Survey: SMBs Continue to Struggle with IT Security Due to Budget and Workforce Limitations

Untangle Finds Cloud-Based Services and Increased Branch Offices Promoting Rise of SD-WAN

SAN JOSE, Calif. – August 27, 2019 – Untangle® Inc., a leader in comprehensive network security for small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) and distributed enterprises, today released the results of its second annual SMB IT Security Report. The report finds that SMBs around the world continue to cite budget constraints, paired with a lack of time and personnel to research new security threats, as the main obstacles facing the implementation of their IT security roadmap.

The latest Untangle survey explores the current state and trends of IT security for more than 300 SMBs, compiling data on budget and resource constraints, breaches, IT infrastructure, cloud adoption and more. SMBs will continue to be expected to do more with less compared to larger enterprises: 80 percent of surveyed SMBs rank IT security as a top business priority, with 29 percent spending less than $1,000 on IT security annually. The lack of a dedicated IT security workforce is also apparent with 52 percent citing they do not have an in-house IT security professional on staff and therefore distribute the responsibility across other roles.

Notable factors in SMB IT security are the continued growth of cloud adoption and an increase in the number of branch offices and remote employees outside of a primary headquarters location. Managing these branch offices have become top-of-mind as SMB’s are now coming up against the same needs that have led Enterprises to adopt software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN) solutions. 61 percent of SMBs note that branch office management and maintaining network security are their biggest incentives to deploy SD-WAN solutions for their organization.

Additional key findings from the survey include:

  • 56% of SMBs admit that recent security breaches affect their security roadmap moving forward.
  • 48% list budget constraints as the main barrier faced when it comes to IT security, followed by limited time to research and understand new threats (36%) and employees who do not follow IT security guidelines (32%).
  • 40% of small and midsize businesses operate in at least five physical locations, including remote access workers.
  • Most SMBs (74%) now have at least part of their IT infrastructure deployed in the cloud.
  • When it comes to purchasing IT security solutions, small and midsize businesses rank firewall/network security, antivirus/anti-malware, and identity access management as the most important features to their organization.

“Despite several limitations including budgets, time and workforce constraints, SMBs are now, more than ever, reassessing their investments into IT security,” said Timur Kovalev, Chief Technology Officer at Untangle. “In addition to must-have SMB IT features, such as firewalls and end-to-end network security, cloud-based services and distributed workforces have highlighted the need for SD-WAN solutions to establish secure connections between globally dispersed locations, offering further network-wide control and visibility for threats and attacks.”

Untangle offers complete network security solutions for small and medium businesses with limited IT resources and budgets. NG Firewall, Untangle’s flagship product, delivers SMBs unified threat management including comprehensive content filtering, malware and threat protection, secure Wi-Fi, application control, bandwidth optimization, virtual private networks and more. Integrated seamlessly with Untangle’s cloud-based services, Command Center and ScoutIQ, Untangle is the vendor of choice for organizations facing not only the challenges of network security, but also limited budgets, resources, and in-house IT expertise.

Download a free copy of the report here.

About Untangle

Untangle is the most trusted name in solutions specifically designed to help small-to-medium businesses and distributed enterprises optimize their networks while safeguarding their data and devices. Untangle’s Network Security Framework provides cloud-managed security and connectivity options that work together seamlessly to ensure protection, monitoring, and control across the entire digital attack surface from headquarters to the network edge. Untangle’s award-winning products are trusted by over 40,000 customers and protect millions of people and their devices. Untangle is committed to bringing open, innovative and interoperable solutions to its customers through its rapidly growing ecosystem of technology, managed services, and distribution partners worldwide. Untangle is headquartered in San Jose, California.