What You Need to Know About Microsoft’s O365 and M365 Price Increases

After a decade of unchanged prices (aside from newly introduced services), Microsoft is raising prices for enterprise Office 365 licenses. These changes will take effect on March 1 of 2022. There are no (immediate) plans to raise the cost of either educational or commercial suites.

Here’s what the price changes look like:

Microsoft 365 Business Basic: increasing from $5 to $6 per license (20% increase)
Microsoft 365 Business Premium: increasing from $20 to $22 per license (10% increase)
Office 365 E1: increasing from $8 to $10 per license (25% increase)
Office 365 E3: increasing from $20 to $23 per license (15% increase)
Office 365 E5: increasing from $35 to $38 per license (~8.6% increase)
Microsoft 365 E3: increasing from $32 to $36 per license (12.5% increase)

While the individual prices aren’t a huge increase, the percentage increase ranges from around 8.6% (O365 E5) to 25% (O365 E1). This change overwhelmingly impacts the lower tier licenses and will be a major increase for smaller clients.

The one silver lining is that Microsoft has announced that: [W]e are announcing that we will add unlimited dial-in capabilities for Microsoft Teams meetings across our enterprise, business, frontline, and government suites over the next few months. The standard audio conferencing license is $4 a month, so this does work out to a bit of a discount for certain use cases.

With Office 365 E5 getting a hike, it’s safe to assume that other products will be getting a hike down the line. It might not happen anytime soon, but it seems to be in line with how Microsoft tends to raise prices. Keep in mind, this is all speculation and not rooted in any specific announcement or other information aside from trends with Microsoft. Don’t sound the alarm quite yet, but it is something to keep an eye on down the line.

See Microsoft’s release for other details.

VISION ’21: The Year of the Return

Reignite Your Passion for Your IT Business at the Premier MSP Event of 2021

Last year was tough on growing businesses. But if you’re an MSP owner, the future looks bright. Indeed, one reputable research report predicts that the MSP market will grow from $242.9 billion in 2021 to $354.8 billion by 2026. This is hardly surprising; more and more businesses are turning to managed IT services to negotiate the growing complexity in their IT infrastructures. And as remote work — and the cybersecurity challenges that come with it — becomes more common, the need for MSPs is only going to become more acute.

But good things come to those who … take action! MSPs are at a pivotal moment. If you’re an MSP owner, the next several years can bring monumental growth — but only if you stay abreast of market trends, business best practices, and customer demands in a post-pandemic world. Now, is it possible to ride the wave of growth without a community of likeminded MSP owners to propel you forward? Of course it is. But why make things harder on yourself?

The 20 is a group of MSPs who’ve decided to join forces. Our MSP members have risen to the top of the IT industry by leveraging shared knowledge and resources, along with a proven sales platform and single service delivery model. And after a socially distanced 2020, we’re excited to announce that this year’s VISION conference will be a live, in-person event. If you’re an MSP owner who wants to grow and scale, VISION ’21 is the one IT conference to attend live in 2021.

Come to VISION ’21 to CONNECT

VISION ’21 will be packed with stellar content for MSP growth. But as great as this content is, what makes a VISION conference truly special are the people. Our MSP members say it time and again – the sense of community The 20 gives them is unmatched.

One of our favorite parts of a VISION conference is seeing IT business owners who have been struggling on their own for years discover the power of our cooperative approach firsthand. Oftentimes, business owners attend VISION for the first time expecting the same networking opportunities they can get at any other IT conference. But when they actually start interacting with our members, they quickly realize that The 20 is different — that we’re not just a group of MSPs, but a genuine community where we actively help each other grow.

Similarly, ‘networking’ at a VISION conference is so much more than exchanging contact information. It’s coming together with your peers and bonding over shared struggles. It’s discovering that you’re not alone. It’s expanding your perspective and opening your eyes to new ways of thinking. So, don’t come to VISION ’21 to ‘network’ – come to form genuine and lasting CONNECTIONS. You owe it to yourself — and your MSP — to experience what it’s like to be a part of a genuine community in an industry where cooperation is rare.

Come to VISION ’21 to get INSPIRED

We’ve talked to thousands and thousands of MSP owners over the years, and we’ve noticed an unfortunate pattern. A person will found their IT business with a clear vision in mind and ambition to spare. But as the years roll on, and as they work tirelessly on their business without seeing it truly grow, that vision and ambition both start to fade. Even the most stalwart business owner isn’t immune to feelings of frustration and even despair. No one likes working hard without seeing results.

If you want to take your MSP to the next level, it’s vital that you take a good, hard look at your own mindset. Are you feeling positive about the future of your MSP? Excited to take on new challenges and innovate solutions to your business problems? Or are you feeling tired, unmotivated … or even hopeless? If it’s the latter, it’s probably time for a change …

Coming to VISION ’21 is a great idea for MSP owners who are feeling worn out or at their wit’s end. There is nothing quite as transformative as coming together with likeminded business owners for a common goal. MSP owners who attend a VISION conference often return to their businesses with a newfound sense of purpose and direction. We’ve seen it happen countless times before, and we can’t wait to see it happen again at VISION ’21.

Remember, sometimes all it takes is one speaker, one conversation, one idea – and your entire perspective can shift. It might be Maye Musk’s incredible story of success and perseverance. It might be an insight from a fellow MSP owner. It might be the refreshingly honest wisdom of Tim Conkle, CEO of The 20. But whatever it is that inspires you at VISION ’21, it’s going to have a lasting impact on how you run your MSP.

Come to VISION ’21 to LEARN

The MSP world moves fast, and keeping up can be tough when you’re an MSP owner who’s working alone. The thing is, IT business owners generally know their stuff … when it comes to IT. But running a successful IT business requires A LOT more than tech expertise. In today’s crowded and highly competitive IT industry, less than 4% of MSPs ever reach $1 million in annual revenue. The reason is simple: the overwhelming majority of IT business owners try to figure out the ‘business side’ of things all by themselves: talent development, service delivery and customer satisfaction, sales and marketing, vendor management — the list truly does go on and on. Achieving competence — let alone mastery — in all of these things is a tall order when you’re already busy with the day-to-day tasks of running your business. So what’s an IT business owner like you to do?

Stop working alone! Come to VISION ’21 and help yourself to the collective expertise of world-class MSPs from all across North America. The 20 prides itself on being a genuine community, and a big part of that is being welcoming to newcomers. We’re not stingy with our wisdom, because we know that the more MSPs we can attract, the stronger we become.

At VISION ’21, you can plug into The 20’s network of IT business owners and industry experts to supercharge your IT business in just two days. Between all of the networking and the bevy of breakout sessions, there isn’t a single aspect of running an MSP that VISION ’21 can’t help you with. From cybersecurity to sales cadence to market automation, whatever you’re curious about, we’ve got you covered.

Come to VISION ’21 to have FUN

We’re bringing up fun at the end of this blog post because it’s not that important, right? Because having fun, when it comes to growing your IT business, is an afterthought … right?

Wrong! Fun is integral to running a successful company. Fun is energy. Fun is positivity. Fun is enthusiasm. Fun is passion. If you’re not having fun with your MSP, what’s the point? Also, if you’re not having fun with your MSP, chances are, it’s hurting business. Your attitude rubs off on your techs, and their attitude certainly rubs off on your end clients. Of course, you shouldn’t be expected to feel positive all the time — running an IT business can be stressful, and you’re only human. But it’s important that you take steps to keep yourself from sinking too low — that you make a conscious effort to ‘troubleshoot’ your own brain from time to time, for the sake of your business, and more importantly, for your own sake!

In our culture, we’re told to believe in “business or pleasure” — in the idea that our jobs aren’t supposed to be fun, but instead, something we ‘endure’ so that we can relax after work, after retirement, etc. But here at The 20, we don’t buy into that “business or pleasure” nonsense. We think “business AND pleasure” is a far better motto.

It’s true — no one parties like The 20. But don’t just take our word for it. Come to VISION ’21 and see for yourself. We promise it will be the most fun you’ve ever had on a business trip.

Let’s Grow!

This is the year you take your MSP to the next level — or, it can be at least, if you commit to making real changes to your IT business. It’s often said that if you want to be successful, surround yourself with successful people. We think there’s a lot of truth to that, and we encourage and warmly invite you and your MSP team to join us at VISION ’21. When likeminded business owners come together for a common purpose, magic happens – hearts and minds change, attitudes shift, hope returns. We can’t wait to see all the magic that VISION ’21 brings.

Registration for VISION ’21 is NOW OPEN. Also, check out our “Top 10 Reasons You Should Attend” video.

It’s the Year of the Return. Let’s GROW!

IT Documentation: Do it for Your Process!

Robust Documentation Practices Feed a Process-Focused Approach to MSP Growth

We’ve talked about how documentation — good documentation — can help your techs do their jobs more efficiently and with less stress. We’ve talked about the power of documentation to eliminate those small inefficiencies which, over time, can erode your business’s bottom line. Now it’s time to cut down to the very core of the matter.

In this blog post, we’re going to look at the relationship between IT documentation and process. As the following should make clear, robust documentation practices help businesses run more efficiently and profitably by improving process.

What is Process?

In business, your process is … everything. OK, that might be overstating things just a little, but if we define a “process” as “the way something gets done,” then it’s not a stretch to say that businesses — when you strip away all of the superficial elements — are just people engaged in various processes.

Now, depending on how organized and efficient your business is, these processes can range from largely improvisational to highly systematic, and from vague to crystal clear. But whatever the case, your IT company’s “process” is the totality of all the individual processes by which you and your employees carry out your duties. Simply put, your process is how your business gets things done.

So, let’s take an in-depth look at the relationship between IT documentation and process. The more you know about this topic, the more effectively you can harness documentation to help you achieve YOUR business goals.

Process Makes Perfect

Deciding to get serious about documentation is one of the single most powerful business decisions you can make. This is because a commitment to documentation is a commitment to process, and a commitment to process is, perhaps more than anything else, what distinguishes successful and profitable IT businesses from the plethora of companies fighting for survival.

Being committed to your process isn’t the same thing as being committed to your business. This is important to keep in mind. Being committed to your business means that you really want to see it succeed, and work hard — really hard — to bring about that success. Most business owners are committed to their respective businesses. Being committed to your process means that you want to see your business succeed, but also, that you’re willing to spend time and energy on figuring out HOW BEST TO DO THAT. A true commitment to process is relatively rare in the business world.

Here’s an analogy. If you want to make the NBA, it’s a good idea to practice basketball — and practice A LOT. But an even better idea is practicing a lot AND taking time to step back, identify weak points in your game, and tailor a training program to bring your weak points up to speed.

Documentation forces you to step back in this manner and think about how your business ‘practices’ — i.e., how it gets things done. When you write down the processes by which your business runs, you’re FAR more likely to apply critical thinking to make these processes better, more efficient, etc. In short, documentation provides a direct impetus for working on how you work.

Practice may make perfect, but only when it’s bolstered by an awareness of process. Are you using documentation not only as a way of recording core business processes, but as a tool for refining these processes for maximal productivity and efficiency?

Go with the Flow

We just discussed how documentation facilitates process refinement and optimization — by writing down your IT company’s core business processes, you’re forced to take a good, hard look at those processes, and consider whether and in what ways they could be improved.

When it comes to process refinement, one thing you should be looking to do is maximize flow. A process that flows is one that unfolds smoothly and efficiently. And when your processes flow, so too do your workers.

“Flow state” (so dubbed by the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi) is a recognized and widely studied psychological phenomenon. It refers to a mental state people sometimes enter when they’re doing something they enjoy, are good at, and find challenging but not too challenging (i.e., not overwhelming). You can think of being in the flow state as being “in the zone” — you’re immersed in a goal-directed activity, everything’s clicking, and you experience a pleasurable feeling of total focus and clarity.

Documenting your core business processes breaks tasks down into a series of discrete steps. The benefit of generating a specific sequence of steps cannot be overstated vis-à-vis the pursuit of flow. This is because a key feature of the flow state is, as Csikszentmihalyi remarked in a 2004 TED Talk, knowing “exactly what you want to do from one moment to the other.” When you’re in the flow state, “every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one.”

If your business has clear, stepwise processes for your techs to follow — which it will, if your documentation is up to snuff — your techs will be able to enter the flow state more easily and more often; under most circumstances, they’ll know what to do and when to do it. This is good for business; studies have linked the flow state to productivity, motivation, and company loyalty.

Step it Up

We just talked about how documentation creates clear-cut, stepwise processes that make it easier for your technicians to get in the zone. Let’s discuss the importance of steps some more.

Breaking down a task into a series of discrete steps is a powerful tool for augmenting productivity. In our previous blog post on documentation, we saw how the accumulation of small inefficiencies at your business can really hurt your bottom line. One such ‘small inefficiency’ is the simple act of pausing and asking yourself, ‘OK, what am I supposed to do next?’ People without morning routines know how much time this single thought can gobble up. And people with morning routines know the pleasure of being able to move seamlessly from one thing to the next.

But you want your techs engaged. You don’t want them to go through the motions, mindlessly following steps that have been laid out for them. You want them thinking for themselves … right?

First, if your documentation gets so good that your techs are having too easy a time, barely needing to think, feel free to send us a detailed description of your documentation protocols — because that sounds like a good problem to have!

Second, that’s not going to happen. Providing IT support is always going to be unpredictable, challenging, and at times, stressful.

Your techs are like chefs, in that they receive tickets (orders) from paying customers who expect swift and competent service (a good meal). Without ‘recipes’ (clear-cut, written-down processes to follow), your techs have to spend time and cognitive resources figuring out what to do and when to do it. But when your techs have ‘recipes,’ they don’t have to think about what to do when, and thus, can focus entirely on performing their jobs well. When you know what you’re supposed to do at each stage in a process, you can devote your attention to quality — to carrying out each sub-task to the best of your abilities.

What does this mean for your IT business? Three words: better service delivery.

Work on Your Masterpiece

Your business is your baby. Your masterpiece. Your pride and joy. You built it from the ground up, and every aspect — from your company name to your office décor — should bear the mark of your personality.

If this doesn’t resonate, you might want to start thinking of your business in the above terms — as something you appreciate for its own sake, and not merely as a means to an end. If your business is nothing more than a steppingstone to retirement, to wealth … to whatever, you’re in trouble. Why?

Because growing a successful IT company from scratch takes genuine passion. If you don’t care about your business in the same obsessive, detail-oriented way that artists care about their art, you’re simply not going to put in the work required to succeed.

Working on process is boring and painful if you don’t really love what you do. But when you have genuine passion — when you have a true vision — working on process can be deeply gratifying. There’s a unique pleasure that comes from making small tweaks to something you’ve worked hard to bring into existence.

Picture the car enthusiast in his garage, tinkering away on his custom hot rod. Picture the writer, hunched over a draft of her novel, removing a comma … putting it back. That needs to be you.

Documentation is, at its core, all about details. Making sure your core business processes are streamlined at every step of the way. This isn’t something you do once, either. It’s continuous. Perfecting your IT business’s processes is itself a process — ongoing and ever-evolving. Documentation without a documentation management strategy — a systematic policy for reviewing and updating documents — is just dead weight. A waste of time.

Do you embrace documentation as a powerful tool for process improvement at your IT business? Remember, if you don’t, your employees won’t either.

Level Up Your Documentation with IT Glue

Documentation shouldn’t be something you do because you’re ‘supposed to.’ It should be something you do in order to help your business operate more efficiently and profitably. And, like any business investment, spending time and money on documentation will only yield a healthy ROI if you go about things carefully, intelligently, and systematically. Now, it’s possible to develop effective documentation protocols without the help of specialized software — but why makes things harder on yourself?

IT Glue is a best-in-class, SOC-2 compliant documentation software that helps MSPs of all sizes implement and maintain a cost-effective documentation strategy. If you own a growing IT business and want to take your documentation to the next level, nothing will get you there faster than IT Glue. There’s a reason over 200,000 people use IT Glue — it works!

The 20 MSP Members Ranked Among Elite Managed Service Providers on Channel Futures 2021 NextGen 101 List

The NextGen 101 List Honors Partners Building MSP Practices

AUGUST 13, 2021: Thirteen of our members have been named as one of the world’s premier managed service providers on the prestigious Channel Futures 2021 NextGen 101 rankings.

Frog Works
E-Squared IT
Integration LLC
WolfGuard IT
Monroy IT Services
TC Computer Consulting
Byte-Werx
Peterson technology group
DNS Tech Solutions
Cirrus Technologies
Managed IT Systems
Sublime Computer Services
CTS Computers

The NextGen 101 list, honors industry-leading managed services and technology providers who are driving a new wave of growth and innovation for the tech channel via the groundbreaking solutions they deliver for their customers. The Channel Futures NextGen 101 are those companies that hold great promise given the leading-edge information technology and communication solutions they offer. Many of those business models revolve around generating recurring revenue from cloud, security and unified communications, among others.

Given that they represent the future of the technology channel and IT industry, the Channel Futures NextGen 101 are the growth organizations to watch in the channel today. This year’s NextGen 101 winners were selected from applications received for the 2021 Channel Futures MSP 501.

Channel Futures is pleased to name these companies to the 2021 NextGen 101.

“We are pleased and honored to recognize our members’ accomplishments on the NextGen 101 list,” said Tim Conkle, CEO of The 20 MSP. “We are grateful to have such an accomplished community and to be able to watch the continuous growth of each MSP. Congratulations to you all!”

Channel Futures always wants to ensure that their partner communities are being recognized for what they do best and are therefore creating programs targeted toward their needs. The Nextgen 101 represents that effort.

“The NextGen 101 represents those organizations and leaders ushering in a new wave of growth for the technology industry. The customer experience is at the very heart of their businesses and thinking and they approach partnering in a unique way,” said Robert DeMarzo, vice president of content for Informa Tech Channels.

“The NextGen 101 is designed specifically to honor partners dedicating resources to building out their practices — all while maintaining the integrity of their core businesses,” said Allison Francis, editor and content producer at Channel Partners and Channel Futures. “Given that these companies represent the future of the technology channel and IT industry, the Channel Futures NextGen 101 are the most watched of all organizations in the channel today.”

The data collected by the annual NextGen 101 and MSP 501 drives Channel Futures’ market intelligence insights, creating robust data sets and data-based trend reports that support our editorial coverage, event programming, community and networking strategies and educational offerings.

Background

The 2021 MSP 501 and NextGen 101 lists are based on data collected by Channel Futures. Data was collected online from March 1 through May 24, 2021. The MSP 501 list recognizes top managed service providers based on metrics including recurring revenue, profit margin and other factors.

About The 20 MSP

The 20 is an exclusive business development group for Managed Service Providers (MSP) aimed at dominating and revolutionizing the IT industry with its standardized all-in-one approach. The 20’s robust RMM, PSA, and documentation platform ensures superior service for its MSPs’ clients utilizing their completely US-based Help Desk and Network Operations Center. Extending beyond world-class tools and processes, The 20 touts a proven sales model, a community of industry-leaders, and ultimate scalability. For more information, visit https://www.the20.com.

Follow The 20: Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook

About Channel Futures 

Channel Futures is a media and events platform serving companies in the IT channel industry with insights, industry analysis, peer engagement, business information and in-person events. Our properties include Channel Futures MSP 501, recognizing the most influential and fastest-growing providers of managed services in the technology industry, Channel Futures DEI 101, honoring and celebrating those who have often been under-represented in tech channels; Channel Partners Events, delivering unparalleled in-person events, including Channel Partners Conference & Expo, The MSP Summit, and Channel Evolution Europe; and DEI Community Group, our initiatives to educate, support, promote, and sustain diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the IT channel industry. Channel Futures is part of Informa Tech, a market-leading B2B information provider with depth and specialization in the Information and Communications (ICT) Technology sector. Every year, we welcome 7,400+ subscribers to our research, more than 3.8 million unique visitors a month to our digital communities, 18,200+ students to our training programs and 225,000 delegates to our events. Channel Futures is where the world meets the channel; We are leading Channel Partners forward. More information is available at channelfutures.com. 

Media Contact  
Ginette Andre 

Associate Marketer, VIP Relations 

[email protected] 

Allison Francis  

Editor, Channel Futures and MSP 501  

[email protected] 

The 20 MSP Members Ranked on Channel Futures MSP 501—Tech Industry’s Most Prestigious List of Global Managed Service Providers

Annual MSP 501 Identifies Industry’s Best-in-Class Businesses Growing Via Recurring Revenue and Innovation

August 13, 2021: Three of the 20 MSP members have been named as one of the world’s premier managed service providers in the prestigious 2021 Channel Futures MSP 501 rankings.

These three MSPs have been selected as one of the technology industry’s top-performing providers of managed services by the editors of Channel Futures. For the past 15 years, MSPs from around the globe have submitted applications to be included on this prestigious and definitive listing. The Channel Futures MSP 501 survey examines organizational performance based on annual sales, recurring revenue, profit margins, revenue mix, growth opportunities, innovation, technology solutions supported, and company and customer demographics.

Managed services providers that qualify for the list must pass a rigorous review conducted by the research team and editors of Channel Futures that rank applicants using a unique methodology that weighs financial performance according to long-term health and viability, commitment to recurring revenue and operational efficiency.

Channel Futures is pleased to name the following companies to the 2021 MSP 501.

“We are pleased and honored to recognize our members’ accomplishments on the 501 list,” said Tim Conkle, CEO of The 20 MSP. “ We are grateful to have such an accomplished community and to be able to watch the continuous growth of each MSP. Congratulations to you all!”

This year’s list attracted a record number of applicants and was one of the most competitive in the survey’s history. Winners are being recognized on the Channel Futures website and will be honored at a special ceremony at the MSP Summit held Nov. 1-2 in Las Vegas as part of the Channel Partners Conf. & Expo.

Since its inception, the MSP 501 has evolved from a competitive ranking into a vibrant group of innovators focused on high levels of customer satisfaction at small, medium, and large organizations in public and private sectors. Today, many of their services and technology offerings focus on growing customer needs in the areas of cloud, security, collaboration, and support of hybrid work forces.

“The 2021 Channel Futures MSP 501 winners are the highest-performing and most innovative IT providers in the industry today. They stand head and shoulders above the competition,” said Robert DeMarzo, vice president of content for the Channel Futures and Channel Partners Conference & Expo division of Informa Tech Channels. “Coordinated by Channel Futures MSP 501 editor Allison Francis, this year’s list was clearly one of the best ever on record.”

“Vendors that are aligned with the Channel Futures MSP 501 are driving a new wave of innovation in the industry. Through their partnerships they are demonstrating a commitment to moving the MSP and entire channel forward,” said Kelly Danziger, general manager of Informa Tech Channels. “We extend our heartfelt congratulations to the 2021 winners and gratitude to the thousands of MSPs that have contributed to the continuing growth and success of the managed services sector.”

The MSP 501 winners will be recognized at the MSP 501 Awards Gala at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo / MSP Summit, Nov. 1-4, in Las Vegas.

The complete 2021 MSP 501 list is available on Channel Futures’ website.

Background

The 2021 MSP 501 list is based on confidential data collected and analyzed by the Channel Futures editorial and research teams. Data was collected online from March 1-May 24, 2021. The MSP 501 list recognizes top managed service providers based on metrics including recurring revenue, profit margin and other factors.

About The 20 MSP

Follow The 20: Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook

About Channel Futures

Channel Futures is a media and events platform serving companies in the IT channel industry with insights, industry analysis, peer engagement, business information and in-person events. Our properties include Channel Futures MSP 501, recognizing the most influential and fastest-growing providers of managed services in the technology industry, Channel Futures DEI 101, honoring and celebrating those who have often been under-represented in tech channels; Channel Partners Events, delivering unparalleled in-person events, including Channel Partners Conference & Expo, The MSP Summit, and Channel Evolution Europe; and DEI Community Group, our initiatives to educate, support, promote, and sustain diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the IT channel industry. Channel Futures is part of Informa Tech, a market-leading B2B information provider with depth and specialization in the Information and Communications (ICT) Technology sector. Every year, we welcome 7,400+ subscribers to our research, more than 3.8 million unique visitors a month to our digital communities, 18,200+ students to our training programs and 225,000 delegates to our events. Channel Futures is where the world meets the channel; We are leading Channel Partners forward. More information is available at channelfutures.com.

Media Contact
Ginette Andre

Associate Marketer, VIP Relations

[email protected]

Allison Francis

Editor, Channel Futures and MSP 501 

[email protected]

Alexis Williams Honored on Inaugural Channel Futures DE&I 101 List

The List Recognizes Individuals Working to promote Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Technology Channels

Full Press Release Here

AUGUST 9, 2021: Alexis Williams, Digital Marketing Coordinator at The 20 MSP, is among the honorees on the inaugural Channel Futures DE&I 101 list. The list recognizes individuals from a wide spectrum of multicultural backgrounds who are driving diversity, equity and inclusion in the technology channel through their words, actions and leadership.

“I am honored to be recognized on Channel Futures’ DE&I 101 list. I am committed to enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion not only within the channel but throughout all aspects of life. A sense of belonging for everyone and continuous discussion within the channel is the key to driving diversity and inclusion in any environment,” said Williams.

The Channel Futures DE&I 101 list was created to turn a spotlight on the dedicated and determined individuals working to eliminate discrimination in the industry. The need for DE&I has been acknowledged in the information and communications industries for many years. But while any number of tech organizations have received attention for the DE&I programs they’ve launched, it’s the people at the grassroots level who get things started and keep the momentum going. And too often their efforts go unacknowledged.

“The publication of this list represents a milestone for the industry and channel in raising the visibility of individuals who are truly at the center of change in the industry,” said Robert DeMarzo, vice president of content, Informa Tech Channels. “These individuals are propelling their organizations forward when it comes to innovation, business growth and customer/supplier connections. The Channel Futures team is proud of its role in bringing this list, spearheaded by Managing Editor Buffy Naylor, to market recognizing such a great group of individuals.”

Nominations for the premiere DE&I 101 list were solicited on the Channel Futures website. Between April 15 and June 15, individuals could nominate themselves or others for the list. Applications were open to managers, leaders and individual contributors. All submissions were thoroughly reviewed by members of the Channel Futures editorial team with input from advisory board members.

“It’s been proven that a diverse workforce can make a company more innovative, productive and profitable,” said Kelly Danziger, general manager, Informa Tech Channels. “Our industry is constantly evolving to keep pace with advances in information and communications technologies and the workplace structure. It’s essential that the industry and the channel also evolve in step with the workplace demographics. Beyond making good business sense, it’s the right thing to do.”

About The 20 MSP

Follow The 20: Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook

About Channel Futures

Channel Futures is a media and events platform serving companies in the IT channel industry with insights, industry analysis, peer engagement, business information and in-person events. Our properties include Channel Futures MSP 501, recognizing the most influential and fastest-growing providers of managed services in the technology industry, Channel Futures DEI 101, honoring and celebrating those who have often been under-represented in tech channels; Channel Partners Events, delivering unparalleled in-person events, including Channel Partners Conference & Expo, The MSP Summit, and Channel Evolution Europe; and DEI Community Group, our initiatives to educate, support, promote, and sustain diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the IT channel industry. Channel Futures is part of Informa Tech, a market-leading B2B information provider with depth and specialization in the Information and Communications (ICT) Technology sector. Every year, we welcome 7,400+ subscribers to our research, more than 3.8 million unique visitors a month to our digital communities, 18,200+ students to our training programs and 225,000 delegates to our events. Channel Futures is where the world meets the channel; We are leading Channel Partners forward. More information is available at channelfutures.com.

Media Contact
Buffy Naylor

Managing Editor, Channel Futures

[email protected]

Meet Pat Quin, Content Writer!

Pat Quin quickly became a tremendous asset to the entire team at The 20. Read below to find out more about Pat.

What do you do here at The 20?

I’m a content writer.

Describe The 20 in three words…

Ahead of … curve.

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

For a while there I wanted to be an architect who drives a Camry. Don’t ask me why — just seemed like a cool situation to be in.

What’s the most challenging thing about your job?

Trusting that the ideas will come even when it doesn’t feel like they will.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Building a table.

What do you think is the most important quality necessary for success?

Taking just a few things very seriously and being relaxed about everything else.

What do you like most about The 20?

The people!

What do you like to do in your spare time? / What are your hobbies?

Hanging with my cats and wife.

Where are you going on your next vacation?

Chicago!

What’s your top life hack?

I don’t know about life hacks, but I’ve had a lot of success with vinegar.

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Full Forbes article here

Every company could sum up their brand story by saying, “We saw a market opportunity to perform our service better than the competition.” Much of the time, it would be a true story. Customers, though, demand a little embellishment with a brand story when comparing options.

A brand story has become a window into what a company represents. It’s an abstract retelling of how they operated and explains where they’re looking to go. We want tales of heroism, not tales of a technician wanting to make more money by starting an IT company.

You don’t need to lie; you just need to retell the story hitting the points that matter to how you want to represent yourself. A résumé isn’t going to include if you wet the bed until you were seven or if your grades dipped during a rough semester in college. Likewise, your brand story serves as the cover letter to the résumé of why a client should work with you.

What does your company do and what do you stand for? How do you define what you do, why you do it and how you do it? Your story should gloss over the mundane and focus on the (true) differentiating aspects of your business.

Defining What You Do

A brand story should explain what a company does. What do you do at your core, and how do you convey that to the widest audience? Keep it simple. Any company could write a 200-page book about their story, but that doesn’t mean anyone wants to read it.

You want to have a small company vision statement or mission statement. This is the ideal of what you do, and the idea needs to be transmuted into an ideal for your audience. For example, my company’s mission statement is this: “At The 20, we look to grow your MSP like we learned to grow ours.” It’s a simple idea, but it packs a punch. In 15 words, we’ve shared with our audience the specifics of what we do and our reasons for doing them.

Why You Do It

When someone relates to your brand story, it’s usually because they’ve seen the value in it. Either you’ve succeeded especially well at what you do, or you do something that no one else does. They want to know why you started on that journey.

Not every story is going to be a romantic one about following one’s passion. All of us have done things we don’t want to do in order to make it to the next opportunity. That doesn’t mean you didn’t find a purpose on the way.

Your brand story should answer these questions: What does your brand do and why did it grow the way it did? If one of these is more romantic than the other, feel free to take some artistic license with the material. When customers shop, do they want the one that does it because “it makes a lot of money,” or the one that does it because they love it? It doesn’t matter that both companies, if honest, are in it for money. When a company representative asks why you want to work for them in an interview, saying “for a paycheck” will probably get you shown the door, but other answers will take you to the next step. As with an interview, you need to make sure your brand story fits your abilities.

How You Did It

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions” is overused as a quote because it’s so accurate. You can have the best intentions, but the implementation makes the difference for whether it works or not. When telling your brand story, reflect your ideals, not necessarily the mistakes you made to learn them. The best house built on a bad foundation is a bad house. Your story needs to show how you’ve moved past failure and capitalized on success. Even if you did everything wrong before, how did it make you end up on the right path moving forward?

Explain this part of the story with language your customer can understand. Anyone can say they can perform a task, but it is essential to not baffle potential customers with technical jargon or gibberish. For customers, understanding the method or process you use is as important as the reason you do it in the first place.

Building A Narrative

Build your brand story by sharing what you do, explaining why you do it and describing how you do it. You don’t need to write it out in this order, but this is the order to plan how you will tell your story. If someone is searching for a service, they want to find one that does what they need above anything else.

The last factor ties everything together: How does the team do what they do while adhering to the reason why they do it? Things may change, and the narrative should change with it. Failures either break you, or serve as a catalyst to success. What potential customers want to know is: Now that you’ve learned the hard lessons, where is your brand going?

IT Documentation: Do it for Your Business!

Good IT documentation saves an MSP money by saving it A LOT of time.

If you own an IT business, chances are you’ve heard about the glorious benefits of proper IT documentation practices. How they can make your technicians’ lives dramatically easier and save your business tons of time, and thus, tons of money.

But just how much time do your employees waste due to poor documentation practices, anyway? How many hours a day? A month? A year? And what about you?

You may not be able to give precise answers to these questions. But there’s a good chance you radically underestimate the number of hours — and dollars — that are lost at your MSP due to inefficient uses of time. And there’s also a good chance you radically underestimate how much of that time you could win back through better documentation.

The good news is that it’s not your fault — not entirely, at least. It’s hard to judge just how much the little things add up when you’re busy running the rest of your business. But it’s essential to take control of your destiny and your business to make things more efficient for you and your clients. By the end of this blog post, two things should be clear, if they’re not already:

It’s all too easy to underestimate how much time (and money) your MSP wastes.
It’s all too easy to underestimate how much time (and money) better documentation practices would save your IT business.

Time Wasted: Take it with a Grain of Rice — Not Salt

Maybe you’ve heard the following story from Indian folklore …

A man invents the game of chess and shows the emperor his creation. The emperor is so impressed by the man’s ingenuity that he allows the man to name his reward. The man asks for rice. Specifically, one grain for the first square of his chess board, two for the second, four for the third, and so on, the grains doubling each successive square. “No problem,” the emperor says, feeling happy to grant the man his humble request.

But the “humble request” turns out to be anything but. How much rice has the emperor promised? A ton. Actually, that’s a vast understatement, for in truth it’s actually

trillions of tons. To fill the entire board in the manner proposed, the emperor will need 2⁶⁴ grains of rice, or 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains. That’s a lot of rice.

But what does any of this have to do with documentation? Quite a bit, actually. What the above story illustrates is human beings’ pronounced tendency to underestimate the power of accumulation. We simply don’t realize how quickly things add up.

This applies to time wasted as much as it does to grains of rice. If you’re a business owner, it can be easy to either overlook, underestimate, or ignore how small inefficiencies add up into huge wastes of time and money. But the right information and the right expertise can help resolve this issue for you and your organization.

The Cost of Inefficiency

Experts estimate that workers in technical fields waste about 20% of their time trying to track down information that should be at their fingertips. So, in an 8-hour workday, a technician is likely to spend around 1.6 hours just looking for information, much of which proper documentation protocols would have made readily available. Let’s put a dollar amount on this …

Say your MSP employs 5 technicians. If they waste 20% of their time searching for information and you pay them an average annual salary of 60k dollars, that means you’re losing almost 7k dollars each week on account of poorly organized information. And that’s before factoring in opportunity costs! When you factor in opportunity costs, you’re losing an additional $13,824 per week (based on a gross margin % of 50). In total, that’s …

More than 20k dollars a month! ‘Yikes’ is right. (You can use IT Glue’s “Cost of Waste” calculator to estimate the cost of time wasted at your company due to information not being easily accessible. Just plug in the relevant information — number of techs, their average salary, etc. — and voilà, you’ll see just how much inefficiency is hurting your bottom line.)

Insidious Interruptions

Here’s another somewhat startling statistic: A study by UC Irvine found that an office worker takes, on average, 23 minutes to refocus after an interruption. And having to track down a coworker for critical information during a call with a customer — you better believe that constitutes an interruption! Having to dig for crucial information that’s hidden in discrete silos can completely ruin your techs’ flow and lower their morale. This is likely to taint the customer service experience that your MSP’s reputation relies on. We start to see how the effects of inefficiency ripple outward.

But with a robust and centralized system of documentation in place, your techs can assist clients not only more swiftly, but more smoothly and confidently. A chef who has to cook a meal while simultaneously trying to find the recipe, the steps of which are hidden all over the kitchen, all while juggling knives … Yeah, that’s not going to be a happy chef. And that chef is no different from an IT tech who has to help a customer while trying to track down the information needed to provide quality assistance. So, write down your MSP’s ‘recipes’ (i.e., standard operating procedures) so your techs can serve up tasty IT support with confidence, instead of sloppily prepared meals thrown together under stress.

Don’t Listen to Your Gut

Here’s the bottom line: If your MSP doesn’t have its ducks in a row when it comes to documentation, your technicians are likely wasting tons of time not only tracking down information, but refocusing once they’ve found it. And once they’ve refocused, they’re often going to be facing a frustrated client whose patience is running thin — yet one more obstacle to working smoothly and efficiently.

Just like the grains of rice in the legend, it all adds up — all of these inefficiencies caused by inadequate documentation. It’s easy to underestimate or just plain overlook the sum of all these time wastages. Again, that’s just what humans do. From MSP owners to emperors, we’re all prone to misjudging the power of accumulation.

But once you know about a bias, it’s easier to combat it. So, going forward, keep in mind that you’re ‘wired’ to underestimate how much time your MSP wastes on account of bad documentation. On a gut level, your documentation problem may not feel like a huge problem. But as we’ve seen, our guts aren’t always great guides when it comes to cumulative processes, whether they involve rice or time.

Documentation Works … If You Do Too!

Just as the time an MSP loses to bad documentation accumulates sneakily, often going unnoticed or underestimated, so too does the time an MSP wins back once they get their documentation practices in order.

What this means is that it’s vital that you pay attention to how documentation is affecting your organization’s overall productivity and efficiency. More specifically, track data; you can’t expect to appreciate the impact that documentation is having on your MSP if you rely on casual observation. Wield the power of analytics to determine what sort of effect changes in your documentation strategies have on KPIs. And remember, the benefits of good documentation practices are not immediate; efficiency and productivity may take an initial dip while your MSP adjusts to new documentation protocols.

It can be useful to set aside time every quarter, or even every month, to go over your MSP’s documentation. Documentation isn’t something you set up once and never think about again. It’s an ongoing and evolving record of your

organization’s core operational processes. When a tech figures out a better way of solving a particular IT issue, update your SOPs accordingly.

It boils down to this: For documentation to work, you have to work on it. That’s why a lot of MSPs end up failing to harness the power of documentation; as in any industry, a willingness to put in the work is what separates the winners from the losers in the MSP space — the multi-million-dollar MSPs from the ones barely scraping by. But don’t just work hard, work smart. And remember, the right tools and expertise can enable you to do more with less.

Invest in Documentation

Documentation isn’t something to cut corners on. The reason to implement a new documentation regime at your MSP is the same reason you do anything as a business owner: you want to maximize profitability. But for documentation to serve that end, you can’t just do it; you have to do it well. So don’t document just to document. Do it to improve your IT company’s process and, in turn, its profitability. And this means doing it thoroughly, consistently, and thoughtfully.

If you’re committed to getting serious about documentation, and implementing documentation practices at your MSP that will actually save your business time and money in the long run, consider using IT Glue for all of your documentation needs. Using documentation software makes documentation immeasurably easier, and if you’re going to use documentation software, it’s a good idea to go with the trusted choice of the world’s top MSPs. There’s a reason over 200,000 people use IT Glue: it works!

The MSP’s Essential Guide to Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare in 2021

What You Need to Know in the Age of Nation-State Sponsored Hacking

Cyber warfare has been on the rise in recent years. The news has been inundated with ransomware attack after ransomware attack, and breach after breach hitting companies large and small. The amount of data any given company has is staggering, and combined with the fact many people reuse passwords (see here to learn how to really secure a password), a little access goes a long way. The move to working from home during the pandemic and hybrid environments have arguably exacerbated this (without better security mechanisms in place).

While in previous years we mainly saw individuals or small groups engaging in cyber warfare attacks, there’s been a serious growth in organization and backing as of late. The DHS has been raising alarms (PDF) about cyber-attacks for a decade. The DOD has been much more open about the state of affairs.

We’re at war digitally. The battle has grown from hackers of yore on an ideological crusade to nation-states looking to gain an advantage over enemies on a geopolitical chessboard. There are hacking groups involved, but more often than not they attack enemies (or perceived enemies) of their home nations. DarkSide, REvil, etc. focus on the United States and other Western powers while entirely eschewing the former Soviet Bloc. Whether any given breach is a deliberate act of warfare is arguable, but geopolitics play a role in these attacks. Either we’re dealing with state sponsored hacking or we’re dealing with privateers.

The news has been filled with recent attacks ranging from meat processing plants to pipelines to RMM products. Let’s break down some of these attacks to see what happened and how they impact smaller players such as MSPs.

Recent Attacks

The most recent major cyber warfare attack (as of writing) hit SolarWinds and Kaseya. JBS S.A., the world’s largest meat supplier, was hit about a month earlier. Less than a month before this major attack on JBS, Colonial Pipeline was hit as well causing a jump in gas prices due to a predicted shortage. SolarWinds has also been in and out of the news with various attacks since the end of last year. EA got hit as well but with a seemingly different motive. Large or small, businesses at all levels are vulnerable to cyber warfare attacks if they don’t stay secure at every layer from top to bottom.

These are the most major attacks, but there have been continuous breaches against all level of small, medium, and even large businesses with different bounties (from ransoms to intel) and levels of damage inflicted that haven’t made the news. The media is just continuously churning through various attacks and unable to address them all (I can’t even seem to get through editing this article before another attack occurs). These attacks are composed of a mix of ransomware and exfiltration which have caused waves in the economy.

RMM Hacks: SolarWinds and Kaseya

The SolarWinds hack from the end of 2020 (discussed below) has continued to have ramifications. Microsoft disclosed a new breach believed to be tied to Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service which was linked to the SolarWinds hack. This attack hit the news right around the same time as the Kaseya hack which saw ransomware distributed through Kaseya’s VSA RMM by REvil (you’ll see them again with multiple attacks).

The SolarWinds hack is just the continuing fallout from the previous exploit, but the Kaseya hack involved new zero-day exploits (as well as older exploits as well). While this attack did not compromise The 20’s customers, it definitely had an impact waiting for the patch. These two attacks are differing types of supply chain attacks, leveraging a pieces of the pipeline in order to compromise someone further down the line.

The specifics aren’t entirely out for these attacks (though stay tuned for a postmortem on the VSA attack when the dust settles), but the message is clear: supply chain attacks, especially against MSPs, are on the rise and will continue to become more and more common. What is your organization doing to prevent your RMM tool from becoming your worst nightmare?

JBS S.A.

JBS had 9 of their beef plants in the US compromised. People were worried about meat prices skyrocketing like the earlier Colonial Pipeline hack did for gas prices in some areas. While the exact details of the attack haven’t been published (and probably won’t), it cost millions in ransomware money to get back to operating.

REvil is believed to be responsible per the FBI. While they’ve claimed they aren’t politically motivated, attacking JBS disrupts the food supply and isn’t the first high profile attack this year. If the attacks aren’t political, they are at least having political implications.

The exact details have not been released, but at the very least the downtime from this attack has been expensive. Backup systems were not affected which allowed faster recovery. There is a purported link between REvil and QBot for this specific attack.

Proper backups are what saved them from experiencing the same issues as Colonial Pipeline or other victims of ransomware. A cyber warfare attack is going to cost time and effort no matter what, but what are you doing for yourself and your clients to ensure it’s minimal? Remediation is one of the biggest deciding factors in how successful a ransomware attack is.

Colonial Pipeline

The Colonial Pipeline hack took place in early May, about a month before the JBS attack. This attack managed to cripple a major pipeline along the East Coast of the US using ransomware. A lot of these attacks rely on phishing or similar techniques to breach a network. The exact mechanism of its intrusion has not been released at present.

This attack was carried out by a ransomware group known as DarkSide which is most likely from Eastern Europe. DarkSide is a group suspected of ties with REvil.

Colonial Pipeline ended up paying around $4.4 million a day in Bitcoin to their attackers. The DOJ was able to recover about $2.3 million from DarkSide which disbanded shortly after the attack. The attack caused a flux in gasoline prices and created localized, artificial shortages from the fear-mongering of the media around this attack. DarkSide has claimed that this attack was not politically motivated, but it seems a bit coincidental with all of the infrastructure attacks we’ve seen. Even if the attack itself was not politically motivated, it had devastating geopolitical implications.

The cost of downtime is expensive, enough that a major company was willing to bleed a massive ransom to keep going. They could afford to do it, but what about your business or the businesses you support? What infrastructure supports your or your client’s business and what infrastructure do you impact?

SolarWinds

SolarWinds has been in and out of the news from the sheer fallout from the attacks. They got hacked, and they got hacked bad. Their Orion remote IT software suffered a software supply-chain compromise most likely, which allowed breaches into companies such as Microsoft and VMWare, and even into the federal government. The attack was so bad that the US is readying sanctions against Russia which has helped facilitate said attack.

The attack caused a massive amount of downtime, compromised certain companies’ data, and trojanized the general software platform. MSP attacks have gotten more and more prevalent in recent years. A single attack doesn’t just hurt one company, it allows ingress into a multitude of companies, more often than not with the equivalent of a rootkit on each agent (each RMM agent).

SolarWinds is an attractive target to nation-state level attacks and enemies of the US due to its access and its bounty. The more clients, the more attractive a specific MSP, service, or platform becomes. SolarWinds was a victim of their own success to the point that hackers were willing to take a slow, but extremely safe path to compromise the environment.

Electronic Arts

Hackers leveraged Slack in order to compromise EA Games. They managed to get the source code for FIFA 21 as well as the Frostbite engine. The tools and source code themselves are worth a lot, but so are the potential hacks built on them.

This attack leveraged technical social engineering. By finding a list of people at the company from a public source, crossing it with a stolen token into Slack, and using social engineering, hackers managed to breach EA and compromise it in a way which is going to convolute their process for years.

This breach was more focused on exfiltrating data to ransom (or even just sell depending). We really don’t know one way or another, but either way, the data has ended up on the market for sale. The attack cost the attackers around $10 for a stolen cookie (or set of cookies) and a lot of work and infiltration in order to pull off a social engineering attack.

The cost of the attack itself was trivial, the deciding factor was internal processes which allowed the attack to work. What are you doing to lock down your internal and external processes for your MSP and your clients’ businesses? All it takes is one weak link in the chain, human or technical to bring everything crashing down without the right safeguards. How are you verifying who you’re chatting with in an internal company chat? What are you doing to make sure people on the phone are who they say they are?

Nation-State Attacks

Hacking has grown into both a business and a way to damage a nation’s infrastructure and security. Nation-state level attacks are on the rise and they don’t need to hit government targets to do serious damage. Taking out a business can do as much damage (or even more) than taking out a government institution.

Malware has been getting more advanced. The arms race has gotten complex enough that individuals just can’t cut it. Individuals joined small teams which have grown into an entire ecosystem targeting different pieces of the attack pipeline. Teams can be the size of businesses and still work with multiple other teams to pull off an attack, or to create a way to profit from the spoils of a successful attack (e.g. fencing data).

These efforts finance the teams themselves via ransoms or paid hits (among other potential monetization pathways), but also serve nation-state aims and goals (like privateering). Groups like DarkSide and REvil do not target anyone in their own region. The government turns a blind eye to their actions, but also more than likely funds them or provides targets in some way. Patriotism can bleed into profiteering.

Russia, China, North Korea, etc. all continue to be digital threats to the United States and allies. The wargames are escalating and the stakes are getting higher and higher in the era of digital conflict. These nations have blurred the line between crime and war with the nature of their attacks. As the attacks become more profitable and tensions rise, the attacks are going to get more brutal and more surgical in their scope and their damage.

Business Implications

As an MSP, the business implications are dire. You are potentially a point of ingress into multiple networks for multiple businesses which means a single compromise can damage both you and your clients. An RMM like SolarWinds or ConnectWise can offer an easy way into systems with privileged access and limited oversight (depending on the methodology and administration of the tools available). Tricks like fileless malware can enable a simple script to compromise sites and elude security measures. Security isn’t just nice to have, it’s essential as the arms race takes off.

Downtime is expensive for you and your clients. Just because it isn’t your fault a client went down, doesn’t mean it won’t impact you economically if they crater. When you work in a B2B service, you are tied to your client. Their success is your success, and their failure can become your failure if you are not careful. What are you doing to prevent compromises and cyber warfare attacks?

A leaky API can become weaponized as easily as an errant password gotten from social engineering. The marriage of social engineering and novel technical exploits resulted in us developing our own patent pending security tool, ID 20/20.

As our lives become increasingly dependent and entwined with digital services and processes, our well-being becomes increasingly reliant on each link in the chain functioning optimally. Each minor fracturing of process ends up weaponized as a way to break a business. A breach in a service means an inability to function or a loss of control of intellectual property, even if the attack doesn’t necessarily spread to a full compromise. Vulnerability on this front can damage your reputation, dull your competitive edge, or worse.

Conclusion

As geopolitical relationships are strained and economies increasingly compete for limited resources, we’re going to see this is just the beginning for cyber warfare. Nation-state actors see cyber-attacks as not just a way to damage a country, but a way to destabilize industries and finance further operations. A bomb dropped is an act of war (and costly to boot), but a pipeline or meat packing plant breached is the result of bad actors until proven otherwise (with the bonus of sowing discontent and damaging infrastructure).

MSPs are going to become larger targets for cyber warfare as their value as an easier way into many companies becomes more attractive. RMM tools offer a near unlimited level of access to the machines they manage, all available in one attractive location. What are you doing to prevent your convenience from becoming a point of ingress for threat actors? How are you keeping your clients safe and mitigating politically motivated attacks which can destroy them?

We use and provide a layered approach to security to reduce the impact of any given action by a threat actor. No layer is perfect or anywhere close (anyone who tells you differently is lying), but the chances of getting in and doing damage decrease for each hurdle in the way. We combine that with alerting and smart solutions to prevent the spread of destruction or ingress to limit the damage done. We missed the latest round of attacks, and not just for luck. Add in backups and you can quickly roll with the punches. A nation-state actor that wants in will probably get in with enough resources, but you need to ensure that if (or when) they do, that they get as little as possible and that it is as inconvenient as possible.