Is a Virtual CISO/CIO for your organization?

Could an on-demand virtual CISO (vCISO) be the answer to your prayers? A vCIO/vCISO is an outsourced security practitioner or provider who offers their time and insight to an organization on an ongoing basis, usually part-time and remotely.  Some companies are content to just sit and wait for problems – but that kind of apathy can be fatalistic. In most cases, waiting around is a terrible strategy! A Virtual CIO/CISO helps a firm to be proactive when initiative counts.

Virtual CISO

There are many cases where a larger organization’s CISO departs due to a new role, termination or an illness. In these cases, the organization needs a qualified person to manage its cybersecurity. The mandate to “handle security in real-time” means the CISO desk should not ever be empty: if an interim presence is needed, a vCISO is a valuable solution.

Virtual CIO

A virtual CIO (vCIO) is a dedicated resource who serves as a Chief Information Officer on a flexible basis. Their primary role is to formulate strategic IT goals for your company, and then manage an IT strategy and budget that meets those goals.

Technology Road-map

Having a forward-thinking vision of where you want your business to be, as well as goals for immediate improvements, is essential to any successful enterprise. Virtual CIOs provide IT plans and strategies that help small businesses leverage IT solutions to fulfill short- and long-term business goals.

Security and Disaster Planning

The best time for a disaster recovery plan is before a small business actually requires one. With Virtual CIO services, businesses benefit from disaster strategy development that allows for quick response and business productivity protection in the event of an outage or natural disaster. Security is quickly becoming a top priority for all businesses as breaches occur more frequently and carry more serious repercussions. Small businesses are not immune to attacks simply because their data sets are smaller. Virtual CIOs provide consistent security planning and disaster planning plus monitoring, to keep data flowing safely.

IT Maintenance, Monitoring and Management

Comprehensive and consistent IT management is the difference between suffering disruptive productivity gaps and maintaining seamless operational productivity. Virtual CIOs deliver not only day-to-day monitoring and maintenance of IT performance and productivity, but also comprehensive IT management to keep business processes functioning at peak efficiency.

24/7 Specialized IT Expertise

Even with an in-house IT department, sometimes it can be difficult to ensure that you have the right talent for all IT-related issues. Having a Virtual CIO gives a small business big peace of mind with constant IT monitoring and reporting. Many SMBs want to leverage technology — cloud accounting solutions, customer relationship management software and much more — but lack the necessary expertise and personnel to do so. By investigating and finding the right virtual CIO to compliment and guide their IT infrastructure, performance and overall strategy, an SMB may find not only an exceptional IT authority, but also a technology partner and trusted adviser.