The VAR Guy

Sponsored Guest Blog: Many small businesses are moving toward the Mac platform, and it’s about more than simply having cool, sleek computers sitting on desks. Macs are solid, reliable products, especially for small-business owners who are inherently busy and don’t have a lot of time or resources committed to IT support. However, as Mac usage increases within the small-business community, so does the size of the target for cybercriminals. Here’s why.

Let me start out by saying those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, and all security vendors live in glass houses. We are all one bad update away from crippling our customers. Every major antivirus vendor has at one time put out one of these bad updates which did more harm than good. It is our worst nightmare.  As a great 21st century philosopher once said, “Stuff Happens.”  The question is how do we make sure it doesn’t happen to us or our customers?

As I recently pointed out over on MSPmentor, Botnets are both a threat and an opportunity for managed services providers and VARs. But how exactly can solutions providers protect their customers? And how can we protect ourselves from the growing botnet threat? Here are some timely steps to help mitigate the threats.

Services are where the money’s at right? One hundred percent margin! What about when you sell a hosted solution, can you still wrap the same services around it? Maybe not, but maybe you can sell more profitable services.  The way I see it there are 3 basic service groups that most solutions providers and MSPs offer. Here are the implications for partners.

When I was a kid I played cops and robbers (or some form of good guy vs. bad guy) with my little brother. Funny thing is now I do the same for a living; well, kind of. I work for a security company and try to offer our partners the products they need to keep their customers protected. OK, guess you could call me a cyber arms dealer for the good guys.