With a spotlight on cybersecurity, more organisations are turning to managed security services to gain security expertise and lessen the workload of their in-house security staff.
What is a Managed Security Service?
Third-party providers, such as Edge7 Networks, offer managed security services for the oversight and administration of a company’s security processes. Managed security service providers (MSSPs) offer a wide range of security services, from setting up infrastructure through security management or incident response.
Organisations choose to work with MSSPs for a variety of reasons; often this decision is driven by a lack of in-house resources or expertise for certain areas of security or the need for security monitoring and management outside of normal operating hours. In other cases, organisations will hire managed security service providers to conduct security audits or respond to and investigate incidents.
What are the benefits of a Managed Security Service?
The primary benefit of managed security services is the security expertise and additional staffing they provide. The ability for MSSPs to manage security processes from an off-site location allows enterprises to conduct business as usual with minimal intrusion due to security initiatives, while the MSSP interface maintains a constant line of communication and seamless reporting to the business. MSSPs ensure that enterprise IT is always up-to-date with the status of security issues, audits, and maintenance, enabling the hiring organisation to focus on security governance rather than administrative tasks.
There are a wide range of security services being offered by MSSPs today, from full outsourcing of security programs to specialised services that focus on a specific component of the enterprise’s security (such as threat monitoring, data protection, management of network security tools, regulatory compliance, or incident response and forensics). By outsourcing security, enterprises are often able to realise cost savings by eliminating the need to maintain a fully staffed, full-time, on-site IT security department. Many organisations also turn to MSSPs for faster deployment times and improved time-to-value on security investments.
Reasons to use Managed Security Services
Despite an increasing awareness of the need for proactive security measures, many enterprises continue to put off implementing sound security initiatives until they’ve suffered a loss as a result of a data breach. The number of cyber threats is growing, and it is crucial that enterprises prioritise IT security as a result. Whether an organisation is lacking in security program maturity or simply wants to expand their security capabilities, managed security service providers are a valuable option because:
Managed security services offer continuous oversight, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. Choosing to handle enterprise security in-house, without the help of an outsourced vendor, requires a large investment in manpower and technology.
Cyber attacks evolve at an incredibly fast pace, leading to one new threat after another. Without the proper security tools and resources, keeping up with evolving threats, addressing threats as they arise, and recovering from incidents detected too late can consume substantial resources.
Most MSSPs have operations across the globe, and their focus on monitoring the threat landscape means they often have a distinct advantage over enterprises with a core business function unrelated to security and technology. In other words, MSSPs specialise in early threat detection and protection, so enlisting the services of an MSSP allows the enterprise to focus on core business activities while leaving security concerns to the experts.
Some of the other major advantages to enlisting the assistance of an MSSP is that we can conduct vulnerability and penetration testing, perform security scans routinely, and take care of other security management functions for the enterprise, freeing up enterprise IT to shift their focus to security program oversight and other activities that advance enterprise goals.
Getting Started
Edge7 Networks are a qualified Managed Service Security Provider with a fully operational Security Operations Centre (SOC) from which our security teams works out of. Working with organisations across the world, our SOC protects & prevents with continuous 24x7x365 proactive monitoring and threat detection tools to ensure your organisation is protected. Our SOC works from preventative monitoring right through to incident detection, remediation and post-incident reports to ensure full transparency and collaboration between your IT department and the Edge7 Networks SOC.
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