The co-managed option helps companies solve their challenges, while upskilling internal teams and improving performance.
GTT’s latest research-based white paper, Trends and Solutions for a More Secure Perimeter: Integrating SASE, SSE and SD-WAN Solutions, revealed that companies receive a wide range of benefits by jointly managing SD-WAN and SASE solutions. Like in our previous blog, The Big Takeaway: 97% Say Cybersec & Network Integration is the Logical Next Step, these insights were based on a survey, conducted by Hanover Research across the US, UK and Europe, fielding questions to decision makers of SD-WAN, SSE, or SASE.
Major Insights
- Most companies need Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to help them fill skills gaps to handle complex, integrated networking and cybersecurity solution design and deployment.
- These companies also desire MSPs to share their knowledge with in-house technology teams, combining the benefits of deep technical expertise with deep understanding of the business, which leads to improved deployments.
- A solution that is co-managed with a 3rd party provides the level of confidence companies need, furnishes the right mix of solutions and services, and offers knowledge and expertise that compensate for customer deficiencies, allowing those companies to focus on their core business.
Survey Data Shows Co-Managed Solutions Are Most Popular
The chart below shows that overall, most companies co-manage complex solutions with a 3rd party, enabling them to retain some control. Few (<20%) have outsourced their solutions entirely to an MSP while the remainder still manage them in house. The co-managed joint arrangement is becoming more common as services become more complex and more integrated. In our experience and that of the survey respondents, MSPs typically assign a single point of contact, either remotely or at times, embedded with the customer’s team for a period of time to develop relationships and work face-to-face with the internal team.
Sharing Information Builds Trust, Trust Leads to More Shared Information
At GTT, we have seen how the hybrid or co-management process helps foster deep relationships and trust between in-house technology teams and their MSP. This trust further enables the two-way transfer of knowledge. Over the past several years, we have observed how the co-management process has evolved in two different ways.
- The Permanent Arrangement. Some companies prefer to offload more management responsibilities and the technology infrastructure to their MSP as a permanent arrangement, while still being kept in the loop. This enables their internal IT staff to concentrate on handling revenue-generating activities, which run on the infrastructure that the MSP manages. The IT staff is kept informed of infrastructure changes made by the MSP and how they can apply those changes to enhance revenue-generating activities.
- The Transition Period. Other companies prefer to use the co-management process as a transition period. In this way, the MSP upskills the internal IT staff, allowing them to become experts on a wide range of SASE and other services and to take on more day-to-day management chores, which they in turn can use to boost their revenue-generating activities.
Selecting the co-managed option, for either of these reasons, helps companies solve their challenges in ways that best fits their needs while improving performance and revenue.
Most Deployments Within a One-Year Timeframe
The survey also showed that 81% of respondents said their company will complete a SASE framework in the next 12 months. 77% will deploy various SSE solutions within the next 12 months, without a full-blown SASE framework. Looking at these percentages, GTT Senior Vice President of Product Management, Tom Major said, “We expect SASE and for those not using SD-WAN to incorporate more advanced SSE solutions to adopt a co-management structure as they bring these solutions on-line to address the complexities and provide the expertise that these infrastructures demand.”
A GTT customer, Mario Paricio, IT CTO Manager at HMY Group, spoke about his own experience, saying, “GTT’s team supported us through the change from MPLS to SD‑WAN, and we leverage their technical knowledge to enhance our own skills so we can support our users in a more informed way.”
Click to find out more about the benefits of co-managed integrated SD-WAN and SASE solutions and advanced SSE.
