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Identity Management: Protecting Individual Accounts to Protect Your Entire Business

If your IT provider has mentioned upgrading your Microsoft licensing, enabling conditional access, implementing MFA, or adding identity threat detection and response tools, these might sound like separate recommendations or line items on a proposal. They’re not. They’re all protecting the same critical thing: your cloud identities. This is what the cybersecurity industry calls identity management or identity protection. Your cloud identity is the account you use to access your work applications—your Microsoft 365 login, your Google Workspace account, or your Okta credentials. Identity management is about protecting these accounts. Why is protecting these accounts so critical? Because each individual […]

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The Pros and Cons of Internal IT vs Managed IT Services

The Pros and Cons of Internal IT vs Managed IT Services - text on blue background

When small business leaders face IT challenges, they often wonder: should we stick with internal IT staff, or is it time to partner with a managed service provider? The decision between an MSP and internal IT requires careful consideration of several key pros and cons, especially if your organization is growing or going through change. Whether you’re dealing with an IT manager’s departure, rapid company expansion, or recovering from a cybersecurity incident, this choice will have lasting impacts on your business. To help you in your evaluation, here are some pros and cons of internal IT compared to hiring an […]

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Energized by Connection – Spotlight on Brent

If you want to track down Brent Mangum during the work week, the first place to look probably isn’t his home office. You’re more likely to find him at a networking event, a coffee shop or in a meeting with a local business leader. He’s lived and worked in the Baton Rouge area for years, building a huge network of contacts. The conversations he has with people now that he’s working as a Business Development Manager for Bellwether are the same as they’ve always been—he’s just added one more way to help them. “I get a lot of energy from […]

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The Value of A Cyber-Literate Workforce in 2025

Phishing attacks are getting through email security filters at an alarming rate. The technology hasn’t failed, but the attacks themselves have fundamentally changed. A cyber-literate workforce—employees who understand how modern threats work and know how to respond—has become essential to protecting your business. A typical attack starts with something completely ordinary. Your employee receives an email from a vendor they work with every week. The subject line references their current project. The message includes a link to review updated documents in OneDrive. They click it, log in when prompted, and get back to work. Two days later, your company discovers […]

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The Vendor Access Security Problem and What to Do About It

Most business leaders never think to ask who has access to their network. You know your employees have access, but what about your phone system vendor, HVAC maintenance contractors, security system installers, cleaning service management software, or equipment monitoring services? Each of these vendors likely has remote access to your network through SSL-VPN technology. SSL-VPN served organizations well by replacing less secure methods like direct RDP connections and basic VPNs and has been considered best practice for secure remote access for years. SSL-VPN stands for Secure Sockets Layer Virtual Private Network. It creates an encrypted tunnel that allows remote users […]

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Time to Replace SSL-VPN with Next-Gen Remote Access 

Remote access technology is under attack. Cybercriminals are successfully breaching organizations through their SSL-VPN systems, even those with the latest patches and multi-factor authentication enabled. SSL-VPN is widely used to let employees work from home and allow vendors to connect to company systems. While it has served organizations well for years, recent security incidents have confirmed what IT professionals have been planning for: the transition to Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA). Key Takeaways SSL-VPN technology has fundamental security problems that cannot be fixed. Industry reports document attacks that successfully breached organizations with fully updated systems and multi-factor authentication. Patches and […]

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All-Inclusive or Co-Managed IT Services: Which Option is Best for Your Business

When your business runs on technology (and whose doesn’t?), you need confidence that your IT team has the expertise and bandwidth to handle everything required to keep your operations running smoothly. This is where options like all-inclusive IT services or co-managed IT services can make a significant difference. Whether you have an internal IT manager, a small IT staff, or someone “good with technology” overseeing IT, there may come a time when their capabilities aren’t enough. This situation puts your organization at risk. Downtime, employee and customer frustration, loss of competitive advantage, and even cyber-attacks are just some of the […]

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What Is Zero Trust? Why More Businesses Are Reconsidering Their Cybersecurity Approach in 2025 

Zero Trust is a modern cybersecurity approach designed to keep up with today’s faster, more adaptive cyber threats. For years, firewalls, VPNs, and antivirus software provided a solid foundation for security, and for many businesses those tools still play a role. But cybercriminals have adapted. Many of today’s attacks are powered by automation and artificial intelligence, giving threat actors the speed and scale to bypass traditional defenses and cause damage quickly. In this new reality, the old “castle and moat” model—where the focus was on protecting the perimeter and trusting everything inside—just doesn’t hold up. That’s why more organizations are […]

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Benefits of Technology Strategy [2025 Update]

The starting place for technology strategy is a mindset. It’s recognizing that IT is more than just overhead. Technology isn’t only essential for keeping business operations running—it can accelerate business growth. While technology strategy includes the utilization of best practices to create and scale high-functioning IT systems, there is no cookie-cutter template that you can use to create IT strategy. Strategy sets out a path to take you from where you are today, to where you want to go tomorrow and that’s unique for every organization. It will be evident if you don’t have a tech strategy. When you don’t […]

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What is a Managed IT Service Provider?

[2025 Update] If you’re reading this, someone probably told you to “look into managed IT services” for your business. Here’s what that actually means and whether it makes sense for you. But first, here’s what you need to watch out for – some companies calling themselves “managed service providers” can handle basic IT maintenance but have no idea how to help you implement AI tools, automation workflows, or other emerging technologies that could actually transform your business. So what’s a real managed service provider in 2025? And how do you tell the difference between companies that can genuinely help your […]

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