In our first post about choosing a managed services provider (MSP), we spoke about one of the major differences between several providers and suggested that you formulate a list of questions that will guide you through the selection process.

We also discussed, briefly, two business models that dominate the MSP field: reactive and proactive services.

While these two models do accomplish a common goal in helping a company with their IT needs, there is a world of difference between the two.

It’s hard to know which managed services provider (MSP) is best for your company when the pool to choose from is really more like an ocean.

If you find yourself, say, stranded on a flimsy raft in the middle of said ocean you may feel a considerable amount of confusion and even fatigue over how these MSPs are different from each other.

Sure, no wave in an ocean is the exact same as another – but they all look alike and they all do the same thing. Right?

If you’ve logged onto Reddit, Twitter, Tumblr or several other social media websites in the past week you may have noticed banners or splash pages urging you and other users to take action against something called “net neutrality.”

Sounds kind of serious, huh? You might be wondering why all hands seem to be on the digital deck this week.

One of a company’s worst nightmares goes a little something like this.

An employee boots up their computer at the beginning of the work day. A couple of minutes into work they get an email from someone who seems to be a coworker. They click the link without thinking, and a message flashes onto their screen:

“Your files have been encrypted. You have 24 hours to pay a fine of $500. If you do not pay the fine, your files will be permanently encrypted.”

Yesterday, for several companies across Europe and Asia and even in the United States, that nightmare became a reality.

In previous blog posts, we’ve talked a lot about how important it is to be aware of how secure your firewall really is. But you may be wondering one thing: what does it even mean to be “security aware?”