Your network is one of the most critical parts of your business—which means that any technical issues will come at a high price. According to a study by ITIC Corporation, 81 percent of organizations estimate that a single hour of downtime would cost their business $300,000 or more.
As the “engine” driving almost every modern company, your network deserves special attention. The change and competition inherent in today’s business landscape requires your network to have even more availability, reliability, flexibility, and security.
For these reasons and more, many organizations are looking to partner with a managed network security provider. In this article, we’ll discuss 7 reasons why you might want to join them.
7 Advantages of Using a Trusted Partner for Security Services
1. Expertise
The right network security provider will have a wealth of experience working with dozens of other clients in different verticals, from healthcare and financial services to education and manufacturing. Having this depth of experience to rely on means that you’re not left guessing about your next steps when a new patch is released or a new cyber threat emerges.
Recreating this kind of skill set in-house is challenging, especially for smaller companies that may not have the most resources. Large firms can more easily build dedicated in-house security teams, but it takes months or years to identify potential team members with the right expertise then go through the hiring and onboarding processes if you’re starting from scratch.
Of course, no one will ever know your business better than you do in terms of your needs, goals, and situation. However, when you forge a strong, long-term relationship with a trusted network security provider, your partner will ideally get to know your business almost as well as you do - allowing them to anticipate your needs and serve as a valuable advisor.
2. Fewer systems to manage
Between routers, WAN optimizers, and firewalls, there’s a lot on your plate in terms of network security. Having your partner handle the details of IT management and maintenance allows your employees to focus on the mission-critical work in your core business. This means your internal teams are more productive for their work on customer-facing issues and projects.
3. Routine health checks
Some less scrupulous network security providers only perform health checks when they claim they have the time to fit them in or after something has disrupted your network. We make sure to proactively schedule network assessments in a way that fits your needs, setting aside dedicated blocks of time with your project management teams.
From there, we can offer recommendations based on the findings such as performing maintenance or applying patches and policies—whatever it takes to keep you seamlessly up and running.
4. Single point of contact
Kelser offers a single point of contact for our clients in order to simplify the task of network security for you. In the background, we partner with a global security operations center with 24/7 network monitoring, so that we always know when something is amiss.
Using both artificial intelligence and human monitors, your security logs are analyzed for suspicious activity, generating alerts when necessary. This information is then presented to you through your point of contact, facilitating smoother communication.
5. Talent retention
The field of network security is a seller’s market right now. 53 percent of organizations say that they’re currently experiencing a “problematic shortage of cybersecurity skills.” As a result, finding the right employees is tough, and retaining them while keeping them engaged is even more difficult.
With a managed network security provider, there’s no need to worry about hiring or turnover as long as you’ve signed an SLA (service-level agreement). At Kelser, our employees get to put their skills to use in multiple client environments, helping them keep their minds fresh. We also invest in our staff long-term through training and education programs.
6. Easier to scale
When scaling a company, it’s easy to forget about IT security best practices. Rapidly growing businesses may have a huge surge in customer demand, but struggle to keep up in terms of cybersecurity. As your organization expands, outsourcing your network security is the best way to scale the company without leaving yourself exposed to gaps and unanticipated threats.
For example, we use best practices for authentication. Instead of using a pre-shared key on a wireless network, we can implement other behind-the-scenes authenticators to further harden the your network. We have the expertise to lock down both the wireless environment and the local network environment.
7. Technology updates
Improved network and security services should be a serious concern for every organization. Knowing that your network is protected and lightning-quick can save you hours or days of downtime (and untold amounts of headaches and stress).
Working with a managed network security services provider is like leasing a brand-new car every few years—it’s much less likely that you’ll have an engine failure or other serious technical issues.
Network security isn’t a “set it and forget it” kind of deal; your IT environment needs constant adjusting in order to proactively manage potential issues. Kelser helps you perform technology updates, acting as a trusted advisor to implement IT security best practices.
Conclusion
The advantages listed above are just a few benefits of working with a network security partner. If you’re interested in learning more, download our ebook “10 Simple Things to Improve Your Company's Cybersecurity Posture.” For a deeper dive into the best practices regarding your specific network security, get in touch with us today for a consultation.
