The expectations on managed service providers (MSPs) to provide security means many are having to expand their capabilities to increase data protection offerings.
At the same time, those working with MSPs are also increasing the tools that can make life easier for the channel community. That process is either happening via partnerships or through M&A.
An example of the latter comes from Kaseya, which picked up SaaS [software as a service] Alerts back in October to strengthen its security offering.
The addition of cloud detection and response tools means the vendor is able to arm partners with the ability to identify threats and head off attacks.
Jim Lippie, CEO of SaaS Alerts, has seen the pressure on MSPs increase as users look for help improving their data defences.
“We see the user activity associated with what’s going on with the user and how they interface with those applications, whether it be Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce, Dropbox, Slack, etc,” he said. “We see who’s logging in, where they are logging in from, what are they looking at…
“That gives our MSP partners visibility to be able to act on security events that are important to their customers,” said Lippie.
Security score
Lippie added that MSPs could start by providing users with a security score, which was often disturbingly low, and revealed vulnerabilities across the infrastructure.
“It allows us to look at the existing security score for that individual environment, look at the recommended actions associated with the license type in that environment, and then, based on those recommendations, what could the ultimate score be? Then, literally, with a push of a button, it goes into the tenant and makes all those recommendations happen,” he said. “So, your score goes from 44, let’s say, to an 84 just like that, which is really important for the MSP.”
Lippie added that one of the most important services an MSP could provide a customer with was insights into their current security posture. “It’s the wild west out there,” he said. “Everyone enables and disables whatever they want, whenever they want. No one has a really good idea of what’s going on until you’re actually monitoring it.”
Lippie said that not every managed service provider had the security skills of a managed security services provider, but needed to be able to provide monitoring and alerts for their customers. “We’re democratising security on behalf of the MSP community,” he said.
Lippie added that the involvement with Kaseya had seen an increase in the number of partners using the tools, and it was committed to evolving the offering to make sure it covered a wide range os SaaS applications.
“At the time of the announcement, on October 29, we had 1,200 MSPs using SaaS Alerts,” he said. “Since the announcement, there’s an incremental 1,300 they’re now using through Kaseya 365 User, or on a standalone basis through Kaseya.
Speaking to MicroScope last month, Fred Voccola, CEO of Kaseya, said it continued to update its 365 platform and the user-focused security and data protection tools. “Kaseya 365 User is everything to prevent, respond and recover to threats to user security, user identity management and user data preservation, everything to manage the user,” he said.