How MSPs can boost the adoption of unified security

Adopting robust processes to identify, classify, remediate, and mitigate vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them is a new imperative in corporate environments. An efficient, proactive cybersecurity strategy must be multi-layered and able to consider challenges from all angles. Although increasing the number of solutions deployed to protect the attack surface may appear to be the answer, the opposite is true. A proactive approach involves reducing the number of different cybersecurity vendors. Using more tools is not the secret to security success for organizations nowadays.

According to Gartner, security and risk managers are increasingly dissatisfied with operational inefficiencies and lack of integration between heterogeneous cybersecurity solutions. Against this backdrop, a study by Pulse reveals that MSPs believe efficiency could be improved by up to 10% if their customers' cybersecurity management were handled through a single interface, eliminating the need to switch between different menus and screens. The first benefit that consolidating cybersecurity providers deliver is an improved risk stance, and many MSPs are already aware of this.

Notwithstanding, they are still asking which arguments they should use to persuade customers to adopt a unified security approach.

Making a strong case for implementing a single, tightly integrated security platform

Achieving comprehensive protection means simplifying solution administration. Using different technologies can create security holes and require time-consuming training to use each interface and reduce visibility. By learning a single platform and all its capabilities, teams are able to support their customers and offer additional services and capabilities with confidence. See an actual partner example here. Now, to convey this vision to customers, MSPs need to highlight the following factors of a unified security platform approach:

• It provides comprehensive security: Adopting a unified security approach provides access to a comprehensive portfolio of cybersecurity solutions tailored to the needs and specifications of organizations of all sizes. This means that MSPs get more out of their current investments while offering enhanced protection to users through an ecosystem where technologies are grouped in the same console and work better together. Bonus perk: the platform, not the team, does the heavy lifting.
• It provides greater clarity and control: With a simplified dashboard and intuitive Cloud interface, you can easily provision, deliver and manage hardware, software, and subscription-based cybersecurity services for consolidated administration and reporting. In addition, the visibility it provides makes it much easier to stay on top of what's happening inside the network and exercise effective control over security.
• It improves operability: The platform removes the complexity from business operations by providing direct access to the API. In addition, it is possible to access a broad ecosystem of ready-to-use integrations.
• It provides shared knowledge: Adopting a zero-trust posture with shared knowledge is imperative. With threat detection and response, MSPs can collect event data from the firewall, as well as data from enterprise-grade threat intelligence sources, and analyze it to assign an assessment and classify end-to-end threats. This enables the team to respond quickly and confidently to threats.
• It relies on automation: this helps reduce human error and saves resources, thus achieving simplicity and scalability for security.
• It promotes cost savings: Gartner points out that cost savings should not be the main argument for deciding to consolidate cybersecurity providers. Even though this is true; security should be paramount. Once it is clear that protection has been guaranteed, this becomes a key factor. A unified platform saves costs, which translates into less time spent jumping from one solution to another, as well as providing faster training for the team as it is a single interface and the opportunity to get a better offer from the cybersecurity provider.

Uniting solutions to future-proof cybersecurity

Future-proofing may sound like a complex task, but it can be made more accessible by choosing the right single vendor. Adopting the best single-vendor platform for your needs will facilitate security monitoring, which is already important now but is likely to be crucial in addressing advanced and unknown threats in the future. More so if we consider the boom in mobile devices connected to corporate networks, a trend behind the extension of the attack surface now that will continue to be consolidated in the coming months.

Another advantage of partnering with one provider, rather than several, is that in the event of a cybersecurity incident, it is easier and more convenient to have a single point of contact to help identify and mitigate the issue.

This is why partners are already assessing which cybersecurity solutions work well for them and fit them best so that they can work with the vendor that provides them with the comprehensive security they are looking for through well-integrated technologies that their teams can work with efficiently. By citing the positive factors in this post, MSPs can present a solid business case to their customers to persuade them to adopt this approach, as it will not only strengthen security but also simplify tasks for their teams.