Managed Detection and Response (MDR): What buyers should expect
Covering one analyst position around the clock takes 168 hours a week: 4.2 full-time equivalents at 40 hours each, before leave or training. But Managed Detection and Response (MDR) is not simply a way to extend monitoring outside office hours. MDR combines security technology with analysts who monitor, hunt, investigate and take agreed action. The […]
Privileged Identity Management: Reducing standing privilege and administrative risk
Who can still administer critical systems after the maintenance window closes? For CISOs and IAM leaders reviewing privileged identity management, that question goes beyond credential protection. The greater risk is elevated access remaining available when nobody needs it. What is privileged identity management? Privileged identity management (PIM) governs who is eligible for elevated permissions, when […]
Customer Service Software: Should you consolidate ticketing, chat and helpdesk tools?
A customer emails about a delayed delivery, follows up on chat and then calls. Can the third agent see what the first two have already done? Customer service software should make that history easier to access, not force agents to reconstruct it across separate systems. For IT leaders reviewing ticketing, live chat and helpdesk tools, […]
Business Phone Systems After PSTN switch-off: comparing UCaaS, SIP Trunking and Hosted PBX
Openreach has set 31 January 2027 as the retirement date for the legacy Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), with BT’s ISDN switch-off following the same timetable. The deadline was extended from 2025, but Openreach’s July 2026 update confirmed there would be no further extension. For IT directors reviewing business phone systems, that does not automatically mean […]
Phishing Simulation Best Practices: How to test employees without creating a blame culture
A successful phishing simulation should not demonstrate how easy it is to trick employees. It should make the organisation harder to trick next time. As explored in our earlier Cyber Security Awareness Training: What IT Teams Should Compare buyer’s guide, effective security awareness is increasingly focused on changing behaviour rather than simply demonstrating that employees have completed […]
Managed Cloud Hosting vs In-House Infrastructure: Cost, control and operating model
Running infrastructure in-house gives IT teams control. It also gives them responsibility for almost everything that keeps that infrastructure running. Hardware, operating systems, monitoring, patching, backup, security, capacity, resilience and incident response all require expertise and time. That makes the decision between in-house infrastructure and managed cloud hosting more complicated than comparing a server purchase with a […]
October 2026 is Cloud Infrastructure Month on IT Briefing – Make sure your solutions are part of it!
Each month on IT Briefing we’re shining the spotlight on a different part of the IT and cyber security markets – and in October we’re focussing on Cloud Infrastructure solutions. It’s all part of our ‘Recommended’ editorial feature, designed to help IT and security buyers find the best products and services available today. So, if you’re […]
SIEM Deployment: Alert tuning, log management and detection quality
Security teams today rarely suffer from a lack of data. Firewalls, endpoints, cloud platforms, identity systems and applications can generate enormous volumes of security information every day. The challenge is turning that information into something useful. A SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) platform brings logs and events together from multiple sources, normalises the data and applies […]
AI investment accelerates despite just 22% of organisations successfully scaling deployments
Just 22% of organisations have successfully scaled AI across multiple business units or adopted an AI-first approach, despite investment in the technology continuing to accelerate, according to Gartner. The analyst’s survey of 1,303 respondents found 85% of functional leaders plan to increase AI spending during 2026, having already allocated an average of 12% of their […]
Cyber Security Awareness Training: What IT teams should compare
Organisations can invest heavily in firewalls, endpoint protection, identity management and threat detection, yet attackers will still look for opportunities to persuade an employee to do something they should not. Click a link. Approve an MFA request. Reveal a password. Make a payment. Open an attachment. Share sensitive information. Modern social engineering increasingly targets human decision-making […]