The Kaspersky Lab IT Security Risks Survey 2017 highlighted that 42% of small and medium businesses (SMBs) and 51% of enterprises indicated that they worked with Managed Service Providers (MSPs). This suggests that businesses are starting to realise that MSPs can be a helping hand towards enhancing their IT security.
A trusted MSP is vital in remotely managing the IT infrastructure of an organisation, leaving it free to focus on meeting its core strategic business deliverables while knowing its IT security is taken care of. Smaller businesses often do not have the resources needed to give IT security the attention required.
Riaan Badenhorst, General Manager at Kaspersky Lab Africa said: “Often, existing IT staff are inundated with service requests and need to constantly manage other software and hardware issues. This shifts cybersecurity down the priority scale. However, the right MSP could provide the assistance required and make all the difference in a business’ IT Security strategy and their defences.”
Despite this however, nearly a third of businesses still do not equate an MSP as a trusted partner. A total of 32% of SMBs and 35% of enterprises feel they cannot rely on the security of their IT infrastructure with MSPs and only 25% of businesses planned to use MSPs in 2018 to tackle their IT security challenges.
The reality is that MSPs must prove their effectiveness and reliability to organisations. Offering only the best-in-class, affordable, worry-free and integrated security solutions is one way of achieving this. Yet, considering how cyberattacks are evolving and the potential damage they pose to business, MSPs also need to be equipped with the training and expertise that will make them a reliable and trusted partner and consultant of choice.
In 2017, Kaspersky Lab launched a specialised MSP partner program aimed to equip service providers with the tools, training and expertise, to become reliable and trusted partners. The partner program has seen good success and with that Kaspersky Lab continues to expand what it’s offering to MSPs, as it sees the MSP market as one that aids to the process of fighting cybercrime.
To this end, Kaspersky Lab, along with one of its leading value-added and trusted distributors, First Distribution, are participating in this week’s iWeek event at the Westin Hotel in Cape Town
Their participation aim is to give service providers the opportunity to grow and expand their offerings around IT security to their customer base, that considers the growing and complex cyberspace that requires consistent attention to be able to stay ahead of cybercriminal antics.
