Access Point: Weekly News Roundup For Midmarket IT Executives – Jan. 3, 2025

Access Point is a weekly roundup of major tech news for midmarket IT executives on the go.

This edition of Access Point looks back at challenges midmarket IT leaders faced in 2024 and looks ahead to the technology, companies, and trends IT leaders will want to focus on in 2025.

Insecure In ‘24: A Look Back At A Grim Year In Cyber

The ‘worst ever,’ the ‘biggest’ and the ‘mother of all’ breaches all happened in 2024. Take a lookback in this piece from our sister site Computing.

Halt Data Hoarding In 2025 With These Tips From An IT Exec

In 2024, 402.89 million terabytes of data were created, captured, copied, or consumed every day, according to a report from SOAX. In 2025, 463 exabytes of data will be created each day globally, the World Economic Forum estimates.

This staggering amount of data can lead to organizations hoarding data coined as “ROT” — meaning redundant, obsolete and trivial.

Heather Phelps is the director of IT and information security at Ribbon Communications, a provider of IP optical networking and communications solutions. Phelps shared with MES Computing the risks associated with allowing ROT in your infrastructure, how to create a clean digital storage policy, plus more data management tips

Rethinking Disaster Recovery After Surviving Hurricane Helene: An IT Leader’s Story

Before Hurricane Helene devastated the southeastern U.S. in September leaving cataclysmic destruction and numerous fatalities in its wake, midmarket IT leader Jon DeMersseman said that when it came to disaster recovery, he had never really thought about what happens if your entire business is affected by a disaster.

DeMersseman said the catastrophic storm led him to rethink his organization’s disaster recovery strategy and says organizations need serious discussions about DR and business continuity.

7 AI Startups For Midmarket IT Leaders To Watch In 2025

Here are 10 AI companies with solid business use cases that midmarket leaders may want to keep focused on in 2025.

Treasury Department Discloses Data Breach Linked To BeyondTrust

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has disclosed a major cybersecurity breach, with officials pointing the finger at Chinese state-sponsored attackers.