Hardware-as-a-Service is an innovative new business model that takes the pain and expense of purchasing hardware and turns it into a fully managed solution. Essential HaaS is a rental agreement with additional services such as support and maintenance to make it a complete service offering. Every aspect of your hardware is covered under a pre-determined agreement, ensuring you benefit from the best on the market for the stated period of time. Because the service is outsourced to a service provider you never have to worry if things aren’t working properly, as it is the responsibility of the provider and they will make sure your concerns are resolved quickly and easily  with minimal involvement on your end. There are a wide range of benefits to using HaaS for all of your equipment needs, including: No Initial Investment – when you decide to go with Hardware as a Service there is no initial investment required. You will be provided with all new, industry-leading equipment without any of the expense typically associated with such an upgrade. Makes Hardware Expenses a Tax Deduction – no one doesn’t appreciate a little extra kick back from the taxman. HaaS effectively turns your hardware expenses into a tax deduction, making it even more appealing from a financial standpoint. Reduced Overhead – while we are on the topic of spending less money, HaaS is very effective at reducing overhead and lowering operating costs. The service is an excellent way to budget accordingly and always know what to expect where your hardware costs are concerned. A Flexible Solution – scalability is no worry at all when it comes to the flexibility of a Hardware as a Service agreement. Easily grow your business and have access to the hardware and equipment you need, or downsize and have your provider remove what is no longer needed. Always Have the Latest and Greatest – staying current with the ever-evolving technology industry is no small feat. At least, with HaaS you know you will always have the newest and most innovative technology at your disposal, without any of the expense. Complete Maintenance and Support – the best part of working with a hardware provider is the ongoing maintenance and support that is provided. When things aren’t working correctly, or you need to be educated on how to use your equipment properly we are there to help. Improve Operations – processes are streamlined, downtime is minimized, and operations are enhanced when you are working with updated and effective equipment. Don’t be held back by outdated, ineffective tools to do the important work you do. Enhanced Security – not only is the hardware you need provided under your service contract, as well as maintenance and support but so is your security. Gain peace of mind knowing that your operations are protected by adequate security with no need for oversight from yourself. A Fully Managed Service – HaaS is a fully managed service offering which not only puts the equipment in your office but takes care of all the monitoring, maintenance, and support associated with it as well, tying your hardware up in a neat little package. A Simply, Worry-Free Solution – the best part about Hardware as a Service is convenience and simplicity. There is no need to ever worry about your hardware and equipment because someone is doing that for you, allowing you to focus your energy on the important work you do. To learn more about the many benefits of Hardware as a Service, and how it can benefit the work you do reach out to the experts at {company} to learn more. Call us at {phone} or send an email to {email} to get started.

The business expo held by the Dundalk chamber last year was so successful it has been decided another one will be held this year. The event is to take place on June 22nd starting at 7:30 AM at the Sparrows Point Country Club. The event is proud to announce the Featured Breakfast Speaker is Aris Melissaratos – Former Secretary of Business & Economic Development. {company} is a committed supporter of the Dundalk Chamber of Commerce, and all of their endeavors, dedicated to giving back to the community whenever possible, and owner, Charles Hammett stated “When given the opportunity for Hammett Technologies to sponsor and support our local chamber we jumped onboard. It is important local businesses give back to the communities we live in and support each other. We look forward to not only sponsoring but also occupying a booth this year. Last year’s expo provided multiple opportunities to meet other local business owners. ” Organizers are striving to have 45 booths participating in the event, and so far visitors can look forward to the following businesses presenting booths at the event: Bay-Vanguard FSB Hammett Technologies, LLC Dundalk Chamber of Commerce Wells Fargo Dundalk Renaissance Corp Coldwell Bankers Residential Brokerage Nania Energy partners of Constellation of Energy Choice One Team Cope – Get Healthy M&T Bank MECU Historical Society First National Bank of PA If you are interested In making your business the next one on the list you can do so by contacting Cathy@dundalkchamberofcommerce.org to obtain an application and reserve your booth. Visitors to the expo can look forward to meeting and interacting with these businesses as well as two available workshops focused on Lending, and Starting a Business, making it an interesting and informative event for all. To learn more about attending or participating in the Annual Dundalk Chamber Business Expo reach out to {company} at {phone} or {email}.

Tax season is upon us, and of course, with that comes fraud season. Tax season has only been underway for about a month, beginning on January 19th, 2016, and already the IRS is reporting surges in phishing and malware. Reports indicate as rise by as much as 400% from last tax year. Considering the tax season does not officially end until April 18th, 2016, it is concerning to think what could still be ahead in the almost 2 months remaining. While it is commonplace for tax filers to drag their heels, filing late in the season, fraudsters are much more ambitious. They have wasted no time getting started in their attempts to get their hands on our financial information. Phishing The IRS warns the public of the dramatic increase in phishing emails making their way into inboxes, some quite official looking and convincing in their wording. These phishing emails ask taxpayers a plethora of sensitive questions, including requesting information related to funds, PIN verifications, confirmation of personal information, and dates pertaining to your filing.  The messages are misleading because they look official, and seemingly are received from trusted sources such as the IRS or tax preparer companies or software brands. The entire country is vulnerable to these phishing attempts, as they are not isolated to one geographic area. Attackers are attempting to gain information to be used to file fraudulent income tax returns, and lure recipients into clicking fraudulent links that lead to official-looking websites, just to obtain your information. Malware In addition to phishing for your sensitive information, some of these websites contain malware. Many of these sites contain such booby-traps as key loggers, which records every keystroke the victim makes on the site, including information such as login details. All of this is then reported back to the attacker. Some of the statistics surrounding recent phishing and malware activities are staggering. For phishing and malware combined: Over 1000 incidents were reported in January 2016. This is up from only about 250 last January. February followed pace, doubling the number reported from last year. In the first 2 weeks of February 2016 alone there were 363 incidents reported. Last year only 254 were reported in the entire month. This year’s total incident count is somewhere around 1400. That already exceeds the yearly number of incidents reported in 2014 and is over half way to beating the 2015 yearly total.   According to the IRS, there are many variations on the scheme, and several have been reported by tax preparers, state revenue departments, and software companies. Many of the variations include trying to obtain people’s online credentials to various IRS services. There have also been multiple versions of refund fraud seen in recent years, including automated attacks that are executed by cyber criminals who go out of their way to gain access to unsuspecting individuals online tax submission accounts. In spring of 2015 criminals used an online IRS system called Get Transcript to get their hands on personal information that could be used to file falsified tax returns. Their system had no actual connection to the IRS system that is used to file returns and get refunds, it was a reference portal for retrieving tax returns filed in years past, which was the key criminals needed in order to file false returns for this tax year. Cyber criminals struck again a few short weeks ago when they executed a PIN stealing attack that affected over 100, 000 taxpayers. During this attack, they used a list of known SSNs to attempt to gain access to the IRS’s Get My Electronic Filing Pin portal. Spotting Phishers Should you receive an unsolicited message from the IRS, or some other associated organization be immediately suspicious. The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers via email, text, social media, or any other channel, especially when sensitive information is requested. While the email communications may look official, asking recipients to update personal information by following a link, don’t be fooled. Those links are likely made to appear like official pages, but you are headed down a slippery slope. Some subject lines of phishing emails you should be on the lookout for include: Confirm your personal information. Get my IP PIN. Get my E-file PIN. Order a transcript. Complete your tax return information. Variations about people’s tax refunds. Update your filing details, which can include references to W-2. Recipients of these email scam attempts can report them to  phishing@irs.gov. Keep your personal information safe and secure by knowing what to look for. For more information on this and other security related concerns contact {company} at {phone} or {email}.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of data protection mandates developed by the major payment card companies and imposed on businesses that store, process, or transmit payment card data. As part of their contracts with the card companies, merchants and other businesses that handle card data may be subject to fines if they fail to meet the requirements of PCI DSS compliance. These requirements are extremely complex, and often require a high-level PCI compliance checklist to help organizations in providing an initial introduction to the PCI DSS. Some organizations may even benefit from developing a detailed PCI compliance checklist to guide their implementation of these standards. {Company} specializes in compliance consulting for business. Contact us today at {phone} or send us an email at {email} to discuss how we can enhance your operations while staying compliant. The Consequences of not being PCI Compliant The purpose of you becoming compliant with PCI security standards is to help in protecting cardholder’s sensitive data from thieves.  If you fail to become PCI compliant, you run the risk of your business experiencing payment card data breaches and theft, which may result in considerable penalties and consequences such as: Fines from Banks Fines from Regulatory Agencies Fines from Card Organizations Fraud Chargebacks Lost Clients Legal Costs Also, if you fail to become PCI DSS compliant or to report your PCI DSS-compliant status via a third-party vendor to your merchant services provider, you may also be charged a monthly fee until these reports are made. In addition, organizations that experience a data breach may also lose their ability to process credit card payments, which can result in a damaged reputation, or worse, loss of clients. In fact, recent research shows that more than 40% of clients who have been victims of fraud stop doing business with the merchant or vendor where the fraud occurred. The 12 High-Level Requirements on the PCI Compliance Checklist At a summary level, the PCI compliance checklist for merchants and other organizations that handle payment card data consists of 12 requirements mandated by the PCI DSS, here is a list of these requirements: Install and maintain a firewall configuration to protect cardholder data. Do not use vendor-supplied defaults for system passwords and other security parameters. Protect stored cardholder data. Encrypt transmission of cardholder data across open, public networks. Use and regularly update anti-virus software. Develop and maintain secure systems and applications. Restrict access to cardholder data by business need-to-know. Assign a unique ID to each person with computer access. Restrict physical access to cardholder data. Track and monitor all access to network resources and cardholder data. Regularly test security systems and processes. Maintain a policy that addresses information security. Organizations must assess their current compliance with these operational and cyber security requirements, remediate any vulnerabilities, and report their compliance status to the payment card companies that they work with. Medium to large-sized merchants are also subject to a yearly audit by an independent assessor. {company} is currently accepting new clients for their comprehensive IT solutions and compliance consulting services. Contact us today at {phone} or send us an email at {email} to discover how we can enhance your operations and ensure that you stay compliant. How Hammett Technologies Can Help You Cross Items Off Your PCI Compliance Checklist Our solutions effectively meet the needs of small businesses like yours. You get the benefit of years of distilled experience from PCI compliance and security expertise in an easy-to-use package that is cost-effective for you. Our PCI solution includes Enterprise-level security made easy, such as: File Integrity Monitoring (FIM) Remote Access Security Point of Sale Device Monitoring Mobile Security Anti-Virus And much more The best part, you don’t have to be an IT expert to install and maintain the tools. Our team of experts will take care of it all for you, this includes: Standing by your business through the entire process, answering questions and attending meetings on your behalf as your technology partner. Simplify PCI compliance efforts with our industry vetted security policies, an automated workflow that reduces time spent responding to audits and questions. Save money by using our proven, integrated security solutions that we bundled into one affordable package. Contact {company} at {phone} or send us an email at {email} to learn more about how our comprehensive IT solutions and compliance consulting can increase your productivity while keeping you compliant.

If there is one thing to be said about ransomware attacks it is that recovering your data encrypted by the attack is next to impossible, so it is best to just properly protect yourself in the first place. A ransomware attack is when an online attacker, or cybercriminal steals and encrypts a victim’s data, then demands a ransom for its safe return. Originally, ransomware was more of a consumer problem, but in recent years, there has been a drastic rise in the number of businesses and government entities being attacked as well. Security experts all seem to be in agreement that it is all but impossible to recover stolen data without access to the decryption key or having a backup copy of the unaffected data. Because of this, in an attempt to block threats and mitigate potential damage the need for organizations to have security measures in place is considerably heightened. It is critical the focus is on prevention, as this is the best way to protect yourself against the potentially devastating damage of ransomware attacks. The key difference between ransomware and other types of more traditional malware, is that you typically become aware of the problem upon infection where ransomware is concerned. Ransomware Prevention A robust backup process is the most effective tool to defend you against ransomware attacks. Often, that backup is the only way to recover data aside from paying the demanded ransom. But backups are not the only weapons in your arsenal against cybercriminals, other measures of precaution that can, and should, be taken include: Authenticating Inbound Email – Ransomware is commonly distributed through email, with attackers targeting victims by using cleverly disguised false emails that appear to be from a legitimate source. These emails contain malicious attachments that download the ransomware onto the victim’s system when they are opened. Organizations are able to minimize this risk by validating the origin of the email before it is even delivered to the intended recipient. There are many sender technologies available, such as Domain Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance, SPF or Sender Policy Framework, and DomainKeys Identified Mail. These tools can be easily implemented and provide protection against business email being compromised, spear phishing, and other threats commonly found in these deceiving emails. These solutions work by validating the domain and IP address of the server the email originates from. Unfortunately, at this time many companies are failing to implement proper email authentication protocols, and even when they do, the policies are not strict enough. Contaminated emails still make their way into the junk folders or are simply quarantined. These threats need to be rejected from the system altogether to be effective. Properly Protecting Email Servers – While sender authentication minimizes the likelihood of ransomware being delivered via email, it is not a complete enough solution to keep you adequately protected. It is crucial to protect email servers by scanning all incoming, outgoing, and stored email. Scanning can be beneficial in detecting any potential threats that may have evaded perimeter defenses or managed to infiltrate the network through internal email or compromised systems. There are a wide variety of available tools to scan email servers for security threats, and every business owner should be taking advantage of them. Email authentication is great, but what about the off chance that a legitimate server is sending out spam emails and malware? Those tools will not be effective when that is the case. Incorporate Ad Blocking – Ransomware is not only distributed through emails, often times it is serviced up through advertisements when users visit certain sites. “Malvertisements” as they are called, allow cybercriminals to target victims based on several factors, including, browsing habits, location, device characteristics, demographic information, and other things. Ransomware, when served up via these watering-hole style attacks can be considerably more dangerous than random attacks because attackers are better able to target victims that they know have the means to pay up. Blocking ads on user systems, or preventing users from accessing certain sites on the Internet, even implementing a secondary network for them to access the Internet, will all help reduce the risks associated with this type of ransomware. Monitoring File Activity – When an individual falls victim to a ransomware attack, the situation can quickly escalate into a full-scale attack against the entire enterprise. There are wide ranges of sophisticated ransomware tools that allow the attacker the ability to encrypt not only the hard drive of your system, but also any shared files. The rapid overwriting of files is a major indication of ransomware on a network. This can be monitored by using a tool that monitors activity, and is strongly recommended as a measure of precaution. Such early detection allows organizations to more easily contain the damage that could be caused by the ransomware, and provides the opportunity to go into quarantine mode, preventing the infected machine from connecting to any other file servers. Have Your Response Plan Prepared and Close By – Time is of the essence when staring down the barrel of a ransomware attack. Attackers generally provide very specific demands that are time-sensitive, or the ransom amount may be increased. Cybercriminals have a knack for determining when the best time to strike is, and just how much organizations can afford to pay. They also intentionally don’t give you enough time to respond to the situation and properly determine whether or not the data can be unlocked without paying the ransom. Because of this, having a response plan is critical. The plan should include details on how to best respond in the event of a ransomware attack. It is important to take inventory of your critical assets, know where these assets are located, and evaluate the potential impact if these assets were to become lost, stolen, or compromised in some way, making that data unavailable to you. The chaos that ensues after a ransomware attack is one of the worst components of the whole ordeal, and having a well-thought-out response plan

Has your business data been backed up recently? World Backup day is not only a day that promotes backing up all your valuable data, but it’s also a day to talk about the enormous task of preserving our increasingly digital heritage for future generations. {company} recommends though that every day should be world backup day, as one backup per year isn’t enough to combat against the leading causes of data loss, which are, in order of percentage: Hardware or System Malfunctions = 44% Human Error = 32% Software Corruption = 14% Computer Viruses = 7% Natural Disasters = 3% If you don’t backup your data, the risk of losing your most valuable information will become a constant threat.  Ensure this doesn’t happen with an automatic daily backup in place.  Don’t have an automatic daily backup in place?  Not to worry, {company} will show you how! By implementing a backup strategy that uses a 3-2-1 rule, you can feel rest assured that even if one backup fails, you still have two left.  Need assistance setting up a 3-2-1 rule in your backup strategy plan?  Contact {company} today at {phone} or send us an email to {email}.  The 3-2-1 rule creates triple redundancy for your files by creating a: Primary and Secondary Copy – stores your copies in at least two types of storage media (local drive, network drive, etc.) Cloud Copy – stores one copy off-site through the use of an online backup file system ensuring you have everything you need to continue working from anywhere. Need assistance in finding that right backup provider?  With the managed business continuity plans and affordable backup services offered by {company}, you can rest easy knowing everything’s in place to protect your information and technology from anything the future might throw at you. Contact us today by giving our team of experts a call at {phone} or send us an email to {email} and get the protection your business needs to keep your business operations running no matter what type of disaster hits.

There is a growing epidemic in today’s business environment. Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are becoming increasingly common among business and personal servers. As these attacks become more frequent, the criminals behind them grow more and more effective. Compared to this time last year, the number of reported occurrences of DDoS attacks has risen by 150%. The attacks are happening in as little as 15 hours, which is just less than half of the time it took in the previous year. Hackers are also using multiple vector-based attacks, making them even more difficult to spot. What is a DDoS Attack? A DDoS attack is when a hacker infiltrates and overloads or shuts down your servers so that users cannot access them. They do this by bombarding the servers with more requests and traffic than it can process. Cybercriminals traditionally target web servers in hopes of making a company or individual’s website unavailable. DDoS attacks are more than just acts of vandalism. Although the hackers don’t steal or compromise any data, the operational disruption from the attacks can be costly to the hosting organization, as well as to a business that suffers from a loss of customers during the time its website is down. Where are These Attacks Coming From? Most DDoS attacks come from within certain countries, including: China Turkey United States United Kingdom The vast majority of these malicious attacks target your company’s infrastructure, where they can do the most damage. These attacks tend to target the same victims repeatedly; the average victim will experience anywhere from 24 upwards to 200 attacks. This causes major strain on your server and causes repeated operational disruptions. The industries attacked most often include: Gaming companies Software and technology firms Media and entertainment companies Financial institutions and services Internet and telecommunications firms Combat DDoS and other malicious attacks by creating a robust security system and a strong business continuity plan. For more information on DDoS attacks, call {company} at {phone} or send an email to {email} to speak with a member of our team about what we can do to help safeguard your company.

The Internet has been around for quite awhile now, having birthed entire industries and changed the way economies function. Having been a primarily benevolent force to the world by providing jobs and advancing knowledge in general, among many other things, it has also provided new avenues and outlets for criminals to become more creative. Consider the following: technology and the Internet are like cars in a way. Most of us drive them, but most of us don’t know the details of their underlying mechanics, making it is easy for crooked mechanics to take advantage of the naive and unsuspecting. These crooked mechanics have a certain sense of power over someone who can only drive a car because they possess the necessary knowledge of how to fix something their customers have brought to them, but also need in their everyday lives. In a way, when you put something your entire life relies so much on into someone else’s hands, that someone can very easily extort you. They can charge you whatever their heart desires to ‘fix’ it, or return it you for that matter, because they know you really do need it. Now apply this same exact concept to computer users who store massive amounts of important data on their computer. If the ability to access ones own data is taken away, that data can very easily be taken hostage. Whoever takes it can put a ransom on your precious information and milk you for everything you’re worth. This happens to Internet users everyday in the form of a phishing scam known as ‘ransomware.’ Businesses, especially, are at greater risk of falling prey to the criminals behind scams like this because a company’s information can be accessed from a number of portals. All it takes is one unsuspecting employee to fall prey to an email that might appear to be something as harmless as a “terms of service update.” That is exactly how a new strain of Russian ransomware, Maktub, is infecting unsuspecting users. In other words, people are simply handing the keys to their ‘car’ over to the criminals behind this scam and then being charged ridiculous amounts of money to get their ‘keys,’ or data, if you will, back from the online kidnappers. Maktub, the Russian ransomware, is professionally employing these sorts of social engineering tricks. Once the user has clicked the bait and opened the document, “a fake TOS update in .rtf format [appears]. However, in the background, their files are being encrypted.” Maktub’s technology is highly advanced and dangerous. In addition to encrypting your files, which they manage to do offline without any sort of key, the victim’s files are compressed as well. Once this happens, it almost seems like the kidnappers of your data are toying with you. They offer users a “cold-comfort-demo” where they can choose two files to decrypt and receive back. So they steal your precious information then try to be polite about the fact they have essentially taken the keys to any business’ or person’s life hostage in every sense of the word. I suppose it makes sense, though, to try and prove they are trustworthy enough to hold up their end of the bargain after a payment is made. The ransom debt basically works like a credit card. The first three days are set at 1.4 BTC and as time goes on the price increases, like you are paying them interest for doing you some sort of favor. After 15 days the ransom is set at 3.9 BTC and there is “no guarantee that [they] saved the key.” In other words, they threaten to erase everything they stole in order to instill you with the fear of never being able to access your precious data again.

Many experts believe that we are now entering a new era of hacking, cyber attacks, and threats to cybersecurity. If you just read or watch the news on a regular basis, it is very easy to see why experts hold this point of view. Every day there are news reports of cyber attacks that are targeting major websites, organizations, individuals. The frequency and severity of these cyber attacks indicates that hackers are gaining momentum. The most recent case of a cyber attack on the Internet is a ransomware attack, which targeted major media websites. What is TeslaCrypt Ransomware? In this most recent case, the hackers used the Angler Exploit Kit in order to deliver the TeslaCrypt ransomware. The Angler Exploit Kit refers to a malicious toolkit that consists of multiple exploits combined into one package for the convenience of hackers and criminals. Traditionally, the TeslaCrypt ransomware is a trojan that specifically targets computers that have game programs installed. However, hackers have developed a new variant of this ransomware that is able to infect computers that don’t have these computer games installed. Chances are this new variant of the TeslaCrypt ransomware is what was involved in this case. Who was Affected? Major media websites were targeted by this attack. Some of these major media websites include the NY Times, AOL, BBC, MSN, Newsweek, and the Hill. The ransomware specifically targeted the ad networks of these websites. According to Malwarebytes, there was a huge increase in malicious traffic to these websites and many others during this time. This indicates that the perpetrators of this attack are experienced hackers who have committed similar attacks many times in the past. What makes this case different is that the cyber criminals managed to obtain the expired domain of an advertising company that is small, but likely legitimate. Acquiring this domain made it easy for the criminals to infect computers with ransomware without immediate detection. Not only did Trend Micro detect similar spikes of malicious traffic to various websites, but they also noticed a spike in activity that is Angler based. According to Trend Micro, they believe the attacks could have affected as many as tens of thousands of Internet users in less than a day. The success of this attack and the number of incidents of cyber attacks involving ransomware goes to show that this type of malware is very popular among cyber criminals. Not only is ransomware convenient and easy to use, but it usually ends with major results. Therefore, criminals have no problem spending money and resources upfront to develop brand new variants of ransomware. The costs are small for the criminal, but the potential for revenue is huge. The way criminals earn revenue with ransomware is by forcing the computer user to pay money as a ransom to have the malware removed from their computer. In some cases, computer users are forced to pay as much as $300 to have the ransomware removed from their computer. How to Protect Yourself Against Ransomware Unfortunately, it is very difficult for Internet users to protect themselves against ransomware due to its prevalence and effectiveness. The best way Internet users can protect themselves is by backing up their computer on a regular basis. That way, they can simply restore their computer to a previous back up instead of paying the ransom if the user finds that their computer is infected with ransomware. Computer users should also keep their anti-virus software on their computer up to date, because software companies are constantly making updates to the software to protect against new variants of ransomware.

Staggering statistics were published stating that by 2019, the managed-services market is expected to see growth by as much as $193 billion . What is it about this particular business model that is so wildly successful? It seems a large percentage of small- and medium-sized businesses are very much in favor of these services, and there are a number of good reasons why. Why the Demand for Managed Services? We have already established that business owners are drawn to the managed-services business model, but why? What is it that owners are hoping to get out of such services, and how can you use those wants to market your services?  Research shows that the reason our clients choose our services are not necessarily the reasons why we think they should. Business owners are looking for a wide range of benefits when they opt for a managed services model, and what they want is: To improve the efficiency and dependability of their IT operations. Enhanced security and compliance. A proactive approach to maintenance. Cost effectiveness and a good return on investment. Free up IT staff to work on strategic projects. Have greater access to new technologies. Lacks in-house IT capabilities for certain functions. Shifting capital expenses to operating expenses. Predictable pricing and manageable costs. Let’s take a closer look at some of the more pressing reasons why managed services are becoming the obvious choice for small to medium sized business owners. More Efficient and Reliable IT Operations This is one of the main reasons that companies with over 100 employees decide that managed services are the right choice for them. Often, the businesses we partner with as managed-service providers are suffering from overburdened IT staff, or lack employees that have the knowledge and skills to handle certain tasks and successfully handle the entire network on their own. In these situations, it is hard to deny the value of working with an outside IT service provider. A majority of businesses using managed-services describe their partnership with their provider as a collaborative arrangement with their internal IT department, leading one to believe that certain aspects of IT management fall into the MSP bucket while others are preferably handled in-house. The driving force for these business owners is to improve and enhance the capabilities of the in-house IT team, not replace them altogether. Outsourcing IT not only ensures an extra team of IT experts to help resolve any issues or concerns but to be able to benefit from having access to the latest and greatest technology and innovative business grade solutions that will assist in maximizing uptime and profitability. These technologies include such things as: Remote monitoring and management (RMM) Backup and disaster recovery (BDR) Cloud computing By investing in these tools the entire IT infrastructure becomes more reliable and dependable, labor constraints are overcome, and internal IT departments are able to keep in control of the situation. Enhanced Security and Compliance There are so many variations of technology that store and transmit data nowadays, including tablets, operating systems, servers, smartphones, laptops and more. Because data is stored and transmitted on these devices it means their security is critical. Many business owners live in fear that they will fall victim to a security breach. As a managed service provider it is your job to make them well aware of the risks, sharing examples that have been highlighted in the media and explaining how their data and compliance practices are compromised when such an event arises. It is also crucial you address the business owners concerns about compliance, especially in industries such as health and legal, where compliance is a major concern. For these people it is important they work with a provider that is HIPAA compliant and in addition, can implement other ways to supplement additional managed security protocol, policies, and procedures. A Proactive Approach to Maintenance This is a major and important benefit to managed IT services. Business owners have little to no time to spend thinking about their IT infrastructure, worrying about things such as the dependability and speed of the network connections, and other concerns. By working with an MSP they are afforded the luxury of all-day, every-day, around-the-clock coverage. Security solutions and services such as RMM are always working to detect potential threats, vulnerabilities, or potential disturbances. When you provide fully managed IT support, bugs and issues can most often be troubleshot and remediated before they are ever a concern to the business owner. Owners are happy to pay for such a service, as CEOs and others have no time to be verifying that backups are done properly. It has become more than clear that data management on the cloud is expected to yield more managed services revenue in the coming year, and when business work with the right MSP they are able to take advantage of proactive business continuity solutions, such as BDR, by combining RMM intelligence with regular and encrypted backups, cloud computing, and virtualization. Cost Effectiveness and Return on Investment The cost savings associated with managed services is considerable, making it another reason that using MSP’s is desirable. This fact has an incredible amount of business value, but many business owners are unaware of just how significant this is. It is your job as a managed service provider to explain to your clients how MSPs help control outgoing expenses and increase ROI. An IT budget consists of many items, including: hardware costs software and network infrastructure maintenance costs IT labor The businesses you work with need to understand every-way that managed services can benefit them financially, especially where the aforementioned maintenance costs are concerned. Using outdated software can have detrimental effects on ROI, and this is avoided with MSPs. In additional it provides the flexibility and scalability needed to grow or scale back in a way not possible with internal IT teams. The managed service model allows clients to easily predict their IT expenses on a monthly basis and are able to better plan and budget for