The Hidden Costs of Poor Visibility
The research exposes how organisations’ attempts to address security challenges may actually be exacerbating the problem. Multiple endpoint security tools are creating significant operational challenges for SMEs:
* 53% report increased administrative overhead
* 41% cite higher costs
* 37% experience critical data visibility gaps
* 35% face lack of interoperability between systems
Remarkably, only 7% of organisations claimed to face no problems from their multi-tool approach, suggesting that the vast majority of Small & Medium Enterprises are struggling with fragmented Cybersecurity infrastructure.
Rising Threat Landscape
The timing of this research is particularly significant given the escalating threat environment. Ransomware attacks doubled from less than 0.5 percent of businesses in 2024 to 1 percent in 2025—translating to an estimated 19,000 organizations affected.
Gartner projects that worldwide end-user spending on information security will total USD 212 billion in 2025, reflecting a 15.1% increase from 2024, indicating that organisations are recognising the need for enhanced Cybersecurity investment.
Expert Analysis
Sally King, Channel Sales Manager UK&I at Scalefusion, commented: “These findings confirm what we’ve been hearing from businesses across the UK and Ireland—there’s a critical gap between the security challenges organisations face and their ability to address them effectively. What businesses need is visibility and simplification—a unified approach that brings all endpoints under one management umbrella rather than juggling multiple disconnected systems.”
The research suggests that SMEs face a perfect storm of challenges: limited resources, increasing attack frequency, complex tool ecosystems, and inadequate visibility into their own infrastructure.
Potential Solutions and Positive Trends
Despite the concerning findings, the research identified some encouraging developments:
* Unified Endpoint Management platforms are already the most common method for employee onboarding (43%)
* 68% of IT leaders are attracted by zero-touch deployment solutions
* Growing recognition of the need for simplified, unified security approaches
The study suggests that organisations recognising these challenges and moving toward unified solutions are better positioned to address the evolving threat landscape while reducing operational complexity.
Implications for SME Decision-Makers
For Small & Medium Enterprises, this research underscores several critical action points:
Immediate Assessment Required: SMEs must urgently assess their device visibility and management capabilities, particularly given the high frequency of attacks among affected organisations.
Unified Approach Essential: The data strongly suggests that SMEs should prioritise unified endpoint management solutions over multiple disparate tools to reduce complexity and improve visibility.
Resource Allocation: With Small and Medium-sized Enterprises facing unprecedented data protection challenges as 2025 unfolds, organisations must ensure adequate resources are allocated to Cybersecurity management and incident response.
Regular Monitoring: Given that nearly a quarter of organisations detect unauthorised devices monthly, SMEs must implement continuous monitoring and regular security assessments.
Conclusion
This research represents a watershed moment for UK Small & Medium Enterprises, revealing that the majority of organisations lack fundamental visibility into their own IT infrastructure whilst facing increasingly sophisticated and frequent cyber attacks.
The findings suggest that SMEs who fail to address these visibility gaps urgently risk becoming part of the 48% experiencing regular breaches from unmanaged devices. With attack frequency increasing and the threat landscape evolving rapidly, the window for action is narrowing.
The path forward requires SMEs to move beyond fragmented security approaches toward unified, comprehensive endpoint management solutions that provide the visibility and control necessary to protect against modern cyber threats.
This analysis is based on Scalefusion’s “Bridging the Visibility Gap” research published July 2024, supplemented by the latest government Cybersecurity breach surveys and industry analysis.
