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Navigating Gartner’s Cybersecurity Predictions: Responding Now for Future Success

Gartner’s analysts have compiled their top cybersecurity predictions through 2025, and Axcient’s solutions are helping MSPs respond accordingly.  With more regulation and oversight, cyber security and compliance is taking center stage in strategic planning from the top down – not just within IT departments.  Gartner’s recommendation for security platform consolidation aligns with Axcient’s simple, all-in-one approach to business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR).

In this article, we’re responding to Gartner’s cyber security-specific predictions directly affecting the channel and SMBs to:

  • Understand the impact of a standardized stack, not just from a cybersecurity perspective, but also from a business standpoint.
  • Prepare for the reality of these predictions by adopting the right stack to keep your business and your clients safe from cyberattacks.
  • See how the accelerated digital transformation and subsequent increase in cybercrime put the cybersecurity spotlight on MSPs.

“We can’t fall into old habits and try to treat everything the same as we did in the past.  Most security and risk leaders now recognize that major disruption is only one crisis away.  We can’t control it, but we can evolve our thinking, our philosophy, our program, and our architecture.” – Richard Addiscott, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner

By 2025, 80% of enterprises will adopt a strategy to unify web, cloud services, and private application access from a single vendor’s SSE platform.”

For years, well-intentioned MSPs have added solution after solution and tool after tool to their stacks to satisfy multiple client use cases.  Based on factors like size, budget, target vertical, compliance standards, infrastructure, and hybrid work environments, MSPs have overwhelmed themselves with disparate vendor management requirements.  Over time, these demands contribute to a higher total cost of ownership (TCO) as more resources are necessary to manage all the vendors.

Cybersecurity Simplicity

Luckily, we’ve hit a tipping point on this strategy and reversed course with cybersecurity simplicity.  An all-in-one solution from a single vendor allows MSPs to meet a range of client use cases to streamline operations.  Unified processes for onboarding, training, tech certification, support, and billing significantly reduce the administrative costs of vendor management, thereby supporting MSP profitability and growth.  In fact, this singular tech stack design is used by the top-performing MSPs, which are more than twice as profitable as average-performing MSPs.

“Single-vendor solutions provide significant operational efficiency and security effectiveness compared with best-of-breed solutions, including tighter integration, fewer consoles to use, and fewer locations where data must be decrypted, inspected, and re-encrypted.” – Gartner

How to respond?

  • Reevaluate your tech stack with simplicity as the guiding force. Standardize on all-in-one solutions that satisfy multiple use cases with automation and usability to streamline vendor management.
  • Eliminate legacy solutions that rely on prohibitive chain-based backups – these only increase operational overhead, limit rapid response and recovery, and exacerbate storage costs.
  • Utilize Chain-Free technology to overcome storage bloat, meet long-term compliance requirements, and deliver near-instant recovery and unlimited storage and retention without any manual processes.

 

By 2025, 60% of organizations will use cybersecurity risk as a primary determinant in conducting third-party transactions and business engagements.”

Third-party cyber security and compliance incidents were the most expensive enterprise data breaches in 2021.  In response to cybercriminals targeting both vendors, as well as SMBs and MSPs, it’s obvious why cybersecurity practices are becoming a focus during vendor vetting.  Not only do you need to do your due diligence when working with vendors, but as a vendor, MSPs also need a solid security-first approach to data protection.

With highly publicized attacks like the Kaseya and SolarWinds incidents, consumers are becoming more aware of the widening implications of cybersecurity.  The challenge for MSPs is to balance managing cybersecurity protections with user experience.  Overprotected businesses can become stifled by disruptions or complications, while under-protected businesses may not have the recovery tools available when disaster strikes.  Vendors can prove cybersecurity resilience and critical capabilities with third-party, independent test results on their products and features.  Solution providers can also participate in comparison ratings to either stand out above the competition or identify weak spots in their strategies.

“Cyberattacks related to third parties are increasing.  However, only 23% of security and risk leaders monitor third parties in real-time for cybersecurity exposure, according to Gartner data.” – Gartner

How to respond?

  • Assert your MSP’s high cybersecurity standards by earning authenticated business credentials that position you competitively – i.e., the CompTIA Managed Services Trustmark or the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) framework.
  • Assess vendor cybersecurity resilience with a defined scope and identified objectives based on various stakeholder input and risk scenarios.
  • Prepare sales and marketing materials that directly address cybersecurity regarding SMB clients and their end users to put current and potential clients at ease.

 

Through 2025, 30% of nation-states will pass legislation that regulates ransomware payments, fines, and negotiations, up from less than 1% in 2021.”

In June 2019, Louisiana passed the first law regulating MSPs and MSSPs (Managed Security Service Providers), providing IT infrastructure to public bodies.  Since then, additional states and the federal government have introduced regulations on the channel.  Due to the high costs of cyberattacks and increasing frequency, regulations seek to hold providers responsible for incidents rather than the attacked business.  Without a regulatory body for IT services, government intervention is expected to continue to expand.

Ransomware Recovery Technology

Ransomware, in particular, is being discussed because businesses have the choice to pay the ransom or not.  The issue with paying the ransom is that it does not guarantee that the data will be returned.  Many attackers have already sold the data on the dark web after receiving the ransom, and payment can encourage bad actors to continue these attacks.  The bad actors are one step ahead of the good guys, so businesses should be proactively prepared for recovery rather than ransom payment.

How to respond?

“Modern ransomware gangs now steal data as well as encrypt it.  Whether to pay the ransom or not is a business-level decision, not a security one.  Gartner recommends engaging a professional incident response team, as well as law enforcement and any regulatory body before negotiating.” – Gartner

Meeting Today and Tomorrow’s Cybersecurity Predictions With a Single Solution

Being in cybersecurity requires you to look ahead constantly.  While cyberattacks have been chiefly accepted at this point, it’s still the job of MSPs to provide the solutions needed for rapid recovery.  Based on Gartner’s predictions, most of which mimic Axcient’s 2022 predictions, MSPs need to standardize their stack, adopt a security-first approach throughout the business, and rely on proactive solutions coupled with advanced planning.

Axcient’s solutions, which include x360Recover for BCDR, x360Cloud for Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace backup, and x360Sync for secure sync and share, satisfy all of these recommendations with an all-in-one solution that arms MSPs with AirGap for ransomware recovery.  With proprietary Chain-Free backups, unlimited storage and retention, appliance-based and hardware-free deployment options with Direct-to-Cloud, and near-instant recovery, MSPs can deliver uninterrupted business continuity for their SMB clients.  See how Axcient’s simple stack can increase cybersecurity resilience while decreasing the total cost of ownership to help boost margins and profits.  Schedule a 1:1 demo, or start your free trial now!

 

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Carissa Kohn Johnson Axcient

About the Author: Carissa Johnson // Product Marketing Manager, Axcient

Carissa Kohn-Johnson has a background in behavioral and physical healthcare technology and information technology and currently works as the Product Marketing Manager for Axcient. She has a lot of MSP Channel experience from planning and attending hundreds of conferences and tradeshows, and found her passion in technology, and working with MSPs in particular. She serves on the Information Services Advisory Board for her community and feels most at home with other technology-forward people. Connect with her on LinkedIn – perhaps you can contribute to the Axcient blog?

More Great Stuff From Our Blog:

Check out some other interesting pieces from our blog: Check out Part One of our Sales and Marketing Quick Guide for MSPs: Lunch and Learns,  Learn how DRaaS Opens New Opportunities for Managed Services Providers, and get the skinny on how Axcient supports partners with No-cost Onboarding and Ongoing Training, we dove into how chain-based backup works and why chain-free is the way to be, we talked with Jason Phelps from Huntress Labs about planning for the next ransomware attack, our CEO David Bennett explains why the current cybersecurity landscape means traditional backup is dead, or learn how you can ditch pricey on-site appliances with Local Cache for Direct-to-Cloud BCDR.