The managed service provider market is growing rapidly. As cyberattacks continue to increase worldwide, more and more small-and-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are looking to MSPs to take the load off when it comes to securing their business. 

With more business, of course, comes more competition—and what better way to whet your competitive edge than to offer security services that SMBs desperately need?

It's a no-brainer. By focusing on the specific security needs of their customers, MSPs can attract and retain the 91% of SMBs who would consider switching service providers if another one offered the “right” cybersecurity services.

Okay, but that begs the question: Exactly what security service should MSPs be offering to their clients? Endpoint protection, EDR, and VPM services are high-up there—but you may not know that Managed Detection and Response (MDR) is another must-have.

MDR is a service that provides around-the-clock monitoring of an organization’s environment for signs of a cyberattack. Gartner reports that, by 2025, 50% of organizations will be using MDR services for threat monitoring, detection, and response functions that offer threat containment capabilities.

The core service capabilities of MDR include:

• 24x7 monitoring of an organization’s environment for threats.

• Threat detection, alerting, and response from highly experienced security analysts.

• Correlation of endpoint alerts with other data sources to identify threats and response measures more effectively.

• Proactive cyber threat hunting based on past indicators of compromise (IOCs)

While it’s technically possible for MSPs to build out their own MDR program in-house, doing so takes the same time, expense, and effort as starting an entirely new IT security department. You’ll need to build out your own security operations center (SOC) facilities, hire a minimum of five full-time employees to provide 24/7 coverage, and so on.

In short, the expertise and infrastructure required for MDR is why many MSPs opt to outsource their MDR to a service provider. 

Here are three ways MDR can drive business growth for MSPs.

1. Minimize dwell time

In the cybersecurity world, dwell time is the time that elapses between a malware or an attacker infiltrating a system and when they are detected (and removed).

The longer the dwell time, the longer an attacker has to elevate their privileges and move deeper into a network in search of sensitive data and other high-value assets. We call this lateral movement—and MDR can nip it in the bud, preventing a potential data breach. It’s all made possible by threat hunting. 

Threat hunting typically includes two essential functions in the delivery of MDR services:

• A research-based approach, where security analysts look, or “hunt,” for known attackers or adversarial behaviors listed in threat intelligence services. 

• An active hunting approach, where security analysts systematically review your organization’s environment to uncover any current suspicious activity or newly emerging indicators of compromise (IOCs) that are in progress.  

Because both research-based and active threat hunting can stop an attacker before they exfiltrate data or deploy ransomware, outsourcing your threat hunting can greatly help control infections for your MSP clients. And if you have a reputation for letting fewer threats through than your competitors, you’ll likely attract more business.

2. Overcome alert fatigue

Let’s say your MSP business serves more than 60 customers, ranging from small businesses with a handful of employees to larger companies with about 150 users. 

Every day, your small team works to protect thousands of endpoints, and deals with an ever-growing number of alerts.

With constant alerts demanding attention, MSP security analysts end up being overworked and exhausted, reducing their ability to properly identify and triage alerts to prevent malware infections and the spread of damage. That can lead to missed threats getting through to clients—ultimately leading to data loss and downtime for their organizations.

By outsourcing your MDR, your environment is monitored 24x7x365 by a team of advanced cybersecurity analysts. Rather than scrambling to identify and understand critical threat alerts, your MSP team receives notifications from the MDR team with guidance to remediate critical threats.

Not only can this increase your team’s morale and job satisfaction, but it also opens your team’s resources to focus on net new billable projects.

3. Increases customer satisfaction and MRR

If you’re an MSP, you might find three ways to take your business to the next level:

• Increasing your number of customers offers increased monthly recurring revenue (MRR) and diversifies your client base, but providing the services businesses are looking for could require extra staff.

• Recruiting larger customers could increase MRR at a lower marginal cost than serving multiple small clients, but a larger client could require more resources to properly manage.

• Upselling existing customers would allow your MSP to build upon your current customer base, but it will require a compelling value proposition to encourage satisfied customers to increase their monthly spend.

Finding an offering that provides 24x7x365 security is a great way to increase your number of customers, recruit larger customers, and upsell existing customers all at once—and MDR can make it happen. Specifically, other than 24x7 real-time threat detection and threat hunting, MDR offers a few other key features that businesses of all sizes are looking for:

• Threat intelligence: Provides insights into who attackers are, where they can access the network, and specific actions that can be taken to strengthen defenses against a future attack. 

• Effective threat response: An MDR service provider with top-tier security analysts will have the skills to tackle complex threats. This will reduce an organization’s mean time to respond (MTTR).

• Reporting: MDR service providers give transparent and consistent communication, sharing details about their threat detection and giving expert guidance on responding to and remediating security threats.

By outsourcing your MDR, you can offer all of these in-demand activities for current and prospective clients without needing your own in-house MDR tools and staff.

Transform your MSP business with MDR

The threat hunting, threat intelligence, and threat response capabilities of MDR make it a must-have solution for any security-minded SMB. Likewise, with the demand for MDR services on the rise, MSPs would be wise to include it in their security portfolio. 

For many MSPs, however, delivering MDR services isn't possible with their current staff and tools. 

Partnering with an MDR vendor provides several key advantages, giving you fast time-to-market to immediately address market demand and enabling you to offer a service that has top-tier professionals and uses the best security tools. 

Want to learn more about MDR? Checkout our webinar: Malwarebytes EDR Product Demo.