4 in 5 Businesses Plan Changes to Cybersecurity Management in Coming Year

About 80 percent of businesses are planning to make changes to their IT security management during the next 12 months, with service providers that identify as MSSPs holding a clear advantage at winning that business, according to new research from SolarWinds MSP.

The findings are contained in a new report entitled The Path to MSSP, released during SolarWinds’ annual Empower MSP event, held last week in Orlando, Fla.

Pointing to a clear opportunity for IT services providers, the survey also found that 49 percent of the companies queried, that are currently handling their own security in-house, plan to outsource security management for the first time in hope of improving performance or reducing costs.

“Every day brings news of a new security hole that needs to be patched, a massive data breach, or new strain of ransomware that businesses need to watch out for,” Tim Brown, vice president of security architecture at SolarWinds MSP, said in a statement. “Understandably, this creates nervousness amongst enterprises and SMEs and greater scrutiny of the IT security measures in place.”

The findings are based on an online survey – conducted last month – of 401 senior business or IT decision makers at U.S. or UK firms that currently engage an MSP.

Another significant finding involves the fact that 70 percent of businesses surveyed said they would have more trust in the security capabilities of a company that uses the term “security,” as in MSSP, over one that identifies strictly as a standard MSP.

In many cases, this is a difference without distinction that could come down to an MSP’s marketing approach.

The report identifies four key areas of IT security that MSPs need to be able to address, including infrastructure, data security, risk and vulnerability management, and identity and access management.   

For each area, MSPs must demonstrate they have the knowledge; organizational ability; and the technology, tools and resources to provide competent IT security.

“Where there is market turbulence, there is also opportunity, and the good news for IT service providers is that this has resulted in almost half of all businesses planning to outsource their security needs to specialists,” Brown said in the statement.

“However, IT service providers need to remember that more opportunity inherently means more competition,” he added. “Providers need to be able to prove their knowledge, capabilities, and available resources to take full advantage.”

Click here to download the full report.

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