The changes in working practices brought about by the pandemic have seen a convergence of the IT and communications marketplace, which I’ve described here before – a merging of networks, security and applications.  

Nearly every organisation in the UK has had to fundamentally review their network requirements since the pandemic, as hybrid working practices have changed our lives.  

Those changed daily patterns have also contributed to a dramatic increase in the cyber security threat landscape for businesses and public sector organisations alike.  

An overwhelming 90% of UK senior executives, surveyed recently by PWC for its Digital Trust Insight’s report, say that cloud-related cyber threats associated with digital transformation are their number one priority in 2023. 

https://www.pwc.co.uk/issues/cyber-security-services/insights/cyber-security-outlook-2023.html  

Two-fifths of respondents also expected cloud-based threat vectors to have a significant impact on their organisations in 2023, and nearly half said that a “catastrophic cyber-attack” was their top business risk. 

Yet more than two-thirds admitted they have not yet mitigated the risks associated with digital transformation. 

Organisations large and small now require an efficient, easily managed and secure underlying network, across multiple locations and hybrid working environments.  They need the tools and systems to continually monitor and flag security risks.  Most fundamentally they need access to the skilled professionals to interpret and act on these threats.   

Nowcomm

And it’s partly why, today, we are announcing the acquisition by FourNet of leading cybersecurity, network infrastructure and collaboration specialists Nowcomm, one of only two Cisco Gold, Master Security and Master Collaboration accredited partners in the UK.  

As one of Cisco’s top partners, Nowcomm brings to FourNet a wealth of specialist skills and expertise which will enable us to provide a significantly enhanced cybersecurity, networking and collaboration offering to our customers.  

Nowcomm was founded 18 years ago by three Cisco employees Richard McLoughlin, Mark Lamont and James Baly who saw a gap in the market for a consultative-led Cisco business, focused on engineering and technology. 

As James pointed out to me recently: “This is a merging of like-minded businesses. Our companies have a very similar culture and outlook – customers first, high customer retention, technology and engineering innovation, and best-in-class expertise.”  

Our two companies fit together very well in culture and outlook. Innovation is at our core. 

We focus on tailor-making the appropriate solutions for our customers depending on their requirements.  

FourNet now has more people, a host of additional skills, greater experience and a highly accredited team to enable us to provide even more innovation in top-to-bottom secure infrastructure to new and existing customers. 

Whether it’s our central government, blue light or other critical service customers, or our smallest to largest enterprise customers, you can be assured that with today’s news we have all the IT, security, communications, 24/7 dedicated technical support and customer experience expertise to help digitally transform your organisation or business.