7 Questions to Ask When Evaluating MSPs
Having an up-to-date technology infrastructure is critical for organizations to perform well in this ever-changing business world. An outdated technology infrastructure can harm your business by:
- Giving cybercriminals a free pass
- Putting your company in hot water with regulators
- Reducing overall productivity
- Causing employee dissatisfaction
- Upsetting your customers
Once you understand the risks of not keeping your technologies up to date with the latest standards, you must do everything possible to refresh your IT infrastructure. However, this is easier said than done and you will need to devote additional time and effort to make necessary changes. This is where a managed service provider (MSP) can be of assistance.
While an MSP can augment technology expertise and knowledge gaps, if you’ve never worked with one before and aren’t sure what to expect, finding the right MSP partner can be difficult.
That’s why we’ve compiled a list of seven of the most important questions you should ask an MSP when determining whether they are a good fit to meet your technology infrastructure and service needs.
Questions to ask
- Do you offer 24/7/365 support?
Your data and IT systems, unlike your employees, do not require sleep. Your MSP should provide 24/7/365 monitoring and support to address technology infrastructure issues to avoid downtime, data loss and cyberattacks.
- Do you perform regular risk assessments?
Because risk factors are constantly changing, MSPs must conduct security risk assessments regularly to stay on top of emerging and evolving threats. Your MSP partner’s risk assessment reports should give you an overview of the internal and external threats that could come back to bite you later.
- Do you meet all of my compliance needs?
If you must be HIPAA compliant, then you could benefit from an MSP that understands the standard and complies with it. Hence, ask if they can demonstrate HIPAA compliance.
- Can you provide documentation to prove you are compliant and following best practices?
Working with an MSP that does not follow best practices and has a track record of non-compliance can be detrimental. Therefore, ensure that they adhere to relevant standards and best practices.
- Do you have a disaster recovery (DR) plan? If so, what is in place and is it tested regularly?
If your MSP partner does not have a DR plan in place, they may not be able to withstand an incident and you may be affected as well. Even if they already have one, it must be up to date and thoroughly tested.
- Is third-party auditing performed to meet cybersecurity and compliance requirements?
An MSP that invests in a third-party audit can objectively demonstrate that their information systems and processes adhere to stringent requirements in critical areas such as security and compliance. Make sure you don’t overlook this aspect.
- Do you have high level of confidence in your security posture? If so, can you explain why?
This is important because if your MSP partner has a poor security posture, cybercriminals will have an easier time breaking into your network.
Why are the above questions crucial?
Having an MSP on your side is about more than just saving time and effort. You must have a clear understanding of how they intend to protect your company from evolving cyberthreats, how they plan on ensuring that you’re in compliance with regulations to avoid fines and reputational damage, and whether they can provide you with data backups when you need them.
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