Small business margins are typically razor thin, which can make leaving room in the budget for IT difficult. Small businesses have a few options they can employ if they wish to have some form of IT to secure their network: utilize break/fix support, build an in-house IT department, or hire a managed IT services provider.
Keep reading to learn why small businesses need IT support and gain more insight into what options they have.
Do Small Businesses Need IT?
Many small businesses opt to have no form of IT, instead managing it without any dedicated cyber security professionals through the use of basic antivirus software and by educating employees on how to avoid cyber threats such as phishing emails and malware.
However, there are a few reasons why this logic is faulty. First, there are so many cyber threats that exist and ways they can penetrate your network that antivirus software and employee cyber security education cannot fully protect against all of them.
For instance, hackers can access your network through open ports on your network-connected devices. The everyday person doesn’t know how to secure the ports on their network, which means that security gaps can exist that you cannot close yourself.
However, securing your network isn’t a static task that can be completed once and then forgotten about. It is an ongoing process that evolves with the tactics of cyber criminals, which is why paying someone to secure your network or remove a threat will only work temporarily.
Additionally, IT staff complete crucial additional tasks that accomplish more than just protecting against network threats. Depending on the type of IT you employ, they can:
- Implement equipment upgrades: If your business needs new computers or other network-connected hardware and software, completing this task yourself can be time-consuming and complex, and the costs to pay someone to install it can quickly add up. IT professionals can complete these tasks for you, saving money and stress.
- Assist with office moves, expansions, and transitions to a remote environment: Opening office locations and transitioning to a remote office involves enough moving parts that effectively setting up your network can be forgotten about or left to be completed by costly break/fix companies. IT professionals can take the burden off by completing these tasks themselves.
- Back up data: If your business’ network were to go down, you could potentially have to restore your network to the most recent backup, losing all data that wasn’t backed up in the process. IT professionals can automate efficient data backups to minimize data loss in the event of a network outage.
- Minimize downtime: By building BCDR plans, automating data backups, and using software to rebuff cyber threats that can cause network outages, IT professionals effectively minimize network downtime.
- Ensure regulatory compliance: For businesses that must be compliant with data privacy regulations such as HIPAA, IT professionals can help ensure compliance by taking steps to safeguard sensitive data, such as by implementing role-based security measures within your network.
These additional tasks alone can make IT worth the cost, seeing as they are crucial in maximizing productivity, planning for the future, and protecting company data in the event of a network outage.
Why Small Businesses Are More Prone to Cyber Attacks
While hackers target big businesses with ransomware because they have much more money at their disposal to pay ransoms, they also have a much larger budget to build out a robust internal IT department to prevent and rebuff cyber attacks. Some even have cyber insurance to mitigate the liability associated with a cyber attack.
Since smaller companies have a tighter bottom line to maintain, many simply cannot afford to allocate much money to building out their network security infrastructure.
And if they are the victims of a ransomware attack, many small businesses may not have the resources to pay a third-party company to restore their systems, which means that some are more likely to pay the ransom.
Break/Fix
Break/fix is a form of IT support primarily used by companies that are small enough (typically five employees or less) to not have much room in a budget for hiring a full-time IT professional or using a third-party IT services company.
Break/fix companies function similarly to a Best Buy Geek Squad in that they are hired sparingly to fix a single particular issue.
This type of IT solution is utilized to fix singular issues such as:
- Network outages
- Computer troubleshooting
- Hardware/software installations
However, since these companies are only used sparingly, the fees that these companies charge can be sizable, which can eat up the miniscule budgets that extremely small businesses can have.
Unlike in-house or third-party IT, which can fix issues much sooner, break/fix companies may not be able to fit you in their schedule for a little while, which can cause costly downtime if the problems you’re experiencing are extensive, as well as hinder productivity when employees cannot work properly.
Additionally, since break/fix companies are not paid to consistently monitor your network, that means this task is left up to your business.
Since cyber security is a dynamic project that involves regular network maintenance, security gaps can quickly pop up in your network after a break/fix consultation without dedicated and trained IT personnel.
In the end the best possible option would be managed IT services. This can be a good option for the following types of businesses and more:
- Those who lack proper backup processes: When data backups aren’t automated and completed as often as possible, your business risks losing a large amount of data in the event of a network outage, and paying high downtime costs as it will take longer to recover your network.
- Those in the financial, legal, or healthcare industry: Businesses in these industries typically house large amounts of sensitive data within their networks that they are bound to protect due to data privacy regulations such as HIPAA and Sarbanes Oxley. An MSP (managed service provider) can set specific data security protocols to ensure compliance with these regulations.
- Those who desire a hands-off approach to IT: Those who don’t have the time or resources to effectively manage an internal department may benefit more from an MSP. While an MSP will keep you updated on changes and work with you to develop future plans, they require less management than an internal team.