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MSPs: How You Should be Working with Your Client’s Internal IT Teams

Open communication is key in creating a positive collaboration with a client's IT team.

In some cases your MSP may have to work with a company’s internal IT department. Depending on the circumstances, the IT team may be thrilled for the extra support and expertise, or they may resent you for making changes to their systems. Either way, there are ways in which you can promote positive collaboration between your firm and your client’s internal IT team.

5 Ways to Promote Synergy

It is important to establish positive and friendly communication channels from the beginning of the collaboration. This way you can deal with any urgent questions from the IT team that need to be settled for a good working relationship to begin. Also, the open communication will allow you to find out a great deal about the network and the people managing it, so you can help the internal IT team more efficiently.
Once open communication channels have been established, it is a good idea to be upfront and clear about what your job is and how your involvement is going to help the IT team and the company.
The client’s IT team may have a different outlook on a situation than your MSP. In this case, it is important to be open to various perspectives, as it may lead to solving issues that have not been considered yet. Rather learn from each other than let egos get involved and ruin customer relations.
The collaboration between you and the client’s IT department create a whole new team in itself. Therefore, it is important to create some team goals by discussing the goals of the company and then working together to figure out how to best achieve these goals.
Once you have a solid foundation and game plan, it is vital to discuss and develop good processes that facilitate efficient coordination between you and the IT team. Making sure everyone understands their roles and what is expected of them is key.

Respect the internal IT team by communicating openly and often, staying goal oriented, and leaving behind any egos. In turn, the IT team will respect and perhaps come to admire your team. Additionally, having a smooth and positive collaboration can lead to more business with the company in the future, and may land you business with other companies in the same industry.

Everything You Need To Know About The Pen Test

Backup Solutions, Cybersecurity & IT Threats, Disaster Recovery / activeimage / 30/10/2018 / ActiveImage, Backup, business, Cybersecurity, disaster recovery, infrastructure, pen test, security, testing

Although you may have implemented the best cyber-crime defenses and have a great IT team, there can still be holes in the infrastructure that cyber-criminals can manipulate to get access to your valuable data. This is why businesses run a penetration (pen) test.

What is a Pen Test?

It is a test to discover any vulnerabilities in the system before hackers find and exploit them. When running a pen test, you would simulate a cyber-attack on your own defenses to make sure the system and your staff are prepared for a real breach. Once completed, an evaluation of the whole system can be written for all staff to understand, and the shortcomings of the system can be addressed.

When To Perform A Pen Test?

The pen test should ideally be implemented before a system goes live, so that any issues can be detected and dealt with before operations commence. However, a pen test should not be carried out on a system that is fairly new, as there will be holes in a system’s early stages that can be missed if a test is performed too soon. It is always best to leave some time after a network or system deployment before testing commences.

The biggest mistake most companies make is to leave things here and not continue to test their systems. Some companies may only use the pen test after a cyber-attack to find and seal the hole in the system that was exploited by the hacker. Other businesses may only ever run a pen test due to laws or rules laid down by a board of directors.

The importance of the pen test can be lost in the everyday goings on of the business, but it is vital for the security of the business to regularly test its system. Cyber-crime is continuously evolving and new methods of attack keep appearing. With regular pen tests and other system evaluation methods, you can ensure your system has flawless security infrastructure.

How often your business can test its system will depend on factors such as company size, budget or infrastructure. However, testing your system once a year is better than only having it tested once or not at all. Remember, being up to date with certain standards doesn’t always mean you’re totally secure, as your system will change and develop vulnerabilities over time. You should do a pen test as often as you can to keep up with these changes.

The best security for your business starts with a great data backup and recovery plan. Contact ActiveImage today to learn more about the solutions we offer and how we can help you secure your data.

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