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 An outdated technology infrastructure can harm your business by: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. 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. We have put together a list of the seven most important question you should ask a MSP in order to find the right fit for you and your technological needs.

Questions to ask

1. Do you offer 24/7/365 support?

Your data and IT systems are on around the clock and you want an MSP to monitor, support, and even upgrade your systems around the clock to avoid downtime, data loss and cyberattacks. If you take your eye off of the infrastructure when your offices are closed, you open your network up to havoc.

2. Do you perform regular risk assessments?

Risk factors are constantly changing, therefore, 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 to prevent potential harmful activities. In addition, there should be actions on what to do to prevent and handle known threats.

3. Do you meet all of my compliance needs?

Every company has different compliance requirements. 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. Requirements can also change as customers request new compliance from vendors, and government policies are modified, so understanding the depth of understanding and experience an MSP can be helpful based on your organizations needs.

4. Can you provide documentation to prove you are compliant and following best practices?

You will want to ensure they adhere to relevant standards and practices; it could be detrimental working with a MSP that does not follow these practices and has a non-compliance documentation.

5. 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. If you expect a MSP to create and manage your IT DR, then they should have a solid one of their own.

6. 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. If the one doing the work is the same one checking it, there is no objectivity and they are more likely to overlook the same things.

7. Do you have high level of confidence in your security posture? If so, can you explain why?

You want to find an MSP who has strong security posture in order to keep cybercriminals away. Unfortunately, cyberattacks are becoming more common-place so having strong security posture is essential to defending your organization against cybercriminals.

Why are the above questions crucial?

Having an MSP for your company saves time, effort, and creates a safety barrier for you. Having a clear understanding of MSPs and seeing what they intend to do is important such as, protecting your company from potential cyberthreats, ensuring you avoid fines and reputable damage, and whether they can provide data backups.

Get in touch with us today to schedule a free consultation and determine if we are the right partner for your business.

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