Technology Protection with Cisco Meraki

Posted by: Brett Bisbe

As a parent, there is no better feeling than when your young child comes to you, wrapping their arms around you and relaxing into you with total trust and vulnerability. They receive your warmth and protection and find no better place for their comfort than when in your arms. They sleep wonderfully with that security. Technology protection doesn’t offer that same kind of warm and fuzzies, however, it’s importance is vastly underrated.

Recently, B2 Solutions was honored to host many current clients and new connections at an open house in our office. This event was combined with a ribbon cutting ceremony done in partnership with both the Greater Fort Myers Chamber as well as the Cape Coral Chamber and was amazingly catered by the joint teamwork of Bubba’s Roadhouse and Mona Lisa’s Pizzeria. We are immensely grateful to those who came and celebrated with us, giving us a full house well after dark! We are also grateful for the Cisco Meraki line of network security appliances that co-hosted the event with us.

Technology Protection is a Real Problem

Technology protection, or the lack thereof, can easily cause sleepless nights, with the risks that your business faces every day. Viruses. Ransomware. Malware. Hackers. Information thieves. These threats to any connected business are enough to significantly tempt any of them into reverting back to carbon copied paper. With defenses down, rises in vulnerabilities and a general misunderstanding of how real this threat is, businesses are in danger in a way they have never experienced before. Don’t let yourself believe that just because you are a smaller business that you are not at risk; everyone – even low income individuals are seeing large upticks in attacks.

Picture your company’s IT network like an office building with hundreds (if not thousands) of doors. Are the doors into your company dead-bolted? Do you have guards at each door? What happens when someone gets in? Were they let in (such as guest networks) or did they break in? Consider the technology protection of firewalls alone in this example. There are available firewalls out there that are only a dead-bolt lock. They do nothing for devices that are let in, such as guests that connect to your Wi-Fi or employees that bring personal devices into your secure network. Once something bad gets in, there is nothing it can do to stop them.

Life with Technology Protection

What can you do to make sure your technology is protected? First off, you need to know and understand (at least on a basic level) the differences between the technology protection a low-end device can offer vs. a high-end appliance such as Meraki devices. Then you need to have open dialogue with your IT managed services provider to see what solutions are best suited for your use and needs. This doesn’t need to be an issue to worry about; there are solutions and B2 is here to help if you need.

Take the opportunity to count sheep instead of worries; profits instead of hackers. There is no need for you to be a technology expert, just do enough research to ensure that your IT company knows their stuff and why the price-points on certain devices have such a large swing between brands and models. There is always a reason. Get informed today and start sleeping peacefully.