Off the Stack

Marc Umstead
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Off the Stack is the podcast where technology leaders get real about what actually matters to small businesses. Host Marc Umstead, founder of Plus 1 Technology, sits down with CIOs, cybersecurity experts, AI practitioners, and founders to break down the tech decisions small business owners face every day. No vendor pitches. No jargon. Just straight answers on the stuff that keeps you up at night: cybersecurity threats, AI adoption, compliance, hiring IT help, cloud costs, and where to spend your next technology dollar.

Episodios

  1. 20 ago

    You're Probably Paying for Security You Never Turned On | Kevin & Jordan Stock

    Most small businesses treat IT like something you deal with once it breaks. Kevin and Jordan Stock think you should be setting it up the same week you call the power company. Kevin and Jordan run RCR Technology Group, a fast-growing MSP in Findlay, Ohio, working with insurance agencies, financial institutions, and small municipalities. They sat down with Marc Umstead to talk about what actually goes wrong as a business grows past 10, 25, and 50 employees. The admin passwords that only live in one person's head. The zero trust policies your longest-tenured employees hate. The client who emails an engineer directly instead of opening a ticket, then wonders where the white glove service went. They also get into the Microsoft 365 licenses businesses buy and never configure, why replacing hardware before it dies cuts your ticket count, and the pattern they see over and over: a concern gets raised, gets called too expensive, gets tabled, and shows up 16 months later as a week of downtime. If you've ever told yourself you'll worry about IT later, start here. (00:00) Meet Kevin and Jordan Stock, RCR Technology Group (00:38) Why insurance, financial institutions, and municipalities (01:31) Selling to clients who already understand their own risk (02:07) What growing headcount does to your attack surface (03:26) The "Tim has all the passwords" problem (04:51) Rolling out zero trust to the employees who were there first (05:29) Tickets versus emailing your engineer directly (07:01) When everyone in the company is a decision maker (08:36) At what size does a business need a real IT strategy (09:16) IT is a utility, treat it like one (10:04) The counterargument, and how to know it's time (11:42) Are businesses actually using Microsoft 365 (13:49) Buying E3 and E5 licenses you never turn on (14:27) Intune and managing laptops that leave the office (15:31) Where clients see real returns: AI and backups (17:02) Lifecycle management and riding it till the wheels fall off (19:43) The decision that burns clients most often (21:15) Technology accelerates whatever direction you're already headed (22:45) How to reach Kevin and Jordan CONNECT WITH RCR TECHNOLOGY GROUP Website: https://rcrtg.com Kevin Stock: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-stock-aa1038a3/ Jordan Stock: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-stock-6a1b3189/ CONNECT WITH PLUS 1 TECHNOLOGY Website: https://plus1technology.com Marc Umstead: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcumstead/ Off the Stack is a podcast where technology leaders talk about what small and mid-sized businesses actually deal with. No vendor pitches, no jargon. Follow the show so you catch the next episode.

  2. 30 jul

    Is Your Team Secretly Feeding Company Data to AI?

    If you have 20 employees, 17 of them are probably already pasting company data into AI tools. And you don't know it. Marc sits down with Matt Hutter of Iconium Networks, an MSP serving accounting firms, law firms, manufacturers, and nonprofits in Northeast Ohio for nearly 20 years. What starts as a conversation about where accounting firm technology is headed turns into a warning every small business owner needs to hear about ungoverned AI use, remote hiring blind spots, and the assumptions that get companies burned. Matt shares the story of a remote hire whose "slow computer" turned out to be borrowed Wi-Fi from the apartment next door, why a $3,000 gaming PC isn't a safe work machine, and the one habit that keeps business owners ahead of technology changes instead of behind them. 🔗 LINKSPlus 1 Technology: https://plus1technology.comMarc Umstead on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcumstead/Iconium Networks: https://iconiumnetworks.comMatt Hutter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthutter/ New episodes weekly. Follow the show so they land in your library automatically.

  3. 24 jul

    The Most Preventable IT Disaster? A Bad Contract

    Every business owner has a vendor horror story. The slow callbacks, the surprise invoices, the multi-year contract you can't get out of. In this episode of Off the Stack, Marc Umstead sits down with Benji Sawyer of Sawyer Solutions to talk about the most preventable IT disaster there is: signing a bad contract with the wrong provider. Benji shares the one whose stated goal was to lock clients in and do as little as possible without getting sued, and how to make sure you never end up there. They get into how to vet an IT provider before you sign, the questions that actually matter when you're interviewing one, the work most MSPs quietly aren't doing on your Microsoft 365, and why the right partner should be making your business better instead of just keeping the lights on. In this episode: Why a bad contract is the most preventable IT disaster there isHow to do your due diligence, and how to use AI to read the fine printThe Microsoft 365 work most providers skipThe one question every owner should ask when interviewing an MSPWhy the human side of support is a real security issueConnect with Benji Sawyer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benji-sawyer-b966333/Sawyer Solutions: https://sawyersolutionsllc.com/Connect with Marc Umstead: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcumstead/Plus 1 Technology: https://plus1technology.com/

  4. 15 jul

    Your IT Provider Says You're Covered. Are You?

    Your IT provider says the backups are running, the patches are current, and you're compliant. How do you know? Marc sits down with Mark Balovnev, CEO of Cyrisma, a cyber risk and compliance platform used by thousands of MSPs, to talk about the question most business owners never ask: who's verifying the work? Mark has a rare vantage point. His platform is the tool many IT providers use to prove what they're doing, which means he's seen what happens when nobody checks. They get into why compliance matters even when no regulator is knocking, what a second set of eyes on your IT actually looks like, and the questions any business owner can ask their provider this week, no technical background required. Marc runs an MSP himself, so this isn't a hit piece on IT providers. It's the opposite: good providers welcome verification. The ones who don't are telling you something. Learn more about Cyrisma at cyrisma.com. Connect with Plus 1 Technology here plus1technology.com. Connect with Marc Umstead here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcumstead/ Connect with Mark Balovnev here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbalovnev/

  • 4 episodios

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Off the Stack is the podcast where technology leaders get real about what actually matters to small businesses. Host Marc Umstead, founder of Plus 1 Technology, sits down with CIOs, cybersecurity experts, AI practitioners, and founders to break down the tech decisions small business owners face every day. No vendor pitches. No jargon. Just straight answers on the stuff that keeps you up at night: cybersecurity threats, AI adoption, compliance, hiring IT help, cloud costs, and where to spend your next technology dollar.

Información

  • Creador
    Marc Umstead
  • Años de actividad
    2026
  • Episodios
    4
  • Clasificación
    Apto
  • Copyright
    © Marc Umstead
  • Mostrar sitio web
    Off the Stack