The MSP Zone

Can MSPs "Guarantee" Compliance? It's no secret that many MSPs are helping clients deal with compliance issues. Whether this is gathering evidence for a client audit, or simply offering traditional managed services to demonstrate compliance for a given framework.   However, when it comes to guarantees, compliance may not be the area where you make any guarantees. Here's why. Compliance within the...

Weaver Outrage Meter: Low Don't Rely (too much) on Cyber Insurance Barracuda surveyed 400 enterprise IT and security professionals globally, ranging from IT managers to CISOs, to discover the biggest cybersecurity challenges businesses face in 2023. • Are organizations placing too much emphasis on cyber insurance? • What should MSPs do about this? • Are cyber insurance policies being used to targe...

Weaver Outrage Meter: Low   AI Ethics in Managed Services You heard correctly. Ethics in artificial intelligence. This is going to be a big issue moving forward and MSPs had better familiarize themselves with what is happening because before too long, MSPs will be dealing directly with AI devices and scenarios.   Compliance reporting All the discussion around compliance lately is missing one cruci...

Weaver Outrage Meter: Low   Cyber Consultants at it Again We have been coming across a unique brand of marketing and website design company lately; yes, you guessed it, they also do cybersecurity. It seems difficult not to come across cyber security "experts" these days, even if that claim may be dubious. Marketing gets into cybersecurity Cyber consultants need understanding of MSPs First do no ha...

Weaver Outrage Meter: Low We have officially wrapped up Q1 2023 and its time to evaluate how the managed services profession did  and what the outlook is like. Q1 analysis MSP outlook Tech stock performance S&P 500 doing well because of IT stocks https://stocks.apple.com/A4qzi73EUTAqsG5chNLDjkw Cyber Consultants Continued We have been discussing (for years) the ongoing evolution and emergence of c...

Weaver Outrage Meter: Low   North Dakota Announces Mandatory Cybersecurity Education   North Dakota just announced a new educational mandate for grade school students to learn more about cybersecurity. Such a move is not only a smart one, but it is going to have a positive impact on future generations of cybersecurity professionals.   Cyber skills gap acknowledged Good example of government leader...

Weaver Outrage Meter: Low   What is continuous compliance? Sound like a headache? It isn’t. Continuous compliance is where the managed services profession is headed and MSPs had better start preparing now.   Continuous compliance defined Why continuous compliance is the future Guidance for transitioning from standard to continuous   Recent news stories would have you believe that the recent bank f...

Weaver Outrage Meter: Low   First, let's discuss Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). You may be wondering what does SVB have to do with managed services. Good question. Nothing directly ties SVB to managed services, other than there are a number of MSPAlliance members who bank there and may be impacted by recent events.   Will SVB have any long or short term effects on the managed services profession? Is t...

Weaver Outrage Meter: Medium   MSP Zone examines the idea of a cyber tax, what that would look like, and whether a cyber tax would be a good thing for MSPs Highlights: Cyber tax credits Codes of conduct Government oversight?   Cyber Verify has been launched. What is Cyber Verify? How can it help MSPs at both ends of the MSP maturity spectrum?   The Art of Managed Services 2nd Edition is now availa...

Weaver Outrage Meter: Low)   In the US, we just had our national state of the union address, so we thought it would be fun (and interesting) to do our own state of the union address on how the managed services profession is doing in 2023.   Drawing from global IT spending data and MSPAlliance member input, we have put together some of the more noteworthy areas of interest to MSPs in 2023, both are...

Weaver Outrage Meter (Low)   There are many reasons why you would want to work with a provider of managed services. During a recession (or the threat of a recession), IT and business needs tend to become a bit more clear and in focus as you come to reality about what it is you really need versus what you don't. The benefits of managed services really only apply to true MSP organizations. We are no...

Weaver Outrage Meter (Low) Many MSPs think of compliance as a "once a year" activity. Much like doing your taxes, compliance is a doing it once and then forget it event that gets revisited next year. This is dangerous thinking and should be part of every MSP's new year's resolution for 2023. Compliance doesn't have to be a dirty word. In fact, compliance should have nothing to do with tax preparat...

Weaver Outrage Meter (Medium)   I recently read a blog written by a government about how to properly use MSPs in a cloud environment. Now. I am not sure what background this author has but I’m assuming a good number of people read and approved of the article since it was published (for the public to read) on a government website.   I do not like attacking people directly when they have no ability...

Weaver Outrage Meter (Medium)   I thought you'd never see the day when you hear me say the words, maybe roll ups work in the MSP profession. Before you get too excited, there are still some "right" ways and "wrong" ways to go about doing M&A and that is part of what we will discuss today. But, part of my analysis on MSP acquisitions over the last few years does involve what some of you out there w...

If cyber is uninsurable, then MSPs just got a lot more valuable. Here's the conundrum. If MSPs represent aggregate risk to insurers yet are invaluable in the fight against cyber threats, and if cyber is becoming more uninsurable, then MSPs become even more critical in the cyber risk equation. Sound complicated? I'll explain.   Most of the discussion around cyber risk insurance today can be boiled...

Weaver Outrage Meter (Low)   2022 began very differently than it ended. The pandemic, global supply chain, cyber-attacks, cyber risk, the economy, MSP talent, and many other areas saw change (good and bad) during the year.   This summary of the year 2022 in managed services looks at a variety of areas all related to the global managed services profession and attempts to extract some lessons learne...

It has been a while since we discussed the topic of MSP talent shortages, specific to security (i.e., cybersecurity). A lot has happened since earlier in the year and I wanted to provide you all with an update on where we stand, how the industry is doing, and where we are seeing the most results.   Now, the first warning is do not get upset by what you hear. I am going to talk in generalities abou...

Here is some friendly advice for policy makers and legislators moving on the issue of MSP regulation (of any kind) next year, 2023. Since 2020, we have seen a large amount of activity in the cyber regulation area, including specific regulations calling out managed service providers (MSP).   Highlights: Direction of MSP Regulation in 2023 Flaws in MSP regulation requiring a fix What MSPs Need from...

With all the pressure and hype around growth-oriented MSP platforms these days, I thought it might be helpful to talk about one characteristic of the small MSP which is actually very important. Now, this does not mean larger MSP organizations do not possess this characteristic. It does mean, however, that smaller MSPs are more likely to find this type of process much easier to perform.   What am I...

For many MSP owners and operators sales is a foreign concept. Sales is acknowledged as a necessary business component for all MSPs, but very few MSPs have mastered the art form of sales.   Today we attempt to breakdown the stereotypes of sales in the managed services profession. We examine everything from process, metrics, business goals, and the important integration of sales into the managed ser...

Last week was the MSPAlliance Inspire "peer" group meeting in Las Vegas. I say "peer group" in quotes because this group sees themselves as the anti-peer group. Born out of the frustration of many peer group veterans, they created the MSPAlliance Inspire to bring networking and leadership in managed services to a new level.   Here are some of the things they discussed and what I learned from obser...

I recently spoke with an insurance executive and we had a very interesting conversation about risk and perceptions of risk related to cyber security and managed services. This conversation was eye-opening for a number of reasons, but mostly because it exposed me to a viewpoint I had not fully considered before.   This conversation is important because it represents what I believe is the larger deb...

Ransomware impacts many industries throughout the world, but today we focus on the manufacturing sector. Is the manufacturing industry facing an increase in cyber-attacks? If so, how are they responding to these attacks and what changes are they making to become more resilient to such attacks?   John Shier, senior security advisor with Sophos, enters the MSP Zone to discuss his analysis of a recen...

Weaver Outrage Meter (Low)   Sponsored by: Dell Expert Network   Any organization can experience growth. Some may have to buy it, such as through M&A transactions. Others, may be lucky enough to experience growth organically. Maybe they have a really good product, perhaps they just have an awesome sales and marketing team, or perhaps they are just fortunate to be in the right place at the right ti...

There are many organizations looking to get a better handle on their IT management, including their security. For the majority of these organizations, it is impossible to do this entirely on their own. As such, these entities often seek out MSPs to resolve a variety of business, technical, and security objectives.   Before engaging an MSP, however, there are some things you ought to know about you...