Why Your Business Needs Managed IT Services

Big firms have several teams made of various professionals, because their business volume needs that type of manpower. Because you’re a small business that’s operating on a budget that is smaller than what large organizations can afford, you have to be sure that every penny counts. The truth is that small companies like yours can’t afford hiring a full time IT support expert, let alone a whole in house IT team.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hire an IT team, because you can. It’s just that you don’t need to hire an in-house team. Balancing the budget is one of the most common problems among small businesses. If you’re just starting a business, you might think that hiring an IT support expert is the last thing that you need to do. It is not a luxury. As a matter of fact, it should be one of your priorities. Whether you have a big or small business, using an IT service is a must.

 

Why Use Managed IT Services

 

1.     Improve Your Business Security

Your business data is essential and protecting it must be one of your top priorities. With the many different cyberthreats these days, IT support Fayetteville NC professionals know the best prevention and action methods to handle an attack, in case it occurs. An IT company will assist you in obtaining the best security and make sure there’s a backup of your data, to minimize the losses you incur in the event of a cyberattack.

2.     Get What You Need

The IT support you require will depending on the kind of business you run and what your company needs. You most likely need an email, a backup, security, and a fully functional IT infrastructure. Fortunately, you can hire managed IT service providers that offer support that you pay per hour or for a fixed monthly price. The best IT firms have an on-site and remote IT experts who take care of maintenance and deployment. Therefore, such a company can handle all of the IT needs of your business.

3.     Get Rid of Unnecessary Costs

IT outsourcing allows you to cut back on unnecessary IT expenses and help you save cash eventually while you grow and innovate your small business. With an IT support expert by your side, you have a professional who will present you with the best options to address your IT needs.

4.     Improve Efficiency and Productivity

Having the right technology and a fully functional technology are two things that affect your company’s productivity and efficiency. Managed IT service providers will make sure that your technology works properly. The IT support team will be responsive so that your company will suffer less downtime. Find a company that is available through phone, email, and chat and can deal with your IT needs right away. Don’t hire those that require you to open tickets and make you wait before they address your concerns.

 

5.     Focus On Important Things

You know how inconvenient it is to spend a day at work while having a tech problems. It’s a slight setback and an unpleasant surprise, an annoyance and a headache, or an operational paralysis or a complete collapse. Time is money and every minute counts especially when you’re a business owner. A crashing server will put your business relationship with your clients at risk and it could lead to money loss. By having an IT team on your side, you don’t have to worry about these things. IT support can deal with these problems and you can focus on important matters involving your business.

 

Call SpartanTec, Inc. now and let our team of IT experts deal with your IT needs, prevent IT disasters, and solve IT problems efficiently, and quickly.

 

SpartanTec, Inc.
Fayetteville, NC 28304
(910) 745-7776
http://manageditservicesfayetteville.com

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence

 

Everything You Need To Know About Managed IT Services

In today’s business world, companies that have the latest tools and innovative technologies can stay on top of their competitors. But, having an effective IT support and keeping updated about the most recent trends isn’t a simple task for any company. This is where managed IT services come into the picture.

What is managed IT services?

Managed IT services Fayetteville NC involves passing on your company’s IT operations to a third-party group. These professional third-party firms will deal with all of your IT operations. They offer a range of services such as on-demand support, 24/7 monitoring, data backups, cloud storage, and security. Some firms also work with MSPs that provide storage systems such as networks, desktops, and servers.

Why does your business need managed IT services?

• Pressure to remain updated with the most recent technological advancements.
• The demand to meet regulatory compliance for all technologies used.
• Insufficient technical expertise of your in-house IT team.
• Rise in the number of cyberattack incidents.

What are the types of IT services?

Managed IT services Fayetteville NC are mainly concerned with IT outsourcing including cloud computing, security, hosting, and etc. Hosting is the top IT service that’s outsourced by various organizations. Listed below are the types of IT services offered by MSPs.

System and Network Monitoring

System and network monitoring is among the most cumbersome tasks for any company. MSPs can take on this task through what is referred to as a remote monitoring and management platform. This would help companies concentrate on optimizing their performance while cutting back the losses by concentrating on other crucial aspects of the organization.

System Upgrades and Design

Managed service providers work with companies to understand their requirements and help them reach their unique objectives. They monitor all the future industry changes and trends in technology to make sure that upgrades are performed regularly and the company remains on top of their competitors.

Security Management

Another crucial role of the MSPs is to safeguard a company from cybersecurity threats. They offer regular security management services such as maintenance and software patching.

Backup and Disaster Recovery

Managed IT support Fayetteville NC providers protect the safety and integrity of a company’s data. They will ensure that enough backups are set in place and make sure that the data can be easily recovered in case of a disaster.

Auditing and Compliance

Organizations face a lot of stress when it comes to auditing especially when they don’t have the expertise. MSP are very familiar with every standards and can assist companies reduce the risks that are related to their payment information, client data, as well as other confidential information.

Analytics and Reporting

MSPs offer analytics and reporting on a regular basis to assist firms check their KPIs and network performance. They offer fair snapshots of the workflows in the company and even offer recommendations for improvement.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. now if you are interested in working with a managed IT service provider.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Fayetteville, NC 28304
(910) 745-7776
http://manageditservicesfayetteville.com

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence

Extending the Security Fabric: Refining the Security Operations Center

You are invited to join us for an informational session of technical discussions and demonstrations on Thursday February 18th, 2021.During this virtual event, we will be hosting three 60 min sessions on SD-WAN, FortiNAC and FortiEDR.

This exciting half-day event will be packed with technical discussion, live demonstrations, and customer use cases.

To register, click on Register Now.

Monitoring, managing, and protecting the formless scope and scale of today’s highly distributed and dynamically changing digital enterprise network is a daunting task for IT and Security Operations Teams. The proliferation of IoT and mobile devices, the convergence of IT and OT, and adoption of cloud-based networking and services is making detection and response to threats increasingly difficult, if not impossible with today’s tools. When the network around you is constantly adapting to shifting demands, how do you effectively track and catalog the devices, elements, and infrastructure you are supposed to be protecting, or determining what baselines of “normal ”look like anymore? 

This complex and challenging environment is further exacerbated by the digital transformation of business processes and elements in support of greater efficiencies and better customer experiences, along with the need for the operational support needed to facilitate these efforts on an accelerated scale – something that Gartner is calling “Intent Based Networking”. According to Joe Skorupa, a Gartner VP and distinguished analyst, “Intent-based networking adoption is being driven by digital business transformation's requirements to increase network agility while increasing reliability/availability. The increasing complexity of networks, combined with critical skills shortages in design/deploy/operate tasks, are increasing pressure on infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders to find a better way to map the requirements of the business to infrastructure behavior in a timely, consistent and verifiable way.”

The challenge is that today’s static and isolated security tools, devices, and platforms make up the core of today’s network and security operations centers, and they were simply never designed or built to protect the environments organizations are deploying today. Security operations teams are quickly realizing they can’t prevent what they can’t predict, so they are beginning to shift their focus to more rapid detection and response to threats. However, rapidly detecting and responding to today’s threats requires tightly integrated technology solutions that are agile and scalable. These IT services and solutions also need to deliver adaptive, real-time visibility into the threat landscape, along with the ability to identify, collect, parse, normalize, and correlate a variety of types and sources of threat data from both inside and outside the network and security domains. Visibility also means delivery of more contextual analytics that can more rapidly isolate active threats on the network before they spread, and with the ability to automatically synchronize security and network components to respond to attacks in real time.

SpartanTec, Inc.’s Security Operations Solution has been purposefully designed and built from the ground up to serve this market need by bringing together much of the data and analytics that have traditionally resided in disparate and dis-integrated Network and Security Operations management tools and silos. SpartanTec, Inc.’s Security Operations Solution leverages the pervasive framework of the SpartanTec, Inc. Security Fabric. Its broad, powerful, and automated security management capabilities provide the network and security intelligence needed to arm both IT and security teams with the insights they require to maximize the protection of their SpartanTec, Inc. technology infrastructure.

The Security Operations Solution goes on to enhance and expand the Security Fabric with comprehensive, intelligent, scalable, and highly adaptive security operations elements that are able to discover, gather, cross-correlate, and analyze data from a multitude of sources, including those sourced from SpartanTec, Inc. partners and even competitors. This more integrated and more holistic approach to rapid identification and detection of threats serves to facilitate Intent-Based Network Security architecture operations decision making now and into the future.

Leveraging and going beyond the SpartanTec, Inc. Security Fabric, the SpartanTec, Inc. Security Operations Solution combines FortiSIEM, FortiAnalyzer, and FortiManager, along with Threat Intelligence data derived from FortiGuard Labs and external third-party threat intelligence feeds.

• FortiSIEM –Dynamically auto-discovers the physical and virtual elements attached to the network, self-learns their configurations, and maps their interrelationships to create a dynamic centralized management database (CMDB.) FortiSIEM also provides industry leading, patented threat detection technology that  able to cross correlate both NOC (performance) analytics and SOC (event and log) analytics in real-time, empowering any operations center with a deeper understanding and greater context of their ever-changing threat landscape. FortiSIEM is also able to bring in context and current information from FortiGuard Labs and other third party Threat Intelligence Services for additional sources of context in streamlining detection and response efforts. And all this is delivered through a single-pane-of-glass interface for ease of operations.

FortiSIEM also provides a wide array of pre-built reports, including compliance with the latest regulatory standards and for seeing and managing the performance of business applications. Multi-tenant architecture support is standard, with customizable physical and logical reporting domains, including differentiated reports for various network segments and microsegments. And FortSIEM’s patented and highly scalable architectural design ensures that organizations are able to keep pace with an ever-increasing volume of log and event data without interruption.

• FortiAnalyzer – Provides centralized threat data collection and analysis from the log and event data derived from all SpartanTec, Inc. security and network devices attached to and distributed across an organization’s networking environment, enabling much faster and more accurate threat detection.
• FortiManager – Enables SOC and NOC personnel to initiate and synchronize a coordinated response to detected threats, along with the ability to manage and push new security policies across all SpartanTec, Inc. devices no matter what part of the network is being compromised. In addition, a growing number of SpartanTec, Inc. technology partners are an integral part of this distributed security framework.

SpartanTec, Inc.’s Security Operations Solution greatly consolidates, simplifies, and accelerates rapid detection, isolation, and response efforts for any organization by bringing together the best of SpartanTec, Inc.’s dynamic and responsive Security Fabric and associated management solutions, combined with the adaptive and expanded context derived from the ability to continually self-learn the environment outside the SpartanTec, Inc. world, combined with the real-time analytics derived from hundreds of external network, security, and operations sources, from end-points to the cloud. 

Call SpartanTec, Inc. and find out how our IT Services Fayetteville NC can help refine your company's cybersecurity. 

SpartanTec, Inc.
Fayetteville, NC 28304
(910) 745-7776
http://manageditservicesfayetteville.com

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence

9-Point Guide to Identity Theft Prevention

A March 2017 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the benefits of identity theft services recommends that agencies have the freedom to determine how much identity theft coverage to provide customers and constituents impacted by a data breach. Concluding that mandated coverage levels are “likely unnecessary” as well as potentially costly and misleading, the GAO report has led to a heightened focus on proactive data theft prevention.

 

 

Here are 9 steps the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recommends private- and public-sector organizations take to improve the security of private data:

1. Don’t collect what you don’t need. Take only the data you need, and keep it only as long as necessary. Use personal data only when absolutely essential.
2. Control data access. Restrict access to the sensitive data you do keep, and limit administrative access. Sensitive data should always be accessed on a “need-to-know” basis only.
3. Require secure passwords and authentication. Require employees to choose complex passwords that are unique and not used for personal accounts. Store passwords securely, and protect them against brute force attacks by locking out accounts after repeated unsuccessful login attempts. Protect the system against authentication bypass by testing for common “backdoor” vulnerabilities.
4. Store sensitive personal information securely and protect it during transmission. Keep sensitive data secure throughout its lifecycle. Use validated, accepted methods for securing data. Ensure proper configuration to avoid man-in-the-middle attacks and other risks.
5. Segment your network and monitor access attempts. Use firewalls to segment your network; each computer should talk only to necessary connections. Monitor activity on your network including system logs and use an intrusion detection system.
6. Secure remote access to your network. Set secure remote access policies and stick to them. Solidify endpoint security by reinforcing “weak links” on computers with remote access. Establish sensible limits, allowing just enough access for employees to do their jobs. When necessary, grant temporary limited access or limit connections to specific IP addresses.
7. Make sure your service providers implement reliable security measures. Disclose all of your security expectations to potential IT outsourcing service providers and monitor their services. Put all security standards in vendor contracts and verify compliance.
8. Develop procedures, update security and address vulnerabilities as they arise. Always update and patch third-party software. Listen to warnings about credible security threats and take action immediately. Make sure you have an incident response plan.
9. Secure paper, physical media and devices. Store sensitive files securely. Protect any devices that process personal information and that could be vulnerable to theft or tampering. Keep safety standards in place when data is in transit, not just when it's in the office. Dispose of sensitive data securely; destroy physical data and wipe devices when you're finished with them.

Identity Theft Prevention is the Best Policy

If you would like a copy of our Free Report:  "What Every Business Owner MUST Know To Protect Against Online Identity Theft", feel free to email or call the office.  We'll be happy to provide you with your own personal copy.  When it comes to avoiding the costs and headaches of identify theft, prevention is the best approach by far. A co-managed IT Services provider, SpartanTec, Inc. has the expertise and best-of-breed technology solutions to help agencies check identify theft prevention steps off their lists. Contact us today.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. now and let our IT team help protect you and your business from identity theft and other forms of online attacks.

 

SpartanTec, Inc.
Fayetteville, NC 28304
(910) 745-7776
http://manageditservicesfayetteville.com

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence

What is Zero-Day?

 

A zero day is the code that attackers use to make a hole and it is also the unpatched software hole that was once unknown to the vendor of the software. Zero day refers to the zero day exploit and zero day vulnerability, too.

Zero day vulnerability is the software’s security hole such as the operating system or the browser software that is still unknown to the antivirus vendor or the software maker. This means that the vulnerability is not yet known to the public, although it may already be known to the cybercriminals who are exploiting it quietly. Since zero day vulnerabilities are not known to the vendors of the software and the antivirus companies, there’s no available patch that can be used to repair the hole and no antivirus signatures to determine the exploit, although in some instances, antivirus scanners could still pinpoint a zero day that uses heuristics.

Zero day exploits are also the code that cybercriminals use to exploit the zero day vulnerability. They will utilize the exploit code to move through the hole within the software and add the virus, which could be a Trojan horse or other kinds of malware onto your device or computer.

The term zero day refers to the number of days that the software vendor knew about the hole. The term came from the days of the digital bulletin boards wherein it was about the number of days that a software was released to the public. A zero day software was a software that was not released and highly sought after by hackers who want to be the first one to get their hands on it. If you need help with this, you can always hire the co-managed IT services.

Zero day exploit codes and vulnerabilities are very valuable and are utilized not just by hackers but also by cyber warriors and state spies. Fortunately, IT outsourcing can help protect your company from this threat.

Zero day vulnerabilities can be very rare. Only one or two zero day exploit code are found for more than a million malware that are found and processed every month. Today, unfortunately, zero days are used more often and that’s partly because of the rise of the buy and sell market for zero day exploits and vulnerabilities, which are partly driven by the demand that comes from the intelligence agencies of various governments.

There are three parts to the zero day market. These are the gray market, white market, and the black market. The gray market is where the companies and researchers sell zero day exploits as well as vulnerability data to intelligence agencies, militaries, and law enforcement. They will use it for offensive computer operations as well as surveillance.

The white market is where security companies purchase zero day exploit that they can utilize in their penetration, checking the products to know if the system of the customer is vulnerable to an attack. The black underground market is where cybercriminals trade vulnerability information and exploit code to break into computer systems and steal credit card numbers and passwords.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. now if you need zero day managed ITservices so your company can be protected against zero day exploits and vulnerabilities.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Fayetteville, NC 28304
(910) 745-7776
http://manageditservicesfayetteville.com

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence

Managed IT Services Trends To Watch Out For in 2021

 

IT has been an important aspect of the operations of businesses for decades but last year, the demand for it has grown exponentially especially IT support Fayetteville NC.

Before the pandemic, employees needed a desktop, desk phone, and other industry specific devices, solutions, or equipment. During the pandemic, employees need to find a way to work at home and connect with clients and coworkers virtually.

SpartanTec, Inc. offers managed IT services to help your company ensure IT security especially among your remote employees. Although most of you are happy to leave the past year behind, it’s still undeniable that the previous year helped shape IT and what it’ll be in the future.

Whether it’s your first managed IT services, working with a new IT services Fayetteville NC provider, or continuing an existing support, it’s crucial to know how you’ll be supported in the coming years.

Continued IT Support Fayetteville NC For The Remote Workforce

A study from Harvard Business School revealed that one in six employees work remotely at least two days a week or full time, after the pandemic. If your remote workforce will still remain then the providers of managed IT services must learn to adapt.

MSPs generally support different customers form different locations. Supporting a company with remote employees isn’t new to them either. The rise in remote workforce have changed how managed IT service providers offer on site support because their clients have fewer or no staff working in the office.

Conventionally, among the biggest issues faced by managed IT service providers is they cannot provide hands on and continuous IT support. However, even in house engineers are limited when it comes to how hands on they’re capable of when fixing problems with remote users.

Responding To Changes in IT

There are other changes to IT aside from the rapid increase of remote workers. Companies will deploy certain solutions that remote workers can benefit from. If organizations were thinking of downsizing, they’ll require an even smaller physical IT footprint. MSPs provide support for cloud services and offer recommendations related to their IT concerns.

IT Predictions For 2021

The most important thing to watch out for concerning managedIT services Fayetteville NC is advanced cybersecurity protection. MSPs need to add cybersecurity measures like bundled applications and security software-as-a-service, to prevent their clients from falling prey to cyberthreats.

Managed service providers are expanding their offerings to cater all these changes. This year, it is expected that there will be more MSPs that will offer cybersecurity and continue to protect home offices by computer security solutions such as segmenting home networks and implementing firewall.

Why Use Managed IT Services Fayetteville NC In 2021?

Whether you’re a prospective or existing user of managed IT services, working with an MSP comes with several benefits. It helps you adapt to the many changes in where and how you work. An MSP can help you navigate the changes in technology such as cloud migrations and cybersecurity. They will also keep you updated about emerging technology and how your company can benefit from it.

 

Call SpartanTec, Inc. now if you’re interested in knowing more about managed IT services.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Fayetteville, NC 28304
(910) 745-7776
http://manageditservicesfayetteville.com

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence