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Markus Rex, head of Synaxon Managed Services, believes that working with a specialist third party is the best way for many resellers to offer managed security services.
Most customers – certainly most SMBs – don’t want the hassle of having to manage their own security. It makes perfect sense. By using a managed security service, they’ll be putting their digital protection into the hands of someone with real expertise and experience. Someone who can monitor their network traffic remotely and watch for any potential issue or vulnerability.
The managed services provider will also be able to change configuration settings and, should there be some kind of infiltration or problem, raise the alarm or even better, act to prevent it becoming a real headache. With the right tools, they can even do that before the customer becomes aware of the issue.
It also does away with the need to have someone on-site who is, if not an expert, at least proficient in digital security and can manage settings, and ensure the antivirus and other solutions are kept up to date.
A big opportunity
This, quite simply, is the reason offering managed security services is the way forward for most SMB resellers, and it’s also a big opportunity for them. We know from our own experience and the feedback we receive from our partners that many more small and medium-sized businesses are now prepared to seriously consider making use of managed services for security and other IT functions.
But setting up and managing digital protection services is a huge task. It means making a significant investment and taking on an onerous responsibility. To offer a managed security service you will need resources – servers or at the very least space in a data centre, and a really good, third-party security service that you are able to offer on a multi-tenanted basis.
Then of course, you also need to have expert technical personnel who have a deep understanding of the cybersecurity needed to manage and run the service. It’s not easy to find such skilled individuals. They are in demand and consequently expensive to hire. Also, because of their importance to the business, you’ll need to make sure you retain their services.
Serious business
On top of all this, managing the digital protection for your clients is a serious business. They expect you to deliver rock-solid protection and if any problems do arise, they will certainly want an explanation. You will need to have clear service level agreements in place and make sure you stick to them.
Even so, managed security does present a really good opportunity for partners and it is perfectly feasible for protection to be monitored and managed remotely – if you have the capabilities and the resources in place to do that. Many reseller businesses do not.
This is why the best option for SMB resellers is to work with an established and experienced partner in managed services.
