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In 2024, Microsoft Teams exceeded 320 million users worldwide, further cementing its status as the communication and collaboration platform of choice for organisations at all levels, across the public and private sectors. Indeed, 88% of businesses report that implementing Teams has resulted resulted in tangible time savings, and 17% reporting streamlined decision-making.

In the modern interconnected world, securing organisations' critical data is more of a challenge than ever before, with new threats emerging on a near-daily basis, and the ongoing evolution of corporate infrastructure creating new attack vectors that must be identified and secured. However, when establishing a robust security posture, it is important to bear in mind that many of the strategies employed by cyber criminals are, in fact, new variations of familiar threats. 

Organisations utilise a broader range of connectivity solutions than ever before. This has empowered them to deliver their services to customers all over the world, across a range of channels, while simultaneously ensuring employees are always able to access the critical applications they depend on and collaborate remotely with their colleagues.

Cyber security is the 'secret sauce' that makes any IT 'sundae' complete, ensuring that you can continue to grow your business, bring new innovations to life, and deliver exceptional service quality for your customers and end users. However, an increasingly aggressive, diverse range of threats means traditional security solutions are showing their limitations, with potential vulnerabilities going undetected until a breach occurs.

Even as organisations across the public and private sectors continue to embrace Cloud transformation, they cannot afford to underestimate the importance of robust physical infrastructure. From the underlying networks that optimise the performance of critical applications and enable seamless, secure flows of data, to the growing range of devices the modern distributed workforce depends on to deliver their best, world-class hardware remains a powerful driver for long-term success and innovation.

One of the key principles of modern cyber security is that "It's not if, it's when". The strategies utilised by cyber criminals grow increasingly sophisticated and aggressive with each passing year, with any breach having the potential to cause irreparable financial and reputational damage if operations are not resumed and data secured as quickly as possible. However, while most organisations will already have some form of disaster recovery plan in place, when one takes into account the increasing pace of Cloud transformation and the number of potential attack vectors it has opened up into account, these often turn out to be no longer fit for purpose when it is time to initiate them.

Whether you're an ambitious startup or an established global leader, the modern breed of IT is complex, with numerous areas that would previously have been relatively siloed now highly interconnected. Cloud, networking, cyber security, unified communications, and much more must all work seamlessly together towards short- and long-term business goals, all in full compliance with an increasing number of stringent regulations.

The tactics utilised by bad actors to gain access to organisations' critical data grow more sophisticated and aggressive with each passing year, making cyber security an ongoing battle. But as systems and processes continue to evolve in response to these emerging threats, it is important to not lose sight of strong cyber security fundamentals, as even the most familiar threats can still wreak havoc on your operations, profits, and reputation.

Now more than ever, with customers making contact across a growing range of channels, your contact centre is one of the factors that will determine their overall perception of your service quality. For many customers, it will serve as your 'front door', and so every element must be tailored to provide a seamless, stress-free experience - from the first point of contact to the final resolution, every time.

Enterprise IT is more diverse, dynamic, and highly integrated than ever before, with organisations at all levels, across the public and private sectors utilising on-premises and Cloud-based solutions in a growing range of sophisticated configurations. This means every aspect of organisations' digital infrastructure must be of the very highest quality, supporting ironclad security for critical data and optimal performance and availability for the platforms the modern distributed workforce depends on.

Whatever the size of your organisation, whatever sector you operate in, and whatever stage you have reached in your digital journey, cyber security must be treated as a critical priority. In particular, ransomware remains a growing threat, with global bad actors mounting a range of increasingly sophisticated, aggressive attacks in an attempt to gain control of organisations' critical data. With cyber criminals' increasing use of bots, and the ongoing evolution of IT infrastructure creating new attack vectors, securing against such attacks often presents a constantly moving target.

Cloud computing has proved transformational for organisations ranging from startups to global leaders, allowing them to design, manage, and scale their IT infrastructure with a level of agility that would previously have been impossible. This widespread embrace of Cloud transformation is helping drive a range of new innovations, including Cloud-native security, integration with edge computing platforms for IoT applications, and the next generation of AI, ML, and big data platforms.

The way we work has changed forever in just a few short years. Workloads are increasingly migrating to the Cloud, and remote work has very much established itself across virtually every sector, with employees connecting and collaborating with colleagues and customers from multiple locations, on an increasingly wide range of devices. It's an exciting time for sure, with organisations at all levels embracing this newfound flexibility to drive innovation, accelerate their long-term plans, and attract and retain top talent.

IT is more diverse than ever before, with organisations at all levels, across the public and private sectors, utilising a wide range of solutions to ensure their infrastructure enables the service quality their customers have come to expect and, in turn - supports their ongoing growth. But while digital transformation shows no signs of slowing down, the growing range of solutions organisations must select, integrate, and manage means that scaling infrastructure is an increasingly complex task for IT teams. That makes it vital that you start building your infrastructure on the right foundation…

Cloud computing has changed the way organisations think about their IT infrastructure forever. With around 92% of a typical organisation's infrastructure now likely to be Cloud-based¹, and more than 70% of organisations hosting more than half their workloads in Cloud environments², the global Cloud market is predicted to be worth $1251.09 billion by 2028³.

Now more than ever, communication is the lifeblood of innovation and business growth. From traditional telephony and email to online chat and video calling, and now the next generation of AI-powered chatbots and contact centres, the range of tools we use to communicate and collaborate with customers and colleagues continues to grow. With the modern dispersed workforce and a high standard of omnichannel customer service expected as standard for customers, it's an exciting time for sure, but how do you stack the right UC flavours for your organisation's needs?

Organisations' reputations rise and fall depending on the security of their critical data. Even the smallest breach will not just lead to serious operational disruptions, but likely result in costly fines and potentially irrecoverable reputational damage. And the heightening threat landscape shows no signs of slowing down, with cyberattacks increasing in frequency and scale. Consider these recent statistics: