MSP Vs MSSP is there a distinction anymore? – Source: securityboulevard.com

MSP v MSSP – is there a distinction anymore? Well, yes and no. Yes there’s a distinction because if you look at any established MSSP today, you will see things in their stacks and teams that an MSP doesn’t have. Yet…

To date, MSPs have been focused mostly on endpoint protection and prevention. We know the attack surface has broadened through on-premises to hybrid, to multi-cloud, to applications, and IoT/OT environments with employees accessing company resources from virtually anywhere, using company-owned systems or unmanaged personal devices.

The #MSP response has been to start buying tools and acquiring knowledge to secure as much as they can for their clients. The net result here is that the average MSP is now managing a stack of 8 different security tools – a point product for some piece of the MSSP security stack pie and acquiring them in one of two ways:

 1. Partner with security vendors to deploy multiple point products and hire staff to support. This forces data & detection & people into multiple silos making remediation difficult. This in turn requires expensive security analysts to oversee it all hoping that they never blink & miss something.

Or



2. Outsource to managed detection & response vendors. This still results in incomplete systems, & data & detection that is still silo’d (see #1 above). Add to this that the MSP relinquishes insight, control and profit margin to someone else.

 Neither option is ideal and outsourcing simply off loads the inherent problems to someone else; it’s not really solving the problem.

 The Problem with Siloed Security Solutions

•   Alert Fatigue – multiple alerts from multiple systems, some of them redundant making it difficult to trust the data.
•   Accurate threat detection is difficult as data is incongruent and lacks the correlation of a unified approach.
•   Dashboard Fatigue – from too many dashboards to manage, one for each point product.
•   Integration and maintenance is expensive & time-consuming for a big stack.

 So, here’s the rub…both options above are expensive and time consuming, yet protection & prevention is not enough.

MSPs need a way to detect & respond to today’s cyber threats. They need a better way to view threats across multi-cloud and on-premises environments to increase their efficacy in protecting their client’s resources & reducing the time it takes to detect and respond to incidents. Many MSPs have chosen to outsource their profits and outsource their control to MDR providers.  That’s an option that is growing fast for sure.

What about real time remediation? An alert from a vendor isn’t good enough anymore. Enter the idea of MDR + SIEM + SOC = More expense, no improvement in efficacy, & low low margins for the #MSP.

Attacks and breaches are still getting in and happening daily. More and more MSPs are losing sleep and struggling with audits and insurance knowing they don’t have a strong detection and response program beyond endpoints.

Deploying a SIEM, building a big tech stack, and hiring a team has always been considered an impossible dream.

But now with automation driving the ability to respond and remediate in real time, it’s finally possible to launch advanced compliant cybersecurity services built on a SIEM without dozens of eyes on glass.

We are solving this challenge at Seceon. Seceon’s aiMSSP Platform does all the work. It efficiently ingests logs, flows and events at scale across on-premises to hybrid, to multi-cloud, to applications, and IoT/OT including all devices regardless of where they connect from. 95% of cyber threats are detected and automatically blocked with AI/ML. Remediation happens in real time. I believe this is the only way to meet insurance and compliance requirements for your clients AND remain profitable.

So the choices are:

1: License, deploy and manage a big stack and team.

2: Outsource advanced security to a MDR or MSSP and outsource control and outsource profit with no improvement in efficacy.

3: Leverage the power of AI/ML. Launch a high-margin, advanced security service that meets compliance requirements and let AI/ML replace the dozens of eyes on glass.

You built your MSP, now you have an opportunity to quickly become an MSSP. You absolutely can reduce risks and pass audits for your clients. At the same time, you can retain your profit margin for a healthy, scalable and sustainable managed security services business.