Business owners and IT managers are constantly considering the needs of their business to meet the demands and challenges of an increasingly digital world. For many, investing in digital solutions is still a daunting prospect. With so many competing priorities to think about, and if you’re not immersed in the world of technology day to day, you might well ask: how do I know what are the right choices that will deliver the best value for my business?
So let’s start on a reassuring note: there has never been a better time to invest in business critical technologies. Not long ago, a small-to-medium-sized business didn’t have the capacity to access enterprise grade IT. But advances in cloud computing now mean enterprise level technology is available at a fraction of the cost anticipated. With this in mind, your IT spend can go much further than you think.
With so much choice, where should you target your investment? A solid foundation is essential. The more we come to rely on technology, the more we need it to be always securely available. So the logical first step is to minimise the risk of any business disruption.
According to the latest Institute of Directors survey, 70% of business leaders and directors are extremely or very concerned about the potential impact cybersecurity threats pose to their business continuity. In fact, in a recent Amárach survey for SureSkills & Business Plus, about a third organisations have faced a data outage or disaster, but only half of them have developed a disaster recovery strategy and action plan.
To succeed today there’s little room for downtime. Whether it’s caused by a cybersecurity issue like ransomware, natural disaster, human error, or even a planned IT migration, every second of downtime translates to lost revenue.
Grant Thornton’s International Business Report found that half of Irish business leaders have introduced or upgraded new risk prevention measures over the last 12 months. However, it also revealed a significant number of businesses are delaying investment because they feel other areas of their businesses need investment instead.
I believe this is misguided. Investing in business continuity solutions is one of the most critical decisions you can make. Effective backup and disaster recovery services can help you recover from any business interruptions much faster and minimise the impact these incidents can have on your business. This is where the enterprise-class technologies come into play, and they are no longer outside of the reach and op-ex constraints of SMBs.
Our proprietary term for this technology domain is Managed Data Protection (MDP). In layperson’s terms, it means that a trusted external company like SureSkills offers a range of digital solutions available ‘as a service’ to secure your site. We do this in partnership with IBM, one of the most long-standing and trusted names in the technology industry.
Even as your business grows and your data needs grow, the service scales up so you don’t have to worry about capacity challenges. Likewise, because it’s externally managed by an expert technology provider, you also don’t need to think about having to maintain and upgrade the systems. SureSkills becomes the extension of your IT team, able to provide visibility and insights about how your IT infrastructure is performing – and recommend how you can continuously improve and optimise those services. Best of all, it’s delivered as subscription-based service, so as a business owner you have predictable ongoing costs instead of a large upfront investment.
This subscription approach potentially frees up budget for other projects within the business. If you have an existing IT team, this ‘as a service’ model saves them from having to manage systems on site, which means they can focus on true value-add activities and become consultants to the business, focused on delivering enhanced IT services. They can work with management and leadership to advise on updating the company accounts package, enhancing the security of your data, or introducing innovative software that will enhance the way you do business.
Delivered and supported 24x7x365 by expert practitioners, SureSkills offersbest-in-class managed data protection solutions. If you’re looking to minimise the effects of an outage, and ensure you’re best placed to recover your business fast, then contact SureSkills to find out more about how our comprehensive MDP services can help.
