Maps gave me two routes to the conference venue: alongside the highway, or through “the park.” Naturally, I picked the park (which turned out to be an honest-to-goodness forest). There I was, laptop bag over my shoulder, dress shoes and all, picking my way past a flooded stretch of trail that someone had bridged with what I’ll generously call sticks.

Just when I thought I’d finally arrive, the trees gave way to a full cornfield. I stood there and chuckled while thinking this is awesome , then spotted the venue right on the other side.

My colleague Silas and I had been invited over from the Symfony community, and once you look under TYPO3’s hood, the invitation makes complete sense. Since TYPO3 v10, its core dependency injection container has been built directly on Symfony’s DependencyInjection component, alongside Console for CLI commands, EventDispatcher for its PSR-14 event system, and pieces like Mailer, Messenger, and Routing. It’s not a courtesy shout-out; TYPO3 deliberately chose to lean on Symfony’s implementation instead of building its own, so developers moving between the two ecosystems would feel at home. Which, as it turns out, is exactly what happened to us.

That trip wasn’t just about attending, I got to speak too at Typo3 DevDays. My talk, Speccing Out Teamwork, drew on a decade of Symfony project work to lay out concrete practices a dev team can adopt on top of whatever process framework (Scrum, Kanban, or otherwise) their organization already runs. Silas followed up with Refactor Like a Pro: Clean Code Meets DDD, a genuinely useful, hands-on walkthrough of turning legacy spaghetti into code that actually speaks the domain, using clean code principles, DDD building blocks, and tooling that makes refactoring safe and automated.

Beyond the talks, the atmosphere was just as memorable, genuinely warm and welcoming, the kind of crowd that makes it easy to strike up a conversation with a stranger over coffee. Some of the best moments happened in those in-between chats: swapping notes with people solving the exact same problems I deal with day to day, just through a different framework’s lens. Hearing how another ecosystem approaches something you thought only had one obvious answer has a way of making you rethink your own.

One thing that stuck with me across the whole event: how many speakers, in totally different talks, kept circling back to the same idea: build for your users. Not for the framework, not for the demo, not for what’s technically impressive, but for the actual person on the other end.

Funny how a wrong turn through a forest ends up teaching the same lesson as a tech conference: sometimes the obvious path isn’t the one that matters. It is the one that people will love taking.

PakarPBN

A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a collection of websites that are controlled by a single individual or organization and used primarily to build backlinks to a “money site” in order to influence its ranking in search engines such as Google. The core idea behind a PBN is based on the importance of backlinks in Google’s ranking algorithm. Since Google views backlinks as signals of authority and trust, some website owners attempt to artificially create these signals through a controlled network of sites.

In a typical PBN setup, the owner acquires expired or aged domains that already have existing authority, backlinks, and history. These domains are rebuilt with new content and hosted separately, often using different IP addresses, hosting providers, themes, and ownership details to make them appear unrelated. Within the content published on these sites, links are strategically placed that point to the main website the owner wants to rank higher. By doing this, the owner attempts to pass link equity (also known as “link juice”) from the PBN sites to the target website.

The purpose of a PBN is to give the impression that the target website is naturally earning links from multiple independent sources. If done effectively, this can temporarily improve keyword rankings, increase organic visibility, and drive more traffic from search results.

Jasa Backlink

Download Anime Batch

View the video of this post here.

This week’s post is sponsored by YCharts.

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The most important charts and themes in markets and investing…

1) The Biggest Upside Surprise in History

S&P 500 Q2 earnings are now on pace to rise 50% YoY, the highest growth rate since Q2 2021. And the 29% upside surprise in Q2 earnings versus expectations at the start of earnings season is officially the biggest upside surprise on record.

S&P 500 earnings are now expected to surge 32% in 2026, more than double the 15% growth expected at the start of the year.

We’ve never seen earnings growth this strong outside of post-recession rebounds.

This time, there was no recession. Just an unprecedented AI-driven boom.

The question for investors is how much of this growth is sustainable, with the massive mark-ups in SpaceX and Anthropic (“other income”) driving a large share of the upside surprise.

But with talk of an Anthropic IPO coming this fall at a valuation of $2 trillion, there could be further markups to come. Anthropic’s last formal private funding round valued the company at $965 million in May 2026.

And companies are increasingly optimistic about their forward prospects, with the share that are raising versus lowering earnings guidance rising to the highest level in over four years.

2) More All-Time Highs

With earnings hitting new heights, it should come as no surprise that the stock market is following suit. The S&P 500 has now hit 27 all-time highs this year and 470 since the start of 2013.

The S&P 500 crossed above 7,800 last week for the first time, its 9th 100-point milestone of the year. A year ago it was at 6,400. 5 years ago it was at 4,400. 10 years ago it was at 2,200.

The S&P 500’s nearly 15% gain through mid-August is more than double the average return at this point in the year (+7%).

3) Falling Further Behind the Curve

65.

As in 65 consecutive months with US inflation above the Fed’s 2% target.

The Fed spent years telling us 2% inflation was the goal.

But since January 2020, CPI has risen at a 4.0% annualized rate and is now 13% above a 2% inflation trend.

That’s not “price stability.” It’s a massive failure of monetary policy.

Here are the cumulative price increases over last 7 years…

Surging commodity prices due to the ongoing War in Iran will keep CPI above 3% YoY in August. That will be the 66th consecutive month with US inflation above the Fed’s 2% target. The market is now betting that the Fed will not hike rates in September (65% probability). If that is the case, they will fall even further behind the curve.

4) When Will the Chickens Come Home to Roost?

In July, the US Federal Government took in $334 billion and spent $766 billion.

That’s a $432 billion deficit in just one month.

Needless to say, don’t try this at home.

Over the last 10 years, US Federal Government Tax Revenue has increased 65% to $5.3 Trillion while Government Spending has increased 96% to $7.3 Trillion.

The result: a more than doubling of the US National Debt from $19 trillion to $39 trillion.

The combination of more debt at higher interest rates has caused the interest expense on US Public Debt to hit $1.37 trillion over the last 12 months, another record high. If it continues to increase at the current pace it will soon be the largest line item in the Federal budget, surpassing Social Security.

When will the chickens come home to roost?

There’s no precise “breaking point.” But we’ll likely see the repercussions in the bond market.

On that point, the 30-Year Treasury yield is now at its highest level since June 2007, crossing above 5.3%. And a recent bond auction saw the highest borrowing costs since 2001.

5) No Tariff Dividends. Just Higher Prices.

Tariffs went up and companies raised prices.

Tariffs are now being refunded and companies are keeping the price increases.

Funny how that works.

In the end, there were no tariff dividends for working families. Just higher prices.

6) The Shrinking Labor Force

The US Unemployment Rate moved down to 4.1% in July.

Normally, that would be good news. But it didn’t fall because people who were unemployed found jobs. Instead, 264k people simply left the labor force, pushing the participation rate down to 61.4% (lowest since February 2021).

The US labor force has now declined by over 2.4 million since the peak last November.

One contributing factor: America is aging fast – reshaping the labor market, housing, healthcare, government spending, and the economy itself.

There are now 66 million Americans age 65 or older, more than doubling since 1990. And in just 10 years, that number is projected to reach 78 million.

7) American Consumer: Gone Global

Americans made a record 24 million trips to Europe in 2025, more than double a decade ago.

In 1990, fewer than 5% of Americans had a passport. Today, more than 50% do.

The American consumer has gone global.

8) A Few Interesting Stats…

a) The top 10 stocks in the S&P 500 this year are all beneficiaries of the AI infrastructure boom.

b) The S&P 500’s Dividend Yield has moved down to 1.04%, the lowest level in history.

c) The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve is now at its lowest level since January 1983. Over the past 5 years we’ve seen a drawdown of 322 million barrels, a 52% decline.

d) The US National Debt has increased by over $550 billion since July 1st.

e) Different presidents. Different parties. Same direction. More money printing + More debt = Higher prices.

And that’s it for this week. Thanks for reading!

Every week I do a video breaking down the most important charts and themes in markets and investing. Subscribe to our YouTube channel HERE for the latest content.

Disclaimer: All information provided is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment, legal or tax advice, or an offer to buy or sell any security. Read our full disclosures here.

PakarPBN

A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a collection of websites that are controlled by a single individual or organization and used primarily to build backlinks to a “money site” in order to influence its ranking in search engines such as Google. The core idea behind a PBN is based on the importance of backlinks in Google’s ranking algorithm. Since Google views backlinks as signals of authority and trust, some website owners attempt to artificially create these signals through a controlled network of sites.

In a typical PBN setup, the owner acquires expired or aged domains that already have existing authority, backlinks, and history. These domains are rebuilt with new content and hosted separately, often using different IP addresses, hosting providers, themes, and ownership details to make them appear unrelated. Within the content published on these sites, links are strategically placed that point to the main website the owner wants to rank higher. By doing this, the owner attempts to pass link equity (also known as “link juice”) from the PBN sites to the target website.

The purpose of a PBN is to give the impression that the target website is naturally earning links from multiple independent sources. If done effectively, this can temporarily improve keyword rankings, increase organic visibility, and drive more traffic from search results.

Jasa Backlink

Download Anime Batch

If your teams use Android devices, an Android work profile is the simplest way to separate corporate data from personal content without frustrating users. It applies security controls to work apps while leaving personal apps alone. Knowing how to set up a work profile on Android reduces tickets, speeds up onboarding and keeps policies consistent across models.

This guide outlines the advantages of Android work profiles, how to set them up manually or via QR code, and how to automate provisioning through directory triggers and Android Enterprise APIs.

Benefits of an Android work profile

An Android work profile isolates corporate apps and data from the device’s personal side. You apply policies where they matter while preserving user privacy. The result is fewer support issues and stronger control.

• Enhanced security: Enforce encryption, strong authentication and remote wipe on the work profile.
• Lower user friction: Employees use personal apps normally outside the work profile.
• Consistent policy enforcement: Apply the same rules across Android versions and OEM skins.

A well-managed Android work profile also supports compliance by preventing corporate data from mixing with personal apps or storage. All of this can lead to improved security and adoption.

Manual work profile setup on Android

When you need to set up a work profile quickly, the native settings flow is pretty straightforward. Use it for one-offs, pilot devices or when testing policies before broader rollout.

Set up a work profile via device settings

Some devices allow creating a work profile directly through Android settings.

1. Open Settings → Accounts
2. Select Add account, then choose Work (or Work profile, if available)
3. Follow the prompts to enroll the device with your organization’s MDM (Mobile Device Management) system.

Note that the exact options vary by device and Android version. Some organizations may require enrollment through a dedicated app or QR code instead.

Watch for common issues that cause enrollment to fail. If the device prompts for management permissions, approve them, otherwise the work-profile creation will stop. If an old or partially removed work profile is still on the device, delete it before enrolling again (a factory reset may be required in stubborn cases).

Network restrictions can also interfere with provisioning, so ensure the device can reach your MDM service and Google’s Android Management/Play enrollment endpoints. Catching these early helps avoid failed setups and unnecessary support tickets.

Android work profile setup using QR code enrollment

QR code enrollment simplifies Android work profile provisioning by packaging enrollment tokens, server details and configuration settings into a single scan. This removes manual data entry, one of the most common causes of setup errors.

To generate and use a QR code:

1. In your MDM or Android Enterprise console (e.g., Google Admin, Zero-touch, Intune, Workspace ONE), generate a work-profile enrollment QR code.
   Note: The “Google Enterprise Console” terminology is outdated—each MDM provides its own QR generation workflow.
2. Configure the required work profile settings and export or display the QR code.
3. On the device:
   • For corporate-owned devices: Scan the QR code during the device’s initial setup (tap the screen multiple times on the “Welcome” page to launch QR provisioning if needed).
   • For BYOD work profiles: open the MDM’s enrollment app or use the Android Device Policy app if prompted; some OEMs also allow scanning from Settings → Accounts → Add work profile, but this isn’t universal.

On supported devices, QR codes can be combined with Android zero-touch enrollment for true out-of-box provisioning with no manual configuration.

Automating Android work profile provisioning

Manual steps won’t scale across hundreds or thousands of phones. Automating Android work profile provisioning removes repetitive work, accelerates onboarding and keeps policies aligned with role changes.

Integrate directory-triggered workflows

Connect your MDM to directory events so work-profile provisioning happens automatically when user attributes change in AD or Azure AD. For example, when a new hire is added to the Sales group, your workflow can trigger enrollment, assign the correct policy set, and deliver required apps.

In practice, you subscribe to directory change notifications, map those events to MDM actions, and verify the full workflow. Microsoft Graph webhooks are a common way to detect group or user changes. Your orchestration layer then calls your MDM’s API, or Android Management API for fully managed environments, to apply the appropriate enrollment or policy update. Test the flow in a staging tenant and pilot it with a single department before broad deployment.

This approach shortens onboarding and reduces misconfigurations that typically generate support tickets.

Leverage Android Enterprise APIs for automated enrollment

Android Enterprise APIs let you provision devices at scale and enforce policy without touching each phone. A common pattern is to create an enrollment token, deliver it to target devices, then apply a policy that installs apps and sets restrictions.

You generate an enrollment token using the Android Management API, deliver that token during device setup or via an approved channel, then assign a policy that specifies app install types, password requirements and network settings. Plan for token expiration and idempotent workflows to prevent duplicate objects from being created on retries.

Sample policy request:

POST https://androidmanagement.googleapis.com/v1/enterprises/{enterpriseId}/policies

{

“name”: “PolicyID”,

“applications”: [

{

“packageName”: “com.example.app”,

“installType”: “FORCE_INSTALLED”

}

],

“passwordRequirements”: {

“passwordQuality”: “NUMERIC”,

“minimumLength”: 6

}

}

Using these APIs, MSPs and internal teams can standardize Android work profile setup, enforce security controls and ship updates on a schedule instead of device by device.

Troubleshooting OEM-specific setup variations

OEM Android skins can introduce extra steps, restrictions or default behaviors that impact enrollment. As you set up work profiles, plan for these manufacturer differences and test on the same models your users carry.

For example, Samsung devices with Knox may require additional permissions or Knox-specific settings for work-profile creation to complete smoothly. If you encounter blocked enrollments or unusual prompts, review Samsung’s Knox guidance. On the other hand, some Huawei models need “Enterprise” capabilities enabled before provisioning can proceed, and Xiaomi devices often apply aggressive battery and notification controls that can suppress MDM prompts or background tasks.

Maintain a representative device lab, validate enrollment flows for each model and adjust MDM policies to pre-approve necessary permissions or disable conflicting OEM features.

Deprovisioning profiles and ensuring compliance

When employees leave or change roles, deprovision their work profiles quickly to protect corporate data. Maintain a clear, repeatable process and review it periodically.

To deprovision a work profile:

• Wipe the work profile from your MDM or Android Enterprise console, removing managed apps, accounts and corporate data.
• Remove the user from provisioning or entitlement groups in AD/Azure AD to stop automated actions.
• Confirm the wipe completed and that only corporate data was removed.

Sustain compliance with continuous monitoring. Use MDM reports to flag devices that haven’t checked in or drifted from policy, and automatically quarantine them until they remediate. Keep role-based policies current so new requirements flow into profiles consistently. If you use conditional access, align compliance status with access rules so out-of-policy devices lose access until they meet standards again.

Streamline Android management with NinjaOne

NinjaOne’s Android MDM software gives you the automation, visibility and control you need to deploy and secure Android work profiles at scale. Try NinjaOne to orchestrate enrollment, apply policies at scale and keep every device compliant—without any manual effort. Give us a call today.

PakarPBN

A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a collection of websites that are controlled by a single individual or organization and used primarily to build backlinks to a “money site” in order to influence its ranking in search engines such as Google. The core idea behind a PBN is based on the importance of backlinks in Google’s ranking algorithm. Since Google views backlinks as signals of authority and trust, some website owners attempt to artificially create these signals through a controlled network of sites.

In a typical PBN setup, the owner acquires expired or aged domains that already have existing authority, backlinks, and history. These domains are rebuilt with new content and hosted separately, often using different IP addresses, hosting providers, themes, and ownership details to make them appear unrelated. Within the content published on these sites, links are strategically placed that point to the main website the owner wants to rank higher. By doing this, the owner attempts to pass link equity (also known as “link juice”) from the PBN sites to the target website.

The purpose of a PBN is to give the impression that the target website is naturally earning links from multiple independent sources. If done effectively, this can temporarily improve keyword rankings, increase organic visibility, and drive more traffic from search results.

Jasa Backlink

Download Anime Batch

Few teams within a company touch as many parts of the business daily as product marketing. Sitting at the intersection of marketing, product, and sales, product marketing managers (or PMMs, for short) need to stay steeped in the product while translating nuanced technical information into stories that resonate with the broader market.

At NinjaOne, that’s no small task. Our unified IT operations platform spans everything from RMM and endpoint management to autonomous patch management, remote access, backup, vulnerability management, MDM, and more. As our platform grows and evolves, our PMMs play a critical role in connecting the dots for customers and bringing the value behind our innovations to life.

To give us a closer look at product marketing at NinjaOne, we sat down with our longtime marketing ninja Nick DeStefano. As our AI product marketing lead, he shares what his day-to-day looks like, what sets NinjaOne apart in its approach to AI innovation, and some of the biggest lessons he’s learned from customers over the years.

Let’s get to know Nick!

Tell us about yourself. What do you do at NinjaOne?
Hey! I’m Nick DeStefano. I am a senior product marketing manager here at NinjaOne covering endpoint management and endpoint-related products. I’ve been here for four and a half years! My day is spent working with a ton of teams, writing and ideating on product messaging, strategizing for the future, and helping whoever I can with whatever they need that day.

If someone shadowed you for a day, what would surprise them most about your job?
How much context switching I do in a day. Managing several products, all at various stages of a product lifecycle, requires switching from minor messaging tweaks and asset updates to brand new core messaging creation and strategic planning.

There’s no shortage of AI innovation happening in our product these days. What do you appreciate about how NinjaOne is approaching AI differently?
I appreciate how deliberate we’ve been with our approach to AI. Rather than rushing to the market to just get something out there and capitalize on the “AI craze,” we’ve thoughtfully worked on making AI-focused enhancements to our core product that meets market demand and supports technicians where they need it most.

As someone who collaborates closely across product, sales, and marketing, what’s the key to balancing different perspectives and making cross-functional collaboration successful?
Listening and understanding the core goals of each individual team. With the right context in mind, it’s a lot easier to create messaging, assets, etc. that fit the specific needs of each team. It also helps enhance my own knowledge, and challenges me to more effectively mold and convey the key points I’m trying to get across in a language that resonates with each team.

What’s something our customers have taught you that changed the way you think?
I would say the number one thing I’ve realized in working with our customers is that although statistics and quantitative research are powerful, sometimes it’s the qualitative feedback, the feeling, and the pure joy a product can deliver that’s way more meaningful for them. Our customers are some of the smartest individuals in the tech space and although “ROI and hours saved” are important metrics, sometimes “this helped me save my business” or “it just works when I need it to” has a much greater impact on their daily lives.

What is the most important thing you’ve learned at NinjaOne so far?
That supporting, listening to, and being there for your customers will go farther than anything else in business. We show up for our customers every day. When they talk and we listen, they are beyond appreciative. When companies lose sight of the people that got them there, it’s a recipe for disaster.

What are you passionate about outside of your career?
Football and traveling. Football is my number one passion (go Pats!), I coach flag football and even have my grandpa’s favorite play he used back when he coached tattooed on my leg (he’s the one who got me into football in the first place). I also love planning trips whenever I get the chance, whether that’s locally or around the world. Right now, Spain, Greece, and Hawaii are my top three locations I’m looking to plan trips for.

That’s all for this edition of Patch Notes: People Edition! Want to meet more of the people behind NinjaOne or see where you could make a difference? Head over to the NinjaOne careers page to learn more about our growing team and explore open roles: www.ninjaone.com/careers.

PakarPBN

A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a collection of websites that are controlled by a single individual or organization and used primarily to build backlinks to a “money site” in order to influence its ranking in search engines such as Google. The core idea behind a PBN is based on the importance of backlinks in Google’s ranking algorithm. Since Google views backlinks as signals of authority and trust, some website owners attempt to artificially create these signals through a controlled network of sites.

In a typical PBN setup, the owner acquires expired or aged domains that already have existing authority, backlinks, and history. These domains are rebuilt with new content and hosted separately, often using different IP addresses, hosting providers, themes, and ownership details to make them appear unrelated. Within the content published on these sites, links are strategically placed that point to the main website the owner wants to rank higher. By doing this, the owner attempts to pass link equity (also known as “link juice”) from the PBN sites to the target website.

The purpose of a PBN is to give the impression that the target website is naturally earning links from multiple independent sources. If done effectively, this can temporarily improve keyword rankings, increase organic visibility, and drive more traffic from search results.

Jasa Backlink

Download Anime Batch

No word within the IT industry causes more fear—or anger—than “phishing”. This isn’t surprising in the least. After all, phishing has evolved far beyond suspicious emails promising lottery winnings or a certain prince from another country asking for financial aid.

Modern phishing tactics, instead, cover email, SMS, voice, social media, spear phishing, and even QR codes—and they’re sadly getting harder for users and filters alike to spot. For managed service providers (MSPs), the challenge isn’t just knowing what types of phishing exist, but transforming that knowledge into repeatable, measurable defenses that scale across clients.

That is what this guide is for. Here, we’ll help turn classic “types of phishing” awareness into a tactical blueprint for phishing attack prevention.

📌 Prerequisites:

Before rolling out controls, make sure your clients meet these minimum technical and process baselines:

1. DMARC, SPF, and DKIM alignment: These authenticate legitimate senders and stop direct domain spoofing. Aim for p=reject once records are properly aligned.

What “p=reject” means in DMARC

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) helps mail servers verify whether messages claiming to come from your domain are legitimate.

It includes a policy tag (p) that tells recipients what to do when authentication fails:

• • p=none: Messages are delivered, but reports are sent for analysis.
  • p=quarantine: Messages failing DMARC go to spam or quarantine folders.
  • p=reject: Messages failing DMARC are blocked completely and never delivered.

2. Mail security features: Implement URL rewriting or time-of-click protection, attachment sandboxing, and default macro blocking in Office documents.
3. MFA and conditional access: Enforce multifactor authentication for all accounts and apply stricter conditional access for executives and finance users.
4. Awareness and simulation platform: Run regular security awareness training or monthly phishing simulations, and make reporting one-click simple through a mail add-in or button.
5. Ticketing templates for investigations: Standardized evidence capture (headers, URLs, message trace notes) enables your team to work faster and more consistently.
6. Mailbox rule and OAuth monitoring: Create alerts or script automated remediation for malicious app consents.

Quick refresher: Types of phishing attacks

Before we get into defenses, let’s refresh what you’re up against. Here’s a quick breakdown of the most common phishing types MSPs should recognize:

Operationalizing phishing attack prevention

Step 1: Map each variant to specific controls

Every phishing type targets a different weakness, such as trust, identity, or process. By pairing each variant with clear technical and human safeguards, MSPs can significantly reduce risk and make prevention more repeatable.

Spear phishing and whaling

Targeted messages aimed at executives or high-value staff often look perfectly legitimate, just with one crucial twist.

How to prevent it:

• Enforce DMARC, SPF, and DKIM on client domains to stop direct spoofing.
• Enable external sender tags and VIP impersonation detection.
• Require phishing-resistant MFA and enforce conditional access policies to flag unusual logins or locations.
• Audit mailbox rules weekly and alert on any new or suspicious changes.
• Add a callback verification step for sensitive requests.

⚠️ Important: Watch out for emails from “executives” sent after hours, requests for secrecy, or sudden payment instructions that bypass the normal process.

💡 Tip: Executive accounts need stricter MFA, location limits, and regular mailbox-rule scans.

Clone phishing and credential harvesting

Attackers copy a real email, like an invoice or internal memo, and replace links or attachments with malicious versions.

How to prevent it:

• Use time-of-click URL scanning and attachment sandboxing to catch delayed payloads.
• Block macro-enabled Office files and high-risk extensions (e.g., .js, .exe).
• Teach users to open important links from bookmarked portals, not emails.
• Apply safe-file policies and macro blocking scripts through your RMM or endpoint management platform.

⚠️ Important: Watch out for emails that appear identical to legitimate ones but include subtle sender-domain changes or unexpected attachments.

💡 Tip: Add a mail flow rule to flag any message that mirrors a recently sent legitimate email but originates outside the tenant. This catches “clone” attempts before users even see them.

Business Email Compromise (BEC) and vendor fraud

These scams trick finance teams into wiring money or changing bank details.

How to prevent it:

• Require dual approval and a verified callback for all payment or banking updates.
• Keep vendor allowlists and flag new or modified supplier records for review.
• Quarantine messages with display-name or lookalike-domain spoofing.
• Alert on mailbox rules that hide or forward finance communications.

⚠️ Important: Watch out for requests to “update bank details immediately,” especially from new addresses or lookalike domains.

💡 MSP tip: Build a simple “voice-verify” checklist for finance teams.

Smishing and vishing

Attackers use SMS or voice calls to push urgency and harvest credentials.

How to prevent it:

• Educate users to ignore contact info in texts or calls and instead use published company numbers.
• Roll out number-matching MFA (e.g., Microsoft Authenticator) to prevent push fatigue approval.
• Provide a clear reporting channel or hotline for suspicious calls and texts.
• Run voice- and SMS-based simulations quarterly.

⚠️ Important: Watch out for “support” calls that claim to be from IT or vendors asking users to verify MFA codes.

💡 Tip: Deploy mobile-device management (MDM) policies that block sideloaded messaging apps and log SMS-based links opened on managed devices. This gives you visibility into risky behavior and a quick way to alert or isolate compromised endpoints.

QR phishing (Quishing)

QR codes on posters, invoices, or emails can hide credential-stealing links.

How to prevent it:

• Treat every QR code like an unknown URL.
• Disable automatic QR-based logins on shared or kiosk devices.
• Require MFA re-authentication for high-risk actions started from QR scans.
• Block known malicious QR landing pages and alert on unusual login flows.
• Include QR-based phishing simulations in awareness training.

⚠️ Important: Watch out for QR codes appearing in unexpected invoices, emails, or printed materials that lead to login pages.

💡 Tip: Encourage staff to hover or preview QR destinations before scanning.

Angler and social phishing

Fake customer-service or brand accounts on social platforms impersonate legitimate organizations to gather information.

How to prevent it:

• Use brand-monitoring and impersonation-takedown services to detect lookalike profiles.
• Limit corporate credentials for social-media SSO logins.
• Train staff to verify official handles and verified badges before engaging.
• Apply DLP controls to social-media management accounts.
• Protect public-facing teams with strong MFA and tight session policies.

⚠️ Important: Watch out for support DMs from “verified-looking” accounts that avoid corporate email entirely.

💡 Tip:  Set up social-media brand monitoring alerts and automate takedown requests through your incident response process. Integrate these alerts into your helpdesk or SIEM, so your team can react fast when fake accounts appear and prevent clients from engaging with impersonators.

Implementation tips for MSPs

• Standardize first: Establish a baseline (DMARC enforcement, MFA, URL filtering) that applies to all clients.
• Layer gradually: Once the foundation is consistent, add impersonation detection and mailbox-rule monitoring.
• Automate checks: Use NinjaOne or your RMM to scan for new mailbox rules, risky OAuth grants, or unapproved macro settings.
• Review quarterly: Update your control matrix as new phishing trends emerge.

Step 2: Train behaviors that change outcomes

The difference between a minor scare and a major breach usually comes down to user behavior or, more simply, what happens when someone spots (or clicks) a suspicious message.

Verify out-of-band

Teach users a simple rule: “Verify before you comply.” If a message involves money, credentials, or sensitive data, confirm it through another channel, like a direct call or known portal, before taking action.

• Use scenario-based exercises (e.g., fake invoice or credential reset).
• Provide quick-reference lists of verified callback numbers.
• Reinforce that no “urgent” email overrides the callback rule.

Inspect before you click

Encourage users to slow down and question what they see. Attackers rely on speed and distraction.

• Teach them to hover (or long-press) to preview URLs before clicking.
• Explain what suspicious domains look like, including being extra vigilant for typos or unfamiliar endings.
• Cover QR codes too: scan only from trusted materials, not random emails or posters.

Run short weekly or monthly “micro-lessons” that highlight one visual example at a time.

Report & don’t engage

Make reporting easy and instinctive. The faster users report, the faster you can contain.

• Add a “Report Phish” button in mail clients.
• Reinforce “report and delete”. Never forward suspicious messages.
• Recognize employees who report real threats to normalize the habit.

Protect MFA prompts

Attackers now target MFA itself through fatigue or spoofed support calls.

• Teach users to deny any MFA prompt they didn’t initiate.
• Explain that real IT staff will never request MFA codes by phone or chat.
• Demonstrate number-matching MFA so users know what a legitimate prompt looks like.

Encourage clients to adopt phishing-resistant MFA (like FIDO2 keys) for privileged and finance accounts.

Use portals and bookmarks

Encourage users to access critical systems, such as payroll, through bookmarks or official portals instead of email links.

• Reinforce that legitimate services never require link clicks for login.
• Use monthly reminders or simulated exercises to reinforce the behavior.
• Pair this habit with browser autofill and password-manager policies for convenience.

Step 3: Standardize a response runbook that scales

A clear, repeatable runbook means no guessing or improvising, just fast containment and documentation.

Your phishing response at a glance

Triage: Capture evidence first

When a phishing report comes in, preserve everything before deleting anything. Save the full headers, URLs, and attachments, then classify the variant (spear, clone, BEC, etc.). Consistent evidence capture makes investigation and reporting faster across tenants and helps train your detection tools.

Contain: Cut off access

Immediately revoke active sessions or tokens, reset passwords, remove malicious mailbox rules, and disable risky OAuth app grants. Quarantine any similar emails still in mailboxes to stop the spread before more users click.

Hunt: Search for related threats

Use message traces to find other copies or similar subjects, check sign-in and audit logs for unusual activity, and purge any remaining messages or files tied to the incident. This phase confirms whether the threat is contained or still active.

Notify: Communicate clearly

Inform affected users and leadership about what happened, what’s been done, and what to do next. If finance or data exposure is suspected, escalate to the client’s financial lead or legal contact immediately. Keep messaging short and factual across your MSP team.

Improve: Feed lessons back into prevention

Block new malicious domains, add updated rules to filters, and incorporate the lure style into future phishing simulations. Record metrics like time to report, time to contain, and time to remediate to show progress during client reviews.

Step 4: Maintain proper metrics

Tracking outcomes turns phishing defense from guesswork into a measurable program.

For MSPs, metrics are proof that prevention and response efforts are working. This is an invaluable resource that allows you to showcase your phishing defense framework at a glance to your clients.

Outcome metrics: User and process behavior

Focus on how people and workflows perform when faced with phishing attempts.

Control Metrics: Technical health

These show how well your preventive controls are functioning behind the scenes.

Cadence and program reviews

Review these metrics monthly with each client and conduct a quarterly tabletop to rehearse the response runbook. Trends that show falling failure rates and rising report rates are proof that user behavior and controls are working together.

💡 Tip (for MSPs): Automate data collection wherever possible. NinjaOne scripts can log mailbox-rule changes, OAuth-grant removals, or DMARC-alignment stats automatically, feeding live data into dashboards and saving analysts hours each month.

How NinjaOne helps prevent phishing attacks

NinjaOne enables MSPs to turn this phishing prevention framework into day-to-day operations through automation.

• Policy and script deployment: Roll out mailbox-rule checks, safe-link and macro settings, and user-reporting add-ins across all client tenants from one console.
• Detection and ticketing: Automatically alert on suspicious mailbox rules or risky OAuth grants, then open tickets with captured evidence for faster triage.
• Simulation and awareness support: Schedule ongoing phishing-simulation reminders and track report rates across user or device groups to gauge training effectiveness.
• Reporting and dashboards: Generate per-client dashboards showing phish-failure and report-rate trends, DMARC alignment progress, and time-to-remediate metrics.

Defending against every type of phishing attack

This guide helps you establish a robust phishing defense framework, but its value lies in its consistent implementation. We strongly recommend mapping every phishing type to specific controls and reinforcing user habits through regular training. This way, prevention becomes an integral aspect of your culture of safety.

Related topics:

PakarPBN

A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a collection of websites that are controlled by a single individual or organization and used primarily to build backlinks to a “money site” in order to influence its ranking in search engines such as Google. The core idea behind a PBN is based on the importance of backlinks in Google’s ranking algorithm. Since Google views backlinks as signals of authority and trust, some website owners attempt to artificially create these signals through a controlled network of sites.

In a typical PBN setup, the owner acquires expired or aged domains that already have existing authority, backlinks, and history. These domains are rebuilt with new content and hosted separately, often using different IP addresses, hosting providers, themes, and ownership details to make them appear unrelated. Within the content published on these sites, links are strategically placed that point to the main website the owner wants to rank higher. By doing this, the owner attempts to pass link equity (also known as “link juice”) from the PBN sites to the target website.

The purpose of a PBN is to give the impression that the target website is naturally earning links from multiple independent sources. If done effectively, this can temporarily improve keyword rankings, increase organic visibility, and drive more traffic from search results.

Jasa Backlink

Download Anime Batch

use Symfony\Component\Cache\CacheItem;
use Symfony\Component\Messenger\Envelope;
use Symfony\Component\Messenger\Stamp\DelayStamp;

$retryDelay = 15 * 60;

$cache->get('import-status-'.$importId, function (CacheItem $item) use ($retryDelay): ImportStatus {
    $item->expiresAfter($retryDelay);

    return ImportStatus::pending();
});

$bus->dispatch(new Envelope(
    new ImportMessage($importId),
    [new DelayStamp($retryDelay)]
));

$renewalDate = $currentPeriodStart->add(new DateInterval('P1M'));

namespace App\Time;

use InvalidArgumentException;

final readonly class TimeSpan
{
    private function __construct(private int $milliseconds)
    {
        if ($milliseconds < 0) {
            throw new InvalidArgumentException('A time span cannot be negative.');
        }
    }

    public static function milliseconds(int $milliseconds): self
    {
        return new self($milliseconds);
    }

    public static function seconds(int $seconds): self
    {
        return new self($seconds * 1_000);
    }

    public static function minutes(int $minutes): self
    {
        return self::seconds($minutes * 60);
    }

    public function toMilliseconds(): int
    {
        return $this->milliseconds;
    }

    public function toWholeSeconds(): int
    {
        if ($this->milliseconds % 1_000 !== 0) {
            throw new InvalidArgumentException('The time span cannot be represented as whole seconds.');
        }

        return intdiv($this->milliseconds, 1_000);
    }
}

use App\Time\TimeSpan;
use Symfony\Component\Cache\CacheItem;
use Symfony\Component\Messenger\Envelope;
use Symfony\Component\Messenger\Stamp\DelayStamp;

$retryDelay = TimeSpan::minutes(15);

$cache->get('import-status-'.$importId, function (CacheItem $item) use ($retryDelay): ImportStatus {
    $item->expiresAfter($retryDelay->toWholeSeconds());

    return ImportStatus::pending();
});

$bus->dispatch(new Envelope(
    new ImportMessage($importId),
    [new DelayStamp($retryDelay->toMilliseconds())]
));

namespace App\Entity;

use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;

#[ORM\Entity]
final class ImportJob
{
    #[ORM\Column(type: 'integer')]
    private int $processingBudgetMilliseconds;

    public function setProcessingBudget(TimeSpan $budget): void
    {
        $this->processingBudgetMilliseconds = $budget->toMilliseconds();
    }

    public function processingBudget(): TimeSpan
    {
        return TimeSpan::milliseconds($this->processingBudgetMilliseconds);
    }
}

$startedAt = hrtime(true);

$processor->process($message);

$elapsedNanoseconds = hrtime(true) - $startedAt;
$elapsed = TimeSpan::milliseconds(intdiv($elapsedNanoseconds, 1_000_000));

final readonly class ImportScheduler
{
    public function schedule(string $importId, int $delay): void
    {
        // Is $delay seconds, milliseconds, minutes?
    }
}

use App\Time\TimeSpan;

final readonly class ImportScheduler
{
    public function schedule(string $importId, TimeSpan $delay): void
    {
        // The unit is no longer part of the caller's guesswork.
    }
}

PakarPBN

A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a collection of websites that are controlled by a single individual or organization and used primarily to build backlinks to a “money site” in order to influence its ranking in search engines such as Google. The core idea behind a PBN is based on the importance of backlinks in Google’s ranking algorithm. Since Google views backlinks as signals of authority and trust, some website owners attempt to artificially create these signals through a controlled network of sites.

In a typical PBN setup, the owner acquires expired or aged domains that already have existing authority, backlinks, and history. These domains are rebuilt with new content and hosted separately, often using different IP addresses, hosting providers, themes, and ownership details to make them appear unrelated. Within the content published on these sites, links are strategically placed that point to the main website the owner wants to rank higher. By doing this, the owner attempts to pass link equity (also known as “link juice”) from the PBN sites to the target website.

The purpose of a PBN is to give the impression that the target website is naturally earning links from multiple independent sources. If done effectively, this can temporarily improve keyword rankings, increase organic visibility, and drive more traffic from search results.

Jasa Backlink

Download Anime Batch

These additions matter because attackers no longer stop at encrypting production systems. Research shows that 94% of ransomware attacks now target backup systems, with attackers increasingly focused on crippling recoverability to increase pressure on victims.

If you’re defining what the 3-2-1-1-0 backup strategy means for your environment, treat it as a measurable standard where each control can be enforced, monitored, and audited rather than left to best-effort execution.

Why the extra ‘1-0’ matters in modern data protection

Backup failures today are rarely obvious. They surface during restores, under pressure, when time and trust are already depleted. The “1-0” elements exist to remove ambiguity from your last line of defense.

The role of immutability in ransomware defense

Ransomware groups now prioritize backup infrastructure. If they can delete or encrypt recovery points, they gain leverage regardless of how many copies you keep.

Immutability blocks that path. It enforces retention at the storage or platform level so backups cannot be changed until a defined date, even with elevated credentials. This control is available across multiple technologies, including WORM media, object-locked cloud storage, and hardened backup appliances.

Cloud providers support immutability through features like Amazon S3 Object Lock and Azure Blob Storage immutability policies, which prevent deletion or overwrite during retention. When combined with separate credentials and restricted access paths, these controls materially reduce the blast radius of a compromised credential.

Air-gapping strengthens this further. Logical separation alone is not enough if backup systems share identity planes or networks with production. Network segmentation, isolated vaults, and tightly controlled access workflows eliminate entire attack paths rather than relying on detection.

From a threat-model perspective, immutability removes the attacker’s ability to destroy your recovery options, not just slow them down.

Why zero-error verification is necessary

A backup that completes successfully is not necessarily a backup that restores successfully. Silent corruption, bit rot, misconfigured encryption, or partial ransomware encryption can all render data unusable without triggering job failures.

IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025 highlights the operational risks posed by these failings: Organizations took an average of 241 days to identify and contain a breach, and 65% were still not fully recovered at the time of reporting. When recovery timelines stretch this long, undetected integrity issues in backups can compound disruption, turning technical defects into prolonged business impact.

Zero-error verification closes this gap. It requires checksum or hash validation during backup, after transfer, and during periodic integrity checks. Operationally, this means:

• Generating hashes at the source
• Validating data after it lands in storage
• Rechecking data during scrubbing and before restore

When verification fails, it must automatically halt promotion or rotation. A corrupted backup should never be treated as compliant.

How to implement a policy-driven 3-2-1-1-0 backup strategy

The strength of the 3-2-1-1-0 backup strategy comes from automation. Policy ensures controls are enforced consistently, not selectively.

Embedding automated integrity checks into backup pipelines

Integrity checks should be inseparable from backup workflows. Many enterprise platforms support native checksum validation or expose hooks for custom verification.

Attach checksum generation to ingestion, not post-hoc review. Validation results should determine job success, not supplement it. If integrity checks fail, downstream replication or archival should stop automatically.

Best practices include:

• Calculating hashes before and after transfer
• Storing validation results centrally for audit
• Alerting on mismatches with severity tied to data criticality

This approach prevents corruption from propagating across tiers and gives you defensible evidence during audits or incident reviews.

Scheduling and executing automated restore drills

Relying on occasional manual restores is risky. Define restore drill frequencies based on the workload’s business impact. High-priority systems might be tested weekly, while lower-tier data can follow a monthly cadence.

Track metrics such as recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO) along with test coverage percentage. Dashboards in your backup console or compliance tools can help you visualize drill outcomes and spot gaps in real time.

Automate representative test restores across all storage tiers, not just the fastest. Include application-consistent tests for databases and critical services, then document pass or fail against defined SLAs.

These 3-2-1-1-0 backup best practices can turn ad hoc testing into a predictable control you can prove to auditors and executives.

Enforcing air-gapped and immutable backup copies

Immutability must be enforced independently of administrative behavior. Retention locks, access boundaries, and approval workflows should be designed so that bypassing protections requires deliberate, observable action rather than routine credentials.

Start with network controls and vaulting procedures. Use micro-segmentation to isolate backup infrastructure from production networks and restrict management access to dedicated paths. Vaulting workflows that write backups to isolated repositories on a delayed schedule further limit exposure during an attack.

In cloud environments, enforce immutability using object lock configurations and lifecycle policies. Write-once retention should prevent deletion or overwrite until expiration, even by administrators, while automated lifecycle rules manage tiering and retention consistently.

Finally, simulate ransomware-style access attempts. Test whether elevated credentials can modify or delete backups, confirm those actions fail, and verify alerts trigger as expected. Document access exceptions and revocation steps to maintain audit readiness.

Balancing cost performance and compliance in 3-2-1-1-0 backup

Long-term retention introduces cost complexity. Storage fees, retrieval latency, and egress charges can quietly eat up your budget if not modeled upfront.

Hybrid tiering often delivers the best balance:

• Disk for recent, high-velocity restores
• Object storage with immutability for medium-term retention
• Tape or deep archive for long-term compliance data

Lifecycle automation is critical. Manual transitions introduce risk and inconsistency, especially under regulatory pressure. Align retention policies with legal requirements and operational recovery needs, then enforce them programmatically.

Cost optimization should never weaken controls. In the 3-2-1-1-0 model, cost efficiency is achieved by automation and tiering, not by reducing verification or immutability coverage.

Achieving end-to-end resilience

The 3-2-1-1-0 backup strategy reflects a shift in how organizations think about recovery. It’s no longer enough to store copies and hope they work. You need backups that resist tampering, surface corruption early, and demonstrate recoverability continuously.

When immutability and verification are enforced by policy—not habit—you gain more than protection. You gain confidence that recovery is not an assumption, but a tested capability.

Build recovery you can defend

Modern backup strategies demand more than stored copies—they require controls you can verify and explain. NinjaOne brings backup visibility into the same platform you use for monitoring, patching, and service management, helping teams standardize recovery practices and maintain audit readiness. Explore NinjaOne today.

PakarPBN

A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a collection of websites that are controlled by a single individual or organization and used primarily to build backlinks to a “money site” in order to influence its ranking in search engines such as Google. The core idea behind a PBN is based on the importance of backlinks in Google’s ranking algorithm. Since Google views backlinks as signals of authority and trust, some website owners attempt to artificially create these signals through a controlled network of sites.

In a typical PBN setup, the owner acquires expired or aged domains that already have existing authority, backlinks, and history. These domains are rebuilt with new content and hosted separately, often using different IP addresses, hosting providers, themes, and ownership details to make them appear unrelated. Within the content published on these sites, links are strategically placed that point to the main website the owner wants to rank higher. By doing this, the owner attempts to pass link equity (also known as “link juice”) from the PBN sites to the target website.

The purpose of a PBN is to give the impression that the target website is naturally earning links from multiple independent sources. If done effectively, this can temporarily improve keyword rankings, increase organic visibility, and drive more traffic from search results.

Jasa Backlink

Download Anime Batch

“How much does SaaS backup cost?” If you’ve tried to answer that question by visiting vendor pricing pages, you’ve likely hit a wall. Most sites list feature tiers and then ask you to “get pricing” or “contact us” before showing a number.

This isn’t a coincidence. SaaS backup pricing for platforms like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Salesforce depends on variables that differ from one organization to the next: how many users you’re protecting, how much data each one generates, how long you need to retain it, and which applications are in scope. A five-person startup backing up a lightweight CRM and a 2,000-seat enterprise backing up Exchange, SharePoint, and Teams are shopping in the same category, but their costs won’t look anything alike.

This guide breaks down how SaaS backup pricing actually works: the models vendors use to charge, what drives prices up or down, where hidden fees tend to hide, and how to assess whether the investment is worth it for your organization. The goal is to give you enough grounding to walk into a sales conversation as an informed buyer rather than a blank slate, not to sell you on any one vendor’s approach.

One note on scope: this guide covers backup for SaaS applications, such as productivity suites and CRMs, priced by user or data volume. If you’re looking at pricing for device or endpoint backup instead, see our cloud backup pricing guide.

How is SaaS backup priced?

SaaS backup vendors generally build pricing around one of two architectures: charging per user or charging based on how much data you store. Which one a vendor leads with usually reflects the type of SaaS platform they protect.

Per-user pricing

For productivity suites like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, per-user pricing is the default. A few characteristics define how it works:

• You pay a rate per protected mailbox or account.
• That rate usually bundles in a generous (sometimes unlimited) storage allowance.
• The bill tracks headcount, not data volume.
• Higher tiers normally add features and a larger storage allowance, not a different storage-billing method.
• Volume discounts often kick in at higher seat counts.

Why this model dominates: Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace environments tend to scale with people first. More employees mean more mailboxes, more Teams activity, and more files in OneDrive or Drive. Billing per user keeps costs predictable and easy to forecast against headcount.

Even vendors that price certain add-ons by volume (e.g., an archive tier, shared storage) still tend to default to per-user terms for the core M365 and Google Workspace plans, often with no minimum seat count required.

Storage-based pricing

Storage-based pricing charges by data volume, independent of user count. The following points describe the model generally:

• This pricing model shows up less often for productivity-suite backup.
• It’s more common for tools built around data-heavy or record-heavy platforms, like Salesforce.
• A small team can still generate a large volume of records, attachments, and metadata, even without many users.
• Some vendors position it as a better fit for teams whose data volume doesn’t scale with headcount.
• The logic extends beyond Salesforce to any environment where a handful of users generate disproportionate data.

Bottom line: Neither model is inherently cheaper. It depends on your ratio of users to data.

What factors affect SaaS backup pricing?

Five factors show up consistently across vendors in this space.

1. Number of seats or users being backed up

Most vendors set no minimum seat count, so a 5-person team and a 500-person team pay the same per-seat rate, just multiplied differently. The seat count matters more at scale: several vendors apply volume discounts once you cross a threshold, often somewhere in the hundreds of seats.

These breakpoints aren’t always advertised on the pricing page. If you’re near one, it’s worth asking a vendor directly whether you qualify.

2. Which SaaS apps are covered

Pricing usually isn’t one number for your whole SaaS footprint. Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Salesforce are typically priced as separate products, each with its own plan structure. Some vendors go further within a single app family, splitting sub-tiers based on which components you need. A plan covering OneDrive and SharePoint alone, for instance, costs less than one that also includes Exchange mailboxes since each additional workload adds its own backup and storage overhead.

If your organization spans more than one SaaS platform, expect to price each one separately and add up the total rather than assuming one quote covers everything.

3. Retention length

How long backups stick around before they age out is a real cost input, even when it isn’t broken out as its own line item. Standard-tier plans often retain only a rolling window of recent data. Higher tiers frequently unlock longer or more granular retention, like archived mailboxes or recoverable item folders that reach further back in time.

Other vendors compete on this factor directly, advertising unlimited retention as a differentiator instead of gating it by tier. That shifts the tradeoff from “How far back can I go?” to “Am I paying for storage I don’t need?” Either way, it’s worth clarifying the actual retention window up front since a cheaper-looking plan may only cover a shorter recovery period than your compliance needs require.

4. Backup frequency

How often your data gets backed up, whether that’s a nightly job or several snapshots a day, has a direct relationship to cost. More frequent backups mean more storage consumed and more data moved, which pushes costs up on storage-based plans and, on per-user plans, can tie frequency to a specific tier.

This is one of the more overlooked drivers because it’s not always presented as something you control. Some plans back up once daily by default, and getting closer to real-time protection means moving up a tier or paying for an add-on rather than flipping a setting.

5. Threat detection add-ons

Security capabilities like ransomware detection, anomaly monitoring, and access-event alerting are increasingly sold as optional add-ons layered on top of core backup rather than bundled into the base per-user price. Some vendors mark this clearly on their plan comparison pages: core backup and recovery are included at every tier, while anomaly detection, quarantine tools, and accelerated ransomware recovery are separately priced options, even at higher tiers.

If threat detection matters to your organization, budget it as its own line rather than assuming it’s baked into the base backup rate.

What’s not included in the SaaS backup base price?

The advertised per-user or per-GB rate is rarely the whole story. A few categories of cost tend to sit outside the base plan.

Rehydration and retrieval fees

If a vendor’s pricing includes an underlying cloud storage component you’re responsible for rather than storage the vendor fully owns and bundles in, restoring your data can trigger charges separate from the subscription. This shows up most with vendors that let (or require) you bring your own cloud storage: the backup license covers the software, but data transfer and retrieval costs from the underlying cloud provider land on you.

Expedited or emergency retrieval, if you need data back faster than the standard tier allows, can cost meaningfully more than a routine restore. That said, not every vendor works this way; some absorb storage and restore costs into the subscription entirely, which is a genuine point of differentiation worth asking about directly.

Add-on threat detection tiers

Threat detection is frequently sold as a layer on top of core backup rather than included in it, and it takes a couple of forms. Some vendors mark specific security capabilities as separately priced options on their plan comparison pages, available even at higher backup tiers. Others sell an entirely separate, enhanced version of their base product that bundles backup with active threat scanning, positioned as an upgrade from standard backup rather than a feature within it.

Overall, “backup with security built in” is often a distinct purchase from “backup,” not a checkbox on the same plan.

Per-app surcharges beyond core M365 and Google Workspace

Base pricing pages for SaaS backup are typically scoped to Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. Coverage for Salesforce, Dropbox, Box, or other SaaS applications tends to live on separate pricing pages entirely, quoted and sold as distinct products rather than add-ons to your M365 or Workspace plan.

If your organization needs backup across more than one SaaS platform, plan on requesting a separate quote for each one rather than expecting a single line item to cover your whole stack.

Onboarding and migration costs

Initial setup is sometimes included in the subscription and sometimes billed separately, and it isn’t always obvious which applies from the pricing page alone.

Some vendors fold installation and configuration into the license cost to reduce friction. Others treat it as a variable cost that depends on your environment’s complexity: connecting a small, single-domain M365 tenant is generally straightforward, while a larger organization with multiple domains or hybrid infrastructure can turn setup into a more resource-intensive, potentially separately priced project.

A quick gut check before signing entails asking these questions:

• Does “no setup fee” mean zero setup effort or just zero line-item cost?
• Are restores included or billed separately?
• Is threat detection part of this plan or a separate product?

Is SaaS backup worth the cost?

There’s no universal answer here, but there is a way to think about it clearly.

What per-seat pricing buys you

The main thing you’re paying for with a per-user model is predictability. You can multiply your headcount by a rate and get a real number, all without needing to forecast data growth or storage consumption first. For budgeting purposes, that’s a meaningful advantage: finance teams can plan around it, and the bill doesn’t move month to month just because someone uploaded a large file to OneDrive.

This predictability comes from the same design choice that defines the whole model: the price is tied to people, not data.

The real tradeoff

Because the bill is tied to headcount, it grows with headcount regardless of what’s actually happening to your data. A company that doubles its workforce will roughly double its backup cost, even if its data volume barely moves. Conversely, an organization with a small, data-light team gets a proportionally low bill, while one with a small team sitting on a large, growing dataset may find a per-user rate a poor match for what it’s actually protecting.

This is the same tension covered earlier in the pricing-model breakdown, just viewed from the “Is it worth it?” angle instead of the “How is it priced?” angle: per-user pricing rewards you for having fewer people, not for having less data.

Who each model tends to suit

• Per-user pricing tends to suit larger teams, organizations where headcount and budgeting cycles are the natural planning unit, and environments (like standard M365 or Google Workspace deployments) where data volume per person is fairly consistent.
• Storage-based pricing tends to suit smaller teams with disproportionately large or fast-growing datasets and platforms like Salesforce where a handful of admins can be responsible for a large, highly customized organization.

Weighing cost against the alternative

The other half of “worth it” is what you’re comparing the cost to.

For Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Salesforce alike, the platform vendor is generally responsible for keeping the service running, not for giving you a restorable backup of your own data. Microsoft’s own services agreement recommends that customers back up their content independently, and native tools like the Exchange or SharePoint recycle bin only hold deleted items for a matter of days to a few months before they’re gone for good.

Now that doesn’t mean backup is worth it for every organization at any price; it means the honest comparison isn’t “pay for backup” versus “pay nothing.” It’s “pay for backup” versus “rely on a short recovery window built for accidental deletion, not for ransomware, mass deletion, or an offboarded employee’s mistake.” Whether that tradeoff is worth the cost depends on how damaging a permanent loss of that data would actually be to your organization, which is a business risk question as much as a pricing one.

Choosing the right SaaS backup solution

SaaS backup pricing looks confusing mostly because it’s obscured, not because it’s actually complicated. Almost every vendor in this space prices Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace the same basic way: per user, per month, with storage bundled in. Salesforce and other record-heavy platforms are more likely to break from that pattern and price by data volume instead.

Where the real cost swings happen is in the layers of the base structure:

• How long you need to retain data
• Which SaaS apps you need covered and whether each one is quoted separately
• Whether threat detection is bundled in or sold as its own add-on
• Whether restores, onboarding, or migration carry costs beyond the subscription itself

None of that shows up on a landing page with a single number on it. It shows up in the sales conversation, which is why it’s worth walking into that conversation already knowing what to ask. This is the gap NinjaOne SaaS Backup is built to close, not just on price clarity but also on the underlying protection question: Microsoft, Google, and other SaaS providers keep their platforms running, but they don’t guarantee your data is recoverable.

NinjaOne SaaS Backup provides automated, secure backup and fast, granular recovery for Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Microsoft Entra ID, and QuickBooks Online (U.S. only), so accidental deletion, ransomware, or an offboarded employee doesn’t mean permanent loss. It’s also built into the same NinjaOne platform IT teams already use for endpoint management, so SaaS and endpoint data protection run from a single console instead of separate tools and separate vendor relationships.

Explore NinjaOne SaaS Backup to get pricing specific to your environment, get a free demo, or start a free trial to see it working against your own M365 or Google Workspace tenant.

PakarPBN

A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a collection of websites that are controlled by a single individual or organization and used primarily to build backlinks to a “money site” in order to influence its ranking in search engines such as Google. The core idea behind a PBN is based on the importance of backlinks in Google’s ranking algorithm. Since Google views backlinks as signals of authority and trust, some website owners attempt to artificially create these signals through a controlled network of sites.

In a typical PBN setup, the owner acquires expired or aged domains that already have existing authority, backlinks, and history. These domains are rebuilt with new content and hosted separately, often using different IP addresses, hosting providers, themes, and ownership details to make them appear unrelated. Within the content published on these sites, links are strategically placed that point to the main website the owner wants to rank higher. By doing this, the owner attempts to pass link equity (also known as “link juice”) from the PBN sites to the target website.

The purpose of a PBN is to give the impression that the target website is naturally earning links from multiple independent sources. If done effectively, this can temporarily improve keyword rankings, increase organic visibility, and drive more traffic from search results.

Jasa Backlink

Download Anime Batch

View the video of this post here.

The State of the Markets in 10 Charts…

1) More Milestones, More All-Time Highs

The S&P 500 crossed above 7,700 this week for the first time, its 8th 100-point milestone of the year. A year ago it was at 6,300. 5 years ago it was at 4,400. 10 years ago it was at 2,200.

The S&P 500 closed at a record high yesterday for the first time since June 2, hitting its 25th all-time high of the year.

2) An Earnings Bonanza

S&P 500 Q2 earnings are on pace to rise 47% YoY, the highest growth rate since Q2 2021. We’ve never seen earnings growth this high outside of post-recessionary rebounds. This is an unprecedented bonanza fueled by massive EPS gains in big tech, including enormous markups in SpaceX/Anthropic.

3) Corporate America Has Never Been More Profitable

S&P 500 profit margins spiked to 16.7% in Q2, which is by far their highest level in history.

“Profit margins are probably the most mean-reverting series in finance, and if profit margins don’t mean revert, then something has gone badly wrong with capitalism. If high profits don’t attract competition, there’s something wrong with the system.” – Jeremy Grantham

4) The Iron Rule of Financial Markets

The S&P 500 finished the month of July close to where it started while Semiconductor stocks ($SOXX ETF) fell 21% and Memory stocks ($DRAM ETF) fell 32%. This follows the parabolic advance in these stocks which exceeded the run-up in early 2000.

“Reversion to the mean is the iron rule of the financial markets.” – John Bogle

5) The AI Arms Race Continues

Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Meta spent a combined $165 billion on CapEx in Q2.

That’s an 87% increase from a year ago and a staggering 393% increase from three years ago.

The AI infrastructure arms race is still accelerating.

The US economy is becoming increasingly dependent on the AI infrastructure boom.

Nonresidential investment contributed 1.15 percentage points to Q2 Real GDP growth of 1.5% – more than any other category.

6) Borrowing From Our Future

The US National Debt has increased by over $450 billion since July 1st.

The Federal Government continues to borrow from our future to spend money like drunken sailors today.

Everything they said about “balancing the budget” was a lie.

The national debt has now increased $3.6 trillion in 13 months, fast approaching $40 trillion.

7) Six Years Gone

The US Bond Market has now been in a drawdown for six years, by far the longest in history.

At the start of this drawdown in 2020, the 30-year US Treasury Yield was below 1%, an all-time low. It ended last week at 5.27%, its highest level since July 2007.

8) Getting Closer to a Hike

The Fed’s preferred measure of inflation (Core PCE) came in at 3.3% for June. That was the 64th consecutive month above the Fed’s 2% target.

While the Fed chose to hold rates steady at their July FOMC meeting, there were three dissenting votes calling for a rate hike. The September meeting will be a live one with the current odds of a hike exceeding the odds of a hold.

9) The Value Stock Comeback

Value stocks have outperformed Growth stocks by over 20% in the first 7 months of this year, on pace for their biggest outperformance on record.

10) Falling Jobless Claims, Continued Expansion

US Jobless Claims have moved down to their lowest levels since January 2024, indicating fewer people filing for unemployment insurance.

The US economic expansion is now 74 months old, with most economists expecting it continue for at least another quarter. The average expansion since 1949 was 67 months.

And that’s it for this week. Thanks for reading!

Every week I do a video breaking down the most important charts and themes in markets and investing. Subscribe to our YouTube channel HERE for the latest content.

Disclaimer: All information provided is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment, legal or tax advice, or an offer to buy or sell any security. Read our full disclosures here.

PakarPBN

A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a collection of websites that are controlled by a single individual or organization and used primarily to build backlinks to a “money site” in order to influence its ranking in search engines such as Google. The core idea behind a PBN is based on the importance of backlinks in Google’s ranking algorithm. Since Google views backlinks as signals of authority and trust, some website owners attempt to artificially create these signals through a controlled network of sites.

In a typical PBN setup, the owner acquires expired or aged domains that already have existing authority, backlinks, and history. These domains are rebuilt with new content and hosted separately, often using different IP addresses, hosting providers, themes, and ownership details to make them appear unrelated. Within the content published on these sites, links are strategically placed that point to the main website the owner wants to rank higher. By doing this, the owner attempts to pass link equity (also known as “link juice”) from the PBN sites to the target website.

The purpose of a PBN is to give the impression that the target website is naturally earning links from multiple independent sources. If done effectively, this can temporarily improve keyword rankings, increase organic visibility, and drive more traffic from search results.

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Data recovery comes in many facets. Things like how long data restoration takes may vary depending on the type of restoration you need to execute. While this information may seem trivial, it plays a vital role in setting clients’ expectations regarding data recovery.

This distinction mentioned above, often framed as image backup vs file backup, is critical for IT professionals and managed service providers (MSPs) to communicate clearly to clients. Otherwise, clients may think that these two are equally straightforward and quick.

Here are other reasons why file-level and full-system recovery expectations with clients are critical:

• It helps clients understand the trade-offs between speed, cost, and complexity.
• A clear explanation can prevent surprises during a real recovery event.
• Giving the clients clear expectations establishes realistic RTO (Recovery Time Objective) and RPO (Recovery Point Objective) values in client agreements.
• It supports compliance and audit requirements.
• Without setting clear expectations, clients may have incorrect assumptions about data recovery, leading to dissatisfaction, mistrust, or budget disputes.

In this article, we will provide you with a structured approach to communicating realistic data recovery information to your clients. By distinguishing, documenting, and communicating file-level versus full-system recovery expectations, this blog should help improve service transparency, the accuracy of Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and the alignment of recovery outcomes with real-world limitations.

At a glance

Prerequisites

Before performing the following tasks for this framework, you, as an MSP, should have the following essentials:

• Established RTO/RPO values: You should clearly define RTO (Recovery Time Objective) and RPO (Recovery Point Objective) values for each client backup and recovery type.
• Workflow documentation: Maintaining documented recovery workflows for both file-level and full-system scenarios is also critical for tracking activities and progress.
• IT tools: A reporting or documentation platform (such as IT Glue, SharePoint, or NinjaOne Docs) should also be deployed to house expectations and results.
• Preparedness: MSPs should be equipped and skilled to run demonstration restores periodically to validate recovery capabilities.

Having these elements ready ensures that conversations with clients are backed by data and evidence rather than assumptions.

Define recovery types in plain language

📌 Use Case:

This can help clients understand recovery types if you explain it using everyday language.

Not all clients may comprehend IT jargon and other deeply technical explanations of recovery types. Here are some straightforward explanations of file-level recovery and full-system recovery:

Example for clients:
“File-level recovery is like restoring one lost email. Full-system recovery is like rebuilding your entire inbox, applications, and settings after a laptop crash.”

Document RTO/RPO expectations by recovery type

📌 Use Case:

Clear expectations should be built into SLAs and client documentation. This helps prevent unexpected client assumptions during recovery events.

Create a simple RTO/RPO expectation matrix like the one below:

You can include this matrix in your clients’ onboarding packets and SLA documents to ensure no surprises during recovery if clients’ assumptions are unmet.

Explain cost and effort tradeoffs

📌 Use Case:

Clarifying data recovery’s cost and effort tradeoffs can help clients make informed decisions.

Premium services involved in data recovery may carry higher costs. To enlighten your clients and help them align the service with their business needs, here are some explanations you can relay to them when discussing data recovery costs and effort tradeoffs:

• File-level recovery: Requires minimal technician time and infrastructure. It’s straightforward and often included in baseline service tiers.
• Full-system recovery: May require staging servers, bootable recovery media, significant bandwidth, and system reconfiguration. These additional steps justify higher service costs or premium disaster recovery tiers.

Provide recovery workflow examples

📌 Use Case:

Workflows help clients visualize what’s happening behind the scenes during a recovery. This can also give clients a clear idea about the complexities of a simple file restore vs. a full-system rebuild.

The following are the workflows involved in each recovery type that you must explain to your clients about:

File-level restore

• Locate backup copy:Identification of and access to the location with the files or folder needed to be backed up.
• Restore specific file/folder: The extraction of the requested files or folders instead of the entire system.
• Validate integrity and deliver to user: This confirms whether the restored item is usable and uncorrupted. It is also when the files or folders are returned to the end user for immediate use.

Full-system restore

• Boot from recovery media:The start of the recovery process, in which a dedicated boot disk, USB, or recovery partition is used.
• Select system image: This is where IT technicians will choose the complete backup image of the system. This typically contains the operating system, applications, configurations, and data.
• Rebuild OS, apps, and data: The restoration of the system to its prior state. It is done by reimaging the OS and reloading applications and files.
• Validate and return to production: The verification of functionality of the restored system. This is where IT technicians will check if the system works correctly so it can be handed back for operational use.

Integrate recovery types into SLAs and onboarding

📌 Use Case:

A formal contract with a dedicated section to SLAs ensures both parties know the recovery times, costs, and processes associated with each type of recovery.

The processes, workflows, and expectations discussed with the clients should be documented and formalized as a contract. This eliminates ambiguity and formally sets clients’ expectations. Here’s how:

1. Add a section in SLAs explaining file vs. full recovery expectations (See Define recovery types in plain language section.)
2. During client onboarding, review recent restore drill results (e.g., “File restore in 10 minutes, full-system test took 3.5 hours”).
3. Make this part of future QBR discussions to reinforce transparency.

Demonstrate through recovery drills

📌 Use Case:

This task can solidify client expectations by showing them a controlled drill to witness what’s happening throughout the recovery process.

The workflow on paper may be enough, but showing your clients a demonstration through recovery drills can give them a clearer picture of what to expect during the operation.

• File-level drill: Conduct quick restores of deleted files during QBRs to demonstrate reliability.
• Full-system drill: Schedule annual or semi-annual mock system restores to highlight timing, potential challenges, and the effort required.

NinjaOne integration

NinjaOne and its tools can help align clients’ expectations with their assumptions about data recovery workflows.

Setting clients’ expectations for file-level vs full-system recovery

Setting realistic expectations about data recovery enlightens your clients on the correct workflow while debunking incorrect assumptions. You can start by differentiating file-level from full-system recovery in the simplest way possible.

Other steps include:

• Document RTO/RPO differences clearly in SLAs
• Be transparent about costs and resource needs
• Provide workflow overviews for clarity
• Validate readiness with regular drills
• Use NinjaOne to automate tracking, testing, and reporting

Following these best practices can help MSPs to set realistic service benchmarks for clients and gain their trust.

Related topics:

PakarPBN

A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a collection of websites that are controlled by a single individual or organization and used primarily to build backlinks to a “money site” in order to influence its ranking in search engines such as Google. The core idea behind a PBN is based on the importance of backlinks in Google’s ranking algorithm. Since Google views backlinks as signals of authority and trust, some website owners attempt to artificially create these signals through a controlled network of sites.

In a typical PBN setup, the owner acquires expired or aged domains that already have existing authority, backlinks, and history. These domains are rebuilt with new content and hosted separately, often using different IP addresses, hosting providers, themes, and ownership details to make them appear unrelated. Within the content published on these sites, links are strategically placed that point to the main website the owner wants to rank higher. By doing this, the owner attempts to pass link equity (also known as “link juice”) from the PBN sites to the target website.

The purpose of a PBN is to give the impression that the target website is naturally earning links from multiple independent sources. If done effectively, this can temporarily improve keyword rankings, increase organic visibility, and drive more traffic from search results.

Jasa Backlink

Download Anime Batch