Everyone wants a more productive team, but with Azure AD you can deliver a lot of time saving benefits without much additional cost or another server. You may not recognize Azure AD as something you use, but if you use Microsoft 365, you’re already in Azure and you’re already using Azure AD. Azure AD is Azure Active Directory, Microsoft’s user and group management tool.

IT is two separate and distinct areas, Information, and Technology.  Most organizations only focus on the "T" resulting in reduced profits and productivity.  Let us look at the two sides of this and understand what needs to stay in-house, and what a partner should handle.

Many MSPs are struggling to keep up with the security needs of their customers.  The volume of incidents, cost of implementing security solutions, and a reactive approach puts a lot of pressure on them.  In the meantime, issues pop up everywhere, further reducing their ability to get a plan together.

Today's threats change too quickly for ant-virus products to keep up.  By the time a virus is added to the "bad" list on your computer it has changed to something else to avoid detection.  This game of cat and mouse is stacked heavily in favor of the cat!  All major anti-virus vendors are now shifting to an Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) approach, and so should your business.

A mature technology partner and an internal IT Coordinator deliver higher productivity at a lower cost than a fully staffed IT department.  Remember the librarian coming to your classroom with the TV cart?  It wasn't that the teacher could not setup and plug in the TV.  It was just easier to schedule and have the librarian bring it.

Are you hiring for technology roles of the past?  Below are three roles that your business needs to evaluate and consider outsourcing based on today's technology landscape.  This is not an easy process, as there are PEOPLE in these roles that typically have reached the end of their careers or cannot obtain a similarly compensated role elsewhere.

If your business suffered a (successful) cyber attack today how would you respond?  There are no cyber police to call, nor is there a fire department to come put out the flames.  A disaster recovery plan is NOT the same as a cyber attack response plan.

The relationship between business and IT is more important than ever.  A healthy relationship generates increased profitability and productivity for both parties.  An unhealthy relationship delivers frustration, missed opportunities, and a lack of trust.

Workstation recovery is the most overlooked part of recovery planning.  Recovering all your servers and data without workstations is not useful.  This becomes critical as office locations and workstations increase.  Reinstalling the operating system and applications for 10 workstations can be brute forced, the same cannot be said for 100.  The uncomfortable stares of employees waiting to get their workstations back up and running is an event you want to avoid.

If you run a business and think RPO means run pass option, your business backup strategy is in trouble.  An area of focus we highlighted last week was recovery planning.  There are two key concepts in recovery planning.  These concepts link directly to the success of your business surviving a ransomware event.