How Censornet changes the managed security game for MSPs
by Neil Walker, on February 23, 2021
With so many security-as-a-service offerings out there it can be difficult for MSPs to choose the right cloud security service, especially to start with.
Of the many point products available, almost all address only a small part of the array of threats out there -- leaving many existing managed services relying on multiple point products to protect SMB customers.
Additionally, when MSP teams are forced to use and monitor multiple point product admin interfaces and dashboards, operational efficiency suffers.
It is well understood that when we jump from task to task, or in the case of cyber security professionals from one point product admin interface to another, the brain has to work harder, depleting mental reserves and increasing stress levels
That's why Censornet's IT channel manager Peter Heron recommends consolidating management of point products.
"This can reduce the mental gymnastics required of MSP teams when navigating between different admin interfaces and separate customer instances, while also simplifying rule and policy creation and management," he says.
Avoid error, complexity and cost
Each security point product typically has its own 'database' of threats and targets -- so each time a rule or policy is changed there is an opportunity for human error or a misconfiguration to create a security 'gap'. Additional management screens also add complexity and cost.
"For the MSP, a single management console that handles different security functions, while sharing within each unique customer instance, the same common database of threats, targets, identities, states, and contexts, simplifies the complex task of security management significantly," notes Heron.
Whether by shortening the time taken to research and acquire technology to support a new service or to train the security team on a newly acquired product, a consolidated platform -- like Censornet -- can provide the MSP both a cost and time-to-market advantage.
Also, gaining coordinated visibility to derive insights is trickier with a plethora of point products. Even a highly skilled MSP team can struggle to extract actionable intelligence -- the key asset for facilitating fast decision making and problem resolution -- from the daily avalanche of event and alert data.
"Managing separate admin interfaces for each security point product makes coordinated visibility and management more difficult, if not impossible, in at-scale, multi-customer deployments," suggests Heron.
"Reducing the 'daily noise' by partitioning the MSP environment to create unique customer instances with tailored visibility, alerts and control based on role (role-based access control), is one of the key benefits of adopting a consolidated MSP-centric platform."
The Censornet cloud security platform puts MSP teams back in control, without breaking a sweat. By integrating email security, web security, cloud access security broker (CASB) and adaptive multi-factor authentication (MFA) into a single user-friendly interface, it provides MSP teams with unrivalled visibility and control.
White-label benefits for MSPs
In this way, MSPs fills in the holes left by siloed security products -- potentially saving MSPs thousands of pounds and hours lost to manage separate systems and sprawling admin interfaces.
"However, it is the ability to create 'child accounts', each with their own separate policies providing the MSP with the flexibility to meet local legislative and regulatory compliance requirements, data protection and privacy laws, along with extensive white labelling features that make the Censornet Platform perfectly suited to MSPs," according to Heron.
Neil Jordan, managing director at Alternative Solutions, said that before his company discovered Censornet, they had thought their options were already comprehensive. Download the Alternative Solutions case study here.
"Yet they either consisted of separate products or partially integrated solutions where the component parts were sub-standard. When I saw a demo of Censornet’s combined web, email, and cloud (CASB) security platform at a trade show, I felt like I had stumbled across something that didn’t exist," Jordan confirms.
"We have seen much better user acceptance with Censornet too, which is down to the usability, accessibility and sleekness of the product. Overcomplication is a common pitfall in security."
