Why IT Security Is SMBs’ #1 Worry —and How to Strengthen Defenses with Cloud Services

Executive SummaryFor small and midsize businesses (SMBs) today, the question is no longer whether to adopt cloud services, but how heavily to use them. SMBs are sold on the power of software as a service (SaaS) offerings to boost organizational productivity, but some have concerns about infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offerings such as cloud servers, cloud databases, and virtual machine backup and disaster recovery. They’re concerned about protecting the privacy and security of their data if they move applications to the cloud.

Ironically, SMBs that take a DIY approach to information security may actually be putting their businesses at risk, increasing the chance of a data breach or system outage due to human error or vulnerable systems. Cloud service providers have evolved their offerings to the point where they can offer customers diverse cloud environments to meet all their needs, protect data with enterprise-grade security, help ensure regulatory compliance, and provide blazing-fast performance that delivers business value.

In this ebook, you’ll learn:• How IaaS offerings strengthen SMB data and system security

and privacy

• Why having access to an IaaS expert is better than going it alone

• The unexpected costs and impacts of IT downtime

• The top IT security challenges for SMBs — and how to address them

• How IaaS provides performance and growth advantages

• 14 reasons to adopt SherWeb Performance Cloud

• Why you should choose Microsoft and SherWeb cloud services for your business

A study by Deloitte and Google finds that 69% of SMBs expect

to increase their use of cloud technology by 2017 to

increase their competitiveness.1 If you haven’t adopted

IaaS offeringsto power your business, the time is now.

Get started with the SherWeb Performance Cloud today.

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Are Cloud Security Concerns Short— Circuiting SMB Growth?

When it comes to cloud services,

it’s no longer a question of staying

on the sidelines.

Nearly nine out of 10 small and midsize businesses (SMBs) are using at least one infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offering, such as online hosting. In addition, they’re going online for productivity tools, using 2.5 business applications on average.2 SMBs are adopting cloud-based collaboration, file sharing, and marketing automation solutions3 because of their ability to simplify processes, fuel organizational productivity, and reduce the cost of customer acquisition.

However, many SMB CEOs are hesitating to move more of their business online because of data privacy and security concerns. Small businesses cite security as their number-one IT challenge, while midsize businesses say it is their second-most pressing concern.4

Adopting cloud services

will significantly strengthen

IT security for SMBs.

In this ebook, we discuss

common concerns SMBs

have about IT security and

how cloud IaaS offerings

address them, providing these

companies with enterprise-

grade security for their vital

data, applications, and systems.

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But we understand why SMB leaders

have concerns about the privacy and

security of their data. For any enterprise,

confidential data is the lifeblood of

the business. Having that information

compromised because of an accidental

or intentional data breach would cause

significant harm.

In addition, SMBs that work in highly regulated industries such as financial services, healthcare, and retail need to abide by stringent data privacy and security requirements. Failure to do so can result in regulatory citations and fines—not to mention considerable reputational harm.

For companies of all sizes, information risks are a business reality. Cyber threats—from phishing, to social engineering, to hacking attempts— are growing in number.

Mobile workers are using

corporate devices and data in

a broad range of locations.

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Companies are connecting all their

“things” to gain real-time intelligence

on organization performance.

So for many SMBs, information security

responsibilities are becoming a heavy

burden to bear.

In the early days of public cloud services, providers’ commitment to data security may have given SMBs pause. Yet the reality is that leading cloud service providers (CSPs) today have developed cloud services that offer enterprise-grade security, AlwaysOn performance, and blazing-fast responsiveness, which is guaranteed by service-level agreements.

In fact, CSPs’ approach to data privacy and security is certainly better than SMBs’ own. Why is this?

Data security is the #1 concern

of small businesses and the #2

concern of midsize businesses.

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The costs of downtime are

considerable. As a consequence,

SMB owners are now considering

business continuity solutions

such as backup as a service

(BaaS) and disaster recovery as a

service (DRaaS).

DIY Security a Huge Risk for Totally Connected Businesses

The hard truth is that most SMBs take

a DIY approach to data security. As a

consequence, they lack the expertise,

staff, budget, and governance to create

a strong security program.

That’s because an SMB owner may manage the IT infrastructure himself or herself or rely on a single staffer to handle all IT needs. Even a cyber-savvy SMB owner can’t compete with the knowledge and expertise of CSP staff who are 100% focused on managing, maintaining, and evolving cloud infrastructures.

In addition, many use on-premises backup services as a proxy for disaster recovery services, putting their businesses at risk. If a server failure or cyberattack takes systems or databases offline for hours or days,

SMBs suffer.

Human Error—Not Hacking is Responsible for Most SMB IT Issues

Just

Just

Just

Just

SMBs say they have enough in-house expertise to create a strong security posture.

would know what to do if they had a security breach.

SMBs have BaaS

have DRaaS to ensure business continuity.

1 in 4

1 in 31 in 3

1 in 5

of all online security incidents.

Human error is responsible for

95%

of SMBs go out of business within six months of a data breach.

60%

for mission-critical applications

Using

1 laptop

#1 mistake is clicking on a phishing link.

Unplanned downtime can last as long as

24 Hours

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The

For SMBs, one hour of unplanned downtime for mission-critical applications can hurt the bottom line:

cost per hour for small businesses (<10 employees)

cost per hour for small businesses (10-99 employees)

cost per hour for midsize businesses (100–499 employees)

$8,220 $10,790 $25,600

increased malware and phishing risks.+ emails =

Top 8 IT Security Challenges for SMBs— and How to Address Them

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1 23 4

Passwords:Busy SMB owners often reuse simple passwords across online accounts, making it easier for cybercriminals to gain access to multiple services when they crack codes. Solution:

• Use a password manager capture and replay solution to automate logins.

• Harden weak or duplicative passwords.

Basic security: SMBs often use basic virus protection and firewalls to protect their systems. Solution:

• Gain a “defense in depth” security plan fit for a global enterprise.

• Address physical, logical, and data security—by partnering with a CSP.

Insufficient security budgets: More than 40% of SMBs don’t have an adequate security budget to meet their needs.6 Rapid business growth, resulting in adding new employees and systems, can further strain budgets. Solution:

• Maximize your security budget with cloud services that offer enterprise-grade security and consumption-based pricing.

No security procedures or policies: Two in three SMB owners don’t have security policies or procedures,5 meaning that organizations may have a haphazard or inconsistent approach to dealing with IT security. Solution:

• Let your CSP help you strengthen governance with their documented policies and procedures.

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5 67 8

Human error: SMB owners who aren’t IT experts are likely to create vulnerabilities, such as misconfiguring systems, failing to patch software, or not changing default usernames and passwords. Solution:

• Turn over the heavy lifting of system management and maintenance to CSP experts.

Advanced threat protection: SMBs lack advanced threat protection services. Solution:

• Gain these capabilities with cloud services.

• CSP experts use “white hat” hacking to detect and address vulnerabilities.

• Hunt adversaries with online traps to detect their attack strategies.

Lost or stolen devices: If devices aren’t encrypted, SMBs risk exposing their confidential information to anyone who turns on the device or hacks a simple password using online tools. Solution:

• Encrypt devices with a solution like Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption.

• Use SherWeb ActiveSync to wipe devices if they are diverted.

• Implement a mobile device management (MDM) solution to gain control over growing device fleets.

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) SMBs may be afraid of adopting more cloud services, such as cloud servers and databases, due to the risk of an outage due to a DDoS. They shouldn’t be. CSPs provide automatic failover to a secondary site, meaning that SMBs are always in business.

I cannot think of anything that SherWeb needs to improve upon.

Every encounter with a SherWeb staff member has been great. They

are knowledgeable, pleasant, and eager to help. The organization

took our needs seriously and anticipated our requirements.

Mike Fromant Managing Director, Contis Group

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To Grow Fast, SMBs Adopt Cloud Services Aggressively

SMBs that move on-premises operations

to the cloud gain flexibility, agility, and

the ability to scale on a moment’s notice.

They have 24/7/365 access to IT expertise and maintenance services from their CSP. And they receive a steady stream of innovations from CSPs’ technology partners, such as Microsoft. That’s why two out of every three SMB leaders interviewed by Deloitte and Google expected to increase their use of cloud technology by 2017.7 They’re leveraging cloud servers and cloud databases to power mission-critical systems and customer-facing applications, and relying on BaaS and DRaaS to ensure business continuity.

If you’ve been waiting for the perfect moment to adopt cloud services, the time is now. In the next few years, those SMBs that aggressively adopt cloud solutions will pull away from their competitors. As they create new products, win new customers, and redefine markets, they will create a different future.

With cloud services, there is no need to seek cover from inclement forces. The forecast for the future is growth.

In the same survey:

• Four out of five SMBs say

cloud services help them

grow and scale faster.

• Four out of five SMBs say

cloud services enable them

to access new markets and

revenue streams.

• Two out of three say cloud

services enable them to

beat competitors.8

The SherWeb Performance Cloud is an IaaS offering based on Microsoft technology. Windows virtual servers provide you with

instant access to public cloud compute power, while Microsoft Hyper-V 2012 R2, the fastest hypervisor today, helps power your private clouds. Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Enterprise Edition cloud databases keep your enterprise applications performing at peak levels. And virtual machine backup and disaster recovery services keep you always in business with ready access to critical data.

You maintain full control over your virtual machines, provisioning services as you need them and using a full-featured control panel that’s

intuitive enough for non-technical users, but powerful enough to set up your complete enterprise infrastructure.

Want performance and low costs? You get both with the SherWeb Performance Cloud, so there’s no need to settle for second-best public clouds that

drag down production processes and application speeds with slow response times. Read how SherWeb beat Amazon EC2 in Cloud Spectator’s latest analysis of 20-plus IaaS providers.

SherWeb also offers all the business productivity tools you need, including hosted Exchange, Office 365, and collaboration tools, to make your employees and organization incredibly effective.

Say goodbye to high capital expenditures for servers and drives. Say hello to pay-as-you-go pricing and ongoing hardware and staff time savings.

Top Reasons to Adopt SherWeb Performance Cloud

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With the Performance Cloud, you can add more compute resources as you need them. Rest assured everything is interoperable.

With easy access and real-time data, it’s easier to execute the business pivots that are increasingly the norm in today’s marketplace.

SherWeb provides free migration support to help make the transition to the Performance Cloud fast and seamless.

We offer enterprise-grade security, market-leading SLAs, and 24/7 365 customer service to help our customers protect, run, and grow their businesses.

You can integrate Performance Cloud with all your other applications via APIs. The more you move online, the more agile and flexible your business will become.

SherWeb is here to stay, with more than 15 years of experience, a global customer base, and rapid and stable growth that’s been acknowledged by Deloitte and others.

Our solutions allow industry companies to leverage cloud services and comply with PCI-DSS and SOX and other legal requirements.

Our team is made up of experienced engineers, programmers, and system administrators, many of whom hold certifications from Microsoft and other companies.

APIs

As a strategic partner to Microsoft, we both sell their market-leading products and test new innovations to provide

feedback on how they’ll meet the needs of our global customer base.

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We invest extensively in R&D to develop proprietary tools and APIs to extend our services and give our customers a competitive edge.

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Microsoft Cloud OS and the SherWeb Performance Cloud

SherWeb is proud to be one of the

100 elite cloud services partners who

are part of the Microsoft Cloud Network

and offer value-added services based

on the Cloud OS vision.

We offer the SherWeb Performance Cloud technically validated, cloud-based infrastructures and application solutions for small and midsize businesses that want greater choice, flexibility, and consistency than they are typically able to achieve on their own.

The SherWeb Performance Cloud

encompasses cloud servers,

private cloud, cloud databases,

and virtual backup services.

Contact SherWeb today to get

started with the Performance

Cloud—and fast-track your

path to success.

1-855-743-7932

sales@sherweb.com

www.sherweb.com

About SherWeb SherWeb is one of the world’s largest providers of cloud services. With more than 15 years of hosting experience, we are considered a true pioneer in our field: operating in 100 countries, serving more than 25,000 customers, and working with 4,000 exceptional partners. We are a strategic partner of Microsoft, winning the Microsoft Globe Hosting Partner of the Year in 2013 and a finalist in 2014.

As a long-time hosting provider, we know that data security and availability are key concerns.

Here’s how we keep your data safe and available in the cloud:

• Our state-of-the art datacenters are manned round-the-clock by certified professionals with strict access policies and escalation procedures in place.

• Our 100% redundant, Fortune-500 infrastructure has received SOC2 certification, the industry’s highest security standard.

• Our financially backed 99.999% SLA guarantees system performance at all times.

For more information, contact:

1-855-743-7932

sales@sherweb.com

www.sherweb.com

Infographic Information Sources

Statistics for the “Human Error—Not Hacking—Responsible for Most SMB IT Issues,” infographic on page 7 are drawn from the following sources:

Human error and phishing: IBM Security Services 2014 Cyber Security Intelligence Index, as quoted in Marcos Colón, “‘Human Error’ Contributes to Nearly All Cyber Incidents, Study Finds,” SC Magazine, June 16, 2014, http://www.scmagazine.com/human-error-contributes-to-nearly-all-cyber-incidents-study-finds/article/356015/.

In-house expertise: Big Threats for Small Businesses: Five Reasons Your Small or Midsize Business Is a Prime Target for Cybercriminals, White Paper, FireEye, 5, https://www2.fireeye.com/blog-smb-five-reasons-wp.html.

Unplanned downtime costs and length: “SMBs Worldwide to Increase Investments in Cloud and Hybrid Business Continuity Solutions,” Press Release, Carbonite, April 18, 2015, http://investor.carbonite.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=909042

Security breach knowledge: “Cybersecurity: A Small Business Guide,” Business News Daily, July 28, 2015, http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/8231-small-business-cybersecurity-guide.html.

Business impact: Big Threats for Small Businesses, Online Preview, ibid.

DRaaS: “SMBs Worldwide to Increase Investments,” ibid.

1 “Small Business, Big Technology: How the Cloud Enables Rapid Growth in SMBs,” Deloitte, Google, September 2014, https://apps.google.com/learn-more/small_business_big_technology.html.

2 SMB Group Top 10 SMB Technology Trends for 2015, SMB Group, December 2014, http://www.smb-gr.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/SMB_Group_TOP_TEN_SMB_TRENDS.pdf.

3 Ibid.

4 SMB Group’s 2016 Top 10 SMB Technology Trends, SMB Group, December 4, 2015, http://www.smb-gr.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/12-4-15-FINAL-2016-top-10-12-8-15.pdf.

5 Bank of the West survey, as quoted in Big Threats for Small Businesses: Five Reasons Your Small or Midsize Business Is a Prime Target for Cybercriminals, White Paper, FireEye, 5, https://www2.fireeye.com/blog-smb-five-reasons-wp.html.

6 Ponemon Institute survey, as quoted in “Big Threats for Small Businesses,” ibid.

7 “Small Business, Big Technology: How the Cloud Enables Rapid Growth in SMBs,” ibid.

8 Ibid.