Almost everyone, no matter what their role in an organization, will start to pick their heads up from the business this time of year, and look around to see what next year will bring (much like Punxsutawney Phil with the potential promise of a shorter winter). In the Information Technology world, the fourth quarter is a time to consider next year’s predictions on how IT can align with, and better help the business.
Some of the big industry trends that the world is watching include:
- IoT – Internet of Things – interconnection via the internet of everyday things-allowing to send/receive data
- IoE – Internet of Everything – all devices & products connected to the (global) internet that are outfitted with expanded digital features
- Cryptocurrency – digital currency in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency
- “Intelligent Digital Mesh” – interconnected people, devices, content & services essentially driven by smart devices, all in support of digital business.
Whether or not these trends will impact you or your organization in 2019 is speculative. Closer to home in IT, and for the majority of businesses, there are two strong IT trends of the past year or so that we believe your company will talk about and will remain dominant for all of 2019 (and likely beyond):
- Moves to the Cloud – and getting out of the (on-premise) hardware business
- Security
As a Microsoft Gold Partner, Greystone is seeing a considerable rise in customer and prospect interest in moves to the cloud, and specifically Azure. More and more, the value, efficiency (and security) of the cloud is proving itself from the Enterprise level to the SMB. According to a summer 2018 Gartner survey, all three hyperscale cloud providers (AWS, GCP, and MS Azure) have seen significant growth, noting that “Azure meets 98% of required, 68% of preferred and 58% of optional criteria, making it a leading option for (technical) professionals”.
By far and away, however, we see Security getting the most attention – and rightly so. It may astound you to know (it did me) that cyber-crime is now the world’s number one organized crime, (outpacing auto theft, prostitution, etc.) and that currently, (per a Data Beach Investigation Study by Verizon) 71% of security breaches target Small to Medium sized businesses (SMB’s).
Further, according to the US House Small Business Subcommittee on Health and Technology, among SMB’s that suffer a breach, a staggering 60% go out of business after six months.
In our CEO’s latest blog, Peter Melby mentioned some key elements of security protection which include;
- Network firewall
· Anti-virus and anti-malware software
· Multi-factor authentication
· Security awareness training
· Internet traffic filtering
· Advanced monitoring
Earlier in 2018, Greystone rolled out (along with strategic partner Arctic Wolf) our Security Operations Center as a Service (CyberSocTM) along with Security Incident & Event Management (SIEM) allowing businesses of virtually any size take advantage of 24 X 7 monitoring (eyes on glass) for a price point normally unobtainable for an SMB. (Pricing is based on a fixed dollar amount X the number of users per month).
As you look around, I am sure you will agree; 2019 promises to be a very dynamic year. We are confident there will be conversations around cloud and security for most of you!
Stay tuned for Peter’s Common Sense Security; Step 2 – Creating your PROTECTION plan which will be posted on our blog in the coming week. For more information on Greystone cloud or security services, or to talk IT trends, please contact Randy Hughes: rhughes@GreystoneTech.com
