How CDW Helps Small Businesses Strengthen Their Security as They Grow

Small businesses face the same cyberthreats as large enterprises, but they don’t have the same budgets or dedicated IT security staff to defend against them.

The consequences can be severe: 46% of small and medium-sized enterprises (250 or fewer employees) have experienced a cyberattack, and of those hacked, 18% filed for bankruptcy, and 17% had to shut down entirely, according to a recent Mastercard survey of more than 5,000 business leaders. What’s more, 96% of ransomware victims were small and medium-sized businesses (1,000 or fewer employees), according to a recent Verizon report.

In the past, managed security services were designed for enterprises with larger budgets, making them difficult for smaller companies to adopt. To close that gap, CDW recently launched a new managed security service built for small businesses, with pricing and contract terms to match. The offering delivers 24/7 monitoring, alert investigation and triage, incident response and reporting.

The new service is part of a broader CDW approach to help small companies grow their security programs over time. When small businesses come to CDW, many have invested in some security tools, such as endpoint protection, next-generation firewalls or a phishing simulation and training platform. What they often lack is the staff and expertise to continuously monitor and respond to attacks and remediate when necessary.

CDW’s managed security offering for small businesses follows a three-part delivery model:

• Observation. Our team continuously monitors the customer’s security telemetry, identifies threats and reviews alerts.
• Operation. We investigate those alerts, respond to threats and contain any issues, working with vendors when needed.
• Optimization. We proactively hunt for threats and work to reduce false positives and improve overall security posture. We also provide reporting and governance.

With these three components, we operate as an extension of the customer’s IT team.

At CDW, we help small businesses understand the big picture for an effective security strategy. Rather than focusing on a single product category, we look at a customer's full environment, including identity management, network security and endpoints. We are also well versed in the latest best practices, such as zero trust.

We are vendor-neutral, with partnerships throughout the security industry. That means we can recommend the right mix of software and services for each customer’s unique situation. Once you’ve decided what’s right for you, CDW’s engineers can make it work.

CDW partners with managed security service providers. Some MSSPs sell customers their own endpoint security software alongside a monitoring service. In some cases, that's exactly what a customer needs, and we will recommend them.

For customers who want to keep their existing tools, our new CDW-delivered MSSP offering is built to work with what customers already own. New software is recommended when it’s needed.

Small companies don’t have to upgrade their security all at once. We can help you start with your most pressing problems and build from there as the business grows and security requirements evolve. Understanding the value of a customer’s existing security investments is a key part of that approach.