Finding the right Managed services provider is a critical business decision for all companies. Listed below are 6 things to consider when hiring the best-Managed services provider to achieve your business goals.
Application security is now a vital part of any strategic business process, but it still has less priority, less budget, and attention than network security. But due to some high-profile data breaches and hackers are targeting applications as an entry point, organizations are now focusing more on application security. The Managed services provider comes into the role here.
Role of a managed services provider in Application security
Hiring a Managed services provider is an effective and cost-efficient method to address application security concerns and reduce the burden for internal teams. A survey conducted by Continuum in 2019 found that 77% of small businesses are expected to outsource at least half of their cybersecurity needs to managed service within the next five years.
Managed services providers help companies to eliminate the overhead costs that come with hiring, retaining, and equipping an internal team. Added to that, a highly skilled and efficient managed services team helps your employees to focus on other core business activities. But finding the right managed service process is a critical part, below are a few things to consider when hiring the best provider.
Take note of these common mistakes
1. Giving out full control
In case you plan to outsource all day-to-day application security work to a managed services provider, you should be in charge of your software security strategy. So, choose a provider who gives you complete control over test timing and depth.
2. No visibility of activities
Be assured that you have full visibility into testing activities and results, and make sure a seamless communication with your provider. Search for providers who provide transparency and visibility through a cloud-based portal that gives you access at any time for an aggregate view of test results.
3. Underestimating growth
Make sure the service provider allows you to increase the number of applications to test, and the depth of testing, without affecting the budget.
4. No Flexibility in testing tools
Certain service providers might limit you to using only their own testing tools. In case you have a choice of specific tools, make sure your managed services provider provides the flexibility to incorporate it into your testing plan. It is a common method adopted, to get the best results, use multiple tools.
5. Too much dependency on automated testing
Automated tests can result in a large number of false positives. At times manual testing is required to identify multistep penetration scenarios and most critical vulnerabilities. So do make sure your service provider has plans of human analysis to help prioritize results.
6. Choosing a provider that leaves all the fixes to you
A good managed services provider will help you interpret the test results and offer remedy support specific to your technical risk and business objectives. So expect your testing provider to hold read-out calls with your developers and offer ongoing support to fix security issues.
