Deploying Managed Security Services in the Changing IT Landscape

As organizations expand globally, there are innumerable challenges that they have to face and so do the need for global information exchange between employees and customers. Threats to your infrastructure and confidentiality, integrity and availability of information also increase exponentially both from internal and external sources. As information is one of your most important assets, organizations must be prepared to mount a positive defense against threats.

Organization find it difficult to keep pace with the changing IT landscape and constant changes in regulatory and industry mandated compliance programs. No longer are network firewalls and intrusion detection systems enough to keep your network secure. Organizations need to deploy cost effective managed security services solutions that leverage best practices, simplify management requirements and increase your overall security.

Managed security services protect your business beyond individual devices by managing from a centralized Security Operations Center (SOC). These services can be managed in-house or can be outsourced to managed service providers who can oversee the network and information security.

The services provided by these MSS include 24/7/365 monitoring and management of of intrusion detection systems, overseeing patch management and upgrades, performing security assessments and security audits, and responding to emergencies. Apart from this MSS help with data backup and recovery services that help organizations to recover data to the last point. Thus you save on time and effort that is taken to recover data manually post disaster.

Outsourcing such services to a managed service provider frees businesses to concentrate on their key competencies.

According to Gartner, “Managed security services will be the fastest-growing segment of the managed services arena, expanding at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 20% over the next few years”.

Engaging a professional managed service provider offers a number of advantages:

  1. Centralized Security Operation center – Offers seamless service and maximizes the hours of support and provides you with maximum protection against spam, spyware, viruses and other threats. These SOCs are sites with state-of-the-art infrastructure managed by trained personnel.
  2. Staffing– IT departments have to recruit, train, compensate and retain critical staff that puts tremendous pressure on organizations. The cost of in-house network security specialists can be very high with continuous fear of replacing them in case they leave. When you outsource to a MSSP, the costs to hire, train, and retain highly skilled staff becomes their responsibility.
  3. Cost –Organizations are finding that the cost of a managed security service is typically less than hiring in-house, full-time security experts. An MSSP eliminates the need for dedicated hardware and specialized security staff, while reducing the need for traditional security skill sets. Moving services lowers the total cost of network ownership.
  4. Maximum Uptime – the service providers monitor and update and report near real-time results, 24/7/365 days a year. In case of any problem, MSSPs can be held accountable for the service standards they provide. Their operational procedures are designed to ensure uninterrupted service availability. Upgrading software and hardware and to maintain a secure network configuration is the responsibility of the service provider.
  5. Security – With managed service security solutions with the MSSP, technologies such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems, virtual private networks, unsecured VPN endpoints and vulnerability assessment tools are far well-organized because they are managed and monitored by experienced professionals.

Going to a managed security services provider is cheaper as it saves money and more efficient while paying based on security needs and usage. In future, experts feel that managed services in India will play major role as per as managed security service market is concerned. With organizations facing tight budgets, lack of adequate skilled staffs, lack of proper infrastructure etc., they are turning more and more towards managed security services provider.

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