What does the growth of SaaS, cloud computing, hybrid WAN architecture and SD-WAN mean for managed security service providers (MSSPs)? Quite a lot, as it turns out. A column from WatchGuard’s Himanshu Verma was recently published by MSSP Insider, explaining how these trends create new business opportunities for MSSPs and the capabilities they’ll need to offer to take advantage of them.
Mid-market businesses exploring these options generally do not have the level of in-house expertise necessary to implement an SD-WAN rollout. MSSPs can increase their value to customers by providing these services, but they will need to have several internal tool and features in place to be able to offer them profitably. Himanshu breaks these into four categories, which are:
- Single point of procurement
- Zero-touch deployments for both services
- Centralized remote management and remote monitoring
- Layered and packaged security services
By offering both SD-WAN and security solutions, MSSPs can reduce their costs, simplify management for themselves and their customers, and more easily scale to match customer’s needs, while still maximizing profits. Here’s an excerpt from the article explaining why centralized remote management and remote monitoring are crucial for MSSPs looking to offer profitable security and SD-WAN services.
“It’s important to have a simple and intuitive interface that enables setup and management of networking functions. This can include link monitoring for jitter/loss/latency, application traffic management, and quality of service, in addition to functionality that enables MSPs to set up security policies and deliver remote reporting for usage and compliance. As a result, MSPs can deliver cost effective, differentiated services, while demonstrating success to their customers.”
Read the full article in MSSP Insider to learn more about the tools and features mentioned above, and explore how WatchGuard can help MSSPs take advantage of the SD-WAN movement here on Secplicity.
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