Sunday, 10 March 2019 Blog ehdf

How Managed Security Services Have Evolved

Managed Services For Business

The adoption and migration to Cloud based solutions are one of the key focus areas to ensure that businesses have greater agility, remain flexible and have an efficient IT infrastructure to maintain a competitive edge. However, the UAE cyber security landscape is extremely volatile and evolving at a fast pace. In-house IT teams while remaining focused on daily needs may not have the bandwidth or professional skills to tackle the security environment. Managed Security Service providers is the alternative that not only provides specialized skills but are in a strong position to deploy advanced data security services and updates through their global security vendor partnerships. With strict regulations now coming into force in the region, organizations find it highly effective to outsource their security requirements to remain compliant. Additionally, security comes at a high cost both to build and maintain the systems. MSSPs therefore enable organizations to shift from the CAPEX model to an OPEX route with predictable costs.

Impact of Cloud on Managed Security Services

The surge in Cloud migration has also seen the unprecedented need for Cloud security. This rolls out an opportunity and has given rise to an increase in Managed Security Services (MSS). In fact, the expected rise of MSS from USD 24.05 billion in 2018 to USD 47.68 billion by 2023 according to a MarketsandMarkets report is testimony of the high demand for the service. This is the result of complex IT infrastructure, the adoption of IoT as well as the challenges that spring from multi-cloud usage. The volatile UAE cyber security landscape requires specialized skills for Cloud security management. Managed Security Service Providers can provide the services efficiently with their know-how, professional talent pool as well as domain experience. However, this also calls for MSSPs to evolve rapidly to be in a position to tackle diverse environments. There is a need for MSSPs to stay abreast in the crucial areas of automation in threat detection, analysis and adaptive response to ensure that they are in a position to provide superior customer service.

Role of Automation and Machine Learning

In their bid to protect customers better, it is inevitable that MSSPs are shifting towards machine learning and boosting their efforts towards strengthening their big data and artificial intelligence capabilities. While at a lower level, machine learning helps understand and learn without set programs, at the higher level it is capable of analyzing behavioral patterns, advanced capabilities for threat detection and paves the way for predictive solutions for threat response.

The sheer volume of data that is created and used today can only be structured and analyzed effectively by incorporating artificial intelligence and machine learning. Intelligent machines will help in controlling network traffic and become empowered to tackle problems without human intervention. Productivity is heightened and thereby creates rooms for better ROI. With real time analysis, MSSPs are in a better position to attain their SLAs and garner higher customer satisfactions levels. Predictive analysis helps the MSSPs provide real-time threat detection which significantly reduces threat risks, provides a steadier customer environment and raises the confidence levels in service quality.