Acronis announced new research conducted by VansonBourne showing that consolidating and integrating cybersecurity, backup and disaster recovery services produces $229,159 in savings on average and reduces the time required to recover from a breach or data loss incident by an average of five hours.
In conjunction with media sponsor ChannelPro Network, the survey of 400 managed service providers across the globe, titled “MSPs Speak: Cybersecurity and the future role of the MSP,” dives deep into the biggest challenges and opportunities that MSPs face when providing cybersecurity, backup, and disaster recovery (DR) services. Available as a free download, the report focuses on critical issues like cybersecurity attacks, “vendor sprawl,” remote work environments, and the use of SaaS tools by clients.
Data from the study underscores why MSPs need the efficiency gains vendor consolidation makes possible, beginning with today’s dangerous threat landscape. Given the recent flurry of supply-chain attacks, it is not surprising to learn 96 percent of MSPs are concerned about suffering a cybersecurity breach in the next 12 months.
This sense of vulnerability is amplified by a lack of trust in two directions: 49 percent of MSPs responded that their clients do not completely trust the security of the services their organization provides, while 53 percent of MSPs do not completely trust the vendors they use to provide cybersecurity services.
To combat this sense of vulnerability, many MSPs have added additional tools to their technology stack. MSPs use an average number of four vendors to provide cybersecurity, backup and/or disaster recovery services, with 30 percent report using more than five vendors.
MSPs report their clients use an average of 14 SaaS tools, a finding consistent with Acronis end-user research. However, MSPs also report only managing an average of 58 percent of their clients’ SaaS tools, with only 3 percent indicating they manage 100 percent. This discrepancy results in greater vulnerabilities for clients because SaaS data are not being properly protected, and the MSPs have limited visibility into these environments.
However, there is potential for growth for service providers if they are able to prove to their clients there are benefits to having them manage the licenses, on-boarding, security and performance of these SaaS applications.
MSPs report the biggest obstacles to managing more of their clients’ SaaS tools are not having the right relationships with line of business decision makers (44 percent), not having the right tools (41 percent), and a lack of trust (39 percent).
“Securing SMBs from rampant cybercrime profitably has never been harder, and channel pros are eager to deliver security services faster and more efficiently as a result,” said Rich Freeman, ChannelPro Network’s executive editor. “This study makes clear not only that a surprisingly huge number of MSPs are consolidating vendors in pursuit of those goals, but that they’re saving significant amounts of time and money along the way too.”
