U.S. Q1 GDP Growth Slows to 1.6%, CISA's Latest AI Guidelines, Mosyle's MSP Launch

[00:00:02] It's Monday, April 29th, 2024 and I'm Dave Sobel. Three things to know today.

[00:00:07] US Q1 GDP growth slows to 1.6%, consumer spending shows resilience,

[00:00:13] SIS's latest AI guidelines managing risks and harnessing opportunities in critical infrastructure,

[00:00:19] and MoZle launches UZ MSP for streamlined Apple device management, offering high commissions for MSPs.

[00:00:27] This is the Business of Tech.

[00:00:32] In today's digital work environment, the browser is the most widely used operating system,

[00:00:37] yet remains a significant security blind spot.

[00:00:40] Adacama has introduced the browser security platform, purpose-built for MSPs.

[00:00:45] Built in collaboration with over 40 MSPs, this solution focuses on managing and protecting today's window of work, the browser.

[00:00:54] Adacama's browser extension empowers MSPs to set data policies, gain critical insights and optimize the user experience.

[00:01:02] Adacama recently announced the limited-time 50 for 50 program, discounting the per-user price by 50%

[00:01:09] when you deploy the plugin to 50% or more of your client endpoints.

[00:01:13] Visit adacama.com-msp-radio to learn more and see the platform in action.

[00:01:19] That's A-T-A-K-A-M-A dot com slash MSP radio to learn more.

[00:01:28] Mondays, bring the market analysis.

[00:01:31] The first quarter GDP growth rate suggests a slowing economy, but there are positive indicators for the economic outlook, quoting axioms.

[00:01:39] The first quarter's 1.6 annualized growth rate confirms that the economy is not re-accelerating to start 2024.

[00:01:46] Indicators of the underlying trend in U.S. economic activity were steady in the new report, despite the downshift in overall GDP growth.

[00:01:54] Final domestic private sector sales came in at a 3.1% annualized rate in the January to March period, slowing only slightly from 3.3% in the previous period.

[00:02:05] That's a result of solid consumer spending which increased at a 2.5% annualized rate last quarter down from 3.3% in the fourth quarter of 2023.

[00:02:16] Despite high borrowing costs and lingering inflation, American consumer spending remains resilient.

[00:02:23] Personal consumption expenditures rose by 0.8% in March, marking the most substantial increase in over a year.

[00:02:29] However, the surge in spending outpaced the growth in disposable personal income, leading to a decrease in the personal saving rate to 3.2%, the lowest since 2022.

[00:02:40] A market forecast report published by meticulous research predicts that the global managed cloud services market will grow 14.2% annually, reaching $247.5 billion in revenue by 2023.

[00:02:54] The increase is driven by easier cloud adoption, increased demand from sectors like banking and healthcare, and the opportunity to integrate cloud and on-prem environments.

[00:03:03] However, security and compliance concerns remain a challenge. MSPs have an opportunity to provide managed platform engineering services as organizations increasingly rely on software and allocate resources to writing code.

[00:03:16] And the Russell 2000 and S&P 600 indices were up last week and are up year-to-date.

[00:03:23] Why do we care?

[00:03:25] How about we all take our win that the economy seems steady and solid so far? I want to have some pithy take, and I don't.

[00:03:33] And in this case, it seems like that's a good thing. Slow, boring, consistent numbers are not a bad thing.

[00:03:42] The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has released safety and security guidelines for critical infrastructure, fulfilling obligations under the Biden Administration's executive order on artificial intelligence.

[00:03:55] The guidelines address the opportunities and risks associated with AI in critical infrastructure, instructing operators and owners to govern, measure, and manage their use of the technology.

[00:04:06] They also emphasize the need to understand AI vendor dependencies, inventory AI use cases, and create procedures for reporting AI security risks.

[00:04:15] The guidelines aim to mitigate AI-related dangers to critical infrastructure, promote AI's transformative solutions while addressing vulnerabilities and potential attacks.

[00:04:26] CISA has reported that its ransomware vulnerability warning pilot program, which proactively notifies organizations about potential ransomware vulnerabilities, has resulted in over 800 vulnerabilities being resolved.

[00:04:38] The program, mandated under cyber incident reporting legislation, has made 1,754 notifications to organizations with 852 taking action to patch, implement compensating controls, or take devices offline.

[00:04:51] The program has been particularly effective in reducing risk and exposure for government facilities, health care organizations, and entities in the energy, financial services, and transportation sectors.

[00:05:02] CISA plans to launch an automated vulnerability warning program by the end of the year.

[00:05:06] The program aims to alert organizations running software with vulnerabilities exploited by ransomware gangs and urge them to patch the vulnerabilities before being infiltrated.

[00:05:16] The pilot phase has already issued 2049 warnings and expanded to include known exploited vulnerabilities and common misconfigurations linked to ransomware attacks.

[00:05:27] Why do we care?

[00:05:28] CISA is an increasingly important organization for MSPs, particularly with all the resources available.

[00:05:34] The focus on governance, risk management, and automated systems establishes a framework that not only anticipates future cybersecurity landscapes, but also provides a blueprint for other nations and sectors to follow.

[00:05:45] Moving forward, the effectiveness of these measures will largely depend on continuous improvement and adaptations of threats and technology advancements and adoption.

[00:05:57] And that's why we care.

[00:06:01] MoZle has launched MoZle Fuse MSP, a solution designed for managed services providers that integrates five critical management and security applications.

[00:06:10] This product aims to simplify the deployment, management, and protection of Apple devices at work for MSPs.

[00:06:16] It offers MSP-level management for profiles and policies, customer-level management for critical policies and integrations, centralized billing with individualized reporting, and a disruptive commission structure, among other benefits for Apple-focused MSPs.

[00:06:31] MoZle is providing up to 100% commissions for the first year of new MSP customers.

[00:06:38] And it will also refund the cost of the Apple Consultants Network's annual fee in the form of a credit toward license costs.

[00:06:46] Eureka Process, a Gazenta company, has launched the growth program designed to support MSPs at any growth stage.

[00:06:53] The program addresses hiring difficulties, mergers and acquisitions, and service delivery challenges with a personalized approach tailored to each MSP-specific needs.

[00:07:02] The program covers critical areas such as HR, company purchases, sales and marketing coaching, and finance and exit preparations.

[00:07:11] Why do we care?

[00:07:13] MoZle is a significant player.

[00:07:15] The company has raised $247 million in total funding, including a $196 million Series B round in 2022 led by Insight Partners.

[00:07:25] The company claims to over 45,000 organizations as customers and manages millions of Apple devices daily.

[00:07:32] It was founded in 2012 and claims a triple-digit revenue growth since 2020.

[00:07:39] They're also looking to make it easy to adopt.

[00:07:42] That's an aggressive strategy and a different incentive with that Consultants Network fee being covered.

[00:07:47] They're clearly looking to drive early adoption rates.

[00:07:50] Today's episode is supported by CoreView.

[00:07:54] Your customers need your Microsoft 365 expertise and CoreView has the only M365 management platform designed for MSPs.

[00:08:04] Manage hundreds of tenants, automate manual tasks and monitor compliance all while intelligently comparing to the baseline.

[00:08:11] With a no-coat control approach, CoreView revolutionizes your Microsoft 365 administration.

[00:08:16] This powerful platform enables automatic reporting and remediation, ensuring optimal performance and security.

[00:08:24] The best part?

[00:08:26] You achieve this high level of service without the need for a large workforce, allowing you to focus on growing your business through efficiency.

[00:08:34] Want to know more?

[00:08:36] Visit coreview.com slash MSP and find out more.

[00:08:39] Thanks for listening.

[00:08:41] Today is National Supply Chain Day, something we didn't think as much about before.

[00:08:46] I could say that having their event this week wasn't going to slow down production to wait for whatever announcement they're making.

[00:08:52] Can it live up to the hype?

[00:08:54] I'll get to it when I have time to review it.

[00:08:57] Have a question you want answered?

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[00:09:01] Send them ideally as a voice-memory video to question at MSPRadio.com.

[00:09:04] I answer a list of questions live each week on our Wednesday live show on YouTube and LinkedIn.

[00:09:10] I will talk to you again tomorrow.

[00:09:13] The business of tech is written and produced by me, Dave Sobel under ethics guidelines posted at businessof.tech.

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[00:09:51] Once again, thanks for listening to me and I will talk to you again on our next episode of The Business of Tech.

[00:10:01] Part of the MSP Radio Network.