Cybersecurity Talent Shortage Boosts Need for Managed IT Services

There's a well-documented lack of qualified cybersecurity and IT professionals these days. The Hartford Business Journal recently interviewed me for an article titled, With uptick in attacks, demand for hard-to-find cybersecurity talent grows.

Here is the section where I'm quoted:

“It’s not necessarily a new issue, but it’s gotten more acute,” said Jim Parise, president of Glastonbury technology consulting firm Kelser Corp. “We’re all competing for talent. And when you see what’s been happening, that heightens everyone’s sense of needing a security posture. So the competition’s only going to get more intense.”

Cyber threats have been around as long as the computer networks they seek to compromise, Parise noted, but up until fairly recently, the issue was only on the radar of large corporations doing particularly sensitive work.

“It’s the perfect storm,” he said. “The cyberattacks — at least the ones we hear about — have created an explosion of need that really wasn’t there 10 years ago. There weren’t enough people in the cybersecurity pipeline then, and there certainly aren’t enough in the pipeline now.”

I had a great conversation with Zachary Vasile, who wrote the article. Not everything we touched on made it into the piece, so I thought I'd share some additional highlights here.

IT talent shortage makes managed service providers an appealing option

Part of the value proposition of an IT managed service provider (MSP) like Kelser is that we provide top-level IT expertise without the need for companies to hire full-time IT staff.

It's a business model that makes a lot of sense even when IT talent is available. In the current labor market, many companies that might want to hire a CIO likely will have a hard time finding one that meets both their requirements and their budget.

Not only does it potentially not make sense for companies to hire a great deal of full-time IT staff, but presently, and for the foreseeable future, it's going to be difficult for them to do so. An MSP like Kelser that provides a vCIO on a fractional basis is a great solution.

With an MSP like Kelser, you don't have to wait to make that elusive blockbuster IT hire to use technology to further your key business objectives. You get access to top IT talent right away who can align your IT strategy with everything you do.

How Kelser hires top IT talent

Despite the very tight IT labor market, I'm proud to say that Kelser continues to land new hires at the top of the field. There are a few reasons for this.

Kelser is a great place to work.

Kelser CEO Barry Kelly has been focused on creating a fantastic work culture at Kelser for decades. This includes tangible perks such as unlimited PTO and a pet-friendly workplace, as well as intangibles like our open-door policy for leadership.

Many members of the Kelser team become friends outside of work. We also get passionate about one another's causes. If you need participants for a fundraiser, your co-workers will be game. The wackier the better.

If you're an innovator who thrives on collaboration, you'll be very happy at Kelser. Highly motivated professionals who bring forward new ideas and carry them to fruition love it here. Plus, you can wear shorts to work and bring your dog. Oh, and our coffee is really good, too.

Kelser provides the chance to work in many different environments.

IT professionals can certainly have their choice of places to work these days. For many, the idea of working somewhere with a steady flow of new challenges and opportunities is appealing.

Kelser's vCIOs (virtual chief information officer) and TAMs (technology alignment manager) do hands-on work with a variety of clients. They might work with a defense contractor one day and an auto dealer the next.

That's not to say we're generalists — many of our IT professionals are able to hone a specialization at Kelser better than they would working in-house for a single company.

If your specialty is cloud security, for example, what better way to further your expertise than being involved in many different cloud environments across separate organizations?

Since Kelser's team integrates seamlessly with our client organizations, working at Kelser gives IT professionals the stability of a well-established IT firm employer, with the flexibility to create their own niche and work directly with client teams at other organizations.

Kelser is growing and has a few open positions right now, in fact.