The number of IT professionals who already utilize or plan to utilize a managed service provider for their security needs has risen over the past year due to mounting pressure to secure enterprise assets and a general lack of in-house security expertise.

The growing need for security-centric MSP services was detailed this week in Trustwave’s 2016 Security Pressures Report, which polled more than 1,400 IT security professionals worldwide to learn how they handle the mounting pressures associated with protecting critical company assets. Trustwave’s third annual study paints a picture of increased anxiety to detect and prevent enterprise breaches, but an overall lack of skills required to perform these duties, leading many security professionals to turn to MSPs for help.

According to Trustwave, the number of respondents who already work with an MSP or plan to partner with one in the near future rose from 78 percent to 86 percent in the past year. While the growing adoption of managed services is sure to be welcome news to security-focused MSPs, the looming problems associated with properly ensuring that critical business assets remain protected is indicative of a widening skills gap among security experts and IT professionals.

This could be due to the fact that 63 percent of information security professionals reported feeling additional pressure to secure their organizations in 2015, marking a 9 percent increase over last year’s survey. Those pressures are expected to increase in 2016 as well, with 65 percent anticipating even more stress associated with protecting critical assets (which marked an 8 percent increase over last year’s study.)

“Businesses rely on information security more than ever before and the pressure to show measurable success is taking a toll on security practitioners,” said Steve Kelley, chief marketing officer at Trustwave, in a statement. “The widening gulf between the expected outcomes and the struggle to maintain adequate solutions and staff is driving businesses, now as many as 86% of them, to partner with a managed security services provider to relax the pressures and help them achieve their cybersecurity goals.”

And even though a lack of security expertise has been a concern for IT professionals for a number of years, Trustwave reported that respondents are more concerned than ever when it comes to their security know-how. Shortage of security expertise is now the third-largest concern among respondents, compared to last year when it was ranked as the 8^th largest concern among professionals.

It’s understandable that IT professionals are more concerned than ever with protecting their critical assets, especially in light of the many high-profile public breaches that have taken place over the past two years. And even though breaches are bad for everyone, MSPs do stand to increase their marketability and grow their businesses by offering security-focused services. Managed security is, in effect, a good thing for both enterprise customers and MSPs; it means more business (and, therefore, profit) for managed service providers while also allowing businesses to focus on satisfying customers rather than worrying about data loss.