What are managed services?

On average, organizations pass to the MSPs services that require 24/7 support. Implementation of managed services allows organizations to reduce costs by refusing the internal IT department maintenance partially or completely and provides other benefits, especially in the cybersecurity field.

Types of managed services

Companies can pass any IT functions to managed service providers. On average, they outsource IT services that require huge costs or narrow expertise to be managed properly. Here are some of the most common types of IT managed services:

  • Hosting
  • Network and infrastructure monitoring
  • Cybersecurity management
  • Data center management
  • Business app management

Managed services history

The concept of managed services first occurred at the turn of the 90s and 2000s as a response to the increasing complexity of processes in the IT field. With the development of cloud technologies, managed IT service providers were able to scale their services:

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) models emerged.

Cybersecurity managed services

As cyber threats are constantly growing in number and complexity, managed services in cybersecurity are gaining momentum. At this point, organizations cannot cover their needs for cyber protection at the expense of their own resources.

The scope of managed security services mostly boils down to the following items:

Managed security service providers that focus on these matters have teams with extensive knowledge in the field. Through constant work in these areas, specialists face a variety of cases and deepen their expertise. It allows them to solve problems much more efficiently than an in-house IT team could possibly do.

Managed services benefits

Organizations implementing managed IT services experience numerous benefits. They can significantly improve financial parameters, enhance performance, and streamline processes in the IT department.

Cost reduction

Managed services allow organizations to cut expenses on their own IT department management. Terms of cooperation with a managed service provider are fixed in the service level agreement (SLA), making the spending much more predictable in the short and long run.

Expert knowledge

In most cases, the in-house IT teams’ expertise doesn’t provide them an opportunity to tackle unusual and complex cases efficiently. For instance, information security specialists may not have enough experience responding to advanced threats. Meanwhile, managed services providers have specialists with unique knowledge and constantly upskill them.

Compliance implementation

Compliance may be a big challenge for organizations, especially in the finance, healthcare, or education industries. Managed services providers can help their customers navigate all the regulatory requirements in the field and ensure compliance with them.

Scalability

SLAs for managed IT services are reviewed and updated regularly, which allows customers to scale the level and scope of service according to their current needs. Such flexibility is not often available when an organization relies on the in-house IT department only.

How to choose a managed service provider?

To make the most of the managed services, it’s crucial to approach the process of choosing a provider consciously. We recommend considering the following criteria:

  1. Comprehensive expertise. Managed service provider’s experience in the field, knowledge, and innovativeness are essential to help their customers prosper and achieve their goals.
  2. Automation capabilities. This part is crucial for reducing the customer’s IT team’s workload and increasing its efficiency. Managed services provide better results when coupled with automated solutions for streamlining processes.
  3. Business-oriented approach. To achieve the best results, managed service providers should consider the customers’ business objectives and gauge their services and solutions accordingly. A one-size-fits-all approach would not provide the needed level of efficiency.
  4. Compliance with standards. Managed services should comply with standards, especially in the field of cybersecurity. It gives a customer confidence that their information and other assets are well protected.
  5. Proactiveness. The “if it works, don’t touch it” approach may be alluring. However, it provides much less benefit than proactiveness. Managed services providers should go beyond to protect the customers’ interests.

Does Group-IB provide managed services?

Group-IB is a major managed security service provider with a wide range of services, from incident response to security assessments to threat intelligence. To cover the full cybersecurity cycle, we recommend considering the managed services embedded in the Group-IB Managed XDR solution:

  • Managed detection. With unique Threat Intelligence, Group-IB specialists can promptly detect a threat and notify your team about it.
  • Managed threat hunting. Manual search for active compromise attempts allows for addressing new and unknown threats. We hunt such threats by testing hypotheses based on the data collected by Group-IB Managed XDR.
  • Managed response. Detected attacks will be stopped by our incident response team. Expertise in digital forensics, malware analysis, and reverse engineering helps our incident responders reconstruct the attack lifecycle and give recommendations to prevent similar incidents.

Apart from 24/7 access to seasoned SOC analysts, DFIR experts, and threat hunters, Group-IB Managed XDR enables you to counteract cyber threats in an automated mode. The solution is equipped with EDR and NDR capabilities, a Malware Detonation Platform, email protection, and other modules for advanced security. Learn more about Group-IB Managed XDR.