SMBs focused on improving IT security

Improving security remains the top priority for mid-sized businesses, but they need to be more proactive in their approach to managing IT according to a new report.

The 2019 State of IT Operations for Small and Midsize Businesses report from infrastructure management specialist Kaseya shows 32 percent of respondents experienced a security breach in the past five years, down slightly from 35 percent in 2018 with at least 10 percent of respondents reporting that they were hit by a breach in the past year.

Automated software patch management is seen as a key area for improvement in most SMBs. Only 42 percent of respondents say they automate or plan to automate patch management and, similarly, just 42 percent monitor third party software and apply critical patches within 30 days.

Backup to the cloud in combination with the other media is among the top five business continuity and disaster recovery strategies, adopted by 33 percent of the respondents. However, only 29 percent of respondents back up their SaaS application data, showing no improvement from 2018.

"The adoption of modern information technology solutions has the ability to transform the structure and daily operations of today's IT teams, allowing companies to offer a greater variety of solutions and higher levels of service to their customers. As these technologies mature into the 2020s, the playing field will continue to level as midsize businesses and smaller IT organizations leverage more powerful tools to compete with their large enterprise counterparts," says Mike Puglia, chief strategy officer at Kaseya. "With these new tools, IT teams can meet the challenges of ever-increasing customer expectations and security threats that demand constant innovation and operational improvements from frequently overworked staff."

Among other findings are that delivering higher service levels remains among the top priorities in 2019, but is at odds with a decline in the percentage of respondents that have formal service level agreements. Over the past three years, the percentage of respondents without formal SLAs in place has increased, from 35 percent in 2017 to 39 percent in 2018 to 43 percent in 2019.

On a positive note the degree of influence of the head of the IT department on company-wide decision making has risen considerably in the past three years. Nearly half of all respondents now state that the head of the IT department has a great deal of influence in C-level decision making in their company.

You can read more in the full report available from the Kaseya website.

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