It’s World Backup Day! And that means that once again, backup vendors, influencers, and pundits are talking about the importance of backing up your data. Of course, that’s important, as is testing your backups on a regular basis, and making sure you’re adhering to regulatory and security standards in the process. But in the 12 years since World Backup Day began, surely we’ve learned some lessons about how to do backup better?

Not too long ago, devices used for work could only be accessed at the office, which meant that the end users of those devices had to travel to that location. Managing those end users was simpler because the devices were contained in a single area. These days, people own multiple devices and use many of them to get work done at home or on the go. In 2022, it was reported that about a quarter of U.S. employees work remotely.

The security industry may not have been making a lot of noise about Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) for long, but it’s not actually a new technology. Despite having been around now for roughly 10 years, it’s only recently that EDR has really come to the fore. This has been driven by the fact that traditional antivirus struggles to cope with the increasing sophistication of modern malware, and is certainly unfit to handle new types of cyber threats.

This is the fourth in a four-part series focusing on the findings from our 2023 annual Field Report for IT Management. We surveyed 4500 IT professionals from internal IT teams and MSPs across North America to gauge where their organizations are heading from a network management perspective. In part four, we’ll discuss the needs of the end-user and how IT teams can contribute to their productivity. You can read the full 2023 field report and compare your own IT statistics here.

There’s a reason why the network monitoring market reached about $2 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach $5 billion by 2026. In today’s tech-focused world, organizations require network monitoring to secure and manage their IT infrastructures. One of the crucial systems that every network monitoring and management operation needs to succeed is known as network discovery.

Figuring out which software solution will meet the needs of your organization’s IT environment can be a big challenge. There are many factors to consider before making a final decision, and one of those is to learn what software solutions are available. Intune and SCCM are two Microsoft solutions that help you manage the devices in your IT environment. Find out what each software solution does, how Intune vs SCCM compare to each other , and which one is right for you.

The best part about patching in N-able N-central is the ability to fully automate the process, but even if that is accomplished correctly there is still a need to have the right amount of sensitivity of patch monitoring in place. I have always monitored patches in terms of age, I did so with WSUS v3 (15 years ago) and have always done so in N-central.

As you likely be all too aware, there is a Microsoft Outlook zero-day vulnerability listed under CVE-2023-23397. With the increased attacks on Outlook this month, Microsoft has pushed out fixes for about 80 Windows flaws. More information on some of those patches can be found in my colleague Lewis Pope’s March 2023 Patch Tuesday blog. Lewis was also kind enough to send over the remediation script for both N-able N-central and N-able N-sight.

Managing IT assets can be a difficult task for any Managed Service Provider (MSP). The sheer number of IT assets across multiple customers can quickly become overwhelming. Fortunately, there are asset management software solutions available to help MSPs efficiently track and manage IT assets. This article will explore the various features of asset management software solutions designed specifically for MSPs and how they can streamline the IT asset management process.

Network device monitoring is a crucial aspect of IT management and it helps organizations to ensure that their network infrastructure is running smoothly. Many people that use RMM solutions will often use an additional application to monitor their network devices. However, one of the huge benefits of using N-able N-central as your RMM solution is the way it allows you to monitor network devices through Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).

Penetration Testing -- also known as “pentesting” -- are used by cybersecurity professionals and managed service providers to identify vulnerabilities present in a system before a cybersecurity incident takes place. You will often come across clients asking you to perform penetration testing, especially as emerging government regulations begin to make the practice mandatory.

As a managed service provider, you know that cyberthreats are increasing in frequency, sophistication, and impact. In recent years, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of cyber-attacks targeting businesses, governments, and individuals. This explosion of cyberthreats highlights the need for businesses and individuals to take cybersecurity seriously and implement modernized security measures to protect themselves against these threats.

The tech world has been on a rollercoaster since the COVID-19 pandemic. During the large-scale shift to remote work throughout 2020-21, big tech firms invested heavily in talent and infrastructure and there was plenty of growth in the IT space. Since the second half of 2022, however, high inflation, big tech layoffs, and the threat of an economic recession have organizations focused more on remaining cost-effective than investing in growth.

MSPs own and process large amounts of sensitive data and act as gateways to the sensitive data and infrastructure of their clients, which is why cybercriminals view them as good potential targets. To adequately protect this sensitive data from today’s sophisticated attacks, it is crucial that MSPs leverage cybersecurity best practices to ensure the safety and security of their own systems and their customers’ systems.

Two software solutions that most MSPs cannot live without are known as professional services automation (PSA) and remote monitoring and management (RMM). However, it’s no secret that software solutions are expensive, so does your business really need both? Decide which software you should use after reviewing this comparison of PSA vs. RMM.

The history of digital transformation can be traced back as early as the 1940s when Dr. Claude Shannon published A Mathematical Theory of Communication, which is the theory behind the creation of the internet. Then addition of the microchip and semiconductor transistor, invented In the 1950s, established the foundation for digital transformation. Since then, the capabilities of machines and digital technology have grown exponentially, and they have fundamentally changed ways our society operates.

As modern work has evolved, so too has the network end users rely on to do their jobs. Today’s network is vastly different from the networks of just a few years ago, with the new last mile of the office network evolving to cover anywhere end users are. This has had a significant impact on the visibility IT professionals have in the office network, and it means we need to revisit what network visibility really means as modern work continues to evolve.

Against a backdrop of constantly evolving cybersecurity threats, it’s essential that MSPs understand how to own the risk conversation if they are to really help their customers effectively manage their security posture. In this blog, I want to look at what we mean by “owning the risk conversation”, and how MSPs can achieve this. For me, I look at it from the perspective of my own job.

It’s pretty easy to hit that “remind me later” button when you don’t want to wait for installations, reboots, and possible errors if something goes wrong with the update. Snoozing that patch notification can quickly become a habit, and before you know it, a critical piece of software is weeks or months out of date. More people are learning that this isn’t a bit of harmless procrastination -- it’s actually a huge cybersecurity risk.

The past few years have been a boon to the IT channel. Economic and social changes have driven more SMBs and enterprises toward outsourced IT solutions. New technologies have pushed IT profitability higher. Businesses are more focused on digital transformation than at any other point in history, while at the same time everyone with a networked device is concerned about the growing threat of cyberattack. Operations of all types know that the IT department is becoming the key to staying competitive.

Even though testing is a part of the patch management lifecycle, sometimes bugs manage to slip through the testing stage and aren’t caught until after implementation. When this occurs, a new patch can actually break or alter software instead of fixing or updating it. This situation is known as software regression, and it has a significant impact on IT teams and MSPs around the globe.

Patch management is a critical process within IT environments, and servers are one of the many types of endpoints that need software patches. Server patching, in particular, is crucial to ensure that your servers are optimally functioning and don’t go down unexpectedly. Let’s dig into what server patching is, why it’s so necessary, how server patching works, and keys to proper execution of server patch management.

One of the things that I regularly get questioned about in my Operational Efficiency Boot Camp is the reporting in N-sight RMM and what MSPs should be presenting to customers to show that they are properly performing their work. I am a huge fan of monthly or quarterly business reviews to showcase your MSP client reports. I feel that for MSPs they are one of our greatest retention tools, and clearly demonstrate the value we provide.

So-called “conventional IT” is quickly fading into the background in the face of widespread changes to the modern world. Fast-growing technologies like cloud, SaaS, and remote monitoring or RMM software, have decentralized the very idea of IT -- and the timing of this migration to remote services and cloud-centric IT infrastructures couldn’t have been better, as demand for remote work and reliable information security skyrocketed during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

As organizations grow, the number of tools needed for basic business operations grow with it. Unfortunately, as you add more tools to an organization, you increase the number of potential attack vectors. Within the National Vulnerability Database (NVD), there were 26,448 CVEs published last year, an increase of 20% over 2021. Each of these vulnerabilities serve as opportunities for bad actors to break their way into your network, leading to a loss of valuable data, money, and time.

As the old adage goes “the only constant is change.” This is certainly true in any growth-stage tech company. It’s a very exciting time here at Auvik as we continue to accelerate our growth and take market share. To that end, today we announced that we’ve expanded our leadership team as we embark on this next chapter of growth.

The IT security landscape has been fundamentally transformed with the advent of cryptocurrencies, which have enabled hackers to easily monetize their activities without being tracked. This is one of the key drivers behind ransomware attacks becoming more numerous and more frequent.

The advantages of the hybrid & remote work model have been documented for some time now, and for many organizations the pandemic was the final push needed to start making the transition. Once these companies offered remote work for the first time, they had an opportunity to see firsthand how valuable it could be for their organizations. Who wouldn’t want to pay for less office space, and enjoy considerably lower operational overhead?

“Remote access makes everyone’s jobs easier,” MSP360 states. Thanks to remote access, organizations and their departments are able to collaborate and perform even with fully remote or hybrid workforces. In order for remote access to work properly, organizations connect their remote servers to endpoints using remote access protocols. Let’s dive into remote access protocols and find out how they are used in today’s tech environments.

Welcome to March! It’s a new month with a new MSP growth habit to start focusing on. In January, I encouraged you to Never Stop Learning to kick off our list of 12 MSP growth habits. In February, I urged you to go out and Find Love in the form of updating your MSP’s social proof for your website and social media feeds. For March it’s all about stepping out of your comfort zone and exploring new market opportunities to help expand your MSP business.