When and how to pick a Managed Security Services (MSS) Provider

The world of enterprise technology has witnessed massive changes in the last decade. We saw the emergence of virtualization, cloud computing, big data, blockchain, and IoT, among other things. No singular decade would have witnessed so many things happening simultaneously in modern history (at least in the realms of the enterprise world).

However, so much disruption can also lead to challenges. Security is one area that finds a mention regardless of which technology one is speaking about. Security is the horizontal without which any technology discussion is incomplete.

Thanks to all the new and emerging technologies, there have been significant advancements in the enterprise space. Still, security concerns have also kept up with the frantic pace of tech development. Thanks to digital transformation and the internet, most organizations have a very high dependency on being connected with the outside world, which is excellent for business and exposes them to several security vulnerabilities. Cybersecurity attacks can undo a lot of great work that a company has done over the years.

To manage and counter such attacks, many solutions and products are available in the market. In fact, there are so many of them that the industry is facing an issue called the "problem of plenty".

In a typical enterprise, there are usually two significant challenges. First, being on top of the pile of all the available solutions in the market, understanding what their issues are and correspondingly choosing the right solutions. And the second is to nurture and retain IT talent, which will do it for a CIO or a CISO. They are a handful, leading many IT leaders to Managed Security Service partners.

Some of the benefits include the availability of leading tech experts and solutions and predictable billing hence the potential for long term cost savings. Not to forget the round the clock monitoring of organizations' IT assets (including data, applications, appliances, endpoints, networks etc.) which is reasonably daunting if managed in-house.

Once an organization decides to go for MSS, there is one more consideration. Should they go for a fully managed MSS or a co-managed MSS? Organizations with smaller IT teams are suggested they go for a fully managed model. In contrast, large organizations that have invested in human capital and built teams over the years can go in for the co-managed model.

Then comes the decision of choosing the right vendor. Again, one needs to make essential judgment calls—more about that for another analysis of the day.