Organizations struggling to wrap their head around the benefits of Managed Security Services is a common challenge we’ve come across. It’s also an extremely pressing issue we’re trying to address. Managed Security Services can help organizations of all sizes fulfill their security and compliance needs seamlessly and effectively. But why is this the case? More organizations are turning to Managed Security Services to gain security expertise and lessen the workload of their in-house security staff.
Managed security services work to alleviate to two main issues enterprises face today. Those include human error and limited security staffing.
Human error continues year over year to be a main cause for data breaches. While employees and users may act with malicious intent in some instances, most human error occurs because of negligence. An employee mistakenly clicks on a malicious link in a phishing email, and suddenly your enterprise suffers from a breach.
Additionally, Managed Security Services help to pick up the slack for organizations with a smaller IT team or one that is struggling to adequately staff due to a lack of local talent. Currently, enterprises face over three and a half million unfilled security job openings; this continual shortage of talented IT security staff keeps enterprises from achieving their data security goals.
Managed Security Services also help organizations navigate the consistently growing and evolving threat landscape. They do so by helping to scale IT business infrastructure rapidly.
What are Managed Security Services?
Third-party providers offer Managed Security Services for the oversight and administration of a company’s security processes. Managed Security Service Providers offer a wide range of security services, from setting up infrastructure through security management or incident response. Some Managed Security Service Providers specialize in certain areas, while others offer full outsourcing of an enterprise’s information security program.
Organizations would seek out a Managed Security Service Provider for a variety of reasons, including to:
- Successfully pass security audits
- Respond to and investigate incidents
- Help manage the workload for their internal staff
- Prevent and/or mitigate data breaches
- Gain a competitive advantage and grow their business
Norton Security estimates that by 2023, cybercriminals will be stealing a total of 33 billion records a year. According to recent cybersecurity statistics from Juniper Research, half of those breaches are going to occur within the United States. This may be another reason that companies are looking to Managed Security Services providers to strength their security posture.
Having around-the-clock monitoring is essential for protecting your databases and servers from hackers. After all, hackers could strike at any hour and may plan their attacks to take advantage of lapses in monitoring. In addition, active threat watching could uncover current threats lurking in your network.
Reasons Businesses Use Managed Security Services
Despite an increase in awareness for the need of proactive security measures, many enterprises continue to put off implementing sound security initiatives until they have suffered a loss as a result of a data breach.
This year has already broken records for data breaches and it is not even over yet. We have already seen 3,800 breaches, totaling over a 50 percent increase across the last four years, according to a report published by Risk Based Security. The average cost of a data breach in the U.S. according to The Ponemon Institute is $8.19 million. The United States currently has the highest average cost in the world. Security is not something businesses can afford to take lightly.
Whether an organization is lacking in security program maturity or simply wants to expand their security capabilities, managed security service providers are a valuable option. Here are some reasons why businesses have started using managed security services.
1. 24/7/365 Oversight
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.
The time and technology investment alone are enough to have businesses turning to managed security service providers for help. LightEdge’s solutions are backed by one of the strongest service guarantees in the industry. Our support team is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – no exceptions. Our technical support starts with direct access to technicians in LightEdge’s Network Operations Center (NOC) via a toll-free number for emergencies.
The NOC experts also handle all formal monitoring, logging, and event management to ensure that pertinent information is recognized, identified, recorded, and processed in a timely manner. This level of support is included with every LightEdge service and is designed to accommodate the unique needs of each customer.
2. Staying Ahead of Evolving Security Threats
Cyber-attacks evolve at an incredibly fast rate, leading to one new threat after another. Without the proper security tools and expertise, keeping up with evolving threats, addressing new threats, and recovering from incidents detected too late can consume all of an organization’s IT resources.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) platforms collect and analyze data from multiple sources to provide actionable insights so you can mitigate risks and speed up your incident response. SIEM platforms are another reason that companies turn to managed security services.
Enterprise security professionals get both insight into and a track record of the activities within their IT environment through SIEM software. This technology has been in existence for more than a decade, initially evolving from the log management discipline.
Today, SIEM software collects and aggregates log data generated throughout your organization’s technology infrastructure, from host systems and applications to network and security devices such as firewalls and antivirus filters.
3. Managed Security Service Providers Have the Expertise and Tools that In-House Teams Do Not
Because of their extensive knowledge and experience, managed security service providers may come across tools and resources that an in-house IT team may not have heard of.
For example, if phishing attacks are a problem for your company (and considering the data featured in the 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report by Verizon, they likely are), an experienced Managed Security Service Provider might have anti-phishing tools that are effective for stopping these attacks. Tools that an in-house team with less experience might not know about.
Having a broad knowledge of cybersecurity tools helps managed security service providers better optimize the specific managed security services and tools that they use. This, in turn, helps them improve their customers’ network security infrastructure as a whole by mixing and matching the best services and tools for each company’s unique needs.
In addition, one of the most basic benefits of managed security services is that the providers will have in-depth knowledge of common and obscure network security issues that most businesses lack. This is often because providers can leverage experience gained from managing network security issues for a large number of companies operating across different verticals.
The extra experience managed security service providers gain from working with other industries and verticals helps make them more flexible and adaptable. Meanwhile, single businesses are only exposed to one their cybersecurity challenges and do not benefit from exposure to as many different attack strategies and security architectures.
4. Outsourcing Frees Up Internal Staff for Value-Drive Work
Another one of the main drivers that corporations use managed security services is because the external team frees up internal IT team members, so they can focus on tasks that drive business goals.
Instead of having to constantly monitor SIEM data dashboards, threat intelligence feeds, and software developer update notifications for important updates, the internal IT team can provide support to the rest of the organization to help meet overarching business objectives. This is often a better use of the IT team’s time, especially if cybersecurity was not their primary purpose to begin with.
Monitoring capabilities can be time-sinks for organizations, distracting employees from the core mission. Partnering with a managed security services provider is one way that businesses reduce the requirements associated with maintaining a security program. This allows for executives to switch focus from the fear of a breach back to their core business needs.
A modern security services provider can change the game for your organization. Managed security service providers are risk-aware and operationalize risk understanding into the delivery of threat management services. This takes pressure off of your team, and boosts opportunity for innovation.
5. Reducing Costs
Hiring an in-house network security expert is much more expensive for most organizations. Not only do cybersecurity pros have salaries that hit an upwards of six-figure range, companies need an entire team of these experts to provide the best protection.
Additionally, it takes a team to develop the broad knowledge base needed to provide truly effective protection from data security threats.
With Managed Security Services, companies can access large teams of experienced security professionals for a fraction of the cost of hiring them internally. How are managed security service providers so cost-effectively? By applying economies of scale to their efforts.
The labor of the managed security services security team is divided among several customers. This helps to improve the costs for each customer. This is also how many managed security service teams develop such a broad level of experience regarding network security and data threats. They learn from their experiences with other customers.
Naturally, the specific costs of managed security services will vary based on the vendor, what services are being provided, and the scale of the network being protected. However, these costs will generally be lower than the expenses required to staff a full-time in-house team robust enough to match the managed security services.
All of these managed security services benefits help companies:
- Save capital & staff resources
- Decrease the number of actual threats
- Increase time-to-respond & remediate
- Refocus the organization on hitting core business objectives
Look No Further for a Managed Security Services Provider
As a top-tier colocation services provider, we provide a high level of availability and reliability through secure, certified data centers and dedicated staff onsite. Our customized and scalable services give you the control, whether you need a colocation rack, cage, or custom suite now or in the future.
LightEdge’s highly trained compliance and security experts take the guesswork out of keeping your business protected. Trust our expertise to ensure you are covered through our security and compliance services. This includes risk management, information security, audit preparedness, and support.
With geographically dispersed facilities across all of the US power grids, our data centers are the heart of our operation and yours. We have a wide range of colocation and disaster recovery solutions. They deliver advanced shared infrastructure designed to enable operational and financial efficiency, reducing the burden on your IT staff.
Our LightEdge facilities are more advanced than traditional data centers. We have created true Hybrid Solution Centers designed to offer a complete portfolio of high speed, secure, redundant, local cloud services and managed gateways to public clouds through our hardened facilities.
Customers turn to LightEdge to reduce risk of non-compliance, scale security, and for the predictably and cost-effectiveness. LightEdge provides customers with an extended team of experienced engineers and helps to focus resources on agility and differentiation. Are you curious how your current provider stacks up? Our security experts will provide a free security assessment. Find out how you measure up against the latest compliance and security standards. No risk, no commitment. Contact us today to get your free security assessment.
Related Posts:
- The Importance Of Data Security: Understanding The True Cost
- How To Mitigate And Respond To Data Breaches
- Orchestrating Network Security Policies To Prevent Data Breaches
- 3 Solutions To Protect Against Insider Threats In Cybersecurity
- HIPAA Compliance: The Difference Between Addressable And Required Specifications
- Top Network Security Threats And How To Prevent Them
- What are Managed Security Services?
- What Is Disaster Recovery As A Service (DRaaS)?
- How To Determine If Your Business Is PCI Compliant
- Seven Common E-Commerce PCI Compliance Myths Explained
- What All Healthcare Companies Need To Know About HIPAA Compliance
- PCI DSS Cloud Compliance: Your Guide to a Smooth Cloud Migration
- 6 Best Practices for Data Security in the Cloud Infographic
- Why the Cloud is Safer the CIOs Believe: 6 Best Practices for Data Security
- The Best of Both Worlds: Colocation and PCI DSS Compliance
- Ultimate Guide to a Highly Compliant Cloud Environment
