If you’re playing a critical role in an enterprise today, you must know network and cyber security are absolutely essential. It seems hardly a day goes by without a major news story about this or that organization falling victim to a serious breach.
The effects of data loss are severe and vast. Not only do you face internal risks, but breaches also affect clients and customers. This can potentially cause them serious hardship, and permanently ruin their view of your brand. Due to these factors, data breaches are incredibly costly. Research from IBM and the Ponemon Institute shows the global average data beach costs organizations $3.86 million, with instances in the United States registering at a world-high $8.64 million.
Managed detection and response (MDR) helps enterprises do more to protect themselves against data breaches and their associated costs. Think of MDR as a way to actively protect your organization against ongoing threats. There are many things to consider when comparing various MDR solutions. Here’s how to go about increasing your ROI with MDR.
How Can MDR Help Your Business?
Improving return on investment (ROI) is always going to be helpful for your business. But what about MDR can generally help your business move this direction? There are three main things to consider when evaluating MDR (Managed Detection and Response) through an ROI lens: operating cost savings, reduction of breach costs, and the price of saved time.
The first two items on this list of ROI-improving considerations should be pretty straightforward. Operating costs always need to be considered when opting for new platforms. MDR is no different. It’s essential to find a product that strikes the right balance between subscription or licensing costs versus quantifiable savings, which leads into the next point. A staggering 60 percent of small businesses close after a data breach. The prohibitive costs associated with breaches is one of the driving forces behind this. By deploying MDR, organizations can protect themselves against the financial hardship of a data breach.
Finally, it’s worth thinking about price versus time savings. A stellar MDR protocol will be able to improve security while also cutting down work required from employees. Artificial intelligence-powered platforms can assist in limiting necessary human input—thus saving the enterprise time and money.
What MDR Features Can Improve ROI?
Now that you have an idea of what MDR is and how it can boost ROI in general terms, it’s time to take a more granular look at this technology. Let’s dig into some of the specific features of MDR that you should look for when shopping around with the intent of improving ROI
- Streamlined Alert and Response System – You don’t want to have your IT team under a constant bombardment of alerts and notifications. They’re probably stressed out enough as-is—having to parse through a constant feed of updates won’t help. Furthermore, too many alerts can lead to complacency, which ends in error. Strong prioritization of notifications means employees will get signals when it’s important, without being inundated by noise.
- Automated Response and Triage – Your IT team might be top-notch, but they’re probably not working around the clock. Having some automated response and triage built into your MDR can help mitigate threats faster, even when no one is available. It’s even possible to automate the isolation of compromised endpoints and users. You can also have critical personnel receive notifications if triage has gone into effect, allowing them to step in and act as soon as possible.
- AI-Driven Threat Protection – There’s no denying the awesome power of artificial intelligence—especially when it comes to network security. MDR platforms that incorporate this technology will have a leg up against incoming threats. More advantages on your end increase your chances of stopping attacks before they become a serious problem.
You want all aspects of your enterprise to have as much of a positive effect on the bottom line as possible. To accomplish this, it’s essential to take a deep look at how security tools such as MDR will lead to better ROI.
