It appears that 2023 will be a difficult time for business of all sizes. It may be difficult for start-ups to gain traction, and unemployed workers may struggle to turn entrepreneurship. The global economy may be in a horrible shape, but history demonstrates that every financial crisis brings with it new opportunities. Companies that capitalise on opportunities are those that are well-prepared.
Being prepared in the digital age entails creating the IT infrastructure that allows you to move with the market, react to consumer behaviour, and provide services that alleviate consumer pain points.Online services provided by a third party have quickly become an indispensable technology in today’s businesses. The dilemma is whether or not you should go with a cloud-first strategy or a hybrid setup, depending on how much help you need from IT service providers. IBM found that only 20% of data at most firms is kept in the cloud.
While the hybrid approach has shown promise for large businesses, its complexity may work it impractical for smaller businesses and start-ups. However, cloud-based services are available through commercial IT services, closing the gap and allowing you to take the benefits of both worlds.
Can Business IT Support Providers Give Your Start-up a Boost in 2023?
Scalability
The goal of cloud-based software and services is to provide quick and painless user onboarding and offboarding. For instance, Microsoft 365 is available as a per-user subscription. If an employee is added or removed, you only pay for them when they are simply working for you.
Firms’ capacity to scale rapidly and easily can help them better manage capital and cash flow in an uncertain economic environment. This means that cloud solutions are more economically viable than physical servers.
IT support providers for businesses also offer a flexible range of services that can be set up in different ways. You can simply add or remove away cloud services as needed.
Maximise Uptime
Reliability is one of the primary benefits of cloud computing for business work. The vast majority of IT service providers offer an uptime of approximately 99.99%. In contrast, according to a survey performed by the Uptime Institute in 2021, over sixty percent of respondents suffered network-related losses exceeding one hundred thousand dollars.
Consistent network access is obviously essential for businesses. And perhaps even more so during a recession when business margins are already under pressure. Providers of business IT support provide high availability.
Support BYOD Policy
The costs of starting up a business can be high. IT equipment does not come cheap. We can see that strategies like “Bring Your Own Device” are offsetting a lot of the costs of technology (BYOD).
Computer Weekly says that more than half of workers use their own devices at work. BYOD can save start-ups a lot of money that they can put toward other parts of their business.
But it’s personal to remember that letting employees use their own devices to connect to your business network raises the risk of a data breach. And that could be bad for a new business.
Business IT support providers can offer a BYOD IT strategy that protects all endpoints. Vulnerabilities that show up on devices that are connected to your network can sometimes also be fixed remotely. At the very least, threats can be found and fixed before they become problems.
Installing a virtual desktop can also add an extra layer of protection for users who bring their own devices to work. With a virtual desktop, your teams can work from anywhere and on any device, without putting your business network at risk.
Reinforce Cyber Security Defences
Since the implementation of GDPR in 2018, businesses of every size have made cybersecurity a top priority. Or, it should at least be a priority. A data breach affects a company’s brand, and because GDPR requires businesses to report data breaches to affected parties, your consumers are aware that you have been hacked.
According to cybersecurity companies, young startups have a propensity to disregard implementing a robust cybersecurity solution. This is one of the reasons why hackers target new businesses.
IT support services for a business don’t have to be too expensive. Cloud software already has many of the technologies that add layers of protection to your business network. And services like anti-virus software, multifactor authentication (MFA), and patch management don’t cost much. The most important part of cybersecurity is making sure your employees know where threats can come from, how to spot them, and what to do about them.
Patch Management
Patch management is a critical but often overlooked service. This business IT support service can help start-ups that use a lot of software more than you might think.
Patch management is so important because software can get “vulnerabilities,” which are openings that hackers can use. Hackers may be able to get into your business network through these gateways. And from there, they can steal critical data, take over your system, or get into your financial accounts.
When a new security patch comes out, companies have to update their software within a reasonable amount of time. Most of the time, this depends on an automatic update of the system, which the user of the device has to agree to.
The main problem is that you need your employees to update the software on their own devices. And if they use it for both work and fun, they might not want to update the software.
If you have a data breach because a security patch wasn’t updated, companies have to follow the rules set by GDPR. You must tell your customers, which will make them lose faith and cause you to lose money. This possible problem is taken care of by patch management services. Patches can be updated by business IT support services from remote locations and at times that are best for the end user.
