How Managed Security Services Assist In-House IT Professionals

I recently visited with a longtime CDW customer in the retail industry. We’d worked with the IT director and team for years, helping the company keep its business operating efficiently. During my recent visit, they wanted to talk about how the organization could protect itself from cybersecurity threats despite the limited size of its IT team.

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By coincidence, one of the owner’s family members worked in the IT department for a major retailer that had recently suffered a high-profile security breach. The owner expressed concern to the IT director, asking about the business’s readiness to withstand a similar incident. The IT director gave an honest assessment: A firm its size simply didn’t have a large enough team with sufficient expertise or time to properly prepare and provide attention to cybersecurity.

This is a common scenario. IT is often underfunded in midsize businesses, and for the most part, IT teams focus their efforts on keeping things running, following the old adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” That works well in most areas of infrastructure, but it can lead to disaster when applied to cybersecurity.

Fortunately, I’d encountered this situation before and was able to offer some advice based on my work with other customers. The company’s IT team could quickly ramp up its security capabilities by taking advantage of managed security services. These service offerings would enable the organization to gain the expertise of cybersecurity professionals without increasing the size of its own IT team. Instead, the company would depend on a managed service provider to augment its technology staff. The MSP would be able to spend more time on security than the company’s in-house professionals, and it could provide specialized expertise.

We looked at four areas where managed services could have an immediate impact on the company.

Managed Firewall and Intrusion Prevention Services

These services would allow the company to offload the work of perimeter protection, taking one crucial operational task off the plate of its lone network technician. The service provider would operate the firewall and intrusion prevention system, analyze network traffic and report any anomalies requiring further investigation.

Managed Security Information and Event Management Capabilities

SIEM services provide a broader set of analytic tools that can peer more deeply into the organization’s technology environment as well as correlate information from across multiple devices, providing rapid notification of any activity or events requiring security attention.

Managed Cloud Access Security Broker Services

CASB services can provide secure authorized access and content control for the many cloud services an organization uses each day, providing the IT team with the ability to monitor user activity and enforce compliance with security policies across cloud providers.

Managed Security Operations Center Capabilities

Services for security operations centers go beyond the routine analytics of a SIEM and provide dedicated security specialists who monitor activity and events, provide initial rapid investigations, coordinate incident response activities and perform proactive threat hunting.

Choosing from among the many managed security solutions and service providers can be a daunting challenge for any company. CDW’s solution architects can assist with this task, helping you to identify and prioritize your security requirements. Our team can recommend solutions or providers that will deliver the most value to your organization and deploy managed security solutions and services to improve your cybersecurity posture.