March 10, 2010

Managed Security Benefits

Explore the benefits users and organizations realize through the adoption and implementation of Managed Security. Includes financial impact, organizational benefits and much more.



Growth and Sustainability of Managed Security Services Networks: An Economic Perspective
Multiple benefits that individual firms can derive by using MSSPs:
- Cost savings: cost of managed security service is usually lower than hiring in-house full-time experts. MSSPs are able to spread their investment in infrastructure and people across several clients.
- Staffing: shortage of qualified security personnel puts big pressure on companies to recruit, train and retain their security staff.
- Skills and security awareness: MSSPs have better insight into evolving security threats directly and indirectly because of their focus and wider install base.
- MSSPs can provide objectivity, independence, liability protection, dedicated facilities, and round-the-clock service.
Alok Gupta and Dmitry Zhdanov, Department of Information and Decision Sciences, University of Minnesota

Network-based Security Services: The Right Approach at the Right Time
As part of an in-depth look at Managed Security Services, this analyst report analyzes the ten benefits of MSS. Highly recommended. From the Resource, ten reasons why enterprises select a network-based approach for security:
- Resource Pooling - In a network-based approach, the service provider combines multiple components to offer security services in a unified service delivery environment.
- Resiliency and Responsiveness - ... around-the-clock assessment of threat activities and their relevance to known vulnerabilities supplemented with a current inventory of security technologies and their configurations is critical to protecting the enterprise's network, applications, and information as strategic assets.
- Reserve Network Bandwidth for Legitimate Business Use - With the security environment residing in the CSP's network, threatening (e.g., virus, malware, and denial of service attacks) and unwanted (e.g., email-borne spam) traffic can be filtered out before traversing through the access link between the CSP's network and its enterprise subscribers' business locations.
- Mobile Friendly - Similar to end-users in branch offices, end-user handheld devices need protection from Internet threats and users' Internet activities from corporate-liable devices (i.e., the enterprise is liable for wireless usage) should be controlled.
- Reversing Security Appliance Sprawl - The advantage of a network-approach is that existing and new security technologies are incorporated into the MSSP's security service delivery environment, not at enterprise locations.
- IT Personnel Offload - Balancing security and business objectives requires an increasingly talented team of security practitioners.
- Speed-to-Protection - Correlated with the previous point, not only does the CSP's team of security practitioners allow it to serve its subscriber base well from a technological basis but also in terms of speed.
- Budgetary Certainty - As a subscription service, network-based security services offer a predictable cost structure. The subscribing enterprise pays a fixed monthly amount for its service subscriptions regardless of changes in the threat environment.
- Options Remain Open - For enterprises that subscribe to network-based security services, their options on how to conduct information security remain open.
- Meet Compliance - The spirit of regulatory compliance is substantiation of security practices. Compliant security practices must be shown to be in place and continuously in effect.
Stratecast / Frost & Sullivan

« 1 | 2 | 3 | next »