Posted by SecExtra on December 12th, 2009

As threats from the internet increase, managed security services have become widely adopted by large companies as a cost-effective way of providing the expertise needed to keep threats at bay. But, says Network Box, mid-sized and smaller companies are now also seeing higher returns on investment in managed security services – usually between 20 to 40 per cent – over in-house expertise.

The paper examines the main reasons for businesses to use a managed security service, and suggests areas that should be considered when calculating the cost of a managed service against in-house expertise. These include: speed of deployment; application security management (including user policies, access rights, adding new features and configuration); software and hardware costs, including upgrades; reduced cost of skills training (to provide expertise in-house) and personnel recruitment; increased user adoption (including testing and deploying new features); reduced support needs; and reduced (and fixed) implementation costs.

Simon Heron, Internet Analyst for Network Box, says: “Security management has become such a specialist area that it makes good financial sense for most companies to outsource the day-to-day management of it. This frees up in-house IT teams to focus on where IT delivers strategic value to the business, rather than getting caught up in everyday issues such as software upgrades, or figuring out why a new application gets caught in the firewall. We’re seeing smaller businesses start to realise these advantages as managed services become more mainstream.”

The paper is free to download from Network Box’s website…

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