The stuff we wish
every SMB knew.
Practical guides on the decisions UK startups and small businesses actually face — migrations, certifications, and the security questions that keep founders up at night. No vendor fluff, no fear-selling.
Get certified, painlessly.
How to get Cyber Essentials Plus in 2026
The five controls, what the hands-on audit actually tests, realistic timelines and costs, and the mistakes that fail SMBs first time.
Cyber Essentials cost UK 2026
The IASME fee tiers, the Cyber Essentials Plus difference, and the hidden remediation and renewal costs most guides skip.
Cyber Essentials vs Cyber Essentials Plus
Same five controls, different verification — the audit difference, the cost and effort gap, and which one you actually need.
Cyber Essentials checklist: the five controls
A practical, control-by-control checklist with concrete actions and the common gaps that fail businesses first time.
How long does Cyber Essentials take?
Days to weeks if your controls are ready — why remediation is the real variable, plus the Cyber Essentials Plus audit window.
Is Cyber Essentials worth it?
An honest cost-vs-benefit for UK SMBs: contracts, insurance, blocking commodity attacks, customer trust — and the limits.
Move to Microsoft 365.
Google Workspace to Microsoft 365
Everything that breaks in a Workspace → M365 move — mail, Drive, shared mailboxes, MFA — and the order to do it in.
Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365
An honest comparison across apps, security and admin — and why most UK SMBs land on Microsoft 365.
Microsoft 365 migration checklist
A source-agnostic, step-by-step checklist: discovery, licensing, identity, mail, files, devices, security and cut-over.
Business Premium vs Standard
What Premium’s security and device-management stack adds over Standard — and when Standard is genuinely enough.
Security that fits a small business.
EDR vs antivirus: what SMBs need
Why signature antivirus stopped being enough, what EDR adds, and when you genuinely need a 24/7 SOC behind it.
What is MDR? MDR vs SOC vs EDR
MDR, SOC and EDR untangled in plain English, with a clear comparison and what a UK SMB actually buys.
Do small businesses need a SOC?
What a SOC does, why 24/7 matters, and how SMBs get SOC-grade cover without enterprise cost.
Managed security vs in-house
The true cost of an in-house security team vs managed/MDR — and when building your own finally makes sense.
What is ITDR? The new perimeter
What ITDR protects, what it detects, and why the login — not the network edge — is what attackers now target.
What it costs, how to buy.
How much does managed IT cost?
How per-user-per-month pricing works, the typical UK bands, what drives the price, and the red flags to avoid.
MDR & managed SOC cost UK
Why standalone SOC is enterprise-priced, how bundled per-seat makes 24/7 detection affordable, and how to buy.
MSP vs break-fix: which is cheaper?
Predictable per-seat managed IT vs hourly break-fix — the cost comparison, the true total cost, and when each fits.
How to choose an MSP
A 2026 buyer’s checklist: security, SLAs, who answers at 3am, lock-in and pricing — plus good vs bad answers.
Ask a real
engineer.
Book a 30-minute discovery call. We’ll answer your actual question — migration, compliance, security — and leave you with one concrete next step, whether you hire us or not.