The Cyber CEO

Your team could be losing a day a week to workarounds nobody has noticed.

Take the free Operational Debt assessment at thecyberceo.com.

Most businesses don't look broken. Orders go out and the numbers look fine. Underneath, staff are typing the same details into three different systems and critical know-how sits in one person's head. That is operational debt, and it costs your business time, money and growth.

Paul Green of MSP Marketing asks Haree Patel what operational debt is and why most business owners only spot it when a key person leaves or a buyer starts asking questions.

Who this episode is for

Owners and managing directors of growing businesses, especially if you're taking on another business or thinking about selling in the next few years.

In this episode

• Why operational debt rarely looks like a problem
• Where it hides in everyday work, including in one person's head
• How to measure something nobody has written down
• The simple exercise that shows where your team's hours really go
• When it makes sense to keep a manual process on purpose
• Why old systems cost you when it's time to sell

From the episode

"Inefficiency is a symptom of the problem. It's not a measure of the problem." (Haree Patel)

"There's going to be answers where you say, I don't know. And that is exactly where operational debt lies." (Haree Patel)

"I have a member of my team who... has to go and record that information in four or five different places, which is crazy." (Paul Green)

About the speakers

Paul Green runs MSP Marketing and hosts his own podcast. Haree Patel hosts The Cyber CEO and founded iceConnect, a UK IT and cyber security provider with close to 30 staff across offices in London, Essex and South Africa. He has spent more than 20 years helping businesses run their IT and stay secure.

If this episode was useful, follow the show, leave a five-star review and share it with a business owner who needs to hear it.

Is an Apple Mac really worth it for your business?

Need help choosing the right computers for your team? Get free, no-obligation advice at thecyberceo.com.

Windows runs most business computers, often simply because it always has. With more business software moving to the cloud, the choice between Mac and Windows is more open than it used to be.

Haree Patel talks to Mus Melemendi, senior engineer and team lead at iceConnect, who uses a Mac at home and supports Windows at work. Haree has used Windows since MS-DOS, so they don't always agree.

Who this episode is for

Anyone choosing new laptops for their team, and IT managers deciding whether to let staff work on Macs.

In this episode

• What really stops businesses switching from Windows to Mac
• Which industries suit Macs, and which still need Windows
• Why Mus wouldn't run Windows software on a Mac in a business
• Which is easier for your IT provider to manage and secure
• Whether Microsoft Copilot gives Windows the edge on AI
• Whether a Mac is still a status symbol

From the episode

"The ecosystem is the selling point." (Mus Melemendi)

"If you want a do-it-all, then Windows is the way to go." (Mus Melemendi)

"You've pretty much sold Mac OS to everybody out here, by the way." (Haree Patel)

About the speakers

Mus Melemendi is a senior engineer and team lead at iceConnect. He supports business users on Windows every day and has used a Mac at home for four years. Haree Patel hosts The Cyber CEO and founded iceConnect, a UK IT and cyber security provider. He has spent more than 20 years helping businesses run their IT and stay secure.

If this episode was useful, follow the show, leave a five-star review and share it with a business owner who needs to hear it.

Still relying on passwords to protect your business?

Want help tightening up logins and security across your team? Get free, no-obligation advice at thecyberceo.com.

Your email, files and systems are probably still protected by passwords. With AI making phishing emails and deepfakes harder to spot, is a password and a code on your phone still enough?

Haree Patel talks to Adrian Clements, regional director at iceConnect, about what's actually safer for businesses today: strong passwords with multi-factor authentication (MFA), or going passwordless with biometrics, passkeys and FIDO2 security keys.

Who this episode is for

Owners and managers who look after security, particularly if your team still shares logins or hasn't switched on multi-factor authentication.

In this episode

• How long it really takes to crack a short password
• Which type of MFA to trust, and which to move away from
• What to do when a login prompt appears that you didn't trigger
• Why Adrian trusts one type of biometric but not the other
• Whether passkeys are as safe as the big tech firms say
• The simple steps every business should take this week

From the episode

"Users are the weakest link in any form of security." (Haree Patel)

"If somebody has compromised your fingerprint, what are you supposed to do?" (Adrian Clements)

"And then they say, but we replicate it to all your devices. And that's where it all falls apart from my perspective." (Adrian Clements)

About the speakers

Adrian Clements is a regional director at iceConnect and works with businesses every day on how they protect their systems and data. Haree Patel hosts The Cyber CEO and founded iceConnect, a UK IT and cyber security provider. He has spent more than 20 years helping businesses run their IT and stay secure.

If this episode was useful, follow the show, leave a five-star review and share it with a business owner who needs to hear it.

Still running your business on old servers?

Thinking about moving to the cloud? Get free, no-obligation advice at thecyberceo.com.

Cloud computing gets talked about a lot, but for most business owners the real question is whether it's worth the monthly bill. If rising IT costs or a hybrid team have you thinking about it, this episode gives you a straight answer without the jargon.

Haree Patel and Amish Sanghrajka, COO at iceConnect, compare running your own servers with moving to Microsoft 365, SharePoint, AWS or Microsoft Azure. They also share the mistakes they see businesses make after they've moved.

Who this episode is for

Business owners and finance or operations managers who still run their own servers or are facing a hardware refresh, and want to know whether the cloud really pays off.

In this episode

• What servers in your office really cost once you count everything
• Whether the cloud is actually more secure than your own server room
• How SharePoint can get your files back after a ransomware attack
• Why no business is too small for the cloud
• Which mistakes keep costing businesses money after they've moved
• What to move first, and who should do it

From the episode

"The cloud is just someone's computer somewhere on the internet." (Amish Sanghrajka)

"The argument that my business is too small for cloud... for me, it doesn't really fly." (Amish Sanghrajka)

"I think saying it was cheap and for free is again fool's gold." (Haree Patel)

About the speakers

Amish Sanghrajka is COO at iceConnect and helps businesses move from their own servers to the cloud. Haree Patel hosts The Cyber CEO and founded iceConnect, a UK IT and cyber security provider. He has spent more than 20 years helping businesses run their IT and stay secure.

If this episode was useful, follow the show, leave a five-star review and share it with a business owner who needs to hear it.

Is your remote team really working at full capacity?

Want help with your own remote setup? Get free, no-obligation advice at thecyberceo.com.

Managing a remote team is one of the biggest worries for UK business owners. You want to trust your staff, but how do you know they're not watching TV whilst you're paying them?

In the first episode of The Cyber CEO podcast, Haree Patel talks to Amish Sanghrajka, COO at iceConnect, about building a remote and hybrid team with staff in the UK and South Africa. They talk through how to measure performance and keep company data safe, and they don't agree on everything.

Who this episode is for

Anyone running a remote or hybrid team, especially if you're hiring outside the UK or worried about productivity when staff work from home.

In this episode

• Why time zones mattered more than salaries when hiring abroad
• How to measure remote staff without micromanaging them
• When, if ever, screen-monitoring software is the right call
• What a lost or stolen laptop should never put at risk
• How to stop remote staff feeling isolated
• Why Haree thinks fully remote jobs on a UK salary are under threat

From the episode

"We still have the banter that we had in the office. We just do it on Slack." (Amish Sanghrajka)

"If they're only working four of those hours of the eight, they're getting paid to work. That means we're not giving them enough." (Haree Patel)

"Dare I say it, some people we've had turn up, don't even know how to behave in an office." (Haree Patel)

About the speakers

Amish Sanghrajka is COO at iceConnect, where he manages a team split between the UK and South Africa. Haree Patel hosts The Cyber CEO and founded iceConnect, a UK IT and cyber security provider. He has spent more than 20 years helping businesses run their IT and stay secure.

If this episode was useful, follow the show, leave a five-star review and share it with a business owner who needs to hear it.

Welcome to The Cyber CEO. I’m Haree Patel, founder of iceConnect, and I’ll be your host.

I’ll be sharing real stories and lessons from business owners who’ve been through it all. Expect honest, straight-talking conversations with people who know what it takes to run and grow a business while the tech keeps changing around them.

Some conversations will be serious, others more relaxed. Either way, you’ll come away with practical advice you can use in your own business, and a different way of thinking about technology.

So grab a coffee and hit play.