Cybersecurity: Your Next Breach – Not If, But When?

Guest Blog by Stephen Hackett, Managing Director, Intelisys Global

4
Cyber Security Intelisys
Unified Communications

Published: June 14, 2017

Ian Taylor Editor

Ian Taylor

Editor

Stephen Hackett, Managing Director of Technology Services Distributor Intelisys Global, believes that businesses spend too long trying to protect against their last cyber-attack – and not enough thinking about what they need to do to prevent the next one. Making sure that you’ve got access to all the right products and services can help the channel to take the lead here.

Stephen Hackett, Managing Director of Intelisys Global
Stephen Hackett, Managing Director of Intelisys Global

Perhaps the one certainty that came out of the recent global WannaCry Ransomware attack was that incidents of this type are going to keep on happening. With an estimated total economic interruption cost of $4 billion globally, WannaCry has clearly had a massive impact on corporate cybersecurity concerns, and it’s an issue that’s now top of the IT agenda given today’s accelerating threat landscape.

Unfortunately, the challenge for many organisations is that implementing appropriate cybersecurity protection is getting more and more complex. Organisations are already investing in a range of security hardware, software, endpoint security, identity and access management solutions, as well as a broad range of services.

Factor in additional compliance requirements, continued digital transformation pressures and the scaling of edge technologies such as Internet of Things devices and mobile, it’s understandable why IT teams remain nervous about whether their security investment is doing the job it’s meant to. They’re probably right to be concerned, as many in-house deployments seem destined to protect against known cybersecurity threats at a given point in time. And that’s a problem, as the teams behind ransomware such as WannaCry are no doubt already busy working on their next attack that’s likely to be even more threatening.

Helping organisations to protect themselves

Not surprisingly there’s a lot of concern now, with CIOs and their teams being put under pressure to re-assure the business that their IT infrastructure is secure. From a reseller perspective, this is a great opportunity to help customers, but it’s also a great time to differentiate. Anybody can sell default firewall solutions, install them and leave them to do their job. However, we’re way past that point now, and resellers need to be much more proactive around security. That’s why in-house Managed Security Services are becoming less and less of an option, particularly as most internal teams simply don’t have the in-house expertise to stay current.

Resellers need to bring the experts in – the people that do this all day long, who stay on top of the end-to-end security process. It’s the difference between remembering to action the latest Microsoft SMB patches and having a structured Managed Security Service in place that can detect all exploitation attempts, constantly runs network detection, and continues to receive additional ransomware prevention signatures immediately as they are available.

Leaving valuable security revenue on the table

But with cybersecurity now such a critical issue, it’s also a fact that too many resellers are having to leave valuable potential security business on the table because they believe they don’t have the specialist sales expertise and confidence to bid for the business. Many are also unconvinced as to whether they have the technical skills to deliver a true Managed Security Service for customers.

Missing out on this potential revenue opportunity is clearly a concern, particularly as it’s estimated that Managed Security currently accounts for around 16% of hosted and cloud-based spending in the critical mid-market sector. And that’s a figure that’s only likely to increase, with analyst firm Gartner predicting a 38% overall increase in cybersecurity budgets by 2020.

Working with a Technology Services Distributor, however, can position resellers to compete in this space, helping them to move beyond basic threat prevention to a mindset and service offering that’s focused on advanced detection, rapid response and breach mediation. As an Intelisys Global Sales Partner, for example, resellers have full access to a range of cybersecurity solutions and managed security services from the world’s leading vendors. We can also help in terms of supplier selection assistance, targeted education and pre-sales support.

So if it’s lack of resources or expertise that’s keeping you from fully addressing the Managed Security Services opportunity, there’s really no reason to hang back. Cybersecurity is a problem that’s not going to go away for your customers, and you need to be talking to them about it before your competitors do!
About Intelisys Global
Intelisys Global is one of the leading technology services distributor of business communications services—including voice, data, access, cable, collaboration, wireless and cloud—in the world. Intelisys Global is dedicated to one thing – serving the needs and accelerating the success of the industry’s top producing telecom sales agents, VARs and IT solution providers, as they build vast and vigorously protected streams of recurring revenue for their businesses.

Today, Intelisys Global is focused on empowering and educating the independent sales channel by assisting business telecom and cloud technologies customers in making informed choices about services, technology and cost savings; increasing their purchasing power; protecting their contracts and increasing their revenue opportunities. Intelisys Global delivers the best carrier neutral solutions to end-user customers through its Partner community – an elite global network of telecom sales and consulting professionals.

Guest Blog by Stephen Hackett, Managing Director, Intelisys Global

 

ChannelDigital TransformationSecurity and Compliance
Featured

Share This Post