At this moment, business leaders worldwide are facing an intensifying cybersecurity crisis. Seventy-four percent of the IT security professionals in the 2024 ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study agreed that the threat landscape is the worst they’ve experienced within the past five years. Generative AI (genAI) has allowed bad actors to supercharge their attacks, and 71 percent of cyber leaders have agreed that smaller companies can no longer combat increasingly complex threats, according to the Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2025 report from the World Economic Forum (WEF).
From 2023 to 2024, the global cybersecurity workforce remained stalled at 5.5 million; meanwhile, the gap between the existing labor force and the number of professionals needed to satisfy demand grew from 4.0 million to 4.8 million, according to ISC2.
In a Forbes article titled “The Cybersecurity Crisis: Companies Can’t Fill Roles, Workers Shut Out,” Profit Growth Insights CEO Emil Sayegh touched on the IT security talent shortage and expressed concerns about organizations choosing to outsource to overseas providers rather than nurture internal talent.
“This has major implications not only for job seekers but also for national security,” Sayegh wrote.
His article makes some excellent points about addressing the ongoing cybersecurity talent shortage. However, it overlooks a third option for businesses beyond developing talent internally or outsourcing overseas: Working with a domestic managed security service provider (MSSP).
Addressing the cybersecurity talent shortage: Why domestic outsourcing makes sense
Outsourcing to a U.S.-based cybersecurity service provider avoids the issues Sayegh identifies related to compliance, regulatory challenges and national security. Partnering with an MSSP also gives you instant access to the people (e.g., engineers, infosec analysts, pen testers, app security engineers, CISO, and more), processes, and tools required for a comprehensive and mature cybersecurity program – all for a convenient monthly rate. It’s much less of a headache than internally recruiting and retaining a security team, establishing procedures, and crafting your security stack from scratch.
A domestic MSSP can also accelerate AI adoption and give your organization access to genAI experts capable of combating cyberattacks fueled by artificial intelligence. The Google Cloud Cybersecurity Forecast for 2025 predicts that cybercriminals will utilize AI for fraud, identity theft, code development, vulnerability research, and reconnaissance, among other nefarious purposes. It only makes sense to join forces with security professionals with AI knowledge who can fight fire with fire.
It’s also typically much more cost-effective to outsource than it is to build and maintain a security program from the ground up in-house. For example, one security service provider in our portfolio has helped clients achieve up to 87 percent in cost savings with outsourced managed detection and response (MDR) compared to annual spending on threat detection and response operations in an internal security operations center (SOC).
Overall, outsourcing domestically is a no-brainer; you’ll end up with a superior security program for a fraction of the price and ongoing stress of building and maintaining everything in-house. Stratosphere Networks has a roster of pre-vetted, highly rated MSSPs in our portfolio if you want to explore your options.
We’ll also leverage our background as a former MSSP to your advantage: Stratosphere started in 2010 as a managed service provider, and we developed a state-of-the-art Network Operations Center and Security Operations Center in Evanston. We grew our managed cybersecurity practice until Ascend Technologies acquired our managed IT and security services division in 2021. Our advisors draw on those 11 years of firsthand experience in the MSSP space to offer our clients insider expertise. We know precisely what to look for and which questions to ask to find your ideal security outsourcing partner.
Start today by calling 877-599-3999 or emailing sales@stratospherenetworks.com. You can also complete our free interactive assessment to jumpstart your search for the best security solutions via the world’s most advanced IT decision-making tool.
