JumpCloud Inc. announced findings from its Q4 2022 SME IT Trends Report, Managing IT Amidst Rising Security Threats and Global Turbulence for Small to Medium-sized Enterprises. JumpCloud commissioned the biannual survey of SME IT admins to gain insights into the day-to-day experiences of IT professionals who power and secure operations without enterprise-level budget and staff.
The latest survey results highlight that a plurality of IT pros worry that cybersecurity-specific funding might be at risk: 44 percent agree their organization will cut spending on cybersecurity in the next year compared with 41 percent who disagree.
With the accelerated rate of attacks on SMEs and the sophisticated evolution of external threats, IT admins are concerned that such cuts will make organizations more vulnerable, with 75 percent reporting cuts to their organization’s security budget will increase organizational risk.
Inflation, labor shortages, recession talks, market volatility, and global conflicts are a few of the external impacts companies are absorbing. Market and global turbulence were present six months ago, but recent disruptions have been more acute. And recessionary pressures appear to impact SMEs already: 78 percent report seeing evidence of a recession in their business, and 34 percent say their organization is severely impacted. Despite internal and external events, SMEs are positioning themselves for success in large part due to the achievements of the IT teams that make it possible.
“SME admins have skillfully managed IT through a period of sustained and unprecedented uncertainty in business and the world,” said Rajat Bhargava, co-founder and CEO, JumpCloud (pictured) “SMEs would be wise to listen to IT teams’ concerns about the vulnerabilities introduced by tool sprawl and cuts in security budgets, as well as their pleas for tool consolidation and enhanced security. Improving security and reducing costs can go hand in hand with a platform approach that delivers both, offering secure access, improved productivity, and a better overall experience for end users and the IT professionals managing their tech access and apps.”
Among the key findings are:
Role of Managed Service Providers (MSPs):
- MSP usage is up – 93 percent are considering or already work with MSPs, up from 89 percent in October 2021. Forty-one percent say an MSP completely manages their IT program, including technology, process, and support, up from 34 percent in April 2022.
- MSPs seen as valuable for a number of functions – On nearly every metric, IT admins rated MSPs higher across a variety of reasons vs. six months ago. The top reasons for MSP use include: they are cost-effective (57 percent vs. 54 percent in April 2022), are up to date on latest technologies (65 percent vs. 64 percent in April 2022), offer a better user experience (62 percent vs. 52 percent in April 2022), better secure identity and access management (35 percent vs. 34 percent in April 2022), and offer customer support (22 percent vs. 20 percent in April 2022).
- MSPs are most effective in improving IT’s day-to-day experience – While fewer report better security as a result of their MSP use (57 percent vs. 70 percent in April 2022), 51 percent report their job is easier due to MSP use (up from 36 percent in April 2022), and 60 percent report their effectiveness has increased (up from 32 percent in April 2022).
- IT individualism and cost are still the biggest blockers to MSP use – 53 percent of IT admins prefer to handle IT themselves, down from 56 percent in April 2022, and 36 percent say MSPs are too expensive, up from 29 percent in April 2022. Other cited reasons are that MSPs offer more than what they need (27 percent) and that organizations are too small to use an MSP (18 percent).
- Employees are getting better at security – 78 percent agree that remote workers are better at following security best practices than a year ago, up from 75 percent in April 2022. But IT admins still see a significant challenge, as 58 percent agree that hybrid work makes it harder for employees to follow good security practices, which remained about the same as the 60 percent who agreed in October of 2021.
- IT admins increasingly say additional security adds friction – More admins agree that additional security makes a more cumbersome experience, 65 percent now up from 54 percent in October 2021. More admins strongly agree that additional security makes a more cumbersome experience (22 percent, up from 18 percent in April 2022).
- Passwordless getting more popular – 67 percent report passwordless authentication is a priority for their organization, up from 64 percent in April 2022, but 57 percent view passwordless as more of an industry buzzword than an IT priority, up from 52.6 percent who agreed in April 2022.
- Biometrics are popular with IT admins:5 percent of SME IT admins use biometrics to secure personal devices, up from 73.9 percent in April 2022. Face recognition is the most commonly used (74.5 percent) followed by fingerprint (76.7 percent), voice (48.5 percent), and liveness detection (23.8 percent).
- Security tops remote worker management as top IT challenge – Top challenges for IT admins are security (52 percent), device management (46 percent), and increased work burden (45 percent). In October 2021, the management of remote workers was biggest concern (59 percent) and increased work burden at 39 percent.
- IT admins are choosing a balanced life – 57 percent agree they’ve reduced their workload to achieve a better work-life balance over the past six months.
- Remote access solutions are too costly – 90 percent use remote access, but 55 percent say they spend too much. 20 percent say they spend too much because it’s underused.
The results of the JumpCloud Q4 2022 SME IT Trends Report are available in JumpCloud’s ebook, Managing IT Amidst Rising Security Threats and Global Turbulence for Small to Medium-Sized Enterprises, which can be downloaded for free here.
