Businesses today are moving in a highly digital climate. Files are saved and kept through software or hardware, and operations may also be online. Whether small or big, businesses need to have strong and good cyber-security measures. Otherwise, you can become easy prey to hackers who may be just around the corner, waiting to lure their next victim.
When it comes to cybersecurity or IT security services, businesses generally have two ways to build and manage cybersecurity operations: in-house or outsourced by a third party. Each mode has its respective pros and cons, but here, the focus is on the latter. The decision to outsource is a business-critical decision to make, one that should be given a lot of thought and research first before making the final say.
In this article, you’ll come across a thorough discussion on some of the pros and cons of outsourcing your business’ IT security services.
The Pros
1. It Gives You Access to Top-Notch Cybersecurity Skills
Cybersecurity is a very pressing matter, one that shouldn’t ever be delayed. It’s, for this reason, that time is of the essence. While training an in-house team is possible, it may not always be the most feasible approach. You have to factor in the time it takes to finish training an entire team. Though it may not be fast enough to cover the existing IT security needs of your business.
With that, outsourcing is the solution for you to gain top-notch cybersecurity skills ASAP. Right from the moment you hire an agency, you’re guaranteed their expertise. You know for sure that they know what they’re doing. The expertise they bring to the table is more than sufficient to secure any cyber-security-related threat that your establishment may have, as long as other related functions like monitoring those threats and researching more databases are available for your company to use.
To start with, view this website for IT services possibly offered by a good IT security company. This gives you a strong starting point of comparison among different IT security agencies.
2. It Ensures A Robust Architecture Implementation
Information technology security services and all those related to information technology come with a lot of gadgets and equipment to invest in. Depending on the size and financial capability of your business, the equipment can be very expensive. Moreover, it may be impractical to invest in all those, especially when the option to outsource is present.
Hence this advantage ensures a robust architecture implementation. Here’s why. Outsourcing your company’s IT security services can give your company access to sophisticated and powerful tools and software that you may not have had the opportunity to afford or manage, otherwise.
Remember that software in cybersecurity is replaced and updated at a rapid pace. In between procuring the latest software and training your in-house team, you may already have obsolete one. Outsourcing prevents this lapse by being able to catch up with the latest.
3. It Provides A Comprehensive Risk Management
As briefly discussed above, another advantage of outsourcing your IT security services is the fact that it can provide risk management and monitoring for your business. To break it even more specifically, the risk management provided isn’t just any other type of risk management. Rather, it’s a comprehensive one, to provide your business with the best security service.
There are two solutions that an outsourced IT security team can bring, while still keeping the costs down:
- Managed Detection and Response (MDR), which is an active form of threat-hunting tool or system;
- Outsourced Threat and Vulnerability Management, which features a passive form of risk visibility.
4. It May Brings in Cost-Savings
Outsourcing is highly known to be a cost-effective solution for many businesses. This advantage also applies to companies who outsource their IT security. Note that businesses today are faced with very fierce competition, always with the desire to outdo other businesses. This leads to cost-effective measures like restructuring and downsizing, through outsourcing.
Your company may save money through outsourcing because:
- You may be able to run a leaner overhead structure;
- You can meet deadlines better, despite the presence and fear of security risks;
- You’ll have better control over the licenses needed for the security software you use;
- You can now apply to world-class standards with the expertise brought in by the outsourced IT security team.
The Cons
1. It May Not Always Be the Easiest Approach to Make
Depending on the security services you outsource, it’s important to be aware of the fact that outsourcing may not always be the easiest approach. It can be tempting to see it as a way to take a lot of technical work and weight off your shoulders, but outsourcing is also something that has to be approached with caution.
The key factor that contributes to this challenge is the very fact of how IT security permeates and affects your entire organization as a whole. It’s not like outsourcing one department, such as marketing, for instance, whereby only the marketing department gets affected. This latter example would be a lot easier.
2. It Results in Less Control Over Your IT Security Team
When you outsource, you’re paying for the service of a third-party agency. Compared to having an in-house team, you won’t have as much control over your IT security team when you outsource. Yes, you can set the company standards and all the other requirements you’ll have for the IT security team to comply with. But, that’s as much control as you’ll have over the staff.
If your business is of the type wherein you have a vested interest in maintaining full control over your security and other business processes, then handing over a huge chunk of the control to the outsourced IT team may be an issue for you. This applies to businesses that regularly have confidential and sensitive data, which you may not want to be accessed by a third party, despite the presence of a confidentiality agreement.
Final Thoughts
Businesses today are faced with challenges unlike any they’ve encountered in the past. At the forefront of those challenges is the feeling of being overwhelmed and overworked trying to manage the business’s IT department, particularly security services. This is where outsourcing comes in. Like any other business process, outsourcing also comes with its pros and cons. The discussion above should help you make a well-informed choice as to whether or not outsourcing is, in fact, the best for your business.
Also Read: Benefits Of Outsourcing IT Services
