Articles

The Hard Truths Facing CIOs About Outsourcing: Exposing 5 Pervasive Myths

Savvy chief information officers know a little something about disruption. In an era of accelerating innovation, it’s up to CIOs to keep a cool head and assess what new technologies can improve their businesses, and which ones are better left on the shelf. But while choosing and embracing the right disruptive technologies has always been part of the job, more…

The SEC’s Cyber Risk Management Rules: What RIAs Should Know

Since uncertainty still surrounds the Securities and Exchange Commission’s pending cyber risk management rules for registered investment advisers, Xantrion CTO, Christian Kelly, attended the recent 2024 Investment Adviser Compliance Conference, which included remarks from SEC officials. Unfortunately, those officials were limited in how much they could share since the rules have yet to be finalized. The uncertainty notwithstanding, what is…

The Digital Transformation and AI Journey: A Guide

For growing businesses, digital transformation is exciting, necessary…and sometimes challenging to understand. One way to imagine your digital transformation journey is to consider it in three stages: enablement, transformation and digital first. The infographic below, created by experts from Engine Room, Xantrion and the 2Go Advisory Group, delineates the typical journey in greater detail. What’s the connection between digital transformation…

2024 Cybersecurity To-Do List

With increased regulatory pressure and mounting cybersecurity risks, it’s more important than ever to make sure you’ve got a robust cybersecurity program. This checklist will help you shape your 2024 cybersecurity strategy. DOWNLOAD INFOGRAPHIC Get a Free Cyber Risk Assessment

Ready to Adopt AI? 5 Things Businesses Should Know

Here at Xantrion, we’ve been experimenting with different AI-powered tools and automation for the last three years. As a mid-size managed IT service provider, we’ve learned a lot about the potential and the limitations of AI tools, and what they mean for businesses like ours…and yours.

Digital Transformation vs. Using AI and Machine Learning for Your Business: What’s the Difference?

The concept of digital transformation actually predates AI and machine learning. As you update and evolve your business’s use of technology, it’s important to understand all three concepts.

The Crucial Role of Morale and Culture in Defending Against Cyber Criminals

There are two aspects of the battle against cyber criminals that organizations can’t afford to ignore: Employee morale and company culture. While strong morale and culture can help companies protect against cyberthreats, weak morale and culture can make them more vulnerable.

Have You Outgrown Your MSP? 6 Questions To Ask

When your business evolves from a scrappy startup to a more mature organization, there’s a good chance that your managed service provider (MSP) won’t evolve with it. Solo IT consultants or AI-based MSPs may work well for fledgling businesses, but as a company grows, so does its IT needs…meaning its old MSP may no longer be the right fit. If…

A Hard Lesson Learned: How a Devastating Malware Attack Transformed a Company’s Approach to Cybersecurity

It’s any business leader’s worst nightmare: A cyberattack that paralyzes their entire company, from top to bottom, leading to work stoppages, delivery delays, and devastatingly high costs. Over the years, Xantrion has been called multiple times to help different companies reeling from cyberattacks. Each time, Xantrion has helped them get back on their feet. In the interview below, Xantrion Chief…

Don’t Gamble with Your Cybersecurity: 7 Lessons From the MGM Casino Breach

Gaps in cybersecurity recently cost MGM Resorts a reported $100 million after cybercriminals hacked the casino giant. Though disastrous for MGM, other companies can learn valuable lessons from the headline-making cyberattack…without paying $100 million to do so. Here are a few key takeaways from this incident: 1. Beware the power of social engineering. Social engineering is the criminal act of…

Ransomware and Data Breaches: Understand Their True Costs

New data from IBM and Verizon shed light on the true costs of ransomware and data breaches. Do you understand the risks of leaving your business unprotected?

Why You Need an Incident Response Plan Now More Than Ever

It might happen on a Friday afternoon, or maybe on the day before holiday. Many employees have clocked out early, so an intrusion goes unnoticed…until it’s too late. Suddenly the whole system begins shutting down. Your next step? Panic. A data breach or other cybersecurity incident can be a traumatic, shocking experience, even for a seasoned executive. To avoid freezing…

How to Find the Right Supplemental Cybersecurity Provider for your Business

Staying vigilant about cybersecurity threats is a requirement for doing business today. The costs of data breaches are climbing sky-high, while AI is empowering criminals to devise ever more sophisticated schemes to steal from and defraud companies. That’s why businesses turn to IT security providers who offer services and expertise that their in-house IT teams lack. But not all security…

Take Advantage of Co-Managed IT Services and Your In-house IT Team Will Thank You

There’s a good chance your company’s internal IT team is feeling overwhelmed. It’s not a reflection of their skill or dedication, but rather a sign of the times — technology and cybersecurity threats are evolving faster than ever. Sometimes companies are victims of their own success: They’re growing so quickly that their in-house IT departments can’t keep up with requests…

Why Should Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) Invest in Digital Transformation?

By Adrian Bray, CEO, Stellar Consulting in partnership with Xantrion Management often has a love-hate relationship with technology. While it is a part of their daily life, they typically only interact with the IT department during onboarding, offboarding, or when there is a problem. In addition, IT-related costs are increasingly a more significant portion of the P&L. IT and digital…

The Xantrion Client Experience: Insights from our Annual Survey

As a leading cybersecurity and managed IT services provider, Xantrion continuously strives to deliver premier IT solutions to our clients. The cornerstone of our ability to enhance services and how we support clients is our annual client survey. The primary objective of the survey is to obtain insight into what clients value and identify opportunities for improvement. We rely on…

What Is an MSP? 6 Ways to Think About Managed Service Providers

Years ago, when businesses needed tech support beyond what they could manage in-house, they often turned to IT consultants. But as the technology landscape grew more complex and security threats spiked, companies needed more than ad hoc consulting services — they sought to fully outsource their technology function. Enter managed service providers, or MSPs. What is an MSP? In basic…

Navigating the challenges and benefits of a hybrid work model

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way we work primarily by accelerating the widespread adoption of remote work. As pandemic safety measures eased, many companies had hoped to bring employees back into the office this year. However, the Wall Street Journal noted in May that most efforts pushing for a return to fully on-premise work had stalled. In fact, nearly 60%…

How to Save on IT Support Services Without Sacrificing Security

Performance is top of mind for CFOs and COOs who are trying to do more with fewer resources. They are facing more pressure than ever to justify their spending and prove they’re providing value. Our goal is to help every department, not just IT, get what they want while still delivering results. The following are 9 ways we’ve found to get the best value from your IT investment.…

Drive More Sales and Gain Competitive Advantage with AI in Salesforce

By Chris Valiquet, Senior Salesforce Consultant, StarrData In a recent blog post, we explored how we plan to begin implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to enhance our business practices at Xantrion and why we feel it’s important for our clients to start thinking about how to leverage AI-based technologies. While many solution providers are beginning to tap into the possibilities of…

Reduce Costs and Beat the IT Security Labor Shortage

To keep your key systems functional, you need two centralized teams to oversee your entire network: a security operations center (SOC) and a network operations center (NOC). Your SOC monitors, responds to, and remediates security threats to protect applications and data against cyberattacks. Your NOC keeps an eye on network status, applies updates and patches, and provides tech support…

5 Ways We Plan to Use AI

It seems like you can’t browse the Internet these days without seeing one of the latest artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot technologies mentioned in the news. Headlines about ChatGPT, Bing AI Chat, and Google Bard abound, and each predicts that their new technologies are poised to disrupt the business world. While these technologies are rapidly evolving, according to Bill Gates, they…

New Enhanced MFA Experience

You have probably heard of some high-profile network breaches in the news in recent months. Threat actors targeting organizations both large and small and have found success breaching secure environments using a technique called MFA spamming. This is a highly effective tactic because it targets the person, not the technology, to work around an organization’s MFA protections. Companies as large…

Even the Best Security Systems will Fail Without the Right Employee Training

When discussing the importance of adopting a strong cybersecurity strategy, too often the focus is on technology solutions designed to prevent and mitigate cyber-attacks. Certainly, the adoption of tools and solutions is integral to a strong security posture. Yet, as noted in Verizon’s 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report, a staggering 82 percent of data breaches involve some sort of human…

Cybersecurity By the Numbers

In recent years, cybersecurity has been a considerable concern for middle market companies. Threats are far more frequent, diverse, and severe than anyone could have anticipated. It’s crucial that all organizations implement cyber defense measures that better safeguard company and customer information to mitigate financial losses and brand damage. From lingering threats related to the COVID-19 pandemic, to geopolitical conflicts…

Seven Reasons to Outsource IT to a Managed Service Provider

Organizations are always looking for ways to effectively manage costs, improve productivity, and scale efficiently. One method proven to help achieve these goals is to outsource IT support to a managed service provider (MSP). Not only is outsourcing typically 30-40% cheaper than hiring in-house1, it can also help you close critical gaps in your IT and cybersecurity infrastructure. Below are…

Should you Trust Password Managers?

A good password is a critical part of protecting your data. So, when LastPass, a popular password manager solution, announced that its third-party cloud-based storage service had been breached, allowing an unknown attacker to gain access to backups containing customer data including password vaults, a lot of people got nervous. The bad news is that those customer password vaults are in…

4 Reasons Xantrion Helps you Sleep Better at Night

According to a recent RSM report, a critical issue midmarket companies face when selecting an IT services company is determining which company they can trust. As your IT partner, we take our responsibility seriously, and the following are 4 reasons you can depend on us. 1. We are SSAE 18 SOC 2 certified each year Service organizations like IT outsourcing…

Top 10 IT Priorities and Challenges for SMBs in 2023

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Why Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Instead of Anti-Virus Software?

Security remains one of the biggest concerns and most challenging responsibilities facing small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) today. In 2021, there was a 300% increase in ransomware attacks with over 50% reaching small businesses. To address this challenge, Microsoft is investing in security solutions purposefully designed to help protect them. Microsoft Defender for Business is a new endpoint security solution…