4 Ways ‘Automation’ Helping MSSPs Improve Security Offering

June 15, 2020

The rapid technological innovations made cybersecurity more important than ever in the present digital world.

A robust cybersecurity posture has emerged as a critical business imperative for companies of all sizes.

As per market estimates, the cybersecurity market expected to reach USD 363.05 billion by 2025 from USD 161.07 billion in 2019, at a CAGR of 14.5%.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to the decentralization of the global workforce, introducing new remote work security issues and other risks to the cybersecurity paradigm.

But many businesses lack adequate cybersecurity skills, automation and resources to keep up with the rapidly evolving security threats.

This is driving organizations to lean on Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) for security expertise and support.

MSSPs are pressed to deliver seamless, scalable and automated security services to demonstrate their ability to enforce higher standards of protection.

More than ever, the MSSPs need a high degree of automation in their security offerings to protect their clients in the ever-evolving threat landscape.

Here, we bring you some crucial ways automation can help MSSPs improve their security offerings.

Four Ways Automation Helps MSSPs Enhance Security

1) Fixing Cybersecurity Skills Gap

With remote working becoming the new normal, the demand for experienced cybersecurity professionals is skyrocketing to an all-time high. These highly skilled assets are essential for MSSPs to protect their client’s networks, sensitive data and intellectual property.

But as per the recent ESG study, 51% of cybersecurity professionals report a shortage of cybersecurity skill sets in their organizations.

Automation offers an alternative means for addressing the security gap by automating the routine cybersecurity processes that include human intervention. With automation, you can speed up threat detection, scoring, and remediation processes, reducing the cybersecurity staffing burden.

Automation relieves your team and ensures they are focusing on tasks that help improve business growth.

2) Streamlining Security Deployments

One of the biggest challenges faced by MSSPs is deploying security appliances in remote locations as it is costly and resource-intensive. The coronavirus pandemic has further worsened the situation as the team’s physical presence for deployment is simply untenable.

But automation can facilitate cloud deployment that eliminates much of the human involvement in deploying firewalls at customer sites.

Security applications and appliances can be pre-configured in the cloud and delivered to the customers, who need an internet connection to access and accept the automated configurations. Then, MSSPs can manage security remotely from any location.

3) Complete Network Management

Apart from security protections, MSSPs should ensure that their security offerings also leverage the automated capabilities offered by other management tools at their disposal.

Without any need for additional managed tools, the MSSPs can better manage their client’s network by integrating their security offerings with the existing Professional Services Automation (PSA) and Remote Monitoring Management (RMM) platforms.

For instance, by integrating the firewall offering, the MSSPs can streamline end-to-end service management, including ticketing, automated reporting, and auto-synchronization of device information.

4) Improving Security Posture

Stopping cyberthreats even before they happen is the best way to keep your customer safe. However, manually tracking and blocking every attack is impractical for MSSPs in the rapidly evolving cyber threat landscape.

With automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI), the MSSPs can prevent cyberattacks with greater efficiency, and can further predict and prevent unprecedented threats without human intervention.

Automation and AI can anticipate the next evolution of cyber threats and develop security strategies against what’s likely to come.

Moreover, automation and AI can act as a cyber sentry, working independently from your team to prevent any cyberthreats in their tracks without any manual intervention.

In Conclusion

Automation enables MSSPs to keep pace with the ever-changing and sophisticated attacks, reduce redundancies, and coordinate real-time responses across multiple networks.

Moreover, automation helps MSSP delivery teams maximize their efficiency to gain a competitive edge in the already flourishing MSSP market.

If you are looking to simplify and strengthen your managed security offerings, it’s the right time to take a closer look at the role of automation in your business.

Need Support? Contact Stealthlabs!

Stealthlabs is a US-based Managed Security Service Provider with strong domain expertise and has many clients from fortune 500 firms. Offerings under Stealthlabs IT Security Services include network security monitoring, data center operations, security administration, and vulnerability management.

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