According to a recent IDC survey commissioned by Cisco, that surveyed more than 900 SMEs across Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, and India, there is strong alignment between SMEs’ technology and business priorities. When asked to name their IT priorities, respondents’ top focus areas were IT security, improving IT skill sets and productivity, better decision making and cost savings.
In particular, the research shows that SMEs view network connectivity as an important foundation of their business success. Almost all SMEs, regardless of employee size, are exploring how they can digitise their business and invest in switches, routers and wireless access points.
Security also proved to be vital to every small business – and a comparably higher priority for Australian SMEs, even more so with the introduction of the Notifiable Data Breach scheme that came into effect on 22 February 2018. Potential security risks posed by mobility and connectivity, recent episodes of cyber attacks and the negative effects of massive data loss have increased SMEs’ concerns of securing their ICT network and data.
In response to these IT needs, Cisco has launched a Cisco Start Challenge competition that will allow Australian SMEs to stay ahead of the technology curve. The competition invites Australian SMEs to submit applications to explain in 50 words how Cisco can solve their business needs through a security and networking transformation to enable their business ambitions.
After the competition concludes on 15 June 2018, the winner, who will be selected from five shortlisted entrants, will receive AU$40,000 worth of Cisco Security First and Connect solutions in the Cisco Start portfolio. Cisco Start Security First will provide network security, cloud security and endpoint security solutions for quick threat detection, and Cisco Start Connect will provide switches, routers and wireless solutions for fast and reliable network connectivity.
To find out more about the competition visit https://cisco-challenge.com.au/
