Chief Marketing Officer
For those of you who were around in the late 90s, the Managed Service Provider (MSP) concept was in its infancy. While the concept was simple–create and act as a centralized IT environment and offer it to multiple companies to leverage on a consumption basis–trusting the model, and therefore adoption, took time. Fast forward to today, and MSPs have become second nature.
MSPs are in a unique situation, able to shield their customers from a lot of the challenges and distractions of first-level IT support–process development, staff training and turnover, tool and vendor selection. And yet, MSPs face some of the same problems that IT organizations face. As new requirements and markets emerge, MSPs have to determine what is core to their business–and where to rely on experts. When it comes to security, specifically, many MSPs are electing to partner with an MSSP to expand their service portfolio versus the considerable time and resource investment required to do it on their own.
Reactive vs. Proactive
To effectively combat today’s adversaries requires a fundamental shift in strategy. Whereas many MSPs specialize in break-fix–or responsive–support, that is not good enough in the security space. A solid security posture demands an ability to identify and prevent attacks before they happen versus simply reacting after an event has occurred. The process overhaul and retooling investment is costly and time intensive. MSSPs offer an alternative for MSPs to scale this capability quickly and cost-effectively. In a sense, the same value proposition they offer their customers–build or consume.
Fixed Toolset vs. Continuous Improvement
A majority of MSPs have evolved from the reseller path, and their DNA is to sell the customer the tool/technology and then manage it on their behalf. This model deteriorates when trying to apply it to security because “best-in-breed” security tools are constantly changing. The tool that best-protected endpoints a year ago likely will not lead the pack today–but the MSP is stuck managing a sub-par tool until the customer’s term is up. In the meantime, there could be serious gaps that leave your customer vulnerable and in harm’s way. This degrades the overall security posture of the customer and if a breach or issue did occur, it could harm the MSP relationship with the customer. “Why didn’t you catch this….” becomes a tricky conversation.
Select MSSPs offer a model whereby they are continuously testing and upgrading tools to ensure their service is always at the top of the security game. There are 3,000 security vendors out there saying their tool is the best. Premium MSSPs handle due diligence, POCs, and evaluations. The burden of investing and upgrading in on the MSSP–and transparent to the MSP and customer. They are simply ensured solid protection no matter what.
Scale and Differentiate
The MSP space is crowded and confusing; those that can scale effectively and add differentiation or new customer value win. DataEndure, for example, accelerates MSPs in their entry into the security space in a way that will be difficult for them to do on their own in the same time span.
We’ve created a suite of services to help not just our end customers, but our MSP partners so that they can put energy into maintaining the health of their customers from a support perspective, maintaining the infrastructure of the organization from an IT perspective, and having peace of mind that there’s a 24×7 seasoned team of security analysts with the best-in-class tools monitoring their customer environments for threats.
Successful MSPs value customer relationships over all else, and seek ways to satisfy new clients and market demands versus having to send the customer elsewhere. MSSPs offer the acceleration, economics, and support to do just that.
“I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things.” ― Mother Teresa