April 2018

Are deduplicated backups the way to faster recovery times?

Industry Trends / / / , ,

Deduplication has been around for some time now, but may still not be fully understood for its variety of properties.

The technology, sometimes referred to as data deduping or data dedupe, is essentially a method of space-saving and works by dividing data into segments or chunks. These segments are then evaluated for their similarities and if two segments are deemed to be the same, one will be deleted and the other will be stored. New segments of data are also stored and will be compared to other segments in the future.

This method of backing up a server massively saves space, especially to avoid multiple copies of the same file occuring after every full backup or new copies of the same information being made during an incremental backup when there is a limited amount of new information that needs to be stored.

Deduplication is different from compression in that compresson you have to do manually to specific files, whereas deduplication happens to all files that are being backed up.

It has been hailed as a way to eliminate redundant data, assist in optimising IT departments’ backup environments, reduce costs and, perhaps the most important aspect, recover data faster. Deduplication can have enormous impacts on a company’s disaster recovery and data storage space costs, since deduplication data ratios can range from anything between 3:1 to 200:1 and more.

Companies that tend to do more frequent full backups normally have higher ratios. Generally, space savings in primary storage range between 50-60% or more for typical data, and as much as 90% or more for things like virtual desktop images.

However, with its pros, deduplication has some cons that does not make it the all round solution to disaster recovery issues, such as fast recovery. The dedupe process can create complexity and overhead, which defeats the purpose of using the dedupe process for faster recovery.

There is also an increase in the risk of data corruption, if anything were to go wrong in the process. For example, if one piece of information goes bad, all the segments of information that are linked/referred to it will go bad too. This is why it is important to invest in an additional backup when using the deduplication process, and for some companies it may not be worth the trouble.

Another drawback for some companies would be the need for the metadata of each segment in a deduplication system to be maintained and for a filing system to be managed to ensure the data is stored and identified correctly. This may persuade companies not to implement a deduplication process as they may not be able to afford the man hours or resources needed to maintain such a system.

ActiveImage has a tested and proven deduplication method that provides all of the positive with state-of-the-art deduplication with mitigated risks of data corruption or recovery speed concerns. In fact you can check out ActiveImage’s backup speed industry comparisons with solutions such as ShadowProtect (from StorageCraft), Arcserve, Veritas and Acronis.

Depending on your business, data deduping may be the best choice for you. Results vary and you can not say it will work for you since it works for your neighbour or competitor. Different methods and processes work for different forms of data and behaviour patterns. If a company has mainly dissimilar data, deduplication is not worth investing in, but it would work wonders for a company that deals with comparable data.

Results are highly variable depending on the type of data and the number of duplicate segments in the data. Therefore, it is best to perform a full concept test before you commit to deduplication or any other backup strategy.

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“3-2-1 rule” of backups in the modern world

Backup Solutions / / / ,

When looking for the best backup option for your business, you may come across something known as the 3-2-1 rule. This rule outlines three key steps that should be taken to ensure sufficient backup precautions for your business.

What does 3-2-1 stand for?
The rule states that a business should have 3 copies of its data, of which 2 copies should be stored locally through external storage and through other devices, and 1 copy should be stored remotely, for example, on the Cloud.

Why use the 3-2-1 rule?
Although the rule has been around for many years, it has not become dated, and is still considered the perfect approach to backup strategies. Regardless of what happens, there will always be a copy of the data for the business to rely on, which ensures business continuity. The rule makes sure there can be no single point of failure and that even the backup is backed up.

The strategy has the best of both worlds, as an onsite backup can have your business up and running in no time, whereas an offsite backup makes sure that if a major disaster were to happen, such as a fire, flood or even a burglary, and the onsite backups were lost, there would still be a copy.

The proof is in the Mathematics (example)
Statistically why the 3-2-1 rule decreases the chances of you losing valuable data: If you have a 1 in 100 chance of losing data, but you had a second device with the same odds, then your chance of failure and data loss is 1 in 10 000 (1/100 x 1/100). Additionally, if you had a third storage device or platform with the same odds, the chance of losing data drops even more drastically to a 1 in 1 000 000 chance (1/10 000 x 1/100)!

Therefore, if you think you are sufficiently protected from data loss by two copies, you only stand to gain from a third, which significantly improves your chances of restoring all your data. The 3-2-1 rule is not called the golden rule for nothing!

How to implement the rule with today’s technology:
The 3-2-1 rule is simple and the best way to implement it is to keep it that way. To establish your three copies leave the original data on your internal storage and make two external copies on two different mediums, for example a CD or external hard drive. Here is where traditional methods of recording data on tape should not be sneered at, as they are still effective measures of storing data when part of a well rounded backup plan.

The different mediums or devices on which you store your data externally can also be put in two seperate local locations to decrease the risk of an accident getting rid of both copies.

The third copy must then be stored completely off site, meaning a different city or even a different country. This has become increasingly easier to do as there are an ever increasing number of Cloud vendors that offer Public and Private Cloud solutions that can tie in the 3-2-1 rule into your backup plan, and all you need is network access. Virtual machine replication is also another way modern technology has changed the way a business can plan their backup strategy and make identical copies of information to facilitate the rule.

However, if you do not have the resources or budget to get your data on the Cloud, you can use traditional methods of storage and store the third copy on an external device, which is kept in an offsite storage locker.

Another great feature is that businesses can apply this rule to any data stored on physical hardware, virtual machines or on a provider’s infrastructure, it works every time for any type of data.

Don’t settle for second best! The 3-2-1 rule is a tried and tested strategy, so when choosing a plan for your business, ask your provider or vendor about whether the options they are offering are 3-2-1 compliant.

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Public Clouds: Threat or blessing for backup and recovery?

Industry Trends / / / ,

More and more businesses are using the Cloud as a work space, and although the Public Cloud is not lacking in benefits, one can not say it is the Fort Knox of platforms when it comes to data protection.

It is easy to see the appeal of using the Cloud to store and manage data as it is cost effective, easy and quick to set up, requires no maintenance or does it require a business to become entangled in long term contracts, it provides high flexibility without redundancy and takes a business global in minutes, among other benefits.

Therefore, it is no surprise that last year, RightScale revealed in their sixth annual State of the Cloud Survey that companies typically run 79% of their workload on the Cloud (41% in the public cloud and 38% in the private cloud). Enterprises run 75% of workloads on the Cloud (43% private and 32% public). Small to medium businesses run 83% of their workloads in the Cloud (50% public and 33% private). The survey was compiled using information that was collected from 1002 IT professionals on their use of Cloud infrastructure

With such a high amount of information and data being processed through the Cloud, companies, businesses and enterprises alike should be concerned about the security of their data. It is a mistake to take the benefits of the Cloud as a foolproof strategy to protect your data and not follow up with data protection that can keep up with the Cloud migration.

Here are five common reasons why the Public Cloud may not be as secure as you may think, and why you should still implement a BDR strategy:

Due to the multitenancy of public cloud platforms, private information is at risk of leaking to a ‘neighbouring tenant’, that shares the same computing resources.
You may still be at risk, therefore, it is important to know what virtualization tools your vendor is running to prevent yourself from becoming a victim of virtual exploits.
The no maintenance benefit can be great, but it also means you have limited control and do not have any choice with regards to any small or big changes made to the software or hardware as it is owned by the Public Cloud. This also applies to authentication, authorisation and accessing processes.
Service interruptions do happen even though a vendor may reassure you that they have fantastic fault tolerance. Availability can still be an issue and opens up the risk of loss of data.

Cloud vendors are known to put clauses in their agreements that changes the ownership of the data over to them. This grants them greater legal protection should something happen but also allows vendors to search and mine their client’s information, sometimes for a profit.

The Public Cloud can be a blessing and does pose its threats, however, the biggest threat is not having a data protection strategy that works with your Cloud services. Using the Public Cloud is not a sufficient backup and disaster recovery plan, as history shows that the redundancy infrastructure used by Cloud vendors can fail. For example, in 2015 Google lost some of their client’s data.

Another reason why a sufficient BDR strategy is key is if a business wants to efficiently implement ‘Bring your own Device’ strategies in the workplace. Cloud services successfully allow for businesses to implement ‘BYOD’ strategies, however, these devices have higher specs than those of the company’s devices and the security and protection needed to safeguard a company’s data on these devices can be overlooked. This increases the risk of the data ending up in the wrong hands.

This is the reason why more and more companies are creating BDR solutions for hybrid and multi-platform cloud services, which require a different approach then traditional solutions as there are different risks involved.

A BDR solution that will protect you against the risks opened up by the Cloud should include global data visibility for anywhere, anytime backup; deduplication for the highest Cloud efficiency; universal data portability that enables data recovery, portability and mobility; flexible data protection; and performance at scale.

However, before any decisions are made, the business would have to look at its own IT resources and expertise to determine what will work best. A comprehensive internal audit may be the solution to discover what a business has the capacity for and what it can afford.

Public Clouds: Threat or blessing for backup and recovery? Read More »

The importance of offsite backups for DR, and how to do it cost effectively

Industry Trends / / / , ,

Everyone knows backing up company information is crucial to the companies continuity, and it can be convenient to have a local backup on hand to restore the system once an attack or failure has happened. However, one backup is not enough, especially if it is an onsite backup.

Having an offsite backups might be the wisest decision you make as part of your backup and disaster recovery plan, because if there is a fire, flood, natural disaster or even a burglary, you can rest knowing your data has not been lost and is stored safely in a completely separate location to your home or office.

An offsite backup makes sure there is no single point of failure and there are many ways in which your data can be stored remotely. Companies can use internet backup services which automatically uploads copies of your data to a remote server or public and private cloud services. Another way is using physical devices, such as an external hard drive, on which the data is stored, and then the hard drive is keep in a remote location and updated every week or month.

Although ensuring your data is safe should be your first priority, an offsite backup should not make you break the bank. In fact, there are many ways in which offsite backups can be created that can suit your business in different ways. Yet, which is the most cost effective?

Internet backup services offer security through encrypting your data files, unlimited storage space, automatic updates, ways to customise your package, easy restore and universal access so you can work anywhere. Cloud services offer much of the same as it promises to be secure and maintained, with added email or phone 24 hour support from a team of IT professionals should anything go wrong. For all the above reasons, Cloud and internet services do seem the most cost effective options when you consider the number of people who need to be paid, the resources, running the servers and the facilities that would need to be rented or bought if a company had to facilitate the whole process by themselves.

The last method, of storing data on a physical device is simple if the person in charge of the backup knows how to backup the system sufficiently, however, it is remembering to backup every week or month that is the biggest flaw of this solution. Although, depending on the distance travelled to retrieve the offsite backup and the time and manpower it takes to regularly update the backup, this may be the most cost effective option, even though it requires more effort to execute.

A smaller company or business may find it easier to buy an external hard drive and backup their system on a scheduled basis, but medium to larger businesses will not find a more cost effective solution than the Cloud at this time. The Cloud erases the risk of forgetting to do manual backups as it will automatically backup data on a regular basis, install updates and take care of regular maintenance.

Cloud computing generally runs a company more efficiently as the business would also be able to scale up or down on virtual servers so that the business is only paying for what they are using.

Furthermore, Cloud computing is also a ‘greener’ way to operate. Large data centers do consume a lot of power but they are also preventing many companies from needing their own great power consuming in-house data centres, which cost the individual company greatly.

When it comes to making the final choice, it is up to your businesses needs and how the business operates the most efficiently that will mainly determine what option is the best for the continuity of the business.

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Backup and Recovery: What MSPs want and how to get it.

Managed Services Insights / / / , ,

Managed Service Providers (MSPs) are continuously competing and trying to improve their products and appeal as new technology and cyber attacks threaten their position.

Generally MSPs are the most happy when they are growing, increasing their offerings and run smoothly and efficiently, because a continuous flow of business and happy customers equal happy MSPs. However, creating this happy environment relies on the MSPs agility.

Unfortunately creating a bespoke solution for each new customer has become a strategy that is costing MSPs dearly, as it is time consuming, takes many technicians, costs the MSP financially, and not having the correct resources on hand can cause additional issues.

This is the reason why many MSPs are moving to Cloud infrastructure for greater agility and efficiency. But is the Cloud the answer?

For one thing, Cloud software allows MSPs to operate on minimum staff. MSPs are also able to use existing infrastructure instead of issuing new devices to all its clients. However, for optimum efficiency, a MSP would need a cloud platform that can orchestrate over many hypervisors and make sure any services can be managed centrally. It will be easier to react to your customers needs if you are able to see servers, storage, firewalls, etc in one space.

With well trained personnel and with some advice from the Cloud vendor, Cloud management should be an efficient process that takes a few hours. Create permission-based user roles and user groups for the clients and you will be able to minimise the need for IT assistance from the MSP, which cuts costs. Additionally, having a central template for customer profiles makes provisioning easier for IT administrators.

Cloud solutions can include calculating resources for billing by customers that will cut down on manual work, and improve margins.

Assigning specific resources and billing specific customers also becomes much easier and requires less manpower as it would be a software-based provisioning activity. MSPs are also able to copy one customers plan and implement it for another customer with a few specific tweaks.

In summary, the Cloud increases a MSPs efficient use of resources, time to revenue, resource planning for future needs, and increases revenue, as it streamlines and improves service agility, and enables new services.

Although the Cloud and creating the above designed infrastructure does seem to solve all of an MSPs problems and is a sure way to success, MSPs still need to appeal to customers for their business. To appeal to customers MSPs must be able to tick all the customer’s boxes, some of which include 24 hour support, remote and onsite support, 24hr/ 7 days a week/ 365 days a year remote monitoring, hardware and software reporting metrics, and a Virtual CIO.

Additional ways in which a MSP can change their approach to business for increased profits is by evaluating their approach to deal flow to ensure a continuous stream of business and not stressful highs and lows.

When an MSP’s collections are set up has a big impact on cash flow. Set up collections when gaining a new client and offer a cash discount for clients who are paying electronic debit orders on the established price. Clients are more likely to choose this option and you will not have to work as much in the long run for your collections. This strategy will also reduce friction with your clients as you will not have to make so many calls asking for your money, as the price and payments will have already been established.

An inability to scale your business can also lead to issues. Make sure the right number of professionals are there to make your business work at the right time.

It is important to focus on the business itself to stay competitive in the market and satisfy customers but an MSP must not forget to focus on what is in the business and how to make it work as efficiently as possible.

Backup and Recovery: What MSPs want and how to get it. Read More »

Shouldn’t you be using a single platform for both backup and disaster recovery?

Backup Solutions, Disaster Recovery / / / ,

IT professionals and business owners will eventually need to come to a decision with regards to their backup  and disaster recovery plans moving forward. This is a big and important question that is crucial to the continuity of the business and needs as much research and consultation as the business can afford.

In the beginning, data backup and disaster recovery were not seen as the same thing. A backup or the person responsible for backing up the system can fail and the data will be lost forever. This is why disaster recovery functions became available, as there is no real point in backing up data without a means of recovery. A recovery plan means having the right operating systems, trained people, processes and tools.

However, with the advancement of technology, IT professionals have seen that backup and disaster recovery features are converging, so that DR is becoming a feature of backup products, whereas before they were seen as separate functions.  Another case of this can be seen in the convergence of backup and archiving software.

These advancements make way for businesses to use a single platform for both functions.

Many backup software solutions providers offer a variety of products to solve BDR issues but deciding on the correct one for your business needs and budget can be a challenge. ActiveImage is one of those that deserve serious consideration. The solution is built for Windows, Linux and VM protection. Standardising on one solution means less cost on training, more efficient updates and maintenance, better pricing, single points of contact for sales and support to name just a few benefits. . 

Further efficiencies include, streamlining the archival process; the test and development replicated system that can be spun-up on demand; the data analytics and converged architecture, among other features.

However, whichever single platform a business chooses, there are various advantages in a single platform solution. If you are using multiple vendors, solving issues or making product improvements can be a complicated process. A single, consolidated BDR solution would be time saving.

Managing multiple BDR tools is also not an efficient way to protect your data, and a daily BDR management struggle will only cost the business time and money. Instead, on a single platform, you will be able to manage all your BDR needs from a centralised place and also have one point of contact should there be an issue. This will ensure a more efficient system and decrease the stress of a complex process.

In this case, less equals more, as the fewer vendors or MSPs you have to deal with, the more you can build your relationship with your specific vendor/MSP. A strong relationship will assist in keeping you up to date on available products and features.

Businesses continuously worry about the long term cost of a product, while a single platform will help reduce costs. Labor costs will be reduced as a business will no longer need their own technicians to monitor, maintain and manage BDR tools that perform routine tasks that do not move the business forward. Technology costs can be reduced as unconsolidated technology is priced and packaged differently; and single BDR solutions can end up cheaper. For MSPs it helps reduce storage costs as they save on Cloud storage fees since it allows them to pool the storage across their client base.

For this reason, the reduction in cost is the main factor in why single platforms are a rising trend, why more and more technology is expected to be created to support it, and why a business should ask itself whether or not to move to a single platform.

 

Shouldn’t you be using a single platform for both backup and disaster recovery? Read More »

Latest trends in the backup and disaster recovery industry

Industry Trends / / / ,

A cyber attack, data leak or the loss of files can potentially cost a company hundreds of thousands of dollars. Thus, there is an ever increasing demand for new solutions and technology in the backup and disaster recovery industry.

The latest trends in this industry revolves around flexibility, communication, outsourcing, hybrid solutions and managed detection and response.

All about the Cloud
The time of physical site servers as a place to store backup data is gone, as the Hybrid Cloud acts as an offsite, secure location for backups and can serve as an addition to your disaster recovery strategy. It is more flexible than the standard Cloud as it combines the functions of the public domain and privately managed infrastructure.

This combination gives companies the perks of an ideal place to store that recommended secondary backup and is a budget way to improve disaster recovery, as it allows even smaller businesses to have two data sites in case the primary site is compromised. Additionally, the physical maintenance of the site is also left to the cloud service provider.

The alternatives
The attitude of taking calculated risks in letting service providers take on more duties continues in the trend of outsourcing, as it is a way to decrease in-house responsibilities and free up resources. Outsourcing is also being used as a tool to better disaster recovery capabilities and other expertise that are lacking in-house.

However, it is too soon to write off disk backup and data replication technology to reduce storage needs and compare current to previous data to eliminate redundant data. It seems to still be an ongoing trend and should not be forgotten for its backup and recovery properties.

The additions you need to make
It is predicted that 2018 will see a rise in ransomware, and therefore Managed Detection and Response could be the latest and greatest addition to your disaster recovery plan. This technology continuously monitors your network, responds to security incidents and alerts the security team of any red flags so that a crisis can be averted or dealt with in a timely manner.

However, a crisis can still hit, and in that situation it needs to be all systems go. Therefore, employees need an immediate and effective way of communicating with each other in the office. The latest trend is to use social networking platforms to provide the channels to communicate far more efficiently than traditional methods, especially since these platforms can be configured to a variety of devices.

In the end, what is most important is being able to customise and build a backup and disaster recovery plan that suits your needs and protects your business.

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BDR: Why all data cannot be seen as equal

Backup Solutions, Industry Trends / / / , , ,

Questions businesses or enterprises need to ask themselves is how to protect, store and handle their data. What is just as important is how the data should be managed. Should the data be stored and for how long? What data is the most valuable and needs the most protection? What data is more valuable to the company today and what will be more valuable in the future?

Some companies do have a Chief Data Officer and systems in place to categorise data, but those who don’t can find these questions difficult to answer and therefore keep all there data in one lump to sort through later. According to a report, ‘Not All Data Is Created Equal: Balancing Risk and Reward in a Data-Driven Economy’ compiled by Gregory Fell and Mike Barlow, they interviewed a data strategy consultant, Q. Ethan McCallum, who said in doing this companies miss out on potentially useful data and also could be holding onto harmful data.

McCallum also said that the value of data would be different to different people and it is important to know the 5W’s and H of the data, which would let anyone know who is using it, what it is being used for, and where, when, why and how it is being used. Having this knowledge would help a company package its data correctly and help in identifying the data’s value to the company as a whole and how it should be protected. This can also be worked out by using the ‘golden rule’ of corporate data security, which was discussed in the report by Fell and Barlow, and boils down to not spending more than the data is worth on protecting it.

Another method utilised by companies to manage their data risk and analyse it in relation to the value of data is to use the CIA method, which stands for Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability. The confidentiality of data indicates the secrecy it requires, the Integrity would outline its consistency and accuracy and its availability would refer to the level of reliability needed in the systems that process and store the data. Each category is allocated a score out of three, with three being the highest and one the lowest. Once this is done, the company is able to calculate the risk and how much it will cost the company if that data was lost. Using this information, a company can make decisions on how to more effectively implement its BDR plan to protect valuable data.

Independent anti-fraud strategy advisor and former director of the Deloitte Forensic Center, Toby J.F. Bishop, suggests a company should visualise the risk/reward trade-off of data using a quadrant grid. The grid would measure rewards on the y-axis and risk on the x-axis. The data in the upper right quadrant would be high risk and high reward, which would prompt higher data control, while the data in the lower left quadrant would be of low risk and reward. Here the company could implement ways to increase the profitability or it may eventually become of too high risk and need to be purged. Using the logic in the above examples a company would be able to map out the risk/reward of their data and deal with it accordingly.

Regardless of the many methods a company decides to implement, proper data management is crucial to a strong BDR strategy, as data is a valuable asset, and all assets in any business need to be utilised to their full potential to increase profitability.

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Mistakes to avoid when establishing and testing your disaster recovery plan

Disaster Recovery / / / , ,

A disaster recovery (DR) plan is crucial for any business who values their data as an asset. As cyber crime continues to rise, more and more businesses are at risk of falling victim to these attacks.

However, a lack of information and education in the workplace has resulted in businesses operating without a DR plan or operating with one that has never been tested. Establishing and testing a recovery plan is time consuming and costs money, especially the expense that goes into the continuous testing, but the pros out-way the cons when you factor in what damages the downtime and loss of assets can do to a business.

Here are four tips, by Jon William Toigo, an IT veteran, CEO and managing principal of Toigo Partners International, and chairman of the Data Management Institute, on what you should consider when setting up a DR plan:

1) Do not believe the hype around the high-availability (HA) technology that claims to render a DR strategy unnecessary. A DR plan is important for the continuity of the business. These HA options can be expensive compared to other solutions and are not suitable for data that does not need to be ‘always available’.

2) Don’t look for a ‘one size fits all’ option. Most data can be more successfully and efficiently backed up on tape. Solutions such as continuous data replication and disk to disk mirroring is an unnecessarily expensive method on which to base a DR plan. There are also many risks involved in disk storage, which make it insufficient to store a businesses valuable data, for example, disk storage is prone to latency and jitter.

3) Not all data is equal in that it has to be stored in the same way. Toigo explains that normally 30% of a business’s data should be backed up frequently as it is constantly changing, but the other 70% is non-changing and should be moved from the production platform to an archive as it is still important data.

4) Protect the data that is held by other branch offices and devices. The data held at head office is crucial to the business but so is the data held by others, especially since the bring-your-own-device era began. Close this gap by backing up all devices, which can be done by a suitable Cloud service.

When it comes to testing a current DR strategy, Quorum released a report, titled ‘Always Be Testing: Making the Case for ABT, that suggests businesses should make sure their MSP tests their system weekly as their system infrastructure is always changing and the DR plan needs to stay up to date. A DR plan can be rendered useless if it is not updated.

As part of keeping everything up to date, employees should be too. A business’s employees need to know what to do during a crisis situation and regular DR drills could be implemented as part of the office safety drills.

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Attention MSPs! How Cybersecurity offerings can add to your bottom line in 2018!

Industry Trends / / / , ,

The increase in cyber attacks and with it, a demand for more cybersecurity, means that hundreds, if not thousands, of Managed Service Providers (MSPs) are all trying to build a viable and more profitable practice.

How to stay on top
To lead the pack and add to your bottom line this year, MSPs are needing to enhance its standard cybersecurity risk management offerings. According to an article by TruMethods, these offerings should include a higher level of compliance, which will then demand a higher price.

It was also stated MSPs need to remember that their current ‘specialty packages’ will eventually become apart of every providers standard package. To not fall behind the times each MSP needs to continuously monitor their competition and update their offerings.

From the experts
In the lead up to a panel, which will take place at a security conference at the Channel Partners Conference and Expo in Las Vegas, between 17 and 20 April, moderator Peter DiMarco, vice president of VAR sales at D&H Distributing, and panelist Lyle Epstein, president and CEO of Kortek Solutions, discussed how MSPs and VARs can improve on their profit margins this year in a preamble to their panel titled, ‘Selling Cybersecurity Services: Secrets to Success.’ In this discussion it was observed that Cloud based services continue to be on the up and up with regards to securing higher margins.

The benefits of providing Cloud based services include having no personnel that needs to be dispatched to a site as the Cloud is a virtual platform. This means service providers have a greater client reach and can provide backup and other solutions for anyone from all over the country or even the world. More flexible and self-configurable solutions were seen to be the most profitable services as it suits the client but also means less administration and labor for the Value Added Reseller (VAR).

In the same discussion, DiMarco and Epstein, advised that solutions that affect a business as a whole and layered solutions that will protect a business from both external hackers and internal threats are the most profitable. Products that solve broad scale issues that affect many business, such as email phishing, are easier to sell.

They agreed that MSPs and VARs would be able to move into a higher profit margin if they offered more of a range of hosted cybersecurity services such as backup and recovery, as well as compliance solutions and network assessments, among others.

It is a lot of information to process and implement but, DiMarco assured that vendors and distributors are working to educate MSPs and VARs on their options so that they are able to make the most out of this complicated but lucrative industry, which only proves to be growing bigger and more diverse.

Attention MSPs! How Cybersecurity offerings can add to your bottom line in 2018! Read More »

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