Top Factors To Look For In A Security As Service Provider
Tracking, anticipating and responding to an ever-evolving range of cyberthreats is a full-time job—one many organizations aren’t equipped to handle on their own, even if they have internal tech teams. Security as a service providers can fill this critical gap, ensuring companies have access to essential, cutting-edge skills; are in compliance with relevant regulations; protect their sensitive data; and maintain robust operational resilience.
However, these benefits are only realized if an organization’s leaders choose the right provider for their unique needs. Below, members of Forbes Technology Council detail top factors businesses should look for when partnering with a SECaaS provider.
1. Proactive Protection
The single most important factor I consider is the provider’s ability to be proactive and to act to ensure comprehensive data protection and system security. I’ve been stuck with vendors that promise the moon, only to simply deliver reports and alerts. When push comes to shove, you need to get in there and help manage the situation to resolution, whether that means managing my team to recovery or patching it hands-on! – Joel Frenette, TravelFun.Biz
2. Ability To Comply With Your Industry’s Standards
A security as a service provider needs to maintain a system of security controls, encryption, compliance and access management that’s in line with industry standards. Without these compliance measures, businesses risk losing confidentiality, integrity and availability, leading to security and liability risks. – Sunil Kumar Puli, Santander Bank NA
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3. Alignment With Your Company
In a perfect world, a security as a service provider is an extension of your security team. Finding a provider that aligns with your company’s DNA, values and growth initiatives—and offers proactive deceptors along with a holistic, reactive approach that leverages quantum and AI technologies—is a good place to start. I would layer in maturity metrics after you find your perfect managed security services provider match. – Sumera Riaz, Bluewave
4. Smooth Collaboration Between Teams
Cybersecurity is a team sport. When selecting a security as a service provider, you must focus on how you will collaborate in terms of people, data and reporting. Technical capabilities are important, but I highly recommend doing a table-top exercise to evaluate the working relationship. – Cody Pierce, Neon Cyber Inc.
5. Trust And Reliability
When choosing a security as a service provider, trust and reliability are key. Look for a provider with a strong track record of uptime, fast threat response and compliance with ISO 27001 and SOC 2. They should integrate with your security operations, offer clear service-level agreements and be transparent about incidents. If you can’t trust them to protect your business when it matters most, nothing else matters. – Srikanth Mandru, Cisco Systems
6. A Solid Reputation
When selecting a security provider, businesses must carefully consider the provider’s security expertise and reputation, including their ability to protect against threats. However, the most important factor is trust. Will this provider listen to your concerns, understand your needs and pain points, and be able to serve as an extension of your team and a force multiplier for your organization? – Austin Berglas, BlueVoyant
7. A Sense Of Urgency
I would focus on the service provider’s sense of urgency. Security is a service that requires a team of experts willing to go above and beyond to map the attack surface, think outside the box about new vulnerabilities, and strategize and implement the most complete solutions. A team with a sense of urgency will not settle at any stage of the process. – Keren Katz, Apex Security AI
8. Comprehensive Threat Protection With Compliance Alignment
The single most important factor businesses should consider when selecting a security as a service provider is comprehensive threat protection with compliance alignment. The provider must offer robust, real-time threat detection; response capabilities; and seamless integration, all while ensuring adherence to industry standards (such as SOC 2 and ISO 27001) to mitigate risks and ensure regulatory compliance. – Hrushikesh Deshmukh, Fannie Mae
9. Adaptability
The single most important factor businesses should consider when selecting a security as a service provider is the provider’s ability to adapt to evolving threats. This includes their track record in updating security measures, responsiveness to new vulnerabilities and commitment to continuous improvement. Compliance with industry standards and transparency in security practices are also crucial. – Naveen Edapurath Vijayan, Amazon Web Services
10. Proactive Threat Intelligence
Proactive threat intelligence is the most critical factor. A security as a service provider must offer real-time monitoring, AI-driven threat detection and adaptive risk mitigation to stay ahead of evolving cyberthreats. Businesses should prioritize providers with strong compliance credentials, automated response capabilities and a proven track record in handling emerging security challenges. – Bob Ras, CoreNest
11. Comprehensive Data Protection And Compliance
Businesses need to prioritize comprehensive data protection and compliance when they choose a SECaaS provider. The provider needs to implement strong encryption methods, along with threat detection capabilities and regulatory compliance, to maintain secure and scalable protection that meets legal standards for sensitive business data. – Roshan Mahant, LaunchIT Corp.
12. Resilience
Trust and resilience are key when choosing a security as a service provider. Businesses must ensure end-to-end encryption, real-time threat detection and compliance with global security standards to protect data. For example, in the space industry, NASA and private firms use cyber-hardened satellite networks to secure mission-critical communications, ensuring data integrity even in deep space’s hostile environment. – Shelli Brunswick, SB Global LLC
13. Domain Expertise And Long-Term Vision
Security domain expertise is crucial. Prioritize providers with a proven track record in your domain and security strategies that are aligned with your industry and organization. Their approach should be proactive, offering seamless integration, documented incident response plans and SLAs, industry certifications, and alignment with your organization’s future vision for long-term security success. – Harikrishnan Muthukrishnan, Florida Blue
14. Established Incident Response Capabilities
The provider should have established incident response capabilities. Several providers focus on prevention but lack real-world expertise in handling breaches effectively. It is critical to ensure the provider has a documented track record of rapid detection, containment and follow-through to resolution, with transparent metrics or indicators, like mean time to detect, being tracked. Prevention is important, but resilience is critical. – Raghu Para, Ford Motor Company
15. A Portable Security Stack
How portable is the security stack? (Avoid vendor lock-in!) Many providers lock businesses into proprietary ecosystems, making it difficult to migrate as needs evolve. Companies should evaluate how easy it is to modify or exit the security framework without operational risk. Look for open API support, cross-cloud compatibility and clear exit strategies to remain flexible and adaptable. – Xingjian “XJ” Zhang, Apex.AI
16. Growth-Enabling Solutions
The most important factor to consider when selecting a security as a service provider is whether their solutions enable growth rather than just preventing threats. Many providers focus on compliance, but real security should reduce friction, automate response and provide AI-driven insights that enhance resilience and efficiency. Choose a provider that makes security an enabler, not a bottleneck. – Albert Lie, Forward Labs
17. Consideration Of Your Unique Business Context
Consider how they apply your unique business context, such as asset intelligence and the relationship and importance of those assets to your business, in their end-to-end security services, from detection to analysis and recommendations. Understand the service provider’s methodology and process for discovering, maintaining and improving your context models to give you smarter and faster security outcomes. – Karen Kim, Human Managed
18. Alignment With Your Needs And Risk Profile
The single most important factor when selecting a security as a service provider is alignment with your specific security needs and risk profile. Look for a provider that understands your industry compliance requirements, addresses your particular threat landscape, scales with your growth and provides appropriate support for your operations. – Mohit Menghnani, Twilio
19. Zero-Trust Architecture Implementation
Zero-trust architecture implementation is the most critical factor. A provider should offer continuous verification, least-privilege access and real-time threat detection to prevent unauthorized access and data breaches, ensuring comprehensive security for evolving threats. – Kinil Doshi, Citibank