By Russell Poole

There’s no doubt customers are running scared: Gartner expects the global security market to be worth $93 billion by the end of this year. MSPs are naturally looking to grab some of that business.

To become a true managed security service provider, however, you need a 24/7 security operations center, or SOC. That’s an expensive proposition — the capex and staffing issues are enough to stop some MSPs from adding that extra “S” to their acronyms.

MSPs typically have three options to establish a SOC: DIY their own branded service, partner with an established player with a turnkey service, or resell a vendor’s white-label offerings. Each of these brings challenges when it comes to profitability.

Let’s look at the overall management complexities of operating as an MSSP, whichever SOC model you go with. To serve customers properly, you will need to:

Much has been written about these. Let’s dig into what I see as the key to MSSP profitability: simplifying SOC operations wherever possible while ensuring that your services are scalable. MSPs always need to flex their business models in order to add new specialties; increase the number of users supported; and ramp-up the volume of data, processing and network resources consumed.

They also need to be able to scale down and avoid wasting money by paying for more resources than business volume demands. That’s an issue across managed IT services, and it affects security as well. 

Data costs can also be a drag on SOC profitability. With the annual boom in data volume continuing unabated, monitoring and analyzing all the information moving in and out of corporate networks has become a huge money-maker for traditional vendors that supply SOC infrastructure. With pricing for core SOC technologies typically based on data volume, vendors basically have embedded steadily rising costs into the managed-security services business model.

Have I made you think twice about making the leap to manged security? Good, because this isn’t a business to enter into lightly. Customers trust MSSPs with their business reputations. But if you’re still reading, there are ways to overcome these challenges and benefit from the surging demand for cybersecurity:

Making the leap from MSP to MSSP means operating scalably and efficiently. Clients demand detection and response to attacks in real-time with zero tolerance for error. MSPs that add security services to their portfolios but don’t optimize their SOC operations will struggle to sustain profitability in a lucrative but increasingly crowded market.

Russell Poole is managing director, U.K. and Ireland, for LogPoint. Having been at the forefront of the cybersecurity industry for well over 10 years, Russell is using his experience to expand LogPoint’s presence in the United Kingdom and Ireland. After spending more than two decades working in IT for some of the leading brands in the U.K., Russell’s focus is working with organizations to not only ensure IT security is aligned to business goals, but also to ensure secure working practices can be leveraged as a growth driver and key differentiator.