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Espria recently hosted the first of their Optimise IT 2024 panel discussions, where the topic was peace of mind. Panellists included some of their key solutions partners – Xerox, Ikonic and Sophos. The webinar marked the first of their monthly IT industry conversations for 2024, which will discuss the latest and most advanced technology insights when it comes to security, document solutions, communications, automation and more.
In the discussion, industry leaders highlighted the key priorities and challenges that SMBs are facing in 2024, most notably identifying that cybersecurity and sustainability challenges will be amongst the biggest hurdles when it comes to peace of mind for business owners and IT professionals.
“Security is not something you can set and forget – it constantly needs reassessing,” said Brian Sibley, solutions architect at Espria. “Reassuring customers is in the certification side of things; such as gaining Cyber Essentials certifications which will validate that your processes and technologies are actually doing what you need them to.”
Jonathan Hope, senior technology evangelist at cybersecurity company Sophos, added: “Increasingly we’re finding that cyber security and cyber challenges on both sides of the fence always have a human element associated with them. Even with the best safeguards in place, cybercriminals are now sophisticated enough to circumvent it.
“Technology on its own isn’t enough to keep on top of these challenges. But having additional expert eyes on it 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, gives you the reassurance and peace of mind that your network is being monitored and protected.”
Rob Smith, digital services business development manager at Xerox, highlighted that SMBs are at additional risk, as cybercriminals have realised they can be easier targets for ransomware attacks. “What we’re finding now is that it’s more the SMB market than the enterprise market that is being targeted because those smaller businesses tend to think they’re not as valuable, and thus less likely to be repeatedly extorted. Cyber actors have learned, and now understand the value of an organisation, say, roughly what their turnover is per day? They’ve found that SMBs are finding it easier to pay than to accept the headache of losing three or four days of income.”
Whilst sustainability can be a challenge with the processing demands of modern computing systems, the cloud was still highlighted as an answer, particularly for its scalable infrastructure. “Rather than having a traditional model where you have a server running in your office at 20% capacity, data centres are specifically designed to run and cater for multiple users and environments more efficiently,” argued Sibley. “When looking at all the power being consumed by data centres, it’s far more efficient than a large number of individual businesses running their own servers.”
