Building A “Green IT” Offering Your SMB Clients Will Actually Pay For
Green IT has shifted from “nice to have” to a buying criterion, especially for younger, growth‑minded SMBs. Sustainability is now showing up in MSP trend reports as both a differentiator and a way to justify premium service tiers when it is tied directly to cost savings and risk reduction. Why SMBs Will Pay For Green […]
Surviving Supply-Chain Ransomware As An MSP
Supply‑chain ransomware has turned MSPs into high‑value dominoes: hit one provider, get dozens of downstream victims as a bonus. In this article, we’ll discuss how to defend your own house, constrain vendor blast radius, and explain the risk in plain English to SMBs. Why MSPs Are Now Prime Targets MSPs sit in the middle of […]
The 2026 MSP: AI Threats, Business Risk, and the New Model for Growth
Managed services are heading into one of the most important transitions in their history. AI‑driven attacks are accelerating, cyber insurance is tightening, regulators are raising expectations, and clients are less interested in tickets closed than in risk reduced and revenue protected. For MSPs, 2026 is not just another planning cycle; it is a structural reset […]
Always-On, Always At Risk: MSP Mental Health in the Age of 24/7 Incidents
MSPs are carrying more risk than ever, and it is not just technical. Chronic stress, 24/7 expectations, and nonstop incidents are turning mental health into a frontline security issue. When an MSP’s people are exhausted, clients are less safe. The always-on reality of MSP work MSPs live in a world of middle-of-the-night alerts, demanding SLAs, […]
Adding AI to Everything is Making Compliance a Nightmare for MSPs
Have you noticed how AI is being worked into everything…often without adding any value beyond the marketing headlines? (That was rhetorical, because of course you’ve noticed.) If you’ve been around IT for more than a few years, it might bring back not-so-fond memories of the IoT wave. Back when everything from cameras to light bulbs […]
Blacksmith Wins Multiple 2025 MSP Influencer Awards
Blacksmith proudly received two awards from the great people at MSP Influencer! We were awarded the 2025 Vendor Excellence Award in Governance & Compliance for MSPs. This award goes to vendors going above and beyond for MSP partners, a distinction our compliance tool earned through “disciplined, engineering-driven approach to helping MSPs build stronger, more secure, […]
Choose Your Own Adventure: You Are the CMMC Project Manager
You wake up in a cold sweat. The calendar says “CMMC Readiness QBR,” the invite says “mandatory,” and your inbox says “57 unread: URGENT.” Congratulations: you are now the CMMC Project Manager. You didn’t apply for this job. That’s how you know it’s real. Your mission: get your defense shop to CMMC Level 2 without […]
From Cost Center to Capture Strategy: How Compliance Wins Defense Contracts
For years, “compliance” has been treated like an unavoidable tax on doing business with the Pentagon. Today, with CMMC 2.0 tied directly to award eligibility, it has quietly become one of the strongest competitive levers defense contractors and their MSP partners can pull. According to recent research, only about 1% of defense contractors report being […]
New York: Mass SMS Scam via Hijacked Alert Service
On November 10th, hackers exploited a legitimate mass texting service to send hundreds of thousands of scam messages — including to New York State’s official alert subscribers. This incident, which leveraged public trust in emergency messaging channels, marks an evolution in SMS phishing (“smishing”) scams and raises pressing concerns for individuals and organizations alike. What […]
MSPs: Are You Prepared to Be AI Compliance Officers?
The integration of artificial intelligence into business operations has brought sweeping changes, creating opportunities and compliance challenges. As organizations scramble to harness AI’s potential, a corresponding demand has emerged for specialized oversight that bridges legal, technical, and ethical gaps. This demand is fueling the rise of a new professional: the AI Compliance Officer. Their task […]