Masergy has been in business for almost seventeen years, and their hyper focus is in three specific areas. Based on the connectivity and productivity needs of enterprise customers, Masergy developed the “Masergy Software Defined Platform,” a globally-available technology that powers three solutions:
HybridNetworking – Customizable, high-performance global networking with real-time network control that is fully managed 24/7
ManagedSecurity – Next-generation threat management solutions, fully managed with continuous monitoring by security experts
CloudCommunications – Feature-rich global unified communications solutions that are inherently resilient and infinitely scalable
Each of these solutions contains an embedded layer of intelligent analytics and service control; each solution is built on a foundation of world-class customer service. Masergy believes that clients should be able to see everything at all times both on the security side, the data side and the voice side.
Masergy’s reputation for high performance is unparalleled in the industry. They enjoy a 99 percent customer retention rate and an industry-leading Satmetrix Net Promoter Score of 74. Some people see the “74,” and equate it with a barely-passing grade, but that’s not the case with Satmetrix NPS. Masergy’s score is one of the highest in the high-tech industry. To put it into perspective, the global average NPS for high-tech B2B companies is 16. The Masergy Net Promoter Score of 74 means their customers are so satisfied with our services that they highly recommend us to their peers. That level of customer satisfaction with a client experience is comparable to the Apple iPhone.
According to Gartner, “Visionaries have market-leading plans for the future in terms of geographic and/or network service innovation.” Masergy was named visionary in the 2017 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Global Networking Services. This report touts their many strengths including:
Software Defined Platform
Wide range of virtual network functions
Real time visibility and control portal for customers
Direct connections to top public/private cloud providers
Managed Security Overview
A study from the Ponemon Security Institute commissioned by IBM proved that almost a quarter of all businesses would be breached within the next 24 months. M-Trends reports that even with up-to-date antivirus signatures on every computer and server, it takes most companies an average of 229 days to even detect the breach let alone do something about it.
Because hackers know this, early detection of security breaches means the difference between an attack that’s manageable versus one that is devastating to the company’s finances and reputation. Organizations continue to spend considerable time, energy and resources attempting to combat the problem while hackers continue to get more sophisticated. Hackers are collaborating to build more frightening tools; we’re starting to see some strains of malware active in customer’s environments that self-edit. This means it avoids any sort of detection capabilities by firewalls or products like Cisco and Palo Alto.
According to research, the average total cost of a data breach for the 383 companies participating in this research increased from $3.79 to $4 million. The average cost paid for each lost or stolen record containing sensitive and confidential information increased from $154 in 2015 to $158 in this year’s study.
Problem One:
The primary gap is that technology isn’t federated. Most of your customers have something in place for security like a firewall or some end-point solution like antivirus. The challenge is that even if you have one of each, they all produce dashboards and sometimes hackers will use malware that does reconnaissance on the security defenses in place. If they can, what you have they’ll design an attack that evades those particular defenses.
Problem Two:
There are too many threats and too few professionals. The challenge is that if you hire someone that has the skill level you need they are very expensive resources. Even if you hire someone the likelihood that you can keep them around for longer than six to eight months is very low. You get a lot more for you money when you have a third party manage this as a security service offering instead of hiring a single person.
The Solution
The solution is a holistic, managed solution. We need to think differently about the problem. Rather than believe that we can maintain a secure environment, we need to assume we will be compromised. We need to jettison the perimeter only mentality, and instead, balance our efforts and resources between defending against attacks and identifying internal systems that are already compromised and mitigating those risks. We also need to continuously learn and model what is normal so we can detect abnormal behaviors, investigate, and act accordingly. To do this, we need to employ the right combination of advanced technology and skilled staff.
The first big component of what Masergy can provide is Security Operation Center as a service. All of the components in the image below when woven together are what we call Security as a Service or Unified Enterprise Security. Masergy believes that you have to have all of these pieces in place to have a complete field of view of what’s happening inside the customer’s environment.
This next generation managed service provides an integrated security architecture and advanced behavioral analysis to track suspicious network activities. The solution provides organizations with advanced threat-management capabilities that will help them detect and defend against the growing incidence of cyber attacks. UES provides a single console that delivers unified reporting and comprehensive administrative tools. Their managed solutions also deliver continuous monitoring of your systems by their experts and the latest technologies available in the industry.
So how do you find managed security opportunities? There are a few questions you should be asking your customers to unveil opportunities:
Digital DNA: What digital assets are so critical to your business that if a hacker got ahold of them and put them on the internet for free, it would cause your executives to absolutely freak out?
Lockbox: Where do those digital assets reside today, what access controls are in place and what real-time analytics do you have around that?
Defense Array: What security technologies do you currently have deployed protecting those digital assets?
Protectors of the Realm: How many people on your IT/operations staff are dedicated to managing your security defenses?
