There are many new services that managed service providers (MSPs) can add to their service stacks, such as cloud migration and digitization services, but the biggest area for growth is currently cybersecurity services.
The number of cyberattacks on SMBs and enterprises has increased substantially in recent years. More attacks are now being conducted than ever before, and many of those attacks are succeeding.
A successful attack can prove extremely profitable for an attacker and extremely costly for an enterprise. When a network or email account is breached, sensitive information can be stolen, such as the personal data of customers and employees and corporate secrets and proprietary data.
When customer information is stolen, the damage to a company’s reputation can be considerable. Customer churn rate increases, business is lost, and there may be regulatory fines to cover and lawsuits to fight. Notifications need to be issued and credit monitoring and identity theft protection services may need to be provided to customers. When proprietary data is stolen, a company’s competitive advantage can easily be lost.
Following any security breach, hours must be committed to forensic analyses to search for possible backdoors and malware. The breach cause must be identified and security holes must be plugged. All those costs (and more) add up. This year’s Cost of a Data Breach study conducted by the Ponemon Institute/IBM Security revealed the average cost of a data breach of up to 100,000 personal records has risen to $3.86 million in 2018 – a 6.4% increase since 2017.
The massive disruption to businesses caused by cyberattacks and the considerable cost of mitigating data breaches means SMBs and enterprises need to take precautions and invest in cybersecurity defenses. However, the shortage of skilled staff in this area and already overworked IT departments has meant many companies have had to turn to MSPs and managed security service providers (MSSPs) to help shore up their defenses, monitor for potential intrusions, and respond to breaches when they occur.
Many MSPs have responded to the demand and are now offering security services to their clients to meet the demand. That demand is so great, that managed security services are now a huge growth area for MSPs.
Each year, Channel Futures conducts its MSP 501 survey, which evaluates the revenue growth, service deliverables, and business models and strategies adopted by the most progressive and forward-thinking MSPs around the globe. This year, the survey revealed that the biggest growth area is security services. 73% of all surveyed MSPs said security was their fastest growing service. As a point of comparison, the next biggest growth area was professional services (55%), followed by Office 365 (52%) and consulting (51%).
With huge demand for managed security services, it is no longer a question of whether they should be added to MSPs service stacks, but more a question of how they can be integrated, how to architect those services, and how to package security services together to meet customers’ needs.
What Security Services are Being Offered by MSPs?
Many enterprises and SMBs that attempt to go it alone end up deploying dozens of different security solutions at considerable cost, only to discover they are still attacked and suffer network breaches. Most businesses do not have the staff to commit to implementing, monitoring, and managing large numbers of cybersecurity solutions. This creates an opportunity for MSPs.
Some MSPs have opted to provide clients with a suite of cybersecurity solutions from a single provider, as the solutions work seamlessly together and there is less potential for security gaps to exist. While this has worked for some MSPs, the problem with this approach is clients could approach that vendor and decide to go direct. MSPs that have succeeded with this model are adding considerable value – such as their expertise in running those solutions.
Logicalis, ranked #10 in the MSP 501 list, has taken a different approach and is bundling together a range of solutions that can be easily managed together and match customers’ needs exactly. “We pick our swim lanes, we pick our areas that are most relevant to our skills, to our customers, and we make sure we have the disciplines and domain expertise to deliver against that,” said Logicalis’ chief sales officer Mike Houghton.
Clients often get the best value – and protection – when MSPs package together cybersecurity products from a wide range of cybersecurity solution providers to provide a comprehensive security service, as Tom Clancy, CEO of Valiant Technology and #206 in Channel Future’s MSP 501 list explained. “Providing a bundle of offerings from different vendors that work well together is the most effective way for an MSP to retain its role as a trusted adviser.”
Valiant Technology has even taken this a step further and is moving towards making security a ‘non-optional’ offering. Clancy explained to Channel Futures that, “Our managed services plans will say, ‘It costs this much per seat, and it’s this much if you want the security package. And by the way, you really want the security package, otherwise here’s my limitation of liability.”
Naturally, putting together a package of security services requires considerable research and planning, new staff may need to be hired, and training on the products must be provided. It is a lot of work, but the potential rewards are considerable.
How Can TitanHQ Help?
TitanHQ has developed an award-winning suite of security products that is ideally suited for MSPs, offering a winning combination of easy deployment, remote management, superb protection against a wide range of threats, and excellent margins. The solutions mitigate the threat from web and email-based attacks and can be integrated seamlessly into MSPs existing service stacks.
SpamTitan provides world-class protection from spam and malicious emails, preventing malware, ransomware, and phishing emails from reaching end users’ inboxes. Malware protection is provide dual antivirus engines that have been shown to block 100% of known malware threats in independent tests. Suspicious attachments that pass the AV scans are sent to a Bitdefender-powered sandbox where they are subjected to an in-depth, sophisticated analysis to identify previously unknown malware threats and malicious scripts. The solution is automatically updated and is fed real-time threat intelligence gathered from an active database of 650 million users.
SpamTitan uses a defense-in-depth approach to protect against phishing threats, including machine learning predictive techniques to identify zero-day phishing threats. SpamTitan scans inbound and outbound emails and includes a data loss prevention feature to prevent attempts to use email accounts to send sensitive data outside the organization.
TitanHQ has developed WebTitan to provide protection against web-based threats. WebTitan is a web filtering solution that blocks web-based cyberattacks by preventing end users from visiting malicious websites and downloading malware. WebTitan stops malicious requests at the DNS layer, which is better than waiting for the payload to be delivered onto the machine and then removed. By stopping it at the DNS layer you’re reducing not only malware infections, but containing machines already infected by preventing them from communicating out to their C&C servers.
Benefits of TitanHQ Cybersecurity Solutions for MSPs
- Easy client account administration via a central control panel
- One control panel to manage all clients
- Intuitive controls with low management overhead
- Eliminates the need for site visits, with no local support required
- No end user software installations needed
- Incorporate new clients in minutes
- Competitive usage-based pricing with monthly billing
- Three hosting options: Our servers, a private cloud, or within an MSP’s infrastructure
- Generous margins for MSPs
- Industry-leading technical support and customer service
- Solutions available in a white label version ready to take MSP logos
To find out more about how these two solutions benefit MSPs and their clients, and the tools available to seamlessly integrate these technology-agnostic security services into MSPs security packages, contact the TitanHQ team today and ask about joining the TitanHQ MSP Program – TitanSHIELD.
The TitanHQ MSP Program
MSPs joining the TitanSHIELD MSP program receive one-to-one training with our sales engineers and have a dedicated account manager, assigned sales engineer support, access to the Global Partner Program Hotline, access to the Partner Knowledge Base, 24/7 priority technical support, online technical training and FAQs, access to the Partner Technical Knowledge Base, and full access to an extensive range of marketing materials and sales tools.
Testimonials from TitanHQ MSP Clients
“WebTitan is an outstanding tool for most reliable content filtering. The monitoring feature of this specific product is quite unique that totally monitors all the process of online working and also secures all the data. Additionally, its set-up is superb easy and it can be done in just few minutes that save my time and energy as well.” – Kristie H. Account Manager
“WebTitan is fairly easy to setup. It is available as a cloud based solution or on prem. You can get as simple or as complicated with your filtering as you like, it will handle most situations with ease. It has provided us with a stable web filtering platform that has worked well for us for many years.” – Derek A. Network Manager
“WebTitan is outstanding software that helps me a lot in minimizing viruses. The thing I like most about WebTitan is that it is extremely easy to use and configure. I like its clear interface. It lets us block malicious content and spam easily. It is no doubt an amazing product helping us a lot in kicking out harmful bad stuff.” – Randy Q. Software Engineer
“A key part of our security stack as we’ve scaled to over 6,000 managed endpoints, while decreasing virus and malware related tickets by 70%.” – MSP, Boston, US
“It has paid for itself many times over by reducing malware calls.” – MSP, Toronto, Canada