Many companies often find themselves at a crossroads deciding how to address security needs as their company is growing. Technology solutions that worked at one stage may no longer be sufficient to address current challenges related to securing your infrastructure, systems, and/or data.
As a result, your company may consider expanding the IT or technology department, increasing headcount, and employee expenses. Alternatively, it may be time to evaluate outsourcing IT security services to a managed service provider with rich experience and expertise in these areas.
As with most business decisions, there is no single right path. You will have to choose the right path for your company’s needs and resources. What we can tell you is that an outsourced expert can help identify security gaps, work with your team to close these gaps, spearhead project efforts, communicate directly with management about security challenges, and drive and review results of your security program.
Why Reviewing Security is Important Now and Not Later
We understand that many mid-sized companies have competing priorities during this stage of growth. But it would be a mistake to gloss over security efforts. The last thing you need is any type of cyber disruption impeding that growth.
Cyberattacks are on the rise across every industry. We saw this during the initial coronavirus-related shutdowns in March and April 2020. The attacks have continued since then, and the methods of attack continue to advance through different means of trying to exploit vulnerabilities to swipe data or shut down systems.
The reality for U.S. businesses is that a typical cyber attack is not only from lone wolf hackers. That’s a perception that has stuck in the minds of many business leaders through the years. In actuality, the trend is that attacks are state-sponsored, with support from major international players looking to take advantage of vulnerabilities from unsuspecting U.S. companies that have been lulled into a false sense of security. Companies of all sizes need to keep up.
Outsourcing security to a team of trusted and reliable experts can provide you with long-term support that will grow and change throughout your company’s expansion. Now is a great opportunity to utilize managed IT security services to implement long-term strategic solutions to protect your company’s valuable business data and technology systems.
Why Leverage Managed IT Security Services?
The talent in many IT or technology departments are trained to execute security tasks at the tactical level and/or could possibly struggle to keep up with the latest security tools and technologies. In some cases, departments may lack strategic leaders that can view the technology challenge holistically and craft a long-term, effective solution.
Tapping into a third-party IT resource is more than just resolving technology issues as they arise. A managed IT security service provider will work closely with your team to think bigger about your company’s overall technology challenge, leveraging security expertise and business acumen to develop solutions that align your technology resources and business goals. This way, your company is well-positioned to adapt to emerging security challenges both in the near-term and years down the road as you continue to grow and new threats emerge.
The key to building this security foundation is leadership. An outsourced security expert with proven leadership experience can help your business achieve agility by crafting a plan to close security gaps, re-allocate resources, and then position your existing technology team to execute their security tasks effectively.
An outsourced security expert can help:
- Design and build the IT strategy.
- Support execution of the strategy.
- Create alignment with overall business objectives.
- Review the results to support continuous improvement.
Working With Management to Advocate for Security Solutions
Another important element of utilizing outsourced IT security services is the opportunity to receive support when advocating for a solution that will solve the larger security challenge in your company.
Management may not understand the full scale of the challenge your company is facing during this growth stage. It’s difficult to conceptualize the problem if there is not a clear explanation of the risks involved. That’s why an outside security leader can provide value to your company by entering high-level discussions. A security leader can provide strategic support, deliver deep analysis of current vulnerabilities, and present a solution to mitigate risk.
Your company may even consider engaging an outsourced security expert to serve in an interim leadership capacity designing, building, and executing the IT strategy that aligns with your business objectives. In this case, the leader will stay in regular communication with management about progress, results, and any new challenges that have arisen to maintain confidence in the security solution.
Consider Socium Solutions for Security Leadership
You have options to address security challenges as your company grows. We believe in our approach to solve not just today’s challenges, but the major challenges of tomorrow as security risks continue to evolve.
As a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP), we are built to address unique security challenges for mid-sized businesses across many industries. We focus on long-term solutions, not short-term fixes. This includes a broad view assessment of your current challenges, then working toward strategic implementation of technology solutions.
As an outsourced IT security service provider, we are capable of providing strategic leadership to support the execution of the strategy. Depending on the nature of the challenge, we are fully capable of providing interim, fractional, or project-based leadership to ensure alignment with business objectives, manage the project, and effectively communicate with management.
Our outsourced suite of security services are customizable and scalable to meet your needs, providing you with needed flexibility as you grow. When you’re ready to solve the security challenge in your company, keep in mind the importance of leveraging the capabilities of a managed IT security service provider. Contact us today to discuss. We’re here to help.