Today’s businesses handle enormous amounts of customer data, much of which is subject to government-mandated compliance regulations. For example, protected health information is subject to HIPAA compliance, while controlled unclassified information pertaining to the US Department of Defense must be protected according to CMMC and DFARS compliance.
Although the regulations vary significantly between industries, maintaining compliance plays a critical role in protecting your business and your customers. Most businesses strive to follow the rules, but it isn’t always easy given the rapidly evolving regulatory landscape and the fact that technological development is often hard to keep up with.
How managed services providers help businesses achieve compliance?
Compliance as a service is a solution that combines expert consultation services with cloud-hosted solutions that help businesses store their data safely and enforce their compliance and security policies. Many services cater towards the unique needs of certain industries, such as healthcare, legal, or defense. CaaS systems are often highly configurable, making them ideal for smaller organizations which can’t afford to maintain their own fully-staffed IT departments.
#1. Overcome the challenges of scale
The explosion of digital data has proven notoriously difficult for many businesses to keep up with. When you find yourself handling many more records than you had originally planned for, there’s a greater risk of gaps forming in your security and compliance. However, it’s not only about the amount of data – it’s also about the increasing diversity of different storage systems and formats. Today’s computing infrastructures often span complex multi-cloud environments, and meeting the challenges of scale is often only possible if you outsource compliance.
#2. Get a fresh perspective on your IT
Even the most talented and best-equipped in-house compliance team is likely to miss a few things, which is why you need a fresh perspective from the outside looking in. With a managed services provider, you get that unique perspective. You also get access to industry-leading IT expertise without having to break the bank.
#3. Protect against cybersecurity threats
Regulatory compliance primarily exists to protect against two things – accidental data leaks, and cyberattacks. Therefore, compliance is inextricably linked with cybersecurity. The better you protect your IT systems, the more likely you are to excel in compliance. For example, CMMC compliance spans five levels of cybersecurity maturity, and a managed services provider can help you ensure that all the necessary security requirements have been met to help you reach your desired level.
| Worried about CMMC 2.0? Read our complete guide to find out everything you need to know about CMMC 2.0 and how to achieve compliance. |
#4. Reduce operational risk and downtime
Leaving data exposed is a disaster waiting to happen for a multitude of reasons. For example, a serious security breach might leave your business exposed to a lawsuit, especially if you’re unable to demonstrate acceptable efforts to maintain compliance. A compliance failure might also result in costly downtime while you try to remediate after a serious incident. Simply put, the operational risks to your business can be substantial if you don’t share the responsibilities of compliance with a dependable partner.
#5. Implement backup and disaster recovery
Most managed services providers offer backup and disaster recovery, which also happens to be a requirement of many compliance regulations. For example, HIPAA compliance requires healthcare providers to keep medical records for at least six years in most cases. If you lose everything to a data breach and have nothing to fall back on, you could be in serious breach of the rules. Maintaining the highest standards of information security and compliance as about taking a proactive approach, whereby you prepare for the worst and prioritize as necessary.
#6. Automate maintenance and updates
Compliance as a service provides a strategic and automated solution that helps overcome the challenges of scale and reduce the risk of human error. Achieving compliance always begins with a detailed assessment of your computing infrastructure, followed by extensive testing of your systems. An external provider may also use penetration testing to test your network for vulnerabilities using the same methods that cybercriminals use. After testing and remediation has been carried out, it’s largely a matter of standardizing compliance policies and controls and applying them across all your data-bearing systems automatically.
Charles IT helps small businesses overcome the burdens of compliance and cybersecurity with tailor-made, strategy-driven solutions that empower growth without adding risk. Get in touch today to schedule a call with our team!
