MTMG's IT Roundtable

Hospitals, schools, libraries, and government agencies can't stop running, yet most of them protect themselves with small teams and tight budgets. Cindy Lepore, Manager of Member Relations at OSHEAN, explains how a nonprofit consortium serving 160+ anchor institutions across Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts gives lean organizations enterprise-level network, cloud, and security capabilities. She shares what an all-hands-on-deck response looks like when a member hits trouble, why network visibility can turn weeks of troubleshooting into minutes, and the one shift she wants every member to make: treat security as an organization-wide culture, not a box the IT team checks for insurance or compliance. Plus a preview of OMC26, OSHEAN's annual member conference, covering quantum, AI, cybersecurity, compliance, and governance.Key Events00:00 Welcome & Guest Intro01:00 From T-Mobile to OSHEAN02:00 Serving Members, Not Customers03:00 Security on Lean Budgets05:00 Building Unbreakable Relationships07:00 Security Beyond the IT Department10:00 Previewing OMC2612:00 How to Connect with OSHEAN• Tip worth stealing: Security can't stop at the IT department. Make it part of the culture at every level and in every department, not just something you deal with when an insurance assessment or compliance requirement lands on your desk. No silos.• Worth a look: OMC26, OSHEAN's annual member conference. https://oshean.org/events/omc26/Connect with Us:• Check out our website: https://www.mtmg.eu• Learn more about the amazing software we use to create these podcasts (Descript): https://get.descript.com/mtu0tl2zr3g7• Want the same microphones we use? Get a discount (use coupon code "MTMG" for 10% off): https://www.maono.com/?ref=ulcbmcjk• Suggestions or want to appear on a future episode? Email: [email protected]• Need expert help to maximize your IT investments? Reach out: [email protected]• Don't forget to subscribe to the Podcast and follow us on LinkedIn! https://www.linkedin.com/company/mtmg-eu

Mark Montalto spent 14 years selling for Cisco before moving to OSHEAN, Rhode Island's nonprofit network consortium, where schools, hospitals, libraries, and towns get carrier-class network, cloud, and security services they could never buy on their own. He explains how a 25-person nonprofit competes with deep-pocketed commercial carriers: a network that isn't oversubscribed, the same rates for every member, firewalls and web filtering built in for K-12, and a NOC that knows each member's network. Mark also walks through what the federal BEAD broadband program got right, why its 25% match and insurance requirements shut out small bidders, and how a shared Wi-Fi model is saving low-income and senior residents hundreds of dollars a month. He closes with why the consortium model matters more, not less, as AI, cloud, and cyber threats widen the gap between the haves and have-nots.Key Events00:00 Welcome & Guest Intro01:00 Lessons From 14 Years at Cisco04:00 From OEM Sales to Nonprofit Mission07:00 Competing With Commercial Carriers12:00 Proving Value to a Skeptical CIO13:00 Building a Cybersecurity Office14:00 BEAD Money and Digital Equity16:00 Wi-Fi for Low-Income and Senior Housing18:00 A Secure Statewide Municipal Network21:00 Consortiums in the Age of AI26:00 OMC26: Complexity Is a Team Sport• Tip worth stealing: Shared infrastructure can close the digital divide at the building level. Using a Wi-Fi template built on OSHEAN's fiber, Newport Housing now supports more than 1,000 low-income and senior dwellings, with 700 to 1,000+ devices online at any moment and residents saving $200 to $400 a month.• Worth a look: OMC26, the OSHEAN Member Conference, November 12-13 at Bally's and Rhode Island College. https://oshean.org/events/omc26/Connect with Us:• Check out our website: https://www.mtmg.eu• Learn more about the amazing software we use to create these podcasts (Descript): https://get.descript.com/mtu0tl2zr3g7• Want the same microphones we use? Get a discount (use coupon code "MTMG" for 10% off): https://www.maono.com/?ref=ulcbmcjk• Suggestions or want to appear on a future episode? Email: [email protected]• Need expert help to maximize your IT investments? Reach out: [email protected]• Don't forget to subscribe to the Podcast and follow us on LinkedIn! https://www.linkedin.com/company/mtmg-eu

Dave Phillips, Chief Information Security Officer at OSHEAN, the nonprofit consortium serving more than 160 hospitals, schools, libraries, and government agencies across Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts, joins Paul Knittle to explain how to build a cybersecurity program when you can't do everything at once. He covers why frameworks like NIST CSF 2.0 should be run as a program rather than a checkbox, how an honest self-assessment surfaces the gaps that matter, and why reporting progress against a framework tells a board more than a list of security tools. Dave also shares how he approached the job as OSHEAN's first CISO by treating the organization like one of his own customers and ranking every finding by probability and business impact, and why he sees AI helping attackers find weaknesses faster than defenders can fix them. The conversation closes with a preview of OMC26, OSHEAN's member conference on November 12 and 13, 2026.Key Events00:00 Welcome & Guest Intro01:00 Lessons from Armored Fiber03:00 Frameworks Are Not Checkboxes07:00 Start Small, Be Honest About Gaps09:00 Security Is a Leadership Issue11:00 Chipping Away at the Stone13:00 Deciding What to Defend First16:00 AI on Attack and Defense18:00 When Generative AI Is Just Noise22:00 What to Expect at OMC26• Tip worth stealing: Run an honest self-assessment against a framework, rank each gap by how likely it is to be exploited and how hard it would hit the business, then fix the highest-risk items first. Dave calls it chipping away at the stone, and says three to five years of it gets you to a mature security program.• Worth a look: OMC26, the OSHEAN Member Conference, November 12 and 13, 2026 — Dave previews the security track on frameworks, GRC, and asset management. https://oshean.org/events/omc26/Connect with Us:• Check out our website: https://www.mtmg.eu• Learn more about the amazing software we use to create these podcasts (Descript): https://get.descript.com/mtu0tl2zr3g7• Want the same microphones we use? Get a discount (use coupon code "MTMG" for 10% off): https://www.maono.com/?ref=ulcbmcjk• Suggestions or want to appear on a future episode? Email: [email protected]• Need expert help to maximize your IT investments? Reach out: [email protected]• Don't forget to subscribe to the Podcast and follow us on LinkedIn! https://www.linkedin.com/company/mtmg-eu

Most MSPs are running ten disconnected tools to secure small businesses — and attackers who don't work in silos are exploiting the gaps. In this episode, Guardz co-founder and CEO Dor Eisner explains why identity is now the primary attack vector, how agentic detection and response automates tier-one triage without the noise, and why he believes the SIEM and its bottomless data lake are on the way out. MTMG's Paul Knittle and CISO Reed Savory dig into what "agentic" actually means in 2026, how consolidating a fragmented stack protects an MSP's margins, and the practical playbook for growing security revenue without burning out your team.📌 Key Events🎯 00:00 Welcome & Guest Intro🧩 01:00 Why fragmented stacks fail small MSPs🛡️ 04:00 Identity as the main attack vector💸 07:00 Consolidating the stack and the margin impact🤖 08:00 What agentic really means in 2026🗄️ 11:00 Why the SIEM and the data lake are dying📈 14:00 Show, prove, and maintain the value💡 Tip worth stealing: To build security revenue without burning out your team, show the value, prove the value, and maintain the value — surface a client's risk before the first meeting, then report week over week and month over month on what you actually caught and remediated.To book a demo with Guardz:Book a Demo page🔗 Connect with Us:✅ Check out our website: https://www.mtmg.eu✅ Learn more about the amazing software we use to create these podcasts (Descript): https://get.descript.com/mtu0tl2zr3g7✅ Want the same microphones we use? Get a discount (use coupon code "MTMG" for 10% off): https://www.maono.com/?ref=ulcbmcjk📧 Suggestions or want to appear on a future episode? Email: [email protected]💡 Need expert help to maximize your IT investments? Reach out: [email protected]🔔 Don't forget to subscribe to the Podcast and follow us on LinkedIn! https://www.linkedin.com/company/mtmg-eu

Most mid-market companies think they have a handle on their software stack. Then they run a discovery and find three to five times more apps than they knew about. In this episode, Frank Antonucci, Director of Partnerships at Torii, joins Paul Knittle and Joe McGuire to break down why SaaS sprawl and shadow IT have exploded in the AI era, and what CFOs and CIOs can do about it. You'll hear why visibility is the foundation for everything (you can't optimize a license you don't know exists), how the problem has shifted from wasted spend to serious security and data-governance risk, and how MTMG's strategic guidance pairs with Torii's platform to turn raw data into action. There's also a candid MSP conversation: how Torii built a partner program that keeps the MSP in the driver's seat and avoids the account conflict every sales leader fears.📌 Key Events🎯 00:00 Welcome & Guest Intro🔦 02:00 Why visibility comes first📈 04:00 Discovery finds 3-5x more apps🔐 07:00 From wasted spend to security risk🧮 12:00 The Torii ROI report for MSPs🤝 18:00 Keeping the MSP in the driver's seat🧰 22:00 No services conflict with partners💡 Tip worth stealing: Before you optimize anything, run a real discovery. On average it surfaces 3-5x more SaaS apps than a company thinks it has — and you can't govern access, cut duplicate tools, or renegotiate a renewal you never knew existed.📝 Worth a look: Torii — SaaS management platform for discovery, spend optimization, and access governance. https://www.toriihq.com🔗 Connect with Us:✅ Check out our website: https://www.mtmg.eu✅ Learn more about the amazing software we use to create these podcasts (Descript): https://get.descript.com/mtu0tl2zr3g7✅ Want the same microphones we use? Get a discount (use coupon code "MTMG" for 10% off): https://www.maono.com/?ref=ulcbmcjk📧 Suggestions or want to appear on a future episode? Email: [email protected]💡 Need expert help to maximize your IT investments? Reach out: [email protected]🔔 Don't forget to subscribe to the Podcast and follow us on LinkedIn! https://www.linkedin.com/company/mtmg-eu