When buying cybersecurity protection, small businesses face many choices.  What kinds of solutions are really needed?  How do you pick the right option?  Should you pick a cloud-based solution or something on-premise?  Pick the wrong solution and you may be under-protected, spending way too much money, or hopelessly bogged down with too many alerts or debugging systems that just aren’t working well together.

The myriad of cybersecurity solutions can be very confusing for SMBs.  There are many dozens of security solutions out there, each protecting a different aspect of your system. In the Cisco 2019 CISO Benchmark study, 14% of organizations reported having more than 20 vendors, and 3% had more than 50.  

As you acquire multiple vendor solutions, each will have a unique dashboard or alert. Trying to orchestrate the alerts from a multi-vendor system can tax even the largest organizations.   You need to find a way to limit the numbers of vendors and have the remaining solutions integrate so you can better manage the alert information and identify which threats need attention.  Cisco is a leader in providing integrated solutions that automate the initial stages of alert prioritization, helping you focus on those alerts that are most important.

You will also need to decide if your security solution will be cloud-based or on-premise.  Here is a quick comparison of one approach vs. another:

What to Look for in a Cybersecurity Solution

Deployment:

On-Premise: Solution sits on your IT infrastructure and you will need to maintain it.

Cloud: Resources are hosted at the service provider and you can access as needed.

Cost:

On-Premise: You are responsible for costs associated with hardware, power consumption, and space.

Cloud: Pay only for the resources you use. Costs adjust based on consumption. No maintenance or upkeep.

Security and Control:

On-Premise: You retain and control all data. Often appealing in highly regulated industries.

Cloud: Data is stored with vendor and secured with encryption keys.

Updates:

On-Premise: Need to buy and upgrade to the latest version.

Cloud: System updates are automatic.

For SMBs, a cloud solution offers less upfront cost and will always be updated to protect against the most recent known threats.

Port53 Technologies helps SMBs protect their businesses with enterprise-grade cybersecurity solutions that are easy to deploy, simple to manage and extremely effective. By partnering with the Cisco security suite and other leading cloud security solutions, Port53 Technologies can design an integrated suite of security solutions tailored to your needs.