Panel highlights SMB cybersecurity & sustainability issues
Espria, a leading player in the arena of digital workspace solutions, recently staged its first Optimise IT 2024 panel discussion, which keenly focused on the issue of peace of mind. The discussion underscored cybersecurity and sustainability as the significant challenges that small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are anticipated to face in 2024.
The inaugural panel involved prominent solutions partners of Espria including Xerox, Ikonic and Sophos, and marked the first in a planned series of monthly IT industry conversations to be hosted by Espria throughout the year. These discussions aim to delve into the latest developments and groundbreaking insights in critically important areas including security, document solutions, communications and automation.
The conversation emphasized that business owners and IT professionals had to navigate cybersecurity and sustainability challenges for maintaining peace of mind. Espria's Solutions Architect, Brian Sibley, stated, "Security is not something you can set and forget – it constantly needs reassessing." He recommended strong reliance on certification processes, such as acquiring Cyber Essentials certifications, to reassure customers that your processes and technologies are efficiently serving the required purpose.
Jonathan Hope, Senior Technology Evangelist at cybersecurity firm Sophos added, "Increasingly we're finding that cyber security and cyber challenges on both sides of the fence always have a human element associated with them. Even with the best safeguards in place, cybercriminals are now sophisticated enough to circumvent it." He argued that round-the-clock monitoring and protection provide reassurance and peace of mind in an environment of continuously evolving cyber threats.
A deeper threat emerges for SMBs as ransomware attacks on them rise sharply. Rob Smith, Digital Services Business Development Manager at Xerox, pointed out that cybercriminals are turning their focus towards smaller businesses. The premise being that these businesses often underestimate their worth and thereby become easier targets. Moreover, most SMBs prefer settling ransomware attacks to experiencing significant income loss over multiple days.
Even as sustainability remains a challenge, especially with increasing computational demands of modern systems, cloud technology was flagged off as a solution. Sibley argued that, unlike a single server running at partial capacity, data centres are designed to serve multiple users more efficiently, thereby reducing energy consumption and contributing to sustainability.
Sibley concluded, "Having an organisation like Espria behind you, to support you, gives you the peace of mind that you're getting the best advice and the best system configurations for your enterprise. When it comes to cybersecurity and sustainability concerns, trusting in third-party experts is the way forward."
Espria plans to continue its Optimise panel discussions throughout the year, with its next panel, scheduled for February 15th, focusing on topics such as AI, supply chains and business scalability.
