The volume and sophistication of threats are increasing rapidly, while environments become more complex with every new tool, user, and endpoint. This also contributes to the expansion of the cyber-attack surface. Security incidents have disastrous consequences, including data breaches, financial losses, reputational damage, operational downtime, penalties, and legal concerns, all of which severely impact the entire business, not just the IT department. Yes, security is no longer viewed as the IT department’s problem. It is a business risk.
Cybersecurity is more critical than ever. But traditional approaches, siloed security tools, and legacy systems were designed for a bygone era of isolated networks and less sophisticated threats. These platforms operate in data silos and are incompatible with modern security tools and solutions. As resources become increasingly strained and legacy security models struggle to keep pace, Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) step in to deliver advanced, always-on cybersecurity protection.
Role and benefits of MSSPs
As external security partners for organizations, MSSPs bring expertise, around-the-clock monitoring, and the ability to scale without expanding headcount. The right MSSP helps organizations stay protected, compliant, and resilient.
- Access to security talent
Investing in hiring talent and new technologies may not always be feasible. By partnering with MSSPs, organizations can leverage the experienced professionals in the space and have access to advanced security technologies for addressing the rapidly evolving cybersecurity challenges.
- 24/7 threat monitoring
By offering round-the-clock monitoring to detect and respond to threats, MSSPs reduce the risk of cyber incidents, minimizing any potential damage to the organization’s digital network.
- Faster detection and response
MSSPs offer rapid detection and remediation services, which can minimize the damage and financial losses caused to the organization.
- Reduced operational overhead
By offloading the burden of establishing and managing in-house security operations, MSSPs can significantly reduce operational overhead for organizations. This enables internal teams to focus on their core business operations.
Measuring the effectiveness of MSSPs
Partnering with an MSSP without measuring its effectiveness does not guarantee the organization protection from cyber threats. It is crucial to walk through measurable outcomes such as reduced alert fatigue, improved detection accuracy, faster response times, and lower business risk.
- Mean time to detect (MTTD)
This key performance indicator refers to the mean amount of time it takes for the organization to detect any incident. The lesser time taken indicates better incident management capabilities.
- Mean time to respond (MTTR)
It measures the average time it takes for an organization to respond to a security incident or threat. A faster response time can help significantly reduce the potential damage from cyber threats.
- Reduction in false positives
Minimizing false positives can be a challenge for MSSPs as they operate across multiple clients. However, this can be achieved by leveraging the right tools and technology, along with contextual threat intelligence and automation.
- Compliance adherence
Adherence to various legal, regulatory, and industry standards related to cybersecurity and data protection is crucial for MSSPs. An effective MSSP should deliver compliance management services that align with industry regulations, and failing to do so can lead to costly penalties.
- Executive-level risk visibility
This is another key differentiator in evaluating an MSSP by the partner organization’s leadership team on factors such as identifying, prioritizing, and mitigating cyber risks. The MSSP should have capabilities to provide business-aligned dashboards, executive summaries, and predictive insights.
Cost of Managed Security Services
The cybersecurity landscape is constantly evolving, with budgets tightening, and finding the right talent is getting harder. Although MSSPs are providing the solutions to these concerns, it is important to understand how they are priced and what factors influence cost. Evaluating pricing models in the context of outcomes includes,
- Factors that affect the cost
The pricing of MSSP services depends on several variables, such as the size and complexity of the organization’s IT landscape, the number of users, endpoints, cloud capacity, network devices, servers, volume of data, and compliance requirements, which vary across industries such as BFSI, healthcare, and manufacturing, among others.
- Pricing models
MSSP pricing model options could be per-user, per-unit, per-incident, or A la carte pricing, tiered service packages, value-based pricing, fixed (flat) monthly or annual fee, subscription-based pricing, and custom pricing.
- Influencers of MSSP pricing
Key factors that determine MSSP costs are the size of the organization, service scope, market competition, technology stack, talent availability, and service-level agreements (SLAs).
Traditional MSSPs do have limitations, such as a lack of clear Return on Investment (ROI), investments being fragmented across tools, and the inability to deliver measurable business value.
MSSPs as business enablers
Modern MSSPs are today transforming into strategic partners. The role of MSSPs is shifting from being reactive defenders, monitoring alerts, and managing incidents to business enablers. With the outsourcing of security operations, internal IT teams have the bandwidth to focus on the organization’s core business. Partnering with MSSPs presents significant financial advantages for organizations as they can avoid large upfront investments in security infrastructures. Organizations can eliminate costs associated with hiring, training, and even retaining security professionals. MSSPs prioritize uptime, regulatory compliance, and customer trust that align with the business objectives of the organizations. Outcome-based dashboards leveraged by MSSPs can help measure and report metrics such as reduction in MTTD and MTTR that resonate with the business leaders.
A cloud-native SIEM platform in MSSPs that offers proactive defense, autonomous detection and response with Agentic AI, provides measurable security outcomes and clear reporting to enable meeting regulatory demands, is an investment in resilience and agility, and not an expense.
In today’s threat-filled landscape, partnering with a reputable MSSP can be a game-changer for further protecting your organization. MSSPs are not to be looked at as an expense but as an investment in resilience and agility. By leveraging the expertise and resources of an MSSP, organizations can enhance their security posture, reduce risk, ensure business continuity, and enable business growth.
Dipesh Kaura, Country Director- India & SAARC, Securonix