MSPs, Autonomous Solutions to Fill Growing Cyber Skills Gap

By Edward Gately

Due to increasing levels of cyber threats over the last several years, many cybersecurity professionals are feeling overworked and overwhelmed. They’re even leaving the industry altogether. That’s creating a cybersecurity skills gap and leaving businesses vulnerable.

This offers a perfect opportunity for MSPs to step in with automated security solutions to help organizations optimize security, while coping with fewer resources and financial constraints.

According to Omdia (the research firm that’s part of Informa Tech, Channel Futures’ parent company) the skills shortage is cited by 32% of global decision-makers as a significant challenge in cybersecurity. As seasoned executives know, hiring a professional cybersecurity individual who is business savvy with gleaming security credentials is a utopia, and rarely economically viable. The digital economy, marked by more remote workers, integrated supply chains, hybrid and multicloud, agile practices and microservices architecture, made for a lethal combination of complexity, and one dependent on talent to solve.

On top of a 2.7 million person gap today, new Mimecast research shows that one in three cybersecurity professionals is considering leaving their roles over the next two years due to stress and burnout, furthering the talent gap.

Where MSPs Come In

MSPs already have proven invaluable to organizations across industries and sectors by helping them and their customers stay secure amid challenging economic headwinds and limited budgets.

Looking ahead, more MSPs will look to increase efficiency by deploying autonomous solutions that leverage artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) to deliver data management that is self-healing and self-optimizing, while eliminating some of the manual day-to-day tasks.

In 2023, look for more MSPs to help fill the cybersecurity talent shortage by implementing autonomous data management solutions to ensure their customers’ data is always available and resilient from ransomware and other cyber threats.

A growing number of vendors have been preaching the benefits of MSPs offering automation to better prioritize threats and concentrate on less-mundane tasks.