Miller Networks, Inc. will help you identify significant cost savings in the hardware, software, networks and services you employ.
Your current IT Infrastructure may be sufficient enough for you to continue daily operations reliably. If your have identified weakness in your IT systems, but must somehow survive through these tough economic times without hiring additional IT staff, you are not alone. Many businesses have looked to alternative IT services solutions that help them balance current and future requirements.
The cost of IT wages and benefits is typically the largest expense to your IT budget. The reward to this labor investment is the ability for small and medium sized business to enter markets, invest in technology, and compete with larger firms. But when the return-on-investment has not been realized, and the hiring of IT staff could be delayed, the use of an outside IT services company, like Miller Networks, becomes your smartest decision.
Excerpts from:
Managed services, outsourcing offer relief during economic downturn
By: Andrew Plato, Contributor, SearchSecurityChannel.com, January 2010
“It is no secret that times are tough. This economic downturn has hurt organizations of all sizes, and unfortunately, IT often gets hit with the brunt of budget cuts. Layoffs, cancelled projects and reduced funding force IT management to sharpen their pencils and make do with less. Within IT, information security is a common target for cutbacks.”
Cutbacks create security risks
“Reducing staff or security resources has risks, but they are often overlooked in budgeting meetings and discussions…Cuts do have an obviously negative effect on security, but customers may not recognize some of the less obvious risks:
• Overtaxing – Having fewer people to complete the same amount of work opens the organization to numerous security risks. Overtaxed staff may make more mistakes or ignore threats that may not seem to present an immediate risk to daily operations.
• Outdated security – Security is a thriving organism in which both attackers and safeguards are constantly evolving and maturing in response to new vulnerabilities. Five-year-old security technologies are outdated and prone to failure. Putting off an upgrade for another year leaves valuable assets open to new attack tactics or vulnerabilities.
• Short term planning – Budget cuts often result in "short-term" decision making. This results in security deployments that merely solve an immediate problem and do not integrate into a larger security or compliance effort, which can lead to problems later when the "Band-Aid" deployment becomes the new de facto standard for the company.
• Non-compliance – Hard-won efforts to become compliant with standards (such as the Payment Card Data Security Standard, or PCI DSS) can quickly unravel in the face of employee churn, lax security or cutbacks.
• Event-driven focus – Reducing staff shifts the organization's focus from strategic planning and governance to a more event-driven or "fire-fighting" mode. This can exhaust staff and reduce its ability to detect and respond to security incidents.
• Morale – Layoffs tend to lead to poor morale in any organization. If people suspect they are going to lose their jobs, they are much more likely to steal data, sabotage systems, hold systems or data hostage or worse. This is particularly problematic if the cuts involve people with administrative rights to systems.”
“Managed services, outsourcing helps with security maintenance
…Reducing IT staff will not reduce the number of issues an IT department must handle, and security attacks do not decline when people are laid off. In fact, organized cybercrime thrives on the lax security of a bad economy. Layoffs also usually increase insider theft and misuse, creating even more security risks for the IT department to handle.”
“Managed or outsourced services are an ideal way to help customers through periods of reduced headcount….With cutbacks looming, most IT departments, especially at smaller organizations, lack the resources to dedicate staff to perform routine maintenance or analysis tasks. Offering security analysis or review service once a week or month can help a customer maintain vigilance at a fraction of the cost of hiring a full-time staff.”
“Some IT people believe that outsourced services makes them look bad. It looks like the staff cannot handle the work. In reality, outsourcing actually extends and enhances the ability of IT people to do more work. It frees them to focus on more complex problems or help internal staff improve processes or systems.”
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