Is outsourcing your IT security right for your organization?

Imagine you are running a large, swanky five-star hotel where guests expect to pay for luxury services. You might conclude that having full-time medical doctors on staff is worth the investment.

However, were you running a leaner hospitality operation, the associated costs of full-time doctors would simply be prohibitive, putting your business under unnecessary financial strain.

Now compare this scenario to that of a growing business needing to secure its systems, data and users from unauthorised access and malicious software.

For a few larger organisations – or for those with an IT-security business focus – it’s vital to have a number of IT security specialists in house.

But the rest of us would be wise to weigh the pros and cons of outsourcing IT security.

So, just what are the principal benefits of outsourcing your IT security to an expert consultancy?

Lower IT security costs.

The cost-performance ratio isn’t always there to support a gaggle of full-time IT security specialists. Considering that the current median salary for this role is $72,000, going up to $115,000, this is not an insignificant business cost.

While we would always recommend that at least one senior stakeholder is knowledgeable in IT security, organizations need to weigh the pros and cons as to whether hiring an IT security team to manage the day-to-day security activities has an appropriate return on investment for the business.

Once the security strategy is created and agreed upon, and the implementation complete, in-house IT security specialists are often expected to be on call, monitoring the systems and jumping into action should they see suspicious network activity.

By outsourcing these tasks to an expert IT security consultancy, you benefit from its in-depth experience at thwarting suspicious and malicious activities for a fraction of the cost of supporting full time IT security staffers.

Improved business performance.

Outsourcing also allows you to convert a fixed cost into a variable one, allowing organizations to release capital for investment elsewhere in the business. It can also allow you to avoid large expenditures, which can be a lifesaver in the early stages of a business.

This financial realignment can release extra funds to hire IT business enablement specialists, for example, to focus on providing better services and tools to help grow the organization.

Reduced risk exposure efficiently and effectively.

Most in-house IT security specialists do not have as much hands-on experience and knowledge when it comes to reducing exposure to threats. As a result, many lean towards the better-safe-than-sorry approach to ensure they have all their bases covered.

Thing is, recommending more IT security than is warranted for a specific company increases complexities and costs while reducing system efficiencies.

The key is getting the balance between accessibility and security.

Great IT security partners will create a new (or review an existing) security strategy befitting your operation. A good cybersecurity strategy will take into account the assets that need protecting so it can provide expert recommendations on how you can reduce the organization’s exposure to risk cost-effectively.

Once the strategy is in place, they will monitor the network for changes and regularly perform penetration tests to ensure that the network’s integrity has not been compromised.

Broad range of in-depth security expertise at your fingertips.

IT security grows in complexity each year. With very real threats such as DDoS attacks, ransomware, intrusions, hackers and socially engineered campaigns to steal sensitive data, the amount of knowledge required to properly fend off cyber attacks has increased dramatically.

The best IT security consultancies provide their customers with peace of mind. With a broad range of in-depth security know-how to improve network resilience to cyber attacks, customers can have dozens of IT security experts, at their fingertips.

And should the organization be targeted, the value having those IT security resources available to you to analyse and rectify the situation is huge. IT security consultancies deal with critical situations on a regular basis, and have all the tools and methodologies available to return a system to normal operation with as little disruption to the customer’s business as possible.

Is outsourcing right for you?

There are many things to consider when contemplating whether to outsource your IT security functions. It is vital that you ensure that your selected IT security consultancy can demonstrate they have the skills, knowledge, tools and dedication to protect your organisation.

In an upcoming post, we will outline the questions you should ask of a potential IT security firm to ensure they have the right credentials to offer you peace of mind long term.

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