by Philip Lop

Created on: March 11, 2011   Last Updated: March 14, 2011

Modern businesses are increasingly considering turning to third-party providers to procure specialist services, particularly within the IT domain. While IT is a critical component within most companies, it can be difficult and costly to build and maintain in-house capability. 

IT security is a very specific part of the overall IT operation but probably the most important to any business. Outsourcing IT security means hiring a third-party provider to manage all aspects of data security. These providers are generally called managed security service providers (or MSSPs). This approach can be applied to businesses of all sizes but there are a number of pros and cons to consider before making the shift into outsourced IT security operations.

Pros

Reduced costs

One of the biggest benefits of any kind of outsourcing is that it significantly reduces costs for the business. Outsourced operations are able to offer a complete package of services at significantly lower rates than in-house resource. These rates are delivered through economies of scale because the outsourcer specialises in this kind of activity. The cost of training alone, for example, can be a significant drain on businesses, whereas outsourcers will spend a lot of money on this to ensure that their personnel are very well trained.

Benefit from market expertise

Outsourced data security providers remain at the cutting edge of the market because it is their business to stay abreast of developments. Unless a business is itself a specialist in IT, it will need to build the capability to manage security internally. IT security is constantly changing. Businesses are essentially paying for the convenience of a specialist to keep up with the pace of change so that they can concentrate on other priorities. Outsourced specialists may identify areas for improvement that were overlooked by in-house resource.

Better support

MSSPs will normally have excellent relationships with vendors, as they buy from them more far more frequently than individual businesses. As such, they tend to have more extensive support arrangements, from which businesses can benefit. MSSPs get access to patches, fixes and updates far faster than individual businesses. Outsourcers will always provide round-the-clock support. By often operating in different time zones they can far more easily and cheaply arrange this kind of cover.

Benefit from hardware and software upgrades

MSSPs will generally work with high specification hardware and software.

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