Listen to this articleDevolutions has been providing companies with solutions to address their most pressing security concerns since 2010. Below is our recent interview with Maurice Côté, VP Business Solutions at Devolutions:
Q: Please provide a brief introduction to Devolutions and the IT software solutions you offer.
A: We develop innovative software that helps users cost-effectively, simply and effectively achieve their remote desktop management, password management, privileged access management, and cybersecurity goals. Devolutions is also committed to providing exceptional technical support. We want to provide an excellent user experience that exceeds expectations, while delivering high performance and superior quality.
Q: What makes Devolutions’ solutions different from others on the market?
A: We’re entirely focused on designing simple yet effective IT software solutions for SMBs (companies with less than 1,000 employees). For far too long, smaller businesses have been treated like ‘second class citizens’ on the corporate landscape, and we are flipping that notion on its head by designing best-in-class solutions tailor-made to meet their unique needs. This approach sets us apart and is the secret to our success. We’re proud to be among the ranks of the fastest-growing companies in North America.
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Q: There has been a dramatic increase in the number of remote workers. What challenges does that present for IT departments? How are SMBs impacted differently than larger enterprises?
A: Great question. With the substantial increase in the number of remote workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, companies of all sizes are faced with the additional challenge of securing their digital assets from remote locations. Organizations worldwide have been in a mad scramble to find a safe and secure solution to deploy and maintain remote access. Even as some businesses return to a physical office building, a substantial portion of the workforce is expected to remain remote on a full- or part-time basis.
Remote employees need access to all the same digital resources as on-premises employees, which requires secure connections to and from corporate networks and cloud services and applications. Even for smaller businesses, this means that there are hundreds of new entry points that need to be safeguarded against potential hackers. Organizations must find ways to ensure that personally owned devices, which might not have the most up-to-date security controls, are not passing exploits to corporate resources. It’s a daunting challenge for any company – but even more so for SMBs that don’t have the huge IT teams in place that larger enterprises do.
Q: You recently conducted a cybersecurity survey pertaining to SMBs. Tell us a bit more about that. What are some of the biggest takeaways?
A: Yes, the survey was extremely eye-opening, and its findings are very significant to the fight against cybercrime. The bottom line: It revealed that many SMBs do not have the necessary tools or policies in place to prevent breaches.
Here’s one example:
On the information security landscape, passwords are viewed as “the keys to the kingdom.” Unfortunately, hackers are finding it surprisingly easy to steal these keys — especially from SMBs that overlook this critical threat vector — and launch attacks against endpoints and networks.
According to our survey, 47% of SMBs are allowing end users to reuse passwords across both personal and professional accounts. This is a potential recipe for disaster. SMBs need to deploy tools, such as a password manager, to mitigate threats from misuse of passwords – and make sure they are educating their employees about password best practices.
For more takeaways check our cybersecurity survey.
Recommended: Q: What can we expect from Devolutions down the road?
A: We are definitely on a fast growth path – having doubled both our revenue and number of employees since 2017. This rapid revenue growth – combined with our entrepreneurial spirit – recently landed us on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500TM, an achievement we are extremely proud of. In our decade of operation, Devolutions has worked with 500,000 users in over 140 countries to bring easy-to-use productivity and security solutions to IT professionals – and we’re not slowing down.
Regarding trends, according to our recent cybersecurity survey, the top cybersecurity concern that SMBs anticipate facing more in the next three years is cloud security. With many SMBs transitioning – or considering transitioning – to the cloud, this brings a unique set of challenges. Each cloud becomes an identity- and access-management space, requiring companies to increasingly rely on integrated solutions to manage multiple identities and access points. Devolutions will continue to invest in innovative cloud solutions that will help SMBs meet these challenges head-on.
Q: Anything else you would like to add?
A: This pandemic has been a trigger point for SMBs to rethink their remote workforce strategy, and our mantra of “Controlling the IT Chaos” has never been more relevant to the times. Moving forward, as more and more companies see a mix of remote and in-office employees, they will be faced with new security challenges. But with the right tools in place, it is entirely possible for IT professionals to successfully navigate these challenges without breaking the bank.
