What is Security as a Service (SECaaS)?

Much like Software as a Service, SECaaS provides security services on a subscription basis hosted by cloud providers. Security as a Service solutions have become increasingly popular for corporate infrastructures as a way to ease the in-house security team’s responsibilities, scale security needs as the business grows, and avoid the costs and maintenance of on-premise alternatives.

Cost Savings

One of the biggest benefits of a Security as a Service model is that it saves a business money. A cloud delivered service is often available in subscription tiers with several upgrade options so a business only pays for what they need, when they need. It also eliminates the need for expertise.

The Latest Security Tools and Updates

When you implement SECaaS, you get to work with the latest security tools and resources. For anti-virus and other security tools to be effective, they must be kept up to date with the latest patches and virus definitions. By deploying SECaaS throughout your organization, these updates are managed for you on every server, PC and mobile device.

Faster Provisioning and Greater Agility

One of the best things about as-a-service solutions is that your users can be given access to these tools immediately. SECaaS solutions can be scaled up or down as required and are provided on demand where and when you need them. That means no more uncertainty when it comes to deployment or updates as everything is managed for you by your SECaaS provider and visible to you through a web-enabled dashboard.

Free Up Resources

When security provisions are managed externally, your IT teams can focus on what is important to your organization. SECaaS frees up resources, gives you total visibility through management dashboards and the confidence that your IT security is being managed competently by a team of outsourced security specialists. You can also choose for your IT teams to take control of security processes if you prefer and manage all policy and system changes through a web interface.

The range of SECaaS services currently available is vast and offers protection at the most granular level. Some examples include:

• Continuous Monitoring
• Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
• Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BC/DR or BCDR)
• Email Security
• Antivirus Management
• Spam Filtering
• Identity and Access Management (IAM)
• Intrusion Protection
• Security Assessment
• Network Security
• Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
• Web Security
• Vulnerability Scanning

Handing over the security of your most critical and sensitive business assets is a massive undertaking. Choosing a SECaaS provider takes careful consideration and evaluation. Here are some of the most important considerations when selecting a provider:

• Availability - Your network must be available 24 hours a day and so should your SECaaS provider. Vet out the vendor’s SLA to make sure they can provide the uptime your business needs and to know how outages are handled.
• Fast Response Times - Fast response times are just as important as availability. Look for providers that offer guaranteed response times for incidents, queries and system updates.
• Disaster Recovery Planning - Your provider should work closely with you to understand the vulnerabilities of your infrastructure and the external threats that are most likely to cause the most damage. From vandalism to weather disasters, your provider should ensure your business can recover quickly from these disruptive events.
• Vendor Partnerships - A SECaaS provider is only ever as good as the vendors that have forged partnerships with. Look for providers that work with best in class security solution vendors and who also have the expertise to support these solutions.

Whether it is saving money, improving efficiencies or protecting your infrastructure from the latest security threats, managed services like SECaaS can provide great value to your organization by strengthening your defenses and improving your bottom line.