IT can be a Thankless Profession

I’m breaking the cadence this week and will get back to Crypto inventory next. A few of you have asked who I am and where this comes from. Fair. You have been trusting me with your Monday mornings for a little while now. Here is the short version.

Where It Started

Years ago I worked with MSPs on marketing and business development. The standard door opener at the time was the free network assessment. Everyone was running the same play, so I started pushing something different: cybersecurity audits and posture.

The pushback was immediate and consistent across the board.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, we don’t do cybersecurity. That is on the customer. We have it written right in our SLA.”

I heard that line verbatim from dozens of owners at the time. Back then, one BDR vendor even told me flat out they were not a cybersecurity company. Last time I checked BDR was an integral piece in any security stack. In fact back in 2017 it was, in some cases, the only tool for many MSPs…Folks didn’t even want to be bothered with 2FA, let alone Zero-Trust architecture or Threat Hunting. Crazy to think about how far the channel has come in less than 10 short years.

What has not changed is the gap between the trunk slammer and the trusted advisor. The first call the C-suite makes, not the last. Cybersecurity helped close that gap. The challenge is ongoing.

On AI – Briefly

I know it is the only topic on the menu right now. Here is my position: AI is a genuine 10x productivity multiplier when used correctly. It makes capable people dramatically more effective.

It is not a talent gap solution. If you are using it to fill seats that need real expertise, that approach fails quietly at first and loudly later.

But AI is not the shift. AI is the setup.

What Is Actually Coming

The real inflection point is Quantum.

When you layer AI on top of quantum scale computing capability, you get something without a clean historical comparison. I reach past the internet and electricity for the analogy. This will be the largest paradigm shift since the discovery of fire or invention of the wheel.

When Q-Day comes into clear view, Y2K will be laughable in comparison. And Q-Day is speeding up all the time thanks to AI. Y2K had the entire world in crisis over a two digit date field. I was just starting my career at the time running a direct mail plant (Yes filling peoples home mail boxes…sorry about that). We started our Y2K readiness and compliance auditing in 1998, 2 years ahead for a date field.

What is coming is not a date field.

Why I Am Here

I used to open our channel events by thanking attendees for coming. I was always clear: I was not thanking them for me. I was thanking them on behalf of their customers because when they showed up to get smarter, they were there for the businesses trusting them, not for themselves.

IT can be a thankless profession. When everything runs clean, nobody notices. When something breaks, the pitchforks come out.

Quantum Guy exists to be your champion. To help you nurture or establish your position as the trusted advisor. When you stay in that role consistently, when you show up with a plan before the crisis, something shifts. The rainy days still come. They always do. But your clients align with you instead of against you and the pitchforks stay in the basement where they belong.

Thank you for all that you do!

Stay sharp.

The Quantum Guy