career-threatening cyber attack.

Traditional anti-virus software should no longer be viewed as a comprehensive solution for small and medium-sized businesses. Malware has outgrown many traditional anti-virus programs on the market. The Dark Web and cyber criminals can create and sell attack kits that will be difficult for any traditional anti-virus program to categorize.

Today, more businesses are beginning to recognize the importance of Endpoint Detection and Response platforms. These platforms can offer a significant amount of protection against a variety of malicious activities. SentinelOne Security is one of the leading security solutions made for small and medium-sized businesses in various industries, including the following:

  • Healthcare
  • Education
  • Energy industry
  • Finance
SentinelOne Security

SentinelOne uses the Endpoint Security approach. The Endpoint Security approach focuses on discovering threats and eliminating them across any network that is connected to the client’s devices, such as the following:

  • Desktops
  • Laptops
  • Mobile phones
  • Tablets
  • Workstations

This solution provides remediation capabilities that will allow users to alleviate the impact of any type of malicious attack and ultimately restore the system. SentinelOne Endpoint Protection Platform’s solution not only combines detection, remediation, and prevention, but it also combines mitigation and forensic capabilities for your devices.

Rather than SentinelOne creating an Endpoint Detection and Response platform and leaving it as is, they went above and beyond to create full protection for added safety and security.

Combatting Malicious Activities

One of the growing concerns within small and medium-sized businesses is the presence of fileless malware. What is fileless malware? Fileless malware is a particular type of malware that makes use of legitimate programs to infect an endpoint. It can definitely be a huge challenge to detect and remove the files because there is no presence of a file.

You can no longer block particular operations. Your business or organization will need solutions that can prevent one or more attacks using exploits, kits, macro documents, etc. without causing any major disruptions to your day-to-day operations. SentinelOne has proven to be effective at stopping this particular type of malware by using ”Active Content”. Active Content offers a solution to the fileless malware problem by allocating blame to the true source of the problem.

Remediation Capabilities

As mentioned previously, one of the capabilities of the SentinelOne solution is remediation. The remediation capability will allow all users to reduce the effects of cyber attacks and restore the system quickly and efficiently. The remediation capability will do more than give users immunity from small and large threats within the business. This capability will also be able to detect and alert you of threats.

SentinelOne Security is known for its use of automation and advanced machine learning solutions. When using SentinelOne, you will not only be able to enjoy the advantages of a comprehensive and powerful solution, but you will also have the knowledge and experiences of a professional support staff.

With SentinelOne Security, your business or organization will gain an overall view of everything that is taking place across the network. Today, your small or medium-sized business can no longer sit back and wait for an attack to take place before implementing an effective solution. Any malicious attack against your network and devices can result in data loss and significant downtime if you fail to proactively protect your business.

The security dangers will vary from internal threats to external threats. For more information on how you can protect your business now and in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us today.

How a BDR (Backup Disaster Recovery) Plan Works for You

Data Backup, , ,
Cyber security and data network protection concept showing a business owner using her laptop computer for checking her business' data protection and security back-up plans.

Cyber security and network protection is critical for any business

What happens when your tech stack is put at risk? Businesses everywhere are now built on their technological assets. Servers, data, work software, and customer data are all essential before you even begin with websites, apps, and online security. This creates an incredible infrastructure of data. Data that must be protected and data that is relied on. So what do you do when something goes terribly wrong?

Many disasters can befall a company’s servers, network, or tech stack. But what do you do when data is lost or at risk? That is what a BDR plan helps you to deal with. But it can be difficult to visualize where a BDR would be useful unless you can grasp the disasters themselves. Today, we are highlighting three common disasters and how BDR can help you fully recover your business in the face of these disasters.

1) When You’ve Been Hacked

Hacking is the number one threat to modern business data and infrastructure. More than natural disasters, more than chance data corruption, even more than employee mistakes. Hackers are everywhere, there are more every year, and they share tactics to target modern businesses. There are many types of hack, the most notorious being the Ransomware attack. Ransomware and other malware is designed to invade a computer or a network then wreak havoc.

Once you become aware that there is a hack, it becomes necessary to root out every scrap of malicious code and program in your network.  This can be a near-impossible hunt for barbs left behind by poisonous programs – unless you have a BDR plan saved for your system.

With a complete backup and a recovery plan to implement it, you don’t have to search out every last bit of malware. You can nuke-and-pave your entire network to eliminate the malware without any loss at all. After resetting your hardware, a backup allows you to fully restore your system, your data, and even your specific installations and configurations for a fully malware-free system. This is the ultimate way thumb your nose at hackers, denying them both disruption and harvested data all at once.

2) Damaged by a Natural Disaster

Natural disasters are even less avoidable than getting hacked.  Sometimes, a large storm or event hits your region and there is very little that any local business can do to prevent the kind of damage that can happen. Basements flood. Buildings collapse. Fires can burn through server banks. Natural disasters can desolate a business’s hardware and, in turn much of their technological infrastructure. With damaged servers, data can be lost. With damaged offices, an entire network and workflow infrastructure can be taken out.

How does backup disaster recovery help you? The answer is that BDR can also be used to rebuild your business from the ground up. Replacing one computer or every physical device in an all-new office, a cloud-stored backup with a recovery plan means that you can fully restore your tech-stack on any working hardware. If your insurance covers an all-new office and devices, your BDR can then upload your entire digital infrastructure back into place.

This is the true spirit of business continuity.

3) Corrupted Software Updates and Lost Data

Finally, there is corrupted and lost data, the original reason why BDR plans were designed for modern businesses. Software can corrupt when updated – destroying the tech stack and all related data – or even just a section. This is a common enough problem that regular backups are the known solution. At the same time, common employee errors can occasionally cause massive data loss. Mis-clicks or tapping the ‘delete’ button at just the wrong time can cause seemingly irrevocable data loss and other damage. Fortunately, a good backup can restore some or all of your data so that no single temporary mistake becomes catastrophic to the company or even to the employee.

 

How does BDR help your business? Backup disaster recovery plans can save you from malware, data corruption, mistakes, and natural disasters With these heavy-hitters at the top of the list, no doubt any business can think of a dozen more smaller disasters that a good backup and a comprehensive recovery plan can do to ensure business continuity. Contact us today to consult on the best BDR plan for your company.