Business IT 101
Business IT 101 is your go-to resource for learning the fundamentals of technology every small and mid-sized business needs. From understanding IT support basics and cybersecurity essentials to preventing downtime and protecting your data, these guides are designed to help business owners make smarter technology decisions.
Medical institutions deal with life-threatening issues, so it’s imperative that their IT systems suffer no downtime, cybersecurity events, or hardware malfunctions. IoT is also common in healthcare. The machines that diagnose and treat patients need internet connectivity for many of their operations. IT support and maintenance are priority for hospitals, so their IT costs are high compared to businesses that can absorb issues without human casualties. Even though IT costs shouldn’t be the main priority, it doesn’t mean that you can’t manage them without affecting the resiliency of your digital infrastructure. According to the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), medical businesses can expect to spend 2-3% of their revenue on technology and IT expenses. Many of the resources you’ll need to support your IT infrastructure is cybersecurity. For example, you need monitoring, disaster recovery, VPN, and staff training to stay HIPAA compliant. For medical practices, you might need a rundown on where IT costs should be prioritized. We put together a small list of critical infrastructure medical practices need to stay scalable while protecting patient data. Virtual Private Network (VPN) for Remote Access After COVID, many businesses adopted the practice of remote work. Of course, a medical business also has local staff always on-premises, but you might have contractors, customer service, and emergency medical personnel available remotely. These staff members need a way to remotely access patient data and business applications. To safely remote into any system containing medical data, you need a VPN. A VPN encrypts all data traveling from a user’s device to the internal network, and then from the internal network back to the user’s device. This functionality is especially important when a remote worker connects to the local environment from public Wi-Fi. For instance, a doctor might be at a conference in a hotel but remote into the business office. Public Wi-Fi is a perfect attack environment for eavesdroppers. With VPN, the doctor’s device communication would be safe from eavesdropping and man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks. VPN is also a requirement for HIPAA compliance. Any IT people remoting into the network from their homes or remote connections to data center servers must be protected from eavesdropping. A VPN protects the server environment from outside attackers. Any connection from a remote device to the internal network should be encrypted using VPN. Disaster Recovery and Backups Patient data is a vital component of a successful medical business, so disaster recovery is critical for your business continuity. Imagine if you lost patient data and had no way to recover it. Lost data could be life-threatening, so you need a way to restore it from backups. Backups are just one part of disaster recovery, but they are also important in HIPAA compliance. A disaster recovery plan details the steps, procedures, and recovery options during a critical outage. For example, if your network suffers from a ransomware attack, disaster recovery goes into effect. You might need to switch to pen-and-paper registration and patient management, but you will eventually recover your data. Using the ransomware attack example, a disaster recovery plan identifies stakeholders and alerts them during downtime. Professionals detect, contain, and eradicate the threat from your environment, and then they collect evidence for local law enforcement. Disaster recovery professionals might be an extra cost unless you have a managed service provider managing your IT infrastructure. Backups provide a solution for data recovery. It’s usually the last step in disaster recovery after a threat is eradicated from the environment. Backups must happen frequently, and they must be stored in a safe location away from threats. Usually, businesses keep backups in the cloud to keep them out of the read of ransomware and other threats. For example, ransomware will specifically target backups to leverage data theft over the targeted business. Without valid backups, businesses are forced to pay the ransom. Network Monitoring You need to know when a compromise happens to contain a threat immediately. Constant monitoring is necessary for HIPAA and the safety of your patients. Intrusion detection and prevention require specific infrastructure, so you might need help with the setup from professionals experienced with deployment and configuration. One wrong configuration could mean a compromise of your data, so it must be done right. As an example, suppose that a ransomware threat is introduced to your environment from a phishing email. A user downloads a script from the email that then installs the ransomware on the network. Intrusion detection and prevention immediately contains the threat to limit its damage to your environment. Immediate containment gives your incident response team the ability to perform forensics and understand where cybersecurity infrastructure failed. It could have been a failure from lack of education, or your email filtering software returned a false negative. Containment is key to investigation without harming the medical business environment. Where to Get Help with IT Costs IT infrastructure has its own costs, but managing it is much more costly. You need help for your medical practice, and a managed service provider is a good first step. Professionals at a managed service provider lower costs of having onsite staff, and they can deploy the right infrastructure to protect your environment. Whether it’s cybersecurity infrastructure or expanding the network to support additional patients, a managed service provider ensures that your buildout is configured right. If you need to set up your medical practice infrastructure, contact us to see how Corporate Technologies can help. FAQs
An internet connection is critical to the success of schools, especially during standardized testing. Administrators need the system optimized and running without any bugs, or it could interfere with student testing. Think of the massive backlash from parents and problems for graduating students if a testing center failed. Important days like this can be stressful for school network administrators forced to ensure that nothing from their end disrupts operations. You can monitor the environment to reduce the chance of issues. This article gives you practical advice for monitoring and intrusion detection. Install Web Content Filters Web content filtering catalogs the internet into categories. You then blacklist categories inappropriate for students and administrators. School administrators might have access to more categories. For instance, they might have access to local restaurant websites, but students might be blocked. Unless necessary for research or teaching, network administrators can block sites known to host malware or phishing. By blocking content, you filter out many of the sites that could introduce malware to your network. Kids and administrators can be tricked by “drive-by” download sites. These sites often have pirated software with hidden malware. For example, a site might promise free gaming currency to kids in exchange for downloading malware. Administrators might download malware thinking it’s legitimate software. Phishing is also an issue, although mainly for administrators. Kids can be tricked into divulging private information, but administrators can be tricked into divulging network credentials. With these credentials, attackers could gain access to the environment. Good web content filters block these sites and send notifications to administrators if too many requests from malicious content come from a single user. Features you should consider for an effective web content filter: Configure Firewalls to Block Inappropriate Traffic A firewall blocks incoming traffic, but outgoing traffic can also be a sign of malware or inappropriate applications. Malware like ransomware communicates with a central server to let an attacker know that a machine is available. Some malware allows attackers to remotely control the local machine. Blocking this type of traffic on a firewall inhibits an attacker’s ability to further disrupt network operations and steal data. If you have internet at home, your ISP runs a firewall to block all incoming traffic unless you specifically whitelist protocols. The same should happen with your school firewall. Incoming traffic should be blocked, especially from accessing a private network segment for testing. Outgoing requests should be mainly blocked unless an application needs a specific port. Monitor outgoing traffic to detect any anomalies, and some ports might need manual blocking. For example, it might be best to block application ports used for entertainment purposes with no work-related activity. A few other configurations to consider: Require SSL/TLS Traffic Without encrypted traffic, all users are vulnerable to man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks. A MitM attack can be conducted by a trusted user on the network. The trusted user intercepts traffic using an application like Wireshark and relays it to the intended recipient. All activity is invisible to the user, but any data shared during communication with the third-party server can be stolen. Data eavesdropping using a MitM attack requires software and a physical connection to the network, so it often happens from insider threats. Network administrators can monitor for this kind of activity, but trusted users physically inside the environment aren’t often monitored for malicious activity. Insider threats can be from a malicious user or from malware unknowingly installed on a user’s device. Encrypted traffic doesn’t fully protect from MitM attacks, but it greatly increases the complexity of an attack. Administrators can further protect the testing environment by configuring all applications connected to the internet with SSL/TLS connections. Applications and the remote server must be configured to accept SSL/TLS traffic, but most modern software developers know to work with encryption especially over the internet. Monitoring Software and Notifications You have several monitoring applications on the market to choose from. Some applications monitor bandwidth and file usage while others monitor for uptime. Cloud providers have their own proprietary solutions for network monitoring. Logging software keeps track of any malicious behavior on the network, and artificial intelligence is often included to detect suspicious network activity. Intrusion detection and prevention (IDS and IPS) will actively detect and block malicious threats. Detection is followed with notifications so that system administrators can review the issue. Cloud-based monitoring also has similar features. If you have a third-party managed service provider, they might have 24/7 monitoring and deal with issues when you are not in the office. Installing a monitoring service requires a professional, so a managed service provider can help. Look for a few features to ensure data protection of your testing environment: Work with a Managed Service Provider A managed service provider (MSP) can help monitor your testing environment and take a lot of stress away from local network administrators. MSPs install monitoring software, secure the network, configure infrastructure, and work with local administrators on the overall security of the environment. Cloud-based platforms have their own monitoring, but you still must configure and manage it for monitoring to be effective. An MSP is also available 24/7 to receive notifications and deal with issues rather than having local administrators receive overnight calls. The latter can have a long delay in remediating an incident. To have your school testing environment monitored, contact us to find out what Corporate Technologies can do for your security and operations. FAQs
Churches are notorious for having weekly events, and Wi-Fi is necessary for any digital interaction at these large gatherings. Whether it’s for broadcasting live events or providing connectivity for attendees, Wi-Fi is an easy way to connect to the internet. With its convenience, Wi-Fi comes with its own list of vulnerabilities, so it should also be secured. If you are planning a church event in the near future, here are some design and security tips for Wi-Fi installations. Use a Firewall to Separate Business Traffic from Attendee Traffic A firewall controls traffic that flows in and out of your Wi-Fi network. For example, if you have a connection to the internet for church staff, you have a firewall that protects your internal business network from anyone on the public internet. Church staff can access the internet via outgoing traffic, but incoming traffic is blocked. The same design should be done for an event Wi-Fi network, especially if you also offer free Wi-Fi to event goers. The two networks should be separated using a firewall. Public Wi-Fi access from attendees should be on one network, and then the internal network used for the event should be another network. Allowing public and business traffic to intermingle opens the church to data eavesdropping and man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks. Most Wi-Fi routers allow you to segment networks, but it might be convenient to add two Wi-Fi routers, one with a password for the event and a second one for public access. This strategy keeps both networks separate without having much knowledge into properly configure a firewall. Both Wi-Fi routers connect to the outgoing ISP router, so make sure your ISP account has enough bandwidth to handle both traffic sources. Install Antennas and Repeaters In large events, you might need antennas or repeaters to amplify Wi-Fi signals. A Wi-Fi router receives signals when a device is in close proximity to the router, and you might have a Wi-Fi router behind walls or away from the central ISP connection. Every wall cuts your Wi-Fi signal in half, so you need repeaters or amplification of a signal especially in large gatherings where Wi-Fi connectors might be spaced apart. An antenna allows users to be further away from the Wi-Fi router and still receive a decent signal. Antennas are also useful when you have event equipment that needs to access the internet at further distances. For example, when you have an event for a large group of people, you often have attendees several feet away from Wi-Fi equipment. Antennas and repeaters placed in strategic places will ensure that everything and everyone, including event equipment have access to a strong signal to the internet. Configure Strong Passwords for Wi-Fi Access If you keep public Wi-Fi networks separated from business networks, you can leave the public Wi-Fi passwordless or configure a password and publish it during the event. Remember that no password Wi-Fi leaves it open to anyone within range, so most businesses add a simple password. Only attendees inside the event can get access to the password. This strategy reduces any unwanted connections from people leaching free Wi-Fi during your event. For business Wi-Fi, a strong WPA3 password should be configured. Give this password to event coordinators, employees, and other church staff. For an event, you might use a different Wi-Fi hotspot specific to the event to avoid data breaches or issues from short-term contractors. This caveat might depend on the location of the event. If your event is at the church, you might need additional security for third-party contractors helping with the event. Be aware that older equipment might be incompatible with the latest WPA3 security. If your equipment was made within the last 10 years, you should be safe. For example, iPhones older than version 7 are not compatible with WPA3. Most people have newer iPhones, but it’s possible that someone still sticks with older technology. Just be aware of this limitation in case anyone tells you that they cannot connect to the WPA3-enabled Wi-Fi router. Set Up Filters and Monitoring for Public Wi-Fi If anyone uses your public Wi-Fi for illegal activity, your church is on the hook. The outgoing internet router IP address is tied to every user on your network. To avoid being used for illegal activity, use filters to block websites. Filters have out-of-the-box solutions for blocking known phishing and malware domains and any domain hosting illegal content. Web filtering solutions have a list of domains that you can blacklist, but you can also blacklist based on topic or industry. You might not want public users taking bandwidth for streaming, so you can block these domains during your events. Most filtering solutions come with logging options, so you can see if any users are using the church network for inappropriate reasons. Blocking domains also benefits the safety of users. They might not know a domain is flagged as a phishing portal, so web content filters support the data safety and privacy of guests and church staff. Monitoring guest network traffic also stops attacks before they can interfere with the event. Attackers might use the event public Wi-Fi to download malware, engage in attacks on other servers, or attempt to interrupt operations. Filtering and monitoring help stop these activities. Help with IT and Monitoring If you don’t have a dedicated IT team to support a church event, it might be time to ask for help from professionals experienced in network design and security. Corporate Technologies is a dedicated managed service provider with professionals and pricing plans to support church events where technology is a primary part of operations. Our staff can help design the right solution, set up the technology to help the event run smoothly, and offer support in case of technical issues. Event network design and security done right the first time will ensure that your church gatherings are successful with no technical issues to interfere with activities. To find out how Corporate Technologies can help your church, contact us today. FAQs
Digitizing your healthcare documents reduces so much physical paperwork, but it also adds cybersecurity risks and additional IT maintenance to your business. Downtime, stolen data, and data corruption are three risks healthcare businesses face, especially if they don’t stay fully compliant with HIPAA regulations. To avoid these issues and more, managed IT for dental practices can free up staff time, reduce risks of data corruption and loss, and secure the network environment in case of a disaster. If you own a small dental practice, you might take care of small IT tasks, but eventually you need help, especially when you need to ensure that your infrastructure follows HIPAA guidelines. HIPAA violations can add up to millions after a data breach, so we put together a list of ways a managed service provider can help keep your business compliant and keep data safe from attackers. Backups and Disaster Recovery Let’s say that you store your imaging files on a central computer so that everyone on staff can access patient documents. Data on this central server must be backed up in a safe location or you could lose your files forever. When healthcare providers lose patient data, it can be disastrous for business continuity. Having backups of patient files is also a requirement for HIPAA regulations. A managed service provider will assess your IT infrastructure and propose a good backup plan. Backup plans incorporate the number of file changes done throughout the day and determine how much loss you can experience without going bankrupt. Your backup plan might be daily, hourly, or more frequently. With your risk tolerance defined, managed IT professionals determine where to store backups and the frequency of data backups. Most professionals use cloud storage, where additional space and scaling can be done dynamically. Cloud storage also ensures that data is safe even in the event of a fire or physical theft. With disaster recovery, you have peace of mind that patient data can be restored and bring your business back to productivity within a reasonable amount of time. User Onboarding and Account Setup When a dental practice hires a new user, the user needs an account, a workstation, and access to necessary business applications. If a few new people join the team, it can be a lot of prep work for someone managing IT themselves. A Dental IT service provider takes care of onboarding for every new user, including deployment of workstations and mobile device applications. Documentation for onboarding and offboarding is necessary. Most people know that onboarding is necessary but forget the offboarding process. Without offboarding, ex-employee user accounts stay active, which creates a cybersecurity risk. User accounts must be deactivated and data transferred to another staff member to continue productivity. An IT provider handles this activity as well. In addition to user account activation and deactivation, IT professionals can give you HIPAA compliant application suggestions when your current infrastructure isn’t enough. Suppose that you have productivity issues due to the way documents are digitally stored. A dental office can speed up productivity with a few changes to its current application workflow, especially if they work with hybrid environments in the cloud. Help Desk Services and Onsite Help Users need to ask questions about their workstations, applications, or bugs in the system. Managed IT professionals at a 24/7 help desk assist dental staff with minor questions related to their work and even have on-site staff to help with bigger issues. Help desk services can assist your staff with various issues remotely and give them someone to call instead of interfering with local staff productivity. Not every managed IT provider offers a 24/7 help desk. It’s important to check your contract and ask questions. Also, on-site help is often needed throughout the year. Your contract should have a flat rate for on-site help with a service level agreement (SLA). SLAs give you the amount of time that you can expect a response and resolution for each IT item. SLAs are based on priority, so you get the fastest response for issues that interfere with day-to-day business productivity. Be careful of contracts that charge an hourly rate for on-site help in addition to monthly IT expenses. Without onsite support included with flat-rate payments, IT costs can balloon to unexpected amounts when a critical issue brings down infrastructure. Providers like Corporate Technologies include on-site support with their Total Advantage pricing plan. Monitoring and IT Management Even a small network needs day-to-day management. For example, software and firmware need upgrades often to patch security issues and bugs. An IT management professional monitors your environment for these updates and applies them. Patching is done in the background without affecting your user productivity or business operations. Many of today’s current data breaches come from unpatched infrastructure, so it’s important to keep up with updates. For example, an outdated IoT device could lead to your network becoming a part of a botnet. A botnet is the component behind a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS). Not only would your network be responsible for taking down another corporate business, but a DDoS from your network exhausts your business bandwidth, affecting productivity, digital downloads and uploads, and any payments. Where to Get Dental Practices IT Help If your office is overwhelmed with IT issues and needs help, a managed service provider is an affordable solution. Instead of hiring full-time staff, an MSP offers a complete team of IT professionals at a per-user flat-rate cost. The 24/7 help desk is also an option if your dental practice has people working remotely or during off-peak hours. Corporate Technologies has several offices across the country, and they offer service plans to fit your dental practice’s IT budget. Call us today and talk to one of our professionals to find out how we can help your dental practice. FAQs
Every small business is a target for hackers. You might think that the few dozen customers you store on your network aren’t worth a hacker’s time, but those customers are worth much more than you know. Usually, hackers breach multiple environments, including small business networks, and sell the collected data on darknet markets. Your customer data is a valuable addition to their revenue. You don’t need to be a cybersecurity expert to deploy good monitoring tools and create habits that protect your customer and their data. Protecting client data and avoiding a data breach are also beneficial to your brand. A single data breach can damage customer loyalty and trust, so you should make cybersecurity and data protection a priority for your business too. Most small business owners don’t have the budget for a full-time IT person let alone a full-time dedicated cybersecurity staff member. You don’t need full-time staff to add monitoring and data protection to your environment. Here are a few ways you can monitor your network without being an IT expert. Review Your Router Dashboard If you have a personal router connected to your network, it likely has a web-based interface that gives you information about your network. On small networks, the router has an IP address in the same subnet as your own computer. In many cases, the router is your default gateway. Type the router IP address (something like 192.168.0.1) into a web browser, and you’ll be prompted to authenticate. Every router has its own dashboard, and more expensive routers will have activity logs and firewall features. Once you gain access to the router’s dashboard, you can view connected devices, bandwidth usage, and audit logs if you have them enabled. If you don’t have logging features enabled, enable them for future monitoring. Disconnect any strange devices, especially if the router is also a Wi-Fi hotspot. If you have strange devices connected, it might be time to change the Wi-Fi password. Remember that any changes to Wi-Fi will disconnect other devices, which means that you should change the password during off-peak hours. Use a Network Scanner to Identify Connected Devices Reviewing a router’s dashboard is useful for finding devices connected to that particular router, but what if you have several routers or don’t have any personal routers on your network? Another option is to use a network scanner. Traditionally, the network scanner-of-choice for all administrators is nmap. Nmap can be used on Linux and the Windows command-line interface. Other more user-friendly scanners are available for download, but nmap has been around for decades and can be trusted not to host hidden malware. Nmap will give you a list of all connected devices with an IP address so that you can take an inventory of infrastructure. Any strange connections should be further reviewed. If nmap seems a bit too complicated, find a trusted graphical interface. Chances are the graphical interface uses nmap in the background, but it will make reviewing connected devices more intuitive for someone unfamiliar with a command-line tool. Separate Business and Personal Networks When you work from home, it’s not unusual to mix business with personal devices. Mixing the two makes monitoring more difficult, especially when you have guests. Add IoT and security cameras to the mix, and now you have devices that you don’t control on your network. For better monitoring, you set up separate Wi-Fi hotspots for each section of your network including personal, work, and security cameras. You can still run scanners to identify any strange connections, but now you have a better idea of the types of devices that should be connected to each router. You can also be much more strict about your work network compared to your home network. Guests can connect to your home Wi-Fi instead of your work Wi-Fi where you keep customer data. Use Cloud Provider Monitoring Software Whether you use AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or another cloud provider, the system has cybersecurity tools specifically designed for monitoring your network. Auditing, logging, and monitoring are all available to you as a cloud provider customer. Monitoring tools come at a cost, so they must be enabled when you set up your environment. Cloud-based tools don’t monitor your local network. Keep that in mind when you set up a monitoring plan. You will need tools for any local servers, mobile devices, and workstations. Cloud monitoring tools cover resources in the provider’s environment, which includes storage, virtual machines, databases, and cloud-based infrastructure. Review Antivirus Warnings and Logs Every mobile device and workstation should have antivirus software running on it. Antivirus applications display warnings to users, but they also keep a log of issues. Some issues are critical, like downloading malware that could destroy customer data. Other issues are warnings, like installing software with no signature. Enterprise versions of antivirus software have a central place to review notifications, but enterprise versions cost a lot of money. Periodically review antivirus software running on each machine to ensure that malware isn’t stored on the network. An executable on the network is an idle threat waiting for a user to run malware on the environment. If your antivirus software can scan the network, even better. A good antivirus will detect malicious files on network storage and servers. Servers should also have antivirus software installed. Cyber-threats target servers for their invaluable data. A good eavesdropping application can retrieve user account information, device information, and data stored on the server. Email servers are especially good targets, because email is often stored in cleartext. Review antivirus notifications for these machines to identify malicious software. As an aside, most server operating systems also have event logs. Use these event logs to identify strange authentication attempts. For example, a threat might attempt to access the server with hacked user accounts. If you see multiple authentication attempts late at night when no one is in the office, you might have a hidden threat on the network. When Monitoring Becomes Too Much Work At some point in time,
When your current IT staff is overloaded with work, you can either hire additional internal staff or collaborate with a managed service provider (MSP). It’s a tough decision for small business owners, because leaning into external help often seems expensive. MSPs offer a wider range of services that internal staff can’t always manage alone. If your internal staff feels like they can no longer manage IT infrastructure, adding an external source often brings benefits to alleviate overhead without adding enormous costs. What “Internal IT” Really Means in Small Businesses Usually, a really small business starts off with one person supporting a few employees. This person isn’t dedicated to IT, but knows enough to support a couple of workstations. As the business grows, a dedicated IT staff member is added. This staff member often wears many hats, meaning the IT person deals with security, onboarding employees, managing updates and additional hardware, configuring cloud resources, offboarding employees, and numerous other responsibilities. Internal IT understands your local environment much better than anyone. They also offer hands-on advice and know employee troubles from personal experience. In-house IT staff have a lot to offer around the office, but they don’t have unlimited time and experience. For example, what happens when you have a ransomware attack? You need someone with specialized knowledge to tackle this type of cybersecurity issue, or your office could suffer from a recurring incident when the threat is not eradicated from your network. What Managed IT Actually Is (and Isn’t) Think of managed IT as an extension of onsite IT staff. When IT staff go home for the day or it’s the middle of the night, your managed service provider has IT staff working 24/7 every day of the week. They have multiple staff members available to respond to any incident day or night. When your IT staff has other priorities, managed IT takes over for patches, updates, and compliance. Small businesses might think of managed IT as a call center, but providers like Corporate Technologies offer onsite help with certain plans. Local IT offices provide professionals with varied experience. Each group of professionals has their own specialized experience, so your small business gets help that matches your specific IT issue. Managed IT is more than just a call center. They are full coverage for any IT issue and solution, so they enhance your current IT support. Cost Comparison: Internal IT vs. Managed IT Managed IT providers always market with cost-savings benefits. Not every MSP has a flat-rate cost with predictable pricing. Pricing plans range in cost depending on what you need. Corporate Technologies is one of the only local MSPs offering a 60-day moneyback guarantee so that you can try out managed IT before making a long-term commitment. Costs for managed IT are usually per user. You pay a flat per-user price ranging from $35/user to $80/user. Compare this cost to an internal IT staff member. You need to pay a yearly salary based on your local market along with benefits, payroll taxes, time-off, and licenses. IT staff also need training year-to-year to keep up with the latest technology that affects your business. Capability Comparison Local IT staff know your environment well, but sooner or later they need help. Having a collaborative managed IT team gives internal staff help when it’s needed. Professionals for an MSP have their own personal experience and training, so they often have an area of expertise that your local internal IT staff can’t offer. Here is a breakdown of where managed IT can be useful: Internal IT Managed IT 24/7 Helpdesk Onsite during business hours Coverage 24/7/365 Security monitoring Often missing or unaware that it’s needed Monitoring policies and software are part of the contract Backup testing Usually perform backups but don’t have a policy for testing Testing of backups to ensure they aren’t corrupted Compliance Need training to know compliance requirements Staff has specific training for various compliance regulations After-hours incidents Slower response if on-call overnight Overnight staff available during nights and weekends Project execution Needs guidance for new infrastructure rollouts Project managers and experienced staff offer deployments of new tech Documentation andReporting Varies depending on corporate requirements Part of procedures after incident response and detection. Documents deployments and upgrades As you can see, managed IT has a broader depth of experience to offer. For example, most small business IT staff don’t have the experience and tools to work with sophisticated cybersecurity events. They also don’t have the training to deal with compliance-specific requirements. This isn’t to say they aren’t necessary in day-to-day operations, but they need help with issues outside of their expertise. Co-Managed IT: When Internal IT and Managed IT Work Best The best solution is to combine internal IT with a managed service provider. Internal IT takes ownership of strategies and what works best for your small business. They can direct MSPs and collaborate on ideas and what’s best for business productivity. Managed IT will often take the lead on security, patch management, backup testing, and disaster recovery. When IT is in emergency mode, that’s when your business will see the best managed IT benefits. In addition to IT benefits, the business saves on headcount costs while still enabling business scalability and continuity. For businesses under compliance regulations (and most have at least one regulation they must follow!), managed IT offers guidance on best practices. Monitoring tools eliminate alert fatigue often seen by internal IT overseeing a myriad of issues. Managed IT compliance documentation, policy guidance, and infrastructure deployments save on hefty fines for violations. In some scenarios, fully managed IT makes more sense. If your small business has no current IT staff or someone who does IT on the side, it might be time to engage with a service provider. Your business gets the power of a full IT team without the costly salaries and real estate. No more turnover, office management of IT, or pressure to deal with IT issues. Which Model Fits Your Business? Small businesses need an