Managed Security Services Sacramento

Benefits Of Managed Security Services

These days, IT security is both big news and big business. It’s big news because journalists have long since learned that crime stories tend to get a lot of public interest. It’s big business for several reasons, many of which revolve around the fact that companies are now generally very well aware of the need to protect the data they hold, especially if it is personal data relating to customers and/or employees.

In spite of this awareness, however, cyberattacks keep on happening and, quite bluntly, they keep on being successful. Their victims aren’t just SMBs who don’t understand how to make IT security work. They are also large companies, which frankly weren’t as good as they thought they were.

Sadly, it can be only too easy for even the mightiest companies to slip up, especially when they have so much else to manage. That’s why many businesses, large and small, are turning to managed security services. Here is a guide to help you know if you would benefit from them.

1. Are you spending excessive amounts of time managing IT security?

Technology should serve your business. If you’re struggling to find the resources to manage both your IT security and your business then the common-sense solution is to find a managed security services partner who can deal with your cybersecurity (probably with much less effort than you) so that you can focus on your actual core business.

2. Are you spending uncomfortably high amounts of money on IT security?

Cybersecurity professionals expect high salaries. Cybersecurity software can be very expensive. SMBs tend to have very limited budgets. This is not a happy combination. It is also why switching to managed security services can be one of the rare instances when using third-party suppliers can actually work out more affordable than using in-house resources. In fact, in some cases, it can work out substantially more affordable.

The reason for this is that companies that offer managed IT security services will spread the business costs over a number of customers rather than expecting each individual customer to take the full hit.

3. Do you find that your security measures are excessively disrupting your business?

In the real world, any security measure is going to be somewhat disruptive. Essentially security is usually the direct opposite of convenience. At the same time, you are paying staff to do their jobs, not to fight their way through layers of unnecessary (and possibly ineffective) security protocols. This wastes money and frustrates staff. In short, if your security protocols seem to be more of an inconvenience than an asset, then it could be a very strong argument for reaching out to a company that offers managed security services.

4. Do you find yourself addressing security issues reactively rather than proactively?

If the answer to that question is yes, then it’s a strong sign that you need to make it a priority to up your cybersecurity game and, in particular, that you need to switch the focus from detection (and reaction) to prevention. For many companies, especially SMBs, the easiest way to do that will probably be to use managed security services.

This gets you instant access to the sort of resources that might otherwise be completely out of your budget. In addition to the fact that companies that offer managed security services will literally make it their business to recruit and retain the best cybersecurity professionals around, these companies will also buy the best tools around and can easily justify the cost because, as previously mentioned, the software is being used to provide services to a number of paying clients, instead of “just” used for in-house purposes.

5. Do you struggle to manage out-of-hours IT security?

This question often ties in with the previous one. You need to ensure that your cybersecurity is effective 24/7. That is not an “in principle” statement, that is just a statement. You, literally, cannot afford to let down your guard for even a millisecond. At the same time, however, you also, literally, cannot afford to go over your company’s budget, and having people work out-of-hours costs money, in fact even having people on-call out-of-hours costs money.

What’s more, when you run your out-of-hours security operation yourself, in principle, your financial exposure is, if not exactly unlimited, then extremely high. If something does happen, then you’ll need as many people as you need for as long as you need them. If you switch to managed security services, then you can limit your financial exposure and hence be more comfortable in your budgeting.

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