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Articles by Andy Syrewicze
Why the Future of Managed Services Depends on Better Operations
If there’s one lesson I’ve learned from working with managed service providers over the years, it’s this: adding more security tools doesn’t always solve the problem. In fact, adding tools blindly often creates new ones. MSPs today operate in a vastly different environment than they did even five years ago.
Secure AI Adoption Starts with Governance, Not Hype
Artificial intelligence has moved from the edge of business strategy to the center of day-to-day operations. Teams use it to write, summarize, search, classify, automate, and support customers. It now touches email, collaboration, software development, analytics, and increasingly the security stack itself. That shift creates a new kind of challenge for managed service providers. The question is no longer whether customers will use AI, as they already are.
Your Organization’s First Line of Cyber Defense? Employee Education
With advancements in generative artificial intelligence (AI), cybercriminals are deploying increasingly sophisticated and personalized attacks that impact organizations of all sizes. Phishing attacks are being enhanced by generative AI tools, allowing attackers to create highly convincing fake communications. It’s increasingly becoming harder to distinguish legitimate messages from malicious ones, and this poses a significant challenge to traditional security defenses.
I am a cybersecurity expert - here's why it's time for businesses to bolster defenses, beyond just tech
World Password Day 2025. The first half of 2025 has undeniably showcased the devastating power of data breaches and ransomware attacks. High-profile brands such as Marks & Spencer, Harrods, and Qantas Airlines have all been through cyber shockwaves, with countless amounts of employee and customer information lost to hackers. This has not only eroded brand trust but also raised serious questions about the solidity of overall business security infrastructure.
Don't stop at basic protections; make ongoing training a priority
Hands typing on a keyboard surrounded by security icons. Fifty years ago, it was heists like the one that hit the Baker Street Bank that had the power to shock the nation. Now, in the digital world, heists look starkly different and cybersecurity threats are constant, with banks like NatWest facing a “continuous arms race” with around 100 million cyber-attacks every month.
There Are Plenty of Phish in The Sea: Here’s How to Avoid Them
When was the last time you revisited your organization’s email security practices? Is your current software up to the task of defending your data against newer and more sophisticated cyber attacks? And is your team armed with the information and education needed to respond if it isn’t? These are questions that are taking on greater significance as advancing technology increases our susceptibility to phishing attacks.
DMARC Management Tools: The Key to Smooth Email Authentication
Emails are a cornerstone of professional communication. Yet, many fail to reach recipients due to spam filters or outright rejection—a challenge that grows as providers like Yahoo and strengthen their defences against cyber threats. Brand impersonation has emerged as a dominant tactic, causing costly problems for businesses relying on email to drive sales, build trust, and communicate effectively.
AI Deep Fakes Are Plaguing the Banking Industry
Generative AI has turned the world upside down since its inception and it is showing no signs of slowing down in popularity. The rise in technological advances has forced companies to scrutinize their cybersecurity, as criminals explore and exploit AI’s uses. Banks increasingly find themselves victims of deepfake fraud, and unfortunately for the financial services sector, this genre of digital identity theft is set to boom.
How Deepfake Tech Elevates Risk in Banking (and How MSSPs Can Help)
COMMENTARY: If there's one industry that understands risk, it's banking. A defining trait of any reputable financial institution is its ability to safeguard assets against threats. As banking has shifted into the digital realm, managing cyber risks has become a critical priority, and MSSPs are stepping up to the challenge. For years, banks have successfully kept threat actors from compromising their digital infrastructure.
Illegal Crypto Mining: How Businesses Can Prevent Themselves From Being ‘Cryptojacked’
The popularity of cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Bitcoin surged during the pandemic era. What began as a niche, almost novelty form of payment in the 2010s, transformed into a legitimate financial asset. These currencies significantly contributed to the development of emerging technologies such as the metaverse and Web 3.0, a decentralized, blockchain-based version of the Internet open to everyone.
Is Microsoft Copilot a productivity booster or a cybersecurity risk?
Microsoft Copilot has emerged as a powerful tool for companies using M365. As a coding assistant, presentation designer, writing companion, and research assistant, it supports virtually every work task with remarkable speed and accuracy. From a business perspective, Copilot's benefits make it a game-changing investment in productivity.
What companies need to know to prevent targeted QR code attacks
Threat actors use many forms of phishing to carry out their targeted cyber-attacks. Spear phishing remains a highly popular form, including sending personalized emails with fake links to access sensitive data and/or deploying malicious software to demand a ransom. With technological advances and shifts in common technological use, threat actors seize new opportunities to ensure successful hack attempts.
Implementing a Robust Password Management System To Avoid Cyber Threats
At most companies, every single employee is tasked with creating passwords for several accounts and protected files — following specific guidelines like character limit, special characters and/or numbers. While these passwords may reach the general needs for account access and basic security, many do not provide a strong enough defense against threat actors who take advantage of weak and/or repeated passwords to access sensitive data.
Cybersecurity awareness training is key to mitigating cyber hacks caused by ‘human error’
Cyber threats are constantly evolving as hackers are devising new strategies and methods to exploit weaknesses within digital systems. While hackers have a huge arsenal of technological tools to exploit digital infrastructure, they often don’t need to take such extreme measures to get what they’re looking for. In fact, the World Economic Forum shared that 95% of all cybersecurity incidents are a result of human error.
Cybersecurity nightmares – and how to stop them - Data Centre Review
Andy Syrewicze, Technical Evangelist at Hornetsecurity, shares some cybersecurity horror stories from his experience of working in the industry – and how to avoid history repeating itself. Cyberattacks are increasing worldwide. Last year saw a 38% rise in global attacks – and 2023 looks set to beat that unfortunate record.
Threat Actors Continue to Up the Ante
Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2023. Read them in this 15th annual VMblog.com series exclusive. By Andy Syrewicze, Technical Evangelist at Hornetsecurity At this stage I'm done with saying the past year has been "exciting" or "crazy" or [insert your chosen word here]. I'll instead simply say that cybercriminals continue to make headway in today's digital world, and they're set to up the ante in the coming year. Let's look at a few things supporting that statement.
Say Goodbye to Free Hyper-V
We’ve got Microsoft MVP Eric Siron for a conversation about the end of Hyper-V Server (the free SKU of Hyper-V). Again, to confirm, we’re talking about the free SKU of Hyper-V. The normal paid SKUs – the well-known role within Windows Server – will be remaining. This announcement came abruptly and was something of a shock to many people. Hyper-V Server was the primary test/dev hypervisor for many organizations, not to mention it was great for licensing in VDI scenarios.
Why is Licensing in Microsoft 365 so Complicated?
We’ve got Paul Schnackenburg back to talk about licensing in Microsoft 365. To those that have even glanced at the licensing sections of the Microsoft 365 admin portal it comes as no surprise to find out that licensing in Microsoft 365 is horribly complex. We discuss how we ended up here, what different options are there for licensing in Microsoft 365, frontline workers, and most importantly, which license to choose! For example, did you know that you can mix and match licenses in Microsoft 365?
Windows Subsystems for Linux Matters | The SysAdmin DOJO Podcast
Access all Altaro DOJO eBooks, webinars and other members-exclusive content Join 50,000+ IT Pros benefiting from free training Join the DOJO forum community and ask our expert moderators your questions I’m interested in (select at least one):* MSP (Managed Service Providers) Cloud (Azure, AWS, etc.) Yes, I would like to receive the latest content and other updates from Altaro Thanks for registering and welcome to Altaro's DOJO! You will receive a welcome email shortly, as well as our weekly...
Ben Armstrong; bringing AKS on-prem | The SysAdmin DOJO Podcast
We sit down with Ben Armstrong from Microsoft to talk about Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) on Azure Stack HCI! Being a Group Program Manager for AKS on premises, Ben spends his time making life easier for infrastructure administrators running compute workloads on premises.
VMware vs Hyper-V - Hypervisor Throwdown | The SysAdmin DOJO Podcast
Access all Altaro DOJO eBooks, webinars and other members-exclusive content Join 50,000+ IT Pros benefiting from free training Join the DOJO forum community and ask our expert moderators your questions I’m interested in (select at least one):* MSP (Managed Service Providers) Yes, I would like to receive the latest content and other updates from Altaro Thanks for registering and welcome to Altaro's DOJO! You will receive a welcome email shortly, as well as our weekly newsletter.
Windows Server Certification is Back! | The SysAdmin DOJO Podcast
Access all Altaro DOJO eBooks, webinars and other members-exclusive content Join 50,000+ IT Pros benefiting from free training Join the DOJO forum community and ask our expert moderators your questions I’m interested in (select at least one):* MSP (Managed Service Providers) Yes, I would like to receive the latest content and other updates from Altaro Thanks for registering and welcome to Altaro's DOJO! You will receive a welcome email shortly, as well as our weekly newsletter.
State of the MSP Industry: What Happened in 2021?
It’s hard to believe a whole entire year has passed us once again. While we’re not usually one to follow the crowd in terms of content creation here on the DOJO, I do see value in doing pieces like these year-end round-ups, reflections… or whatever you want to call them. The point is… it’s been an interesting year for MSPs. It’s been SEVERAL interesting years for MSPs, and I’ve always felt there is value in taking some time to stop, think, and discuss where we’ve been, and where we’re going.
The Continuing Distributed Workforce and the Security Concerns that Come Along
Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2022. Read them in this 14th annual VMblog.com series exclusive. By Andy Syrewicze, Tech Evangelist at Altaro - Part of Hornetsecurity Group I feel like I've been saying this every year lately, but 2021 was another crazy year in IT. Despite many of us being done with COVID, it's clear it isn't done with us yet, and it has continued to change the way that businesses conduct operations the world over.
The 40 Most Critical Windows Server 2022 Questions Answered
It’s that time again! A new version of Windows Server is upon us and as usual, we produced a comprehensive webinar for system admins that covers all of the “What’s New?” questions that go along with a new release of Windows Server. In Windows Server 2022, we’ve seen a number of enhancements in security, SMB, and hybrid cloud capabilities along with a new edition referred to as “Azure Edition”.
Your Windows Server Software-Defined Storage Questions Answered
For all IT professionals, storage infrastructure is very much at the core of the services we provide in our datacenters. That said there seems to be this industry misconception that there has been little innovation in the Windows Server stack in terms of storage. Nothing could be further from the truth! There has been a TON of innovation in Windows Server Storage. This includes things like Storage Spaces Direct, ReFS, QUIC over SMB, and lots more! With all-new technologies come questions.
The Continued Digital Transformation of IT Around the World
Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2021. Read them in this 13th annual VMblog.com series exclusive. By Andy Syrewicze, Technical Evangelist, Altaro Software Let's face it, 2020 was an absolute dumpster-fire of a year. COVID-19 ran rampant, you couldn't hardly live a day without hearing about politics, and 10 episodes of the Mandalorian just wasn't enough baby Yoda to go around.
Industry-Altering Technologies to Keep an Eye On
Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2020. Read them in this 12th annual VMblog.com series exclusive. By Andy Syrewicze, Tech Evangelist at Altaro One of my favorite quotes to this day is one I heard from one of my industry idols, Microsoft's Jeffrey Snover. I don't recall the quote verbatim, but it was along the lines of: "If you don't like change, you should go become a lumberjack, because that industry is much the same as it was 80 years ago". He's right of course.
Introducing Altaro Physical Server Backup
Hello again everyone! I’m delighted to bring you news about a hugely requested and great new addition to the Altaro Backup family, Altaro Physical Server Backup! Altaro Physical Server Backup If you’ve been a user of Altaro products in the past you will know that we focused our attention over the years towards creating the best virtual machine backup application on the market. However, one piece of feedback that we’ve encountered by many users is the request for a physical server backup solution.
Announcing Altaro Office 365 Backup - Available Now
Update: Altaro Backup Software now comes with full 24/7 support across all our products at no extra cost! Our support promise is to be available for all our customer needs round the clock, with a guaranteed 24/7 call response of less than 30 seconds direct to a product expert – no entry-level agents or passing you around.
How to Run 🐧 Linux Containers on Windows Server 2019
Hello again everyone! This article will serve as part 5 of our “Definitive Guide to Containers for MSPs” series. Once again, this series is focusing on the new containerization technologies entering the industry today and looking at them through the lens of an MSP. Thus far we’ve done quite a bit of how-to, and we’re going to continue to work on the how-to question for the next few segments.
Supercharging your PowerCLI Scripts with Wait-Tools
How often do you use scripts? Most virtualization admins find themselves having to script something at one point or another. The old saying, of course, being: “If you have to do something twice, script it.” It’s a true statement and one I think more IT pros are getting on board with.
86 Questions Answered on Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2019 has landed and with the quite staggering amount of updates and features added it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise at the level of interest it has garnered. So much so that during our webinar What’s New in Windows Server 2019, our panel of expert Mircosoft MVP hosts were asked over 100 questions about the new operating system.
4 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Try to Build Your Own Cloud
As an MSP you’ll always look for ways to increase profits and many MSP looking at the prices charged by Cloud services such as AWS, Azure and Google may be tempted to by-pass them and develop their own cloud service for their customers. This article explains why you shouldn’t. Cloud vs On Premise Reason 1 – Building a Cloud is Complicated Business Reason 2 – Planning for Failure at Scale Sucks Reason 3 – Does your Datacenter Reach Worldwide?
How to Install PowerCLI on Ubuntu Linux 18.04 LTS
It goes without saying in most cases, but I like to reiterate this point. You should always make sure your system is at the latest known-good working patch level before adding any new software, and that applies in this case as well. The first thing we need to do is make sure that Ubuntu is up to date.
8 Key Questions on Cloud Migration Answered
If you follow our blog, you’ll likely know that we recently hosted an Altaro panel-style webinar, featuring Microsoft MVPs Didier Van Hoye, Thomas Maurer, and myself. More than 800 people registered for the event and the discussion stimulated a lively discussion amongst those that attended. Thank you to the presenters and all those that registered (if you missed this webinar you can watch the on-demand video and sign up to our newsletter to be informed of the next webinar).
23 Questions Answered on Containers in the Microsoft Ecosystem
Recently I had the great honor of hosting Microsoft’s very own Ben Armstrong (Principal Program Manager Lead, Microsoft, and co-creator of Hyper-V) for an AMA (Ask Me Anything) styled webinar about containers. Ben and the team have been hard at work for quite some time now on making containers the best that they can be in the Microsoft ecosystem, and he provided a ton of insight into their development, intended use, futures, and more.
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