A new survey from Chicago-based managed security service provider (MSSP) Trustwave revealed that organizations with 1,000 Internet users or fewer spent more than twice as much on IT security on a per-user basis than larger organizations (those with more than 1,000 Internet users).

The survey of 172 IT professionals showed that IT security cost $157 per Internet user in smaller organizations versus $73 per user in larger ones.

Also, Trustwave found that 28 percent of all respondents said they believed they were not getting full value out of their security-related software investments.

Other Trustwave findings included:

“Too many businesses purchase security technologies only to realize they do not have the manpower, skillsets or time to make sure the technologies are installed, updated or working properly. The lack of resources leaves a gap in their security that needs to be filled,” Josh Shaul, Trustwave’s vice president of product management, told MSPmentor.

“Partnering with a third-party team of security experts helps fill that (security) gap because the security experts focus on the business’ security while the in-house IT team focuses on other revenue-generating priorities,” Shaul added.

Trustwave found that the number of users served by cloud and/or managed security services is expected to increase by 43 percent in 2015, and Shaul noted that MSSPs can leverage valuable resources to help enterprises and SMBs protect their sensitive information at all times.

“MSSPs have built-in intelligence through their advanced research and ethical hacking capabilities. They also help businesses identify and remediate security weaknesses across their infrastructure before the criminals can exploit them,” he said.

Share your thoughts about this story in the Comments section below, via Twitter @dkobialka or email me at [email protected].