A Year in Review: The 2019 MSP Industry 

Between victories, pain points, changes and trends, 2019 has been quite a year. A lot has gone on in the IT industry and managed service provider channel – especially in matters dealing with cybersecurity and hacking. In this blog, we’ll take a look back at all things 2019, including industry news, channel headlines, Marketopia highlights and take a peek at what 2020 will bring.

2019 Industry News & What’s to Come in 2020

Email Phishing

Email phishing attacks have been a mainstay of cybersecurity threats for decades now, and this metric didn’t change for 2019. According to Verizon’s 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report, 32 percent of confirmed data breaches were due to phishing, with a further 78 percent from cyber-espionage attacks. A trend growing in popularity with cybercriminals is the use of deceit to trick their intended victims into giving up personal information, login credentials or even the transfer of currency. These attacks are not just confined to email, either. SMS and direct messages on LinkedIn have grown in popularity due to their effectiveness.

Data Privacy, Sovereignty & Compliance

The European Union has started a revolution in data protection, and their move to return full control of data back to citizens has been noticed around the world. The introduction of their General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May of last year has caused countries, states and industries alike to more closely examine their data privacy regulations into 2019. The push is to let internet users know how their information will be shared and give them the option to opt out of sharing at any time. Failure by the visited entity to remain in this compliance would result in severe penalties. This will also help user’s personal data to stay more secure from hackers as it will not be spread about in as many locations. Entities that do receive opt-in data are required to encrypt it as well.

Cyber Security Spend Will Increase

Considering upping your cybersecurity budget? You aren’t alone. According to IDC, global spend on cybersecurity solutions like hardware, software and services is anticipated to top $103 billion in 2019 alone – an estimated increase of 9.4 percent over 2018. This rate of spend growth isn’t expected to stop in the next decade, either. Entities in banking, federal/central governments and discrete manufacturing are expected to be the three largest investors in bolstering their cybersecurity with more than $30 billion combined. Also, this year, process manufacturers, professional service providers and telecommunication companies will each see spending greater than $6 billion this year to protect their data.

Danger in the Cloud

Virtually everything businesses do today is in the cloud – this is why it’s a major target for cyber-attacks. It takes something as simple as intercepting a password, sensitive emails or credit card information, and cybercriminals can gain access to one, many or all the files in cloud storage. Implementing two-factor authentication and VPN security is the best defense against these sorts of attacks moving forward. Both have gained popularity with businesses, especially ones that use or provide infrastructure as a service (IaaS). It helps them mitigate issues from spam email, cybercriminals and other malicious attacks.

Company Highlights

• Between October 9 – 11, Marketopia hosted our annual 4U2GROW conference at the Opal Sands Resort on Clearwater Beach, FL. Here, several industry leaders, including our CEO Terry Hedden, spoke about all things growth in the IT and MSP industry.
• This year we again celebrated being named one of INC 5000’s fastest-growing businesses in the country, placing 875th overall.
• The Tampa Bay Business Journal listed Marketopia as one of its best places to work for 2019, and our leadership team couldn’t be prouder to make this list. We’re honored to be recognized locally as a sought-after place of employment. Listees are selected based on anonymous employee feedback that looks at everything from work-life balance to professional growth opportunities and employee benefits.

How Marketopia Can Help

It has been a year full of exciting changes – but have you made the right ones for your MSP to flourish in the next decade? Resolve to start your 2020 the right way with Marketopia. We have the knowledge and tools to help you succeed in the ever-changing MSP landscape. We have roots in this channel, and our team of experts will help you increase customer demand for your services. Contact us today to get started.

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