“Your cyber security budget tells you all about how you think about growth.”
- Luke Elston, Microsoft Practice Lead, CyberOne
Most organisations still approach security as a costly insurance product. A product you purchase, pray you never require and seek to pay as little for as possible.
That thinking will destroy any competitive edge.
90% of breached organisations were SMBs with fewer than 1,000 employees. (Source: Verizon)
However, the same businesses are subjected to the same threats as enterprises, but with significantly fewer available resources. Welcome to the cyber security paradox.
The Price of Thinking Small
When you treat cyber security as overhead, you’re not just buying protection; you’re buying limitations. Every strategic initiative becomes a security concern:
- Can we safely adopt AI?
- What’s the compliance risk of expanding into new markets?
- Should we delay digital transformation until IT is fully equipped?
Leaders stall, innovation stagnates, and competitors who resolved this issue pass them by.
The average data breach costs companies with under 500 employees £3.31 million (Source: IBM).
That’s not insurance money, that’s business-ending money and organisations stuck in this mindset:
- Don’t know where their sensitive data resides
- Have admin accounts untouched for years
- Miss critical threats until it’s too late
They’re operating blind in a threat environment that doesn’t care about your budget.
Security as Your Strategic Enabler
The best mid-market companies learned something incredible. Security done correctly does not hold you back. It accelerates you.
Consider the example of a digital-first UK financial services firm with which CyberOne supports. They were drowning in security alerts, juggling numerous platforms between Microsoft 365, Azure, and AWS, with no shared visibility into their security posture.
Sound Familiar?
We unified their security under Microsoft Sentinel and Defender XDR. Suddenly, they had a single, integrated view of risk across their entire infrastructure.
- Alert noise dropped from 30–40 daily false alarms to just 1–3 real threats
- Their lean IT team moved from firefighting to innovation
What truly mattered to the board was being able to launch new services without security delays. They entered new markets with compliance baked in. Security became their operational accelerant.
The Metrics That Matter
Security teams are fond of discussing mean time to detect and response rates. But business leaders care about outcomes:
- Microsoft Secure Score rising from 52 to 90
- Audit prep time reduced by 60%
- Zero unplanned downtime due to security incidents
- Predictable monthly costs vs reactive incident spending
- Lower total cost of ownership
- Breach costs avoided through rapid containment
“If you can demonstrate to the CFO that security is saving them money while driving growth, you’ve changed the dialogue permanently.”
- Luke Elston, Microsoft Practice Lead, CyberOne
Strategic enablement outperforms defensive metrics:
- Number of initiatives unblocked
- Time to onboard new tools securely
- Faster go-to-market with governance built in
The MXDR Advantage
Here’s how ambitious businesses democratise enterprise-level security without enterprise-sized budgets.
Managed Extended Detection and Response (MXDR) provides:
- 24x7 industry-accredited SOC capabilities
- Microsoft-certified engineers
- Nation-state-level threat detection
- Visibility across multi-cloud environments
A 200-person fintech is capable of recognising nation-state-level threats, monitoring various cloud systems and fulfilling regulatory compliance needs, all while not requiring a dozen security experts.
A Modular Approach:
- Begin with endpoint protection and identity.
- Scale to full XDR as your organisation grows
- Pay for outcomes, not tools and talent.
Real-World Acceleration: Microsoft 365 Copilot
CyberOne collaborated with a mid-market consultancy that sought to deploy a Microsoft 365 Copilot implementation rapidly. They needed AI productivity benefits, but did not feel comfortable exposing sensitive client data or taking on regulatory risk.
Starting with a Microsoft Data Engagement assessment, we evaluated how sensitive data was being handled and identified access risks. From there, we implemented three key solutions:
- Microsoft Purview automatically classifies and protects sensitive data across Microsoft 365, ensuring that only the right people have access with clear oversight for compliance.
- Data Security as a Service, providing 24x7 monitoring and enforcement of data protection policies. This included proactive data loss prevention (DLP), real-time insights into data usage across SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive, as well as continuous compliance support.
- Identity governance improvements using Microsoft Entra provided the business with better control over who had access to what, introduced automated access reviews, and reduced the risk of overprivileged admin accounts.
The Result?
Microsoft 365 Copilot went live eight weeks ahead of schedule and the board had full confidence that security was accelerating innovation, not inhibiting it.
The Confidence Factor
Robust security changes the way leaders approach risk; without the right protection, every digital initiative, from adopting AI to expanding into new markets, feels like a gamble.
But with MXDR and a Zero Trust approach in place, that hesitation disappears. Leaders can say with confidence:
“Yes, we’re covered. Let’s move.”
Security shifts its role in the business:
- From an IT issue to a board-level priority
- From a cost centre to a driver of confidence and agility
Real-time dashboards and clear reporting give executives the insight to make faster, smarter decisions, while staying aligned with IT.
And when something does go wrong?
- We detect it fast
- Contain it immediately
- Brief leadership clearly and calmly
“We detected the threat, neutralised it and kept the business moving, without any business disruption.”
That’s when leadership realises: security isn’t just protection, it’s what keeps growth on track.
Starting the Transformation
The conversation shift starts with clarity, not scare tactics. Instead of asking “What security tools do you use?”, ask “What’s blocking your growth right now?”.
Common Growth Barriers We Hear Every Day:
- Having difficulties adopting AI safely
- Can’t expand into new markets due to compliance uncertainty
- Lying awake at night, worrying about audit readiness
This is where the mindset shift happens:
Security moves from being a line item to a momentum builder.
Rapid Maturity Assessment with AssureMAP: What We Deliver
Using our AssureMAP framework, we offer a focused engagement that helps you align cyber resilience with your business ambitions.
Here’s what we uncover:
- Gaps across identity, data, endpoint and visibility
- Quick wins you can act on immediately
- Strategic blind spots you didn’t know existed, but need to
In Just 14 Days:
- Microsoft Secure Score improves
- Receive a set of actionable solutions that reduce risk and drive compliance
- Gain business-focused outcomes that align security with your growth roadmap
“This isn’t about preventing attacks. This is about freeing up potential for safe growth.”
- Luke Elston, Microsoft Practice Lead
The Future is for the Resilient
Transitioning to security as a strategic enabler redefines competition in the digital world for businesses.
When Resilience Leads, Results Follow:
- AI technologies are launched sooner and securely
- Cloud-first strategies roll out without delay
- New markets open with compliance built in
- Companies do more than survive; they outperform competitors
The Boardroom Asks New Questions:
Boards start to pose other questions:
- They’re not just asking: “What is our revenue risk?”
- They’re asking: “What is our cyber maturity path? Do we spend on resilience like we spend on growth?”
Why Resilience Matters More Than Ever
When your customers, partners, or regulators evaluate your business, it often comes down to one question:
Can we trust you to remain secure and operational, regardless of the circumstances?
That trust isn’t built with promises, it’s earned through evidence:
- Clear controls over sensitive data
- A proven ability to respond to threats
- The confidence to keep moving, even when things go wrong
Organisations that can demonstrate this don’t just avoid risk, they gain a business edge:
- They’re easier to do business with
- They inspire confidence
- They build reputations that last.
The Organisations That Lead, Do It Differently
It’s not about who spends the most. It’s about who moves with purpose:
- The businesses that ship faster
- Scale safely
- Bounce back without disruption
Those are the ones that consistently stay ahead because they’ve built resilience into how they operate.