Bridging the Mid-Market Talent Gap for Digital Transformation
Bridging the Mid-Market Talent Gap for Digital Transformation
To achieve business value from data technology investments, mid-market companies need the right technical expertise and talent. Yet many mid-market firms push this onto their IT manager, assuming that since it is technology related, IT has it. This is a mistake because most IT departments do not have time for data analytics. They are busy full time keeping company systems stable and secure, and providing support to your team members. This by necessity results in IT deprioritizing data queries over crucial cybersecurity attack prevention. Business analysts and executives get frustrated waiting for data query results, and the data is stale or the business opportunity has passed by the time query results are in.
![IT workers](https://www.aunalytics.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/IT-workers.png)
But even if your IT team had time for it, it still is a mistake to rely on traditional technology administrators for data analytics success. This is unless your IT department has expertise across a wide range of skill sets, from cloud architecture, database engineering, master data management, data quality, data profiling, and data cleansing. What’s more, your IT manager would need to have command over data integration, data ingestion, data preparation, data security, regulatory compliance, data science, and building pipelines of data ready for executive reporting from multiple cloud and on premises environments.
When you read this laundry list of needs, it becomes clear that most mid-market IT departments lack the specialized experts needed to derive business value from their data. Unlike larger enterprises that have the resources to hire skilled staff for these roles, the mid midsize organization requires another option that provides access to the right tools, resources, and support. One that integrates, enriches and is trained in utilizing AI, machine learning, and predictive analytics to achieve more useful results.
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Don’t Let Your Sensitive Data Go Unprotected
Every business has sensitive data that should not be shared with the world at large. Credit card information, personal details, company records—all of this data can be exposed or stolen and ransomed via a single bad actor.
Is Your Data Safe?
Everyone from banks and credit unions to government agencies and utility companies need one basic thing that can stop bad actors: good data security. With hackers and ransomware encroaching on your network, it’s more important than ever before that you have proactive data protection in place.
Good data security includes 24/7/365 monitoring of your network, constant threat and vulnerability scanning, a functioning Security Operations Center (SOC) and more. The problem? It’s hard to find talent to maintain a functional SOC, and when you do find talent your mid-market business may not be able to compete with offers from large enterprises.
While finding, paying, and retaining high quality talent is hard, partnering is not. A side-by-side approach with a knowledgeable partner allows you to actively react to the ever-changing digital landscape—not after your company’s security has been left behind and open for bad actors.
![Side-by-side Security Partnership](https://www.aunalytics.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Security-Partnership.png)
How Can You Protect Your Data?
Many security tools are made for experts—security engineers, network engineers, and others with specific technical expertise. Because the security landscape keeps changing, as bad actors evolve techniques and new threats are constantly emerging, security requires full time dedication to researching and staying up to date with threats, new prevention measures and remediation best practices. Most IT departments do not have time for the research and adaption that security requires. If you don’t have a team that can constantly update your security to provide your company with the best security possible, your security posture will begin to sag. A sagging posture isn’t good for any industry or company—and it needs to be fixed immediately.
By hiring a trusted partner, you can ensure that your sensitive data is secure. Having security that stands up to the worst of ransomware, hackers, and more is a must. An SOC takes care of things for you.
If your company doesn’t have an SOC, it is falling behind. Out of date security means injury to your network becomes more and more likely, and a security event can cause you to lose clients and prospects, large sums of money, and even tarnish your company’s reputation.
Partnering Up
You should already have an internal IT team. Aunalytics’ SOC isn’t meant to replace your IT team, but to supplement and support your team’s security initiatives. An SOC can stop threats before they enter your network and cause chaos, keeping your data out of the hands of bad actors everywhere.
When you need to protect your data, Aunalytics has you covered. With expert toolsets and talent, your business can depend on us to have highly trained experts and the newest technology and information to protect your business in the ongoing threat landscape.
Bridging the Mid-Market Talent Gap for Digital Transformation
Bridging the Mid-Market Talent Gap for Digital Transformation
To achieve business value from data technology investments, mid-market companies need the right technical expertise and talent. Yet many mid-market firms push this onto their IT manager, assuming that since it is technology related, IT has it. This is a mistake because most IT departments do not have time for data analytics. They are busy full time keeping company systems stable and secure, and providing support to your team members. This by necessity results in IT deprioritizing data queries over crucial cybersecurity attack prevention. Business analysts and executives get frustrated waiting for data query results, and the data is stale or the business opportunity has passed by the time query results are in.
![IT workers](https://www.aunalytics.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/IT-workers.png)
But even if your IT team had time for it, it still is a mistake to rely on traditional technology administrators for data analytics success. This is unless your IT department has expertise across a wide range of skill sets, from cloud architecture, database engineering, master data management, data quality, data profiling, and data cleansing. What’s more, your IT manager would need to have command over data integration, data ingestion, data preparation, data security, regulatory compliance, data science, and building pipelines of data ready for executive reporting from multiple cloud and on premises environments.
When you read this laundry list of needs, it becomes clear that most mid-market IT departments lack the specialized experts needed to derive business value from their data. Unlike larger enterprises that have the resources to hire skilled staff for these roles, the midsize organization requires another option that provides access to the right tools, resources, and support. One that integrates, enriches and is trained in utilizing AI, machine learning, and predictive analytics to achieve more useful results.
Achieving Digital Transformation
Digital transformation has been defined by some as the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, fundamentally changing how employees operate and deliver value to customers. Some of the challenges midsize businesses have with building an internal team to initiate this concept are employee pushback, lack of expertise to lead digitization initiatives, improper organizational structure, the absence of a digitization strategy and limited budget. As an alternative to building an internal operation, a more efficient way for mid-market businesses is to leverage the skillsets of experts by partnering with a consolidated group of experts, leveraging a side-by-side model that couples technology with talent. Look for solution providers that offer the following:
![Digital Transformation](https://www.aunalytics.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Digital-Transformation-2.png)
- Powerful cloud data centers paired with engineers skilled in architecting cloud-based applications and processes that better serve critical business requirements. These data centers are optimized for true multi-tenancy, built on seamlessly integrated hardware and software, offer business-driven configurability, world-class security and performant systems.
- Active Monitoring and Thoroughly Integrated Security. Monitoring and security should be pervasive across system infrastructure to defend against cyberattacks and provide remediation when required. Business customers will also expect full-time monitoring and on-demand help desk to address unexpected events. The data management platform underpinning applications should be monitored by experienced data engineers with success in building data warehouses, data lakes, and data pipes. They should also be able to integrate, cleanse, and transform data into decision-ready and analytics-ready business information.
- High ROI Business Insights that Drive Results. Data analytics investments need to provide real business value by giving actionable insights and finding opportunities within your data. With this in mind, data analytics should include access to data scientists and business analysts versed in your industry. These experts should be equipped to design AI-powered algorithms that answer the most pressing questions based on real-world business challenges.
Mid-Market Data Transformation for Enterprise-Class Results
Ensuring the right mix of hardware, software and resulting services are available to maximize the data center capabilities—and their ability to manage and protect data—is crucial to effective mid-market digital transformation. To compete and drive value, the cloud data center provider must deliver at all levels, with customizable business intelligence solutions powered by an effective data management platform that is secure and compliant. Successful mid-market digital transformation thus requires a shift of responsibilities for infrastructure procurement and maintenance to a third-party provider backed by experienced staff and best-in-class infrastructure.
When implementing a digital transformation project, your company gains from the many benefits this brings, such as a higher return on your IT investment, increased employee and customer experience, and greater business agility. This is further enhanced by leveraging experienced cloud engineers, data engineers, security experts, data scientists, and other highly skilled technical resources—achieving true business value from the investment. And by partnering with experts, your company’s time, resources, and innovation can be focused on its core competencies.
See Yourself in Cyber—How Individuals Can Reduce Security Risk
It seems like just yesterday our biggest security risk was a ‘long lost relative’ claiming we had millions of dollars waiting for us if only we would send them a little money up front. The world and technology have come a long way since then, and not always for the better. Now we are inundated with spam in the form of calls, texts, emails, and every other form of communication in existence—all alongside our actual conversations. Your grandma might message you on Facebook to ask for your help and it turns into requiring a trip to Walmart to buy $500 in Apple gift cards. Your CEO might text you with an urgent request when they’ve never texted you before. With this constant barrage of threats that continue to get more and more believable, is it even possible to be safe online? It most certainly is, but it requires vigilance and a keen, informed eye.
![Man at computer facing security risk phishing attempt](https://www.aunalytics.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/See-Yourself-in-Cyber%E2%80%94How-Individuals-Can-Reduce-Security-Risk-2-2.png)
October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month in the US and this year’s theme is ‘See Yourself in Cyber’. Whether you’re the head of IT, a bank teller, a homemaker, or anything in between, you’re at risk of a cybersecurity attack. However, the industries experiencing the highest number of incidents are finance, healthcare, and public administration. As scammers, hackers, and generally ‘bad actors’ hone their craft, we also need to sharpen our detective skills. It’s an unfortunate truth, but we need to learn how to spot the red flags because it’s expected that, by 2025, there will be an average of 10 devices per person connected to the internet globally. All of which become a playground for cybercriminals if the devices aren’t well guarded by technology—and you.
Types of Threats
There are as many reasons bad actors attack as there are ways they do it. Understanding the most common methods will help you better avoid them in the wild. Here are some of the most widespread attacks you might see:
- Phishing: When a bad actor sends an email that appears to be from a reputable source or someone you are likely to trust in the hopes that you will open an infected attachment or follow a malicious link. This could allow them access to your system or persuade you to divulge personal information, such as passwords or credit card information.
- Spear Phishing: When a bad actor sends a phishing attack specifically targeting you. Typically, it will include information they’ve learned about you from social media or other online public forums.
- Smishing: This is phishing in the form of a text message.
- Vishing: This is phishing in the form of a phone call.
Spotting the Red Flags
For these types of threats, you’ll need to be able to identify something out of place to make you pause before taking any harmful actions. However, this is where vigilance is critical because these red flags are becoming increasingly more difficult to spot. Below you will find guidance on where you are most likely to spot a threat:
- Email is the most likely path a scammer will take. When identified separately, these signs may not seem concerning, but when combined, they are a sure sign of a phishing attack.
- Does the subject line or content of the email seem alarming or urgent?
- Is the email from someone unexpected or unknown?
- Is the ‘reply-to’ address different from the ‘from’ address?
- Did the email come in at an unusual time or day, such as in the middle of the night or on a weekend?
- Are there grammar or spelling mistakes?
- Does the wording seem unnatural?
- Are there unexpected or suspicious links or attachments?
- Are they offering you money or gift cards in exchange for an action?
- Is the email unexpected or out of place?
- Text messages may come in a different format, but they can still open you to the same security risks. Many of the red flags above still apply, but these are the most common examples in smishing.
- Is the sender claiming to be an executive at your company with an urgent need?
- If you know the sender, is the text from the number you have for them?
- Are you being asked personal information?
- Are you being asked to follow a link?
- Phone call scams commonly prey on the elderly and are more common outside of the workplace. Common signs to look for in vishing are:
- Is the call unexpected?
- Does the caller request access to your device to solve an issue?
- Does the caller threaten legal action or claim to be from a governmental body such as the IRS?
- Does the caller claim you have won money or a prize?
- Does the caller request payment in the form of gift cards or money orders?
Protecting Yourself
This feels like a lot of effort; what’s really the worst that can happen if you fall for one of these scams? If you click on a malicious link or download an infected attachment, you leave the door wide open for a hacker to access not only your device, but your entire network of devices and data. If they are able to access your personal information, they could potentially access your bank account, credit card information, or other private accounts. Shockingly, 88% of data breaches are caused by employee mistakes. Here are some steps you can take to ensure you aren’t part of that 88%:
- If an email comes from someone you work with, but you are noticing red flags, especially links or attachments, contact the person directly to verify they actually sent it.
- If there are links in the email, hover over them to ensure they match what is being displayed.
- Ensure links point to a trustworthy site. For example, you might receive an email from Microsoft asking you to reset your Outlook password, but when you hover over the link, it shows http://www.microsoftt.com/. Notice the misspelling in Microsoft.
- If you are unsure of a link, navigate to the website through your browser rather than clicking the link.
- If you receive an attachment that you didn’t expect, such as a financial statement when you don’t work in finance or a UPS shipping confirmation when you didn’t order anything, don’t open it until you can confirm its validity.
- Always remember, it is truly better safe than sorry when it comes to suspicious links or attachments.
This is just a small window into an ever-changing landscape of security threats. It might feel impossible to keep up as threats evolve, but there are ways to stay informed and vigilant for both you and your company. Through its Secure Managed Services Solution, Aunalytics provides the tools and talent you need to stay protect from outside threats, include a streamlined training platform to ensure you and your team can stay up-to-date with current threats and reduce security risk. When you are able to ‘See Yourself in Cyber’, you become critical in fighting against bad actors and the cyber threats they pose.
Aunalytics Security Operations Manager Rob Bradford to Deliver a Talk on the Cost of Skimping on Security in 2022 at BankTech Conference, Attended by Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio Bankers
Leading Data Management and Analytics Company Will Feature Its Managed Services Solutions for Improving Operational Efficiencies and Reducing the Risks Associated with Cyber Attacks at Two Banking Events in October
South Bend, IN (September 29, 2022) - Aunalytics, a leading data management and analytics company delivering Insights-as-a-Service for mid-market businesses, announced today that Rob Bradford, Security Operations Manager for Aunalytics, will discuss The Cost of Skimping on Security in 2022 at the BankTech Conference on October 6. The company will also showcase its managed services, enterprise cloud, and data cleansing portfolio at the conference, in addition to the Indiana Bankers Association’s Security & Technology Conference, October 4-6.
Cyber-attacks are an increasing concern, especially for financial services firms which may experience up to 300 times more cyber attacks per year than other firms. Cyber criminals continue to double down efforts to breach financial data, compromise accounts, and profit from this industry with increasingly sophisticated attacks and campaigns. It is more critical than ever that banks work with the right IT services providers who have the security expertise, up-to-date knowledge of industry developments, and comprehensive tools to maintain a strong defense against cyber threats.
Aunalytics provides IT and security expertise to mid-market businesses in the areas of financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, professional services, and cities and local government. The company’s Secure Managed Services offering combines mission critical IT services leveraging zero-trust, end-to-end security to ensure data is protected regardless of a user’s location. Aunalytics provides managed components that offer stability and security, and its next-generation managed services offering is powered by a data platform that provides data-driven IT answers and embedded security that focuses on people and access.
The full suite of managed IT and integrated security services empowers businesses with a complete, all-encompassing approach that includes 24/7/365 monitoring and management, a synchronized network security platform, workstation and server patching, internet protection, email filtering and security, Office 365 management and security, multi-factor authentication, data and device encryption management, and security awareness training.
The company delivers advanced security for defending against modern threats through a team of engineers and analysts with expert skills and toolsets and, in regulated industries, Aunalytics provides the additional technology and controls required to manage risk. Its team of experts is dedicated to analyzing ever-changing rules and regulations and helping users to create processes and policies for data protection and meet compliance requirements within those industries that are regulated.
Aunalytics’ Enterprise Cloud offering is comprised of infrastructure solutions that provide a highly redundant and scalable platform for hosting servers, data, analytics and applications at any performance level. With the Aunalytics® Cloud Storage and Compute solution, users are assured the highest levels of security, accessibility, expertise, scalability, and savings. Aunalytics’ data centers, located in Northern Indiana and Southwest Michigan, meet the most rigorous compliance standards.
“Cyber security continues to be an important concern for banks and other financial institutions while cyber criminals are increasingly adept at executing attack campaigns,” said Steve Burdick, Vice President Sales, Cloud & Managed Services Aunalytics. “Working with a managed services provider who has the expertise to help with such things as vulnerability testing, proactive threat hunting, and ongoing monitoring helps reduce the burden on internal IT resources. Aunalytics’ full suite of managed IT and integrated security services solutions provides the tools and people resources mid-market banks need to adequately improve their security postures and maintain the highest levels of IT security to thwart cyber-attacks and reduce risk.”
Tweet this: .@Aunalytics Security Operations Manager Rob Bradford to Deliver a Talk on The Cost of Skimping on Security in 2022 at BankTech Conference, Attended by Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio Bankers #Informationtechnology #Managedservices #Enterprisecloud #Datacleansing #Dataplatform #Dataintegration #Dataaccuracy #Digitaltransformation #ITsecurity #Securitytechnology #Banking #Midmarketbanks #Creditunions
About Aunalytics
Aunalytics is a leading data management and analytics company delivering Insights-as-a-Service for mid-sized businesses and enterprises. Selected for the prestigious Inc. 5000 list for two consecutive years as one of the nation’s fastest growing companies, Aunalytics offers managed IT services and managed analytics services, private cloud services, and a private cloud-native data platform for data management and analytics. The platform is built for universal data access, advanced analytics and AI – unifying distributed data silos into a single source of truth for highly accurate, actionable business information. Its DaybreakTM industry intelligent data mart combined with the power of the Aunalytics data platform provides industry-specific data models with built-in queries and AI for accurate mission-critical insights. To solve the talent gap that so many mid-sized businesses and enterprises located in secondary markets face, Aunalytics’ side-by-side digital transformation model provides the technical talent needed for data management and analytics success in addition to its innovative technologies and tools. To learn more contact us at +1 855-799-DATA or visit Aunalytics at https://www.aunalytics.com or on Twitter and LinkedIn.
PR Contact
Denise Nelson
The Ventana Group for Aunalytics
(925) 858-5198
dnelson@theventanagroup.com
5th Annual BankTech Conference
5th Annual BankTech Conference
Chicago Marriott Southwest, Burr Ridge, IL
Aunalytics to Present at the 5th Annual BankTech Conference and Participate at the Innovators' Showcase
Aunalytics is proud to participate in the 2022 BankTech Conference on October 6, 2022 in Burr Ridge, IL. Rob Bradford, Security Operations Manager at Aunalytics, will be presenting the talk, “The Cost of Skimping on Security in 2022” at 10:15am central time. Representatives from Aunalytics will also be showcasing our Secure Managed Services IT offering as well as our Advanced Security solution during the Innovators’ Showcase.
![22 BankTech Conference](https://www.aunalytics.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/22-BankTech-Conference.png)
2022 Indiana Bankers Association Security & Tech Conference
2022 Indiana Bankers Association Security & Tech Conference
Renaissance Indianapolis North Hotel, Carmel, IN
Aunalytics is Proud to Attend the 2022 IBA Security & Technology Conference
Aunalytics is proud to participate in the 2022 Indiana Bankers Association Security & Technology Conference from October 4-6, 2022 in Carmel, IN. Representatives from Aunalytics will be showcasing our Secure Managed Services IT offering as well as our Advanced Security solution.
![22 IN Bankers Association Security & Tech Conference](https://www.aunalytics.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/22-IN-Bankers-Association_-Security-Tech-Conference-1.png)
The State of Ransomware in Financial Services 2022
The State of Ransomware in Financial Services 2022
This report examines ransomware trends across the financial services sector as revealed in a 2022 survey of 5,600 IT professionals. The survey was commissioned by Sophos, an Aunalytics partner, and leader in the cybersecurity space.
![The State of Ransomware in Financial Services 2022](https://www.aunalytics.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Report-The-State-of-Ransomware-in-Financial-Services-2022.png)
Fill out the form below to receive a link to the report.
Aunalytics is a data platform company. We deliver insights as a service to answer your most important IT and business questions.
The State of Ransomware in Financial Services 2022 - PDF
The State of Ransomware in Financial Services 2022
Government Agencies Need Proactive Security Plans in Place to Defend Against Ransomware
Cyberattacks are increasing across all industries, but for state and local governments and government agencies, the threat is imminent. Attackers are becoming more sophisticated and use a wide variety of tactics to infiltrate organizations. Now, more than ever, a proactive security posture is imperative to avoid the loss of sensitive data and costly downtime.
![Security threats](https://www.aunalytics.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Protection_Circles_2.png)
The Stats
With 58% of local and state governments reporting a ransomware attack within the last year, government agencies became one of the most heavily affected groups – second only to academia – in 2021, according to the FBI.
It’s not cheap when government offices fall victim to a ransomware attack. Often agencies are attacked by complex cyberattacks that are difficult to detect and even more difficult to remove while keeping your data safe and your services uninterrupted.
Ransomware isn’t uncommon, but that doesn’t stop your agency from going down for an extended period of time—downtime that cost local and state government entities an estimated $623,700,000 in 2021, reports EMSISOFT in an August, 2022 article.
The Solution
A Security Operations Center (SOC) is becoming a necessity for government agencies of all levels. With the government sector being a prime target for hackers and cyberattacks, it’s imperative that proactive security is in place to protect your confidential data. With a continually increasing threat landscape, having security that can stand up to the worst of bad actors is a must. An SOC takes care of things for you.
Why an SOC? An SOC can answer threats before they slip into your network and servers—before important data has been stolen by the bad actor. Does your organization have an SOC? If not, your agency is falling behind and your security is not up to date, meaning it may not protect you from all cyberattacks that will try to injure your network.
SOCs can be expensive and complex to build, and even harder to fill with talent. Even with the short supply of talented security engineers, most entities cannot afford to compete with the money big names like Microsoft, Google, and Facebook offer, but it doesn’t mean you should go without an SOC.
Getting Help
FedRAMP certification is a long, difficult process, upon which a service provider becomes an expert in providing a secure platform to manage credentials, vendors, workforce, and more. A FedRAMP certified company can best protect your data and uphold your privacy, security, and confidentiality.
Aunalytics is proud to be one of a select few to be FedRAMP ready certified in the Midwest, meaning we have achieved compliance to meet FedRAMP security standards.
With the security standards that FedRAMP certification requires—and a proven history of working with local governments throughout the Midwest – we have tools and talent to protect your data with the most up to date security practices with our Advanced Security service. With an ever-changing landscape that always includes threats, a trustworthy security partner can help keep your data safe, using 24/7/365 threat and vulnerability scanning, allowing us to find and stop bad actors before they ever access your network.