To say that 2020 has been a difficult year would be an understatement. As the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the world, business leaders had to grapple with lockdowns and the economic downturn spurred by the crisis. After making it through many stressful months facing an unclear future, we now find ourselves considering what 2021 holds in store for us and what we can do to position ourselves for success in the new year.
If you’re adjusting your corporate road map for 2021, you should consider focusing on two key areas: Transitioning to serverless computing and beefing up your IT security strategy. These initiatives can help you drive better performance while containing costs, in addition to empowering remote workers. Here’s what you need to know about the process of going serverless and how to properly safeguard your data against a complex landscape of cybersecurity threats in 2021 and beyond.
Making the Switch to Serverless: Benefits for Your Business
In a nutshell, going serverless means letting a cloud provider handle everything related to hardware so your business can run and build applications without the hassle of infrastructure management, according to “The CIO’s Guide to Serverless Computing” from Gartner. The term “serverless” is actually a bit misleading, since there are still physical servers involved. You just outsource their set-up, management and maintenance to a service provider.
This type of computing has become popular in the business world due to its numerous benefits. Here are just a few of the most notable advantages that contribute to the appeal of this approach, according to Gartner, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and IBM Cloud:
- Simplified operations due to elimination of the need to install, configure and manage infrastructure
- More scalability than on-site servers
- Potential savings due to the reduction in infrastructure-related expenditures and only paying for the resources you actually use
The process of going serverless can be relatively fast and easy, depending on the workload you’re moving and the cloud provider involved. For example, when the pandemic necessitated that many companies equip their employees to work effectively from home, we helped some of our clients migrate from a traditional on-premises phone system to a cloud phone system, or Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) platform, in just a matter of days.
Many of our clients have also gone serverless by leveraging the Microsoft Office 365 suite of business apps like SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business for sharing and storing resources. If you’re interested in learning more about going serverless, feel free to contact our team to discuss your options.
Why Comprehensive Cybersecurity Matters More Than Ever
Cybercriminals remain relentless in their efforts to exploit vulnerabilities and gain access to sensitive data, so it’s imperative that all businesses – regardless of size or industry – stay vigilant and ensure their cybersecurity arsenal is up-to-date. The pandemic and other current events like post-election turmoil have thrown fuel on the fire of cybercrime, inspiring ransomware attacks and phishing campaigns.
More than half (56 percent) of senior IT decision makers and IT security professionals interviewed in August and September 2020 said their organization had experienced a ransomware attack during the previous year, according to CrowdStrike’s third annual Global Security Attitude Survey.
However, you can combat the surge in cyberattacks with advanced solutions like these (among others):
- Spoof phishing software to test your team members’ ability to recognize malicious messages and inform employee security awareness training
- Endpoint and network Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
- Zero-trust network architecture with a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) to provide accessibility for distributed teams without sacrificing security
Data breaches can come at a high cost and strike serious blows to your reputation, so it’s wise to invest in proactive and preventive measures.
Ultimately, it’s impossible to say what the coming year will bring. However, prioritizing digital transformation by adopting advanced technologies like the cloud and zero-trust network architecture will help your business stay competitive and improve performance in today’s virtual and digital era.
If you’d like to learn more about the process of going serverless and how to leverage the latest and best cybersecurity solutions to combat rapidly evolving threats, don’t hesitate to give us a call at 877-599-3999 or email sales@stratospherenetworks.com.
