In conversation with Adrian Kelly, DNA IT
Shortlisted in four categories at this year’s Tech Excellence awards, DNA IT took home the managed security services provider of the year and the marketing excellence awards. Adrian Kelly, sales & marketing director of DNA IT shares his thoughts on what sets it apart in the market.
What do you think makes DNA IT stand out in this competitive market?
It’s a challenging environment out there for SMEs, and companies in general. There are a whole new set of demands on them when it comes to compliance and governance, and of course there’s the constantly changing cyber security landscape. Generally with providers you see governance and compliance in one camp and then cyber security solutions and tech in another, but we have brought governance, risk and compliance into one offering.
We did this because we were seeing companies that were in the dark when it comes to compliance. And while there’s a big rush to sell cyber security tech, few MSPs want to grapple with governance and compliance. That’s because it’s not easy to bundle into a managed service, and it’s not a service that MSPs have traditionally been involved with. But we’ve developed an expertise in this space, we’ve embraced it, and I think that’s what makes us stand out. We’re offering an all-in-one GRC service. Combining our skills and expertise with trusted and innovative partners.
Is that approach why you think you won managed security service provider of the year at the Tech Excellence Awards?
Right now, the biggest risk to our clients is not IT failure caused by technical failures or fires or floods, it’s cyber security. So if you don’t do security well, you’re leaving your clients exposed to a gigantic risk. We recognised this five years ago and we set a number of initiatives in motion to develop a security services business. This culminated for us in winning at the Tech Excellence Awards.
How have you enhanced your security offering?
In 2019 we consciously set out a plan to build a security business. We modelled it on the NIST CyberSecurity Framework, which is the gold standard template for cyber security in enterprises. Our goal was to simplify cyber security for the SME market. Traditionally, the cost of technology to deliver high level security offerings has been prohibitive to SMEs, but we’ve sourced new tech that we can deploy what is really enterprise grade services at SME price points.
To do that we’ve been pushing innovation hard and partnering with young companies that are at the cutting edge of cyber security. We have introduced new security awareness training, penetration testing services, compliance management, and managed detection services into the Irish market – in some cases, we are on the third iteration of these services, because the tech is evolving that fast, as are client requirements.
How do you go about finding reliable partners?
We are constantly researching new developments and innovations, attending conferences etc, nurturing relationships with young firms, developing new solutions. We have high expectations; in our cloud business we work with IBM and so we know what robust, innovative tech looks like. Our criteria is quite simple – it’s all about quality and reliability.
We work with partners who are proving their tech out in the wild day in and day out. If we select a new vendor partner, we test the solution ourselves for months before we roll it out to clients, and it needs to deliver consistently. We are ruthless in how we engage with tooling but that’s what you need to be. It’s so serious now. If the tech doesn’t meet expectations, or starts to falter, it’s gone. The cyber security threat landscape is changing constantly, and we have to evolve what we do constantly too, so we keep our clients as safe as possible.
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