The IT Nerd

Today, CDW Canada, a leading provider of technology solutions and services for Canadian organizations, released the 2023 Hybrid Cloud Report, which explores emerging trends and the state of hybrid cloud for Canadian organizations.

Organizations should be maximizing cloud spending

Organizations say the growing use of public cloud services will increase their ability to innovate, improve customer experience and deliver new products. The report found that Canadian CEOs expect nearly half (49 percent) of their organization’s revenue to come from digital products, services and/or experiences in the next five years.

Despite the increasing reliance on cloud services, which enable Canadian organizations to stay competitive, Canadian public cloud IT spending has room for improvement. On average, 18 percent of all public cloud services spending annually in Canada is not being maximized, highlighting a crucial area of opportunity for Canadian organizations to properly resource their plans for future business offerings.

To optimize cloud spending, organizations are turning to Financial Operations (FinOps), an evolving cloud financial management discipline designed to enable

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maximum business value. The report found that just over half (55 percent) of Canadian organizations surveyed have an individual or team dedicated to FinOps and as with any new discipline, those responsible for it are experiencing growing pains.

The top cited challenges faced by the person or team performing IT FinOps around cloud expenditure are:

• Understanding how to optimize cloud spend for architectural and business benefit (42 percent)
• Allocating cloud costs to the correct team (40 percent)
• Understanding cloud price models and how to apply these optimally (39percent)Leveraging a cloud partner to provide best practices for hybrid, multicloud financial management can ensure organizations maximize their spending and reduce overages.Third-party partners are essential for security and governance of hybrid, multicloud environmentsThe report found that Canadian organizations are increasingly running their compute and storage capacity across private and public clouds, increasing from 33 percent currently to 40 percent by 2025, meaning we can expect more hybrid, multicloud environments in Canada.The advantages of running hybrid, multicloud environments include the ability to be agile and resilient, allowing organizations to scale performance while meeting security and compliance requirements.Many factors may affect the scope of Canadian organizations’ digital infrastructure strategies, which dictates the use of hybrid, multicloud environments. The top cited external-facing business objectives shaping these strategies over the next two years are:

• Reducing the overall cost of doing business (42 percent)
• Supporting more personalized customer engagement (41 percent)
• Responding to specific crisis-driven requirements (37 percent)

In comparison, the top cited internal-facing business objectives are:

• Improving internal staff productivity (47 percent)
• Cybersecurity and data protection across all geographies (45 percent)
• IT responses to unexpected business conditions when needed (40 percent)Canadian organizations will have to address complex concerns around management, governance, security and visibility that can have serious consequences for data protection.

0. Hybrid, multicloud environments enable the future of work in an ever-changing business landscape.Visit CDW’s Cloud Solutions page to learn more.

CDW Canada, a leading provider of technology solutions and services for Canadian organizations, today released new research about the barriers Canadian workers are facing in the digital workspace. The Digital Workspace Survey hosted on the Angus Reid Forum, surveyed over 1,000 hybrid workers across Canada.

Proper IT can increase productivity

The survey found that Canadian hybrid workers who experience IT issues reported losing an average of three hours a week dealing with IT issues. This indicates a massive loss of productivity from hardware and software that isn’t optimized for hybrid work, as well as an opportunity for employers to increase productivity through proper IT investments.

Most hybrid workers cited network connectivity (loss of 2.6 hours) and VPN connectivity (loss of 2.2 hours) as key IT issues. Other issues included lack of IT technical support, trouble sharing documents with team members, disruptions and connection issues on video calls and lack of additional monitors.

How investing in IT for hybrid work can benefit small businesses

Financial barriers can pose a threat when investing in the right IT for hybrid work, however, not investing comes with heightened cybersecurity risks. Investing in technology without considering security can cause greater financial and reputational impacts in the event of a security incident. This situation is most prevalent with small businesses (organizations with less than 100 employees) as employees are more likely to face financial barriers in a hybrid work environment. The survey

found that more than one third (37 percent) of respondents reported having to choose and pay for their own IT equipment. This lies in contrast to one-in-ten employees (13 percent) working at large businesses who must do the same.

A lack of IT investment impacts personal device usage and security posture. Nearly half (49 percent) of respondents working at a small business reported using a personal device to access work related files or perform work tasks more than once a day.

Security concerns impact IT decision-makers’ ability to work from home

IT decision-makers were less comfortable working from home due to their increased awareness of cybersecurity and understanding of the risks when working in a hybrid model.

The survey found that nearly one-in-five (18 percent) IT decision-makers reported data security and privacy reasons preventing them from working from home compared to only three percent of non-IT decision-makers.

Concerns over cybersecurity for IT decision-makers are echoed in CDW Canada’s 2023 Security Study, which surveyed 553 IT security and risk & compliance professionals. The study found that two-in-five (40 percent) respondents that store their organization’s data in the cloud – an essential tool for hybrid work – said they experienced a security incident in the cloud during the past year. Further, only one third (30 percent) of respondents said a policy exists in their organizations for monitoring and detecting threats within data, assets, applications and services. These findings can speak to the elevated concerns of IT decision-makers found in the Digital Workspace Survey.

CDW Canada, a leading provider of technology solutions and services for Canadian organizations, today released its annual security research, the 2023 Canadian Cybersecurity Study: Emerging Issues and Trends. The study, conducted with additional support and analysis by IDC Canada, surveyed over 500 IT security, risk and compliance professionals and explains the state of cybersecurity among Canadian organizations, with a focus on the expanding attack surfaces that emerged as a result of the substantial growth of business computing peripherals, servers and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. 

The sophistication of cyberattacks, combined with greater entry points created through cloud infrastructure, IoT and endpoint devices has led to an increase in security breaches. The study found that 7 percent to 10 percent of all cyberattack types were successful and observed a significantly greater “hit rate” of success (the number of attacks that result in a breach) achieved than in previous years.  

While total cyberattacks in 2023 decreased from 2022, they resulted in a greater number of breaches at organizations, jumping from a 12-month average of 13 in 2022 to 30 in 2023. While organizations are taking steps in the right direction to secure their IT assets, there is room for improvement to protect data and devices spread across various networks.  

Cloud is convenient, yet requires specific protections 

Public cloud environments – the most impacted IT components affected by security incidents and vulnerabilities – are being created by the increased use of cloud for storing private, sensitive and highly restricted data. It is further compounded by the adopt-first/secure-later approach of hybrid work, which has led to a widening gap between cloud adoption and proper investments to secure it.  

More than half (54 percent) of organizations store internal data, greater than one-third (36 percent) store sensitive (confidential) data and more than one-quarter (28 percent) store secret (highly restricted) data in the public cloud. Yet, organizations only spent on average 13 percent of their security budgets on securing cloud environments.  

Detection and response enable business continuity  

Threat detection and response is falling short, giving cyberattackers more time to access and steal personal, financial and intellectual data, or disrupt business processes with ransomware. 

According to the CDW Canada study with research and analysis by IDC, the average time to detect acyberincident is 7.1 days, while responding to an attack takes twice as long at an average of 14.9 days. The average time to recover is 25.6 days, putting the average incident management time at approximately 48 days total. This delay puts Canadian organizations at greater risk of reinfection, loss of customer trust and higher incident recovery costs.   

Automated processes are key to a robust security practice 

Organizations must address the IT security skills gap and implement automated processes to mitigate and minimize the impact of breaches while maintaining an advanced security posture that proactively defuses threats. 

The study found that nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of Canadian organizations say the skills gap has reduced their ability to prevent security incidents. Automation can significantly improve efficiency for security operations centre (SOC) analysts – the frontline professionals who monitor, detect and respond to cyberattacks. Automation frees up their time so they can devote more of it to higher-value cybersecurity activities such as investigations and threat hunting. In fact, more than half (59 percent) of respondents say they see automation as a way to improve security staff efficiency.   

Keeping up with sophisticated cyberthreats may seem like a massive undertaking, but expertise is available. As a trusted expert in cybersecurity solutions, CDW Canada can help organizations prepare for, defend and respond to the ever-expanding threat landscape.  

For more information, download the study here. 

CDW Canada has published findings from its 2023 Penetration Testing Survey to coincide with CDW’s annual National Penetration Testing Day.

The research found that more than one-in-three (36 percent) Canadian organizations experienced a security breach in the past year. While the vast majority (80 percent) involved an external breach originating from outside an organization’s infrastructure, three-in-five (61 percent) reported an internal breach. The high frequency of internal security breaches highlights the crucial importance of implementing and maintaining a strong cybersecurity posture and ensuring employees are educated and trained on security best practices.

The survey also revealed the most common types of security breaches Canadian organizations report being victimized by in the past two years, which included ransomware attacks (34 percent), business email compromises (34 percent) and phishing attacks (33 percent). Amongst companies/organizations that have shifted to a remote or hybrid work model, more than half (54 percent) of Canadian IT professionals report that the shift has increased their organization’s security risk. Awareness, training and resources remain paramount to combatting cyberthreats.

Now in its second year, the CDW survey summarizes the sentiment of 500 Canadian IT decision-makers regarding cybersecurity and the posture of their organizations.

To learn more about the state of penetration testing in Canada, please click here.

CDW Canada recently launched their 2022 Security Study, Advancing the Maturity of Canadian Organizations, which found that robust and advanced cybersecurity practices are key to better business outcomes. 

As a result, CDW Canada created their very own CDW Security Self-Assessment Tool, which organizations can use for free to evaluate how their cybersecurity stacks up against their peers.

Upon completing the security assessment, you will receive a personalized report outlining: 

• How secure your business is compared to your peers. 
• Security approaches and best-practices to adopt. 
• Recommendations to help improve your businesses security posture. 

This is an easy way to figure out where you stand when it comes to your security posture. Thus I would recommend trying it out so that you can take action on any areas that need improvement.

CDW Canada just released its latest Trends Report, The Workplace Evolution which examines how Canadian IT professionals are witnessing the digital transformation evolution in the workplace and the different ways they are implementing IoT and emerging technologies within their organization.  

Key findings include: 

• Nearly all (96 percent) of Canadian organizations value IoT and emerging technologies, however, over one third (37 percent) are not adopting these technologies.  
• Key barriers to IoT adoption include it not being a company priority (57 percent), lack of budget (34 percent) and lack of employee expertise/talent (30 percent). 
• Most respondents believe that adopting IoT and emerging and transformative technologies can help improve operational efficiency (76 percent), increase data and information availability (70 percent) and improve the customer experience (68 percent).  
• Organizations face challenges when it comes to the adoption of IoT. The top three risks and challenges organizations have experienced include increased security threats, such as cyberattacks and ransomware (64 percent), technology failure (61 percent) and maintenance requirements (54 percent). 

For more information, you can read the full report here and blog post here. 

 CDW Canada today launched its annual Security Study, Advancing the Maturity of Canadian Organizations, which explores the state of IT security in Canada and evaluates the top cybersecurity challenges facing Canadian organizations today. The report uncovered that as the cybersecurity threat landscape evolves, Canadian organizations have become over-exposed to cyberattacks.   

CDW’s Security Study revealed regardless of size, industry or location, 90 percent of Canadian organizations surveyed have experienced a cyberattack in the past year. As cyberattacks increase in frequency, sophistication and severity, more organizations are taking a Zero-Trust approach to security.  

Additional highlights from the report include:   

• Nearly three-quarters (73%) of Canadian companies surveyed reported having experienced data infiltration attacks with ransom demands in the past year, and 76% reported repeat ransom demands. 
• 30% of organizations have adopted Zero Trust, while another 40% have it under process.    

There are many more findings outlined in the report, which can be accessed here. It’s very much worth a read.

As the threat landscape continues to evolve, new research from CDW Canada, a leading provider of technology solutions and services for Canadian organizations, reveals that regular penetration testing can help organizations defend against increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. The report, Rooting Out Risks conducted in partnership with Angus Reid, was released today to coincide with CDW’s inaugural Penetration Testing Awareness Day. The campaign aims to raise awareness of the importance of regular penetration testing, which involves a simulated attack against an organization’s network, data and personnel.

The research found that while nearly all (95 percent) Canadian organizations said they take security and protection against threats seriously, only 60 percent of organizations are conducting penetration testing. Even more concerning, nearly one-fifth (18 percent) of Canadian organizations said they are not conducting penetration testing at all, and less than half (40 percent) are making investments in penetration testing. When asked about barriers related to penetration testing, more than half (57 percent) of organizations indicated that penetration testing is not a company priority. Respondents also cited lack of employee expertise/talent (34 percent) and a lack of budget (33 percent) as key barriers to penetration testing, indicating that while organizations need a thorough understanding of threats to stay safe, many lack the time, talent or resources for regular assessments.

In addition, the research found that over one-quarter (26 percent) of Canadian organizations experienced a security breach in the past two years which resulted in detrimental business losses, including loss of productivity (58 percent), loss of data (37 percent) and financial loss (25 percent). With the increased threat of security breaches, the importance of engaging a trusted third-party IT partner to perform penetration testing remains paramount so that security gaps can be detected and bridged before they are exploited.

With decades of industry-leading experience, CDW specializes in reducing security risks by helping organizations prepare for – and defend against – their biggest security threats. As a trusted security partner, CDW develops customized solutions for organization’s unique risks and conducts penetration tests to identify and catalogue vulnerabilities in existing defence systems.

As many Canadian businesses continue to conduct remote or hybrid work operations, choosing the right type of data centre and backup recovery solution has never been more important to ensure employees remain agile, flexible and productive at work. 

Released this week, CDW Canada’s latest Market Trends Report, themed Maximize Your Data Centre, examines how Canadian organizations have been managing their data centres and reveals the top data centre trends and workplace transformations that have taken place over the last two years. 

Key findings include: 

• Over half (61%) of respondents reported their organization invested in data centre infrastructure over the last two years.  
• Over one-third (35%) of people surveyed reported that data centre failures contributed to major outages for business-critical applications in the past two years. 
• Data centre failure and public cloud services outages have been attributed to major business shortcomings that impacted bottom lines such as loss of productivity (82%), added costs (37%), security breaches (22%), loss of data (21%) and loss of reputation (21%). 
• Seven out of ten (77%) Canadian organizations were equipped with a backup data centre or disaster recovery solution. 

For more information, please click see the full Market Trends Report here.

As many Canadian businesses continue to conduct remote or hybrid operations, implementing the right collaboration tools and technologies has never been more important to ensuring employees stay engaged, productive and empowered in the workplace. 

Released this week, CDW Canada’s latest Market Trends Report, Empower Your Workforce, examines how organizations are adapting to the changing landscape, maximizing employee empowerment and engagement, and revealing some of the key challenges employees have faced (and continue to face) throughout the pandemic. 

Key findings include: 

• Prior to the pandemic, 58% of people surveyed felt that the digital workplace tools their organizations provided them with made them feel empowered, increasing to 74% during the pandemic. 
• Nearly half (44%) of Canadians said that relationships with colleagues have suffered as a result of the pandemic. 
• Prior to the pandemic, 58% of people surveyed felt that the digital workplace tools their organizations provided them with made them feel empowered at work, increasing to 74% during the pandemic.   
• Eight out of ten (82%) people surveyed felt that video conferencing tools such as Zoom, WebEx and teams supported their relationships with colleagues, 89% felt these tools supported their productivity, and 92% felt these tools were important to their engagement at work.  

For more information, the full report can be viewed and downloaded here.