COMMENTARY: MSPs are bearing the brunt of management and cybersecurity tasks necessary to defend against more active and dangerous hackers. Data leakage, phishing, and ransomware are growing problems across industries due to more intelligent hackers targeting remote ecosystems. As a result, companies need help fighting bad actors and are turning to managed service partners and outsourcing their security posture. The problem? Diversity of threats.
Each of the above vulnerabilities demands an individual solution, forcing MSPs to constantly onboard and manage new solutions. Security sprawl is such a big issue that more than three-quarters (77%) of MSPs manage between four and 10 security point solutions, and 12% manage more than 10. Something’s got to give.
The good news is that, with just a few tweaks, MSPs can significantly reduce this complexity without compromising protection. By streamlining management, automating routine tasks, and educating clients, MSPs can keep their clients safe without drowning in tools.
Streamline management
MSPs find themselves in an unenviable position. Cybercrime is growing and cybercriminals are more creative, which gives rise to more vulnerable, stressed, and defensive clients. It makes sense that they want to cover respective social engineering and endpoint backdoors but this, in and of itself, introduces new complexity.
Each security tool flags potential problems and notifies possible gaps, which can ultimately cause MSPs to suffer from alert fatigue. According to the recent survey mentioned above by Guardz, nearly half (47%) of MSPs report being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of security data they process daily. This can desensitize them to what’s a threat and what’s not, leading to missed or delayed responses.
Clearly, MSPs need help managing their client interactions efficiently. A centralized management console that brings together multiple client accounts into a single interface is one way to do this. A centralized portal consolidates multiple endpoint management clients into one dashboard, letting MSPs spend less time switching between accounts and more time focusing on actual security threats.
Automate, allocate, and access
Beyond consolidating management, automation offers another path to reducing complexity. When MSPs automate basic security checks, resource deployment, and routine monitoring, they save valuable time in analyzing real threats. The key is identifying which tasks can be safely automated.
Role-based access controls, for instance, can be automated to ensure the right technicians have the right access levels without manual intervention. Similarly, automated patch management and security updates can be scheduled and deployed systematically across the client base, ensuring consistent protection without constant manual oversight. These automated processes deliver a win-win of reducing overhead and minimizing the risk of human error.
Help your clients help you
The key to simpler security might be hiding in plain sight. At the end of the day, clients who know how to stay cybersafe often need fewer tools, and perhaps it’s time MSPs view security education as a powerful business differentiator.
According to the survey, nearly half (49%) of clients mistakenly assume that compliance equals security, while 36% fail to recognize the importance of cyber insurance. These misconceptions often lead to demands for unnecessary tools or resistance to essential ones.
Achieving better, holistic security must, therefore, treat education as a value-added service, offering regular training sessions and updates on emerging threats. This guides your clients to master the basics while positioning yourself as a strategic security advisor:
- Implement foundational security practices like biometrics and standardized identity management
- Build an understanding of why specific security tools are essential (and why others might not be)
- Create a partnership where clients support your efforts to streamline and optimize their security stack
Clients who understand the security landscape are more likely to trust your tool selection and management expertise. And better yet, they form a ‘human firewall’ that nips threats in the bud before they escalate.
This trust allows you to focus on what matters: protecting their business with the right tools and not just more tools. In short? Keep security simple, add value through education, and help your clients help you in this evermore complex enterprise landscape. This is the secret to protecting without overcomplicating.
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