OpenDNS Adds Security Management Tools to Umbrella MSP Service

OpenDNS is automating security policy management for managed service providers (MSPs) via the company’s Umbrella network security service.

The San Francisco-based cloud security services provider today unveiled Centralized Settings, new Umbrella capabilities that allow MSPs to automate tasks associated with deploying and managing security across their customer base.

Applying and managing security policy settings across a customer base is critical for MSPs, OpenDNS said, and Centralized Settings enable service providers to perform these tasks in seconds.

Centralized Settings allow service providers to:

“Security appliance lock-in with multiple vendors makes it extremely challenging for MSPs to have consistent malware prevention across all of their customers. This lack of consistency creates security gaps and leads to reactive ‘firefighting’ to clean up infections,” Dima Kumets, OpenDNS’s senior product manager for MSPs, said in a prepared statement. “OpenDNS solves this problem in the latest Umbrella for MSPs release by providing streamlined management tools that not only make for a more compelling service offering, but also enable MSPs to fully deploy a consistent, standardized layer of advanced security within minutes of signing a customer.”

Service providers also can use Centralized Settings to create branded block pages, customized security settings and web filtering bundles in the Umbrella MSP console, according to OpenDNS.

Centralized Settings empower MSPs

Kumets told MSPmentor that Centralized Settings were developed with end users in mind, and OpenDNS worked with at least 25 service providers to ensure Centralized Settings met the needs of both MSPs and their customers.

“With security that hinders the user experience, the end user is going to fight it and try to find a way around security settings, and with Centralized Settings, we’ve been focused on enhancing the user experience since day one,” he said.

OpenDNS “does security differently,” Kumets said, and will continue to explore ways to make it easier for MSPs to add advanced security offerings to their respective portfolios.

“Many organizations would deploy consumerized security solutions in the past, but today’s MSPs are realizing these solutions aren’t enough,” Kumets added. “We want to continue to make security solutions efficient, easy to deploy and easy to manage for MSPs.”

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