Logicalis study finds Australian CIOs leverage MSPs to navigate complexity, risk and uncertainty

Australia, Aug 30, 2023

Melbourne, Australia – 30 August 2023: Logicalis Australia, a leading IT solutions and managed services provider, today announces the findings of the Logicalis CIO Report - Australian market outlook. The survey of 100 Australian CIOs and tech leaders revealed that 62% of respondents expect to increase spend on outsourced IT management in 2023.

As CIOs are helping organisations to innovate at pace and scale, it’s never been more important to balance that momentum with risk awareness and resilience. With 70% of CIOs reporting that shaping business strategy will become a bigger part of their role in 2023, the future-focused tech leader’s role must be to enhance existing capabilities and create new ones, while protecting the organisation from continued volatility and increased risk.

It is not easy building a robust security and risk strategy that allows CIOs to build resilience and that leaves them free to focus their attention on driving continued innovation and service improvement. When asked what the main cybersecurity challenges currently are for their organisations, most cited digital transformation (see table 1):

Table One: What are the main cybersecurity challenges currently impacting your organisation?

Digital Transformation

56%

Scarcity of talent and professionals. ​

50%

Lack of perimeter with hybrid working

47%

Sophistication of malicious cyber actors growing rapidly

46%

Continued growth of compliance regulations

41%

Proliferation of security toolsets

40%


N = 100 Australian CIOs and Tech Leaders

In looking ahead, the survey respondents were also asked to identify the potential sources of significant risk for their organisations. A prevailing concern among CIOs was malware and ransomware (see table 2). In the global results for this question, the concern about malware and ransomware was up by 9% from the year before.

Table Two: Which of the following do you think will pose a significant risk to your organisation over the next 12 months?

Malware and ransomware

49%

Data breaches

41%

State sponsored attacks

40%

Industrial espionage

39%

Social engineering

37%

Lack of staff awareness and resulting mistakes

34%

Malicious insiders

30%


N = 100 Australian CIOs and Tech Leaders

Given the challenges and risks, to understand how Australian organisations are enhancing digital resilience, participants were asked to indicate the measures they have taken or would consider implementing. Notably, 43% of respondents revealed their preference for using managed services for support with this. In addition, half of all CIOs rank security compliance as one of their top 3 expectations when working with an MSP.

Anthony Woodward, CEO Logicalis Australia states: "We've observed a trend among organisations, where there's almost a ‘knee-jerk’’ reaction to acquire more security solutions in response to escalating cybersecurity challenges. This panic-driven approach, coupled with the persistent struggle to integrate legacy technology and processes, is a real challenge. The reality is that what organisations construct today from a security standpoint might fall short of the challenges of tomorrow. This is why organisations are increasingly turning to Managed Service Providers to navigate this complex landscape. MSPs possess the expertise and agility required to orchestrate an adaptive asset protection approach, which is becoming imperative in today's dynamic threat environment."

Gabby Fredkin, Head of Data and Analytics, ADAPT adds: “Simply increasing investment will not improve security posture. Organisations need to carefully consider the tools, technologies and processes that enable being secure by design, not as a bolt-on.”

The benefit of such relationships is clear – more than half of CIOs say that the right MSP can help to free up resources so they and their teams can focus on their core business (55%).

 

About Logicalis: 
We are Architects of Change™. We help organisations succeed in a digital-first world. At Logicalis, we harness our collective technology expertise to help our clients build a blueprint for success, so they can deliver sustainable outcomes that matter.

Our lifecycle services across cloud, connectivity, collaboration, and security are designed to help optimize operations, reduce risk, and empower employees.

As a global technology service provider, we deliver next-generation digital managed services, to provide our clients with real-time visibility and actionable insights across the performance of their digital ecosystem including availability, user experience, security, economic performance, and sustainability.

Our 7000+ ‘Architects of Change’ are based in 30 territories around the globe, helping our 10,000+ clients across a range of industry sectors, create sustainable outcomes through technology.

Logicalis has annualized revenues of $1.7 billion, from operations in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Africa.

It is a division of Datatec Limited, listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, with revenues of over $4.6 billion. For more information visit www.logicalis.com

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