Tune in as we learn how Jason Stein went from theology to bartending and ultimately landed on Security! Hear him discuss the key issues facing most customers right now in security and what you can do to get in front of them.

Transcript of episode can be found below.

Josh Lupresto (00:01):

Welcome to the podcast that is designed to fuel your success in selling technology solutions. I'm your host, Josh Lupresto, SVP of Sales Engineering at Telarus. And this is Next Level BizTech.

Josh Lupresto (00:19):

Welcome!Excited to be back. We are here it is season two. It, you know, we're, we're diving in, we've got so much technology to talk about, but today we're kicking it off with managed services and we're talking about something near and dear. The technology landscape has changed and we got a talent shortage out there. This manifests itself everywhere, but today specifically, we're talking about security. So we're back kicking off season two with the man, the myth, the legend. Jason Stein, head of the security practice at Telarus. Jason, thanks for agreeing to come back again.

Jason Stein (00:52):

Thanks for having me. What's going on?

Josh Lupresto (00:55):

Oh, we live the dream. Man, where do we, where do we kick this off? So if anybody goes back and listens to season one, we talked about your background where you thought you were gonna be a practicing theologian and then you maybe were a bartender. So you gotta go back and listen to that story. We're not gonna give it away again. Today we're gonna talk a little bit about what's the problem, How did we get here, Why is this such a big deal?

Jason Stein (01:24):

So when you think about the talent shortage, it's massive in the industry right now. There's just not enough resources that are focused on security. Security's kind of become a hot topic over the last 10 years since I think the target compromise. And so we've tried to escalate and get people accelerated into the security world, but there's just not enough people. So there's 2.7 million jobs available. So by the time he finally finds somebody, that guy's got 10 other job offers. So if he doesn't like the vision, the direction, the budget, he's just gonna leave. Or he is gonna implement all of his security measures and then go to the next organization. So we see a lot of companies not sure what to do. So they're coming to us and we're actually helping them with a virtual chief security officer. We're coming in with a SOC approach, a security operation center, and giving them a team of people that are experts that you don't have to worry about turnover. If you do find one security person, chances are you can't staff at 24 by seven, cuz you need six to nine to even remotely be able to function properly.

Josh Lupresto (02:27):

Well, it seems like if, if we look at, since the last time we've talked, right, it's been a little while and, and it seems like, you know, the security people were hard to find before. I mean, we can't even find people now. Customers can't find people to manage an end device, endpoint security, the soc, the sim, any of that stuff. What has anything changed that has made you more optimistic that this talent shortage is gonna magically fix itself in the next 12 to 18 months? Or what's your perspective there?

Jason Stein (02:55):

Well, if you think about it, the technology just keeps changing as fast as we get, get people ramped up on the current technology, it changes overnight. 75% of CIO CTOs and CISOs say they want new innovative technology to help protect their organization. So how are you gonna get new innovative technology and yet find somebody who's up to speed on that new technology? So it, I'm optimistic that people will get caught up to the technology that we have today, but here in two years, think about all the technology that's changed over the last three years with zero Trust and sassy and protecting on the edge, and then MDR and now XDR.