Today’s colleges and universities are confronting a rapidly transforming IT landscape. The complexity of today’s IT network infrastructure and increased cybersecurity risk are quickly moving beyond many schools’ ability to manage on their own.
But a new technology model, a partnership with a managed services provider (MSP), is now becoming more firmly established as a way forward for higher ed institutions to overcome these challenges. Managed services partnerships bring a team of expert talent, a track record of industry experience, and the most up-to-date technology to allow schools to succeed in a new world of IT complexity and cyberthreat. By partnering with MSPs, colleges and universities can benefit from higher performance, security, and cost-efficiency, and, maybe most importantly, regain the ability to place their primary focus on core activities while ensuring that their IT infrastructure stays in good hands.
Yet, making the decision to join forces with an MSP can mark a seismic shift for many higher ed institutions and understandably pose some difficult first-time questions. For example, how can an MSP’s services and expertise best complement the staff and day-to-day IT operations of a college or university? What’s the right budget to allocate for an MSP? And, perhaps most importantly, what’s the right time to come to a decision about when a college can no longer manage its IT and cybersecurity infrastructure competently without outside help?
To guide higher ed institutions with these decisions, here’s a breakdown of two important areas in which an MSP can be a game changer. Managing IT infrastructure and monitoring cybersecurity are two areas that an MSP can make a crucial difference in, and two areas that a higher ed institution should particularly assess in determining when it begins to reach a tipping point where partnering with an MSP may be the best move.
1. Managing IT Infrastructure Complexity
One way in which an MSP can transform a college’s or university’s IT operations is in managing the sheer size and sophistication of today’s IT infrastructure.
Consider that when these schools first built computer networks and connected to the internet, in the ‘90s, a small staff was able to monitor and maintain the IT infrastructure. Today, however, the internet has become foundational for teacher and student success, and the demands for a high-performing, highly secure and highly reliable IT infrastructure are paramount. Maintaining these systems requires expert IT staffing and investments in network and security monitoring tools to ensure optimal reliability and security.
The crucial challenge, though, that has emerged on this front is the hiring, training and retaining of competent IT staff. This is primarily because of the wage gap between what higher ed institutions are able to pay IT professionals versus what the private sector can offer them.
Today, managing a college’s IT infrastructure involves strategic, long-term decisions about technical performance, cost-efficiency, and industry compliance. Questions on the minds of many college IT leaders include: How should student devices be managed and secured? How should campus networks be modernized with the latest Wi-Fi systems to support the increase in connected devices? What’s the right mix of on-premise systems and cloud-based IT systems? Should network infrastructure be bought or leased to best optimize capital versus operational expenses? And how will budget constraints and funding uncertainty impact these decisions?
When higher ed institutions reach their limit in being able to practically handle these areas, MSPs can provide an ideal solution. Simply put, with an MSP, a college can gain access to a team of experts that can complement and extend the capabilities of its own IT staff. These professionals stay up to date with the latest technological advancements, develop in-depth expertise in cybersecurity and compliance best practices, and have the know-how to keep IT infrastructure at top performance and efficiency.
In this way, when a college hits a wall with no longer being able to manage the complexities of its IT and cybersecurity infrastructure, or with needing to augment its IT staff with specific domain expertise, this marks an opportune time to consider partnering with an MSP.
2. Guarding a Prime Target
A second way in which an MSP can optimize a higher ed institution’s IT management is in cybersecurity.
In today’s higher ed digital landscape, protecting students, staff, and IT infrastructure from cyberattack has become Priority 1. Colleges have become a prime target for cybercriminals seeking to exploit the personal information of students and staff. Information such as student records, medical histories, and financial data are all valuable for identity theft, fraud, or sale on the dark web, among other areas where it can be exploited.
Adding to this, the expanse of end-user devices and software platforms has rapidly increased the attack surface for cybercriminals. And, with colleges’ often limited IT budgets and expertise, it’s become increasingly challenging to effectively implement and monitor complex IT and cybersecurity infrastructure around the clock.
In this area, an MSP can support colleges with a diverse set of capabilities to assess, implement, and manage a robust cybersecurity infrastructure, and enable colleges to respond quickly in the event of a cyberattack.
One way in which MSPs can help colleges do this is by assessing colleges’ cybersecurity posture against established standards, such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework for Education, which can help guide a college’s policies and effective response. This includes training staff and students on “cyberhygiene,” such as phishing and password best practices, that can help build responsible online behavior and overall cybersecurity awareness.
Investments in enterprise-grade security infrastructure, including firewalls, endpoint detection and response solutions, and multi-factor authentication are a second way in which MSPs can help protect important college resources and information assets. While these investments are crucial for colleges to make in the first place, the active monitoring and management of this infrastructure is also crucial in being able to respond to threats promptly. In this area, an MSP can provide round-the-clock monitoring of security events and take swift action in the event of an active threat.
In addition, keeping applications, servers, and endpoints updated with the latest operating system and application patching helps to fix known security flaws. MSPs can, again, assist colleges in this area with the implementation and ongoing management of patch management systems to automate this time-consuming and often neglected security best practice.
Moreover, automating backups of critical IT systems to off-site storage can help colleges quickly recover from ransomware or data loss. This combined with a comprehensive incident response plan that establishes processes, procedures and communication protocols during a breach are essential for effective planning and response. An MSP, with deep expertise in cybersecurity best practices, can assist colleges with a variety of resources to aid in the preparation of these systems and plans.
If a college is not able to stay on top of all these challenges and is reaching a hurdle, partnering with an MSP can offer a practical solution. An MSP can play a key role in helping a college review its current cybersecurity posture and make recommendations on how to best to navigate these challenges. With deep engineering expertise, comprehensive technology solutions, and round-the-clock security monitoring and support, an MSP can help ensure colleges operate and maintain proper cyberdefenses for peak performance.
College IT 2.0
The continuous rise in cost, complexity, and risk of IT management is increasingly leading higher ed institutions to consider MSP partnerships. MSPs can bring a new level of skill, experience, and technology to solve IT challenges, but they also represent a whole new way of working for many colleges and universities.
The two areas above are ones that colleges and universities should particularly assess in determining when they begin to reach a tipping point where making the move to an MSP partnership makes the most sense. Ultimately, a higher ed institution can not only gain from higher performance, security, and cost-efficiency from an MSP partnership, it can return its top focus to its most important education goals and leave the formidable and fast-moving world of IT in expert hands.
