Over time, the frequency and scale of cyberattacks have grown significantly. Organizations are now in the need for a multi-layered, highly connected security system that can mitigate risks and prevent attacks. With this growing threat and the increasing security skills gap, in-house security teams are no longer sufficient to protect businesses. Therefore, it has now become inevitable for such organizations to look towards Security as a Service (SECaaS) solutions.
Security, when delivered as a service, can help organizations better utilize their limited resources and time. There are several advantages of adopting at SECaaS over traditional security methods since it gives you access to enterprise-level security tools but at much lower costs. So, rather than having to hire security professionals from an already scarce marketplace, organizations can now rely on service providers to protect themselves against emerging cyberthreats.
What is Security as a Service (SECaaS)?
Security as a Service means an outsourced service which enables an outside company to handle and manage your security. The simplest and oldest example of security as a service is the use of anti-virus software.
Opting for SECaaS means that security solutions will not be provided locally. Now your IT department will no longer be installing spam-filtering tools, anti-virus software, and performing other security measures on each machine that is connected to your workplace network. They will not be keeping the software updated and providing guidelines for the usage. This manner of providing security was expensive because there were upfront costs for hardware along with the recurring costs for software licenses so you can continue using them. On the contrary, SECaaS lets you use the same software and tools through a web browser, making them more affordable and accessible.
What services come under SECaaS?
Security as a service includes:
- Continuous Surveillance: Tools to track the traffic in-flow and out-flow of your network to identify suspicious access and assisting you to manage risk.
- Email Security: Tools to protect your network against spam, malicious attachments, and phishing.
- Data Monitoring and Loss Prevention: Tools to monitor, verify, and protect the security of all your data and information.
- Encryption: Tools that give an unreadable form to your information so it cannot be used in the wrong way even if someone intercepts your network.
- Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery: Tools to create data backups in case of any disasters. Such software helps you recover any data losses if a disaster strikes so that your operations are not hindered.
- Network Security: Tools that assist you in managing network access and wisely distribute, monitor, and protect your network services.
- Access Control Management: Tools for identity verification, authentication, user management, and access intelligence to allow only permissible access to your network.
- Risk Assessment: Tools to identify strengths and weaknesses of your current security measures and finding possible improvements by comparing them with the industry standards.
- Intrusion Prevention: Tools to detect intrusions by identifying unusual activity through pattern recognition.
- Web Security: Tools to protect webpages that can be accessed by anyone, in real-time.
- Vulnerability Testing: Tools to find any vulnerabilities that may exist in your IT infrastructure or your network.
- Security Information and Event Management: Tools to collect and log event information so it is analyzed in real-time, detecting any attempts of intrusion.
Benefits of SECaaS:
Considering how strong SECaaS is, there is no doubt about the benefits it can provide to businesses of all scales. Some of such advantages are:
- Reduced Costs: As mentioned earlier in this article, the conventional way of implementing security measures was quite costly. Hardware costs along with repairs and updates can collectively cause overwhelming expenses for any business. SECaaS means security services are delivered via a single cloud-based platform, hence allowing businesses to have better protection more affordably and conveniently.
- Instant Access: SECaaS allows users to access the tools instantly. The security services are provided on-demand, so you can scale up or down as your business requirements change.
- Saves Time: When security is taken care of by an external company, your own IT team will be able to focus on other important businesses needs rather than spending time in managing antivirus on different devices or patching software.
- Centralized Management: All the complex work will be done by your service providers. They can take total management of your security policies, solutions, and administrative work. You can also provide security services to your business through a cloud-based console which lets you deploy, administer, and monitor your network’s safety.
- Quicker Provisioning: The best part about as-a-service technologies is perhaps that users can access them whenever they want. Security-as-a-service offerings are provided to users according to their demand, ensuring speed and agility.
Importance of SECaaS for Businesses:
One of the first questions that come to mind when talking about security as a service is how important it is when moving towards a robust security infrastructure. In short, it is immensely important. First, because of the high demand for security professionals, it has become increasingly difficult to find in-house personnel to take care of your organization’s security. Second, even if you manage to find in-house professionals in this scarce market, they cannot cover all threat vectors.
With the growing threat of cyberattacks, your security team must focus on businesses-critical tasks. However, there are a several things you need to look towards to become completely secure which include disaster recovery, software configurations, and compliance & regulatory requirements. Since it would be too costly and time-consuming to hire specialized professionals to look after each aspect of your security, SECaaS provides a viable solution to businesses.
Managed security is important because it helps you simplify your approach towards security. You can tackle a greater frequency and complexity of cyberattacks as well as meet emerging compliance requirements by adopting a cloud based SECaaS solution. This is because these solutions are best-of-the-breed and to-the-point solutions that incorporate advanced security technologies such as real-time scanning, behavioral analysis, risk mitigation, and machine learning with regular updates for securing your organization against all threat vectors. You get to work with the latest and most advanced enterprise-level tools while reducing costs significantly. The cybersecurity landscape is ever-changing and with threats becoming more complex and chaotic by the day, businesses need to adopt a security solution that is flexible and can contain the dynamic nature of threats which is what SECaaS offers.
Security as a Service (SECaaS) presents a wide range of benefits for businesses including lower costs, easier management, centralized control, and quicker provisioning. It is the next step forward for organizations to address the dynamic and ever-changing nature of cyberthreats.
Here at Apvera, we provide you with a comprehensive suite of security solutions which can be customized and managed from a single management console. As one of the most reliable Security as a Service providers in Asia and Europe, we aim to provide cutting edge technologies and advanced security solutions to our customers to ensure that they remain protected and compliant at all levels. To learn more about how we can help you become cyber secure, operationally resilient and compliant please contact our team right away.