By Kevin Beasley, CIO, VAI. Increased competition and new regulatory requirements are increasing the tempo of digital transformation among mid-market companies.
Deloitte's 2023 Mid-Market Technology Trend report found that technology spending among this cohort is at its highest level since 2019.
However mid-market companies face cybersecurity challenges when it comes to their expanding digital footprints.
It's hard to find the cybersecurity talent that businesses need to fend off ransomware attacks and manage software vulnerabilities.
Cloud ERP systems are a strong antidote to the cybersecurity maladies mid-market companies face.
Ransomware attackers extorted at least $449.1 million from organizations in the first half of 2023 alone, according to a threat assessment from the Department of Homeland Security.
Cloud ERP systems can offer a higher inherent degree of security due to their centralized updates and expert-managed security protocols.
They eliminate the inconsistencies of individual end-point security measures by ensuring real-time, system-wide protection.
Cloud ERP systems serve as a lifeline in the high-stakes aftermath of a ransomware attack, by significantly reducing recovery time and costs.
These systems offer robust data backups and redundancy measures, ensuring that businesses can restore operations quickly and efficiently without giving in to ransom demands.
By housing data in secure, remote servers managed by professionals with top-tier expertise in digital security, these systems mitigate the risk of local data breaches and physical server damage.
Large companies struggle to hire, and often pay large salaries for talent.
Cloud ERP systems allow companies to draw on the expertise of the ERP maker, and they can further expedite the integration of new security protocols and software updates.
Instead of allocating resources to find scarce cybersecurity experts, these companies can rely on the robust security measures that come inherently with cloud-based ERP systems.
These platforms are equipped with automatic updates and are backed by a team of security experts from the provider, ensuring that the system is always up to date with the latest security standards and protocols.
This not only alleviates the pressure on mid-market firms to compete for cybersecurity talent but also mitigates the risks associated with human error and insufficient in-house expertise.
Two trends dominate in the digital evolution of the mid-market.
All these digital tools can be a target-rich threat environment.
Cloud ERP is a reliable and resilient component of many mid-market business architectures because they help to integrate this expanding digital footprint into a single, comprehensive system.
As CIO of VAI, Kevin Beasley oversees both the corporation's technology strategy in conjunction with product development and the internal information technology initiatives that support the goals of the company.
This Cyber News was published on www.cyberdefensemagazine.com. Publication date: Mon, 11 Mar 2024 17:13:07 +0000