You should never take any chances when it comes to the security of your company. As a result, you should think about hiring an MSP or MSSP to assist you with your cyber security needs. What, though, is the distinction? Which do you think you should go with? To learn more, keep reading.

MSP vs. MSSP: What’s the Difference?

Both MSP and MSSP provide professional assistance with your organization’s IT and cybersecurity needs. MSSP stands for Managed Security Service Provider while MSP is for Managed Service Provider.

Both services promise to provide expert assistance with your organization’s IT needs, however MSP focuses on IT administration while MSSP focuses on IT security. Furthermore, MSP attempts to provide you with easy access to your organization’s IT system, but MSSP focuses more on security tools, incident management, and the like. From a more technical point of view, we can say that MSP offers bug fixes, update management and threat detection. MSSP goes one step beyond and helps you with incident detection, incident response, scans for new threats and vulnerabilities.

MSP vs. MSSP

Properties	MSP	MSSP
Roles	Managed services Provider (MSP) is a term used to describe a company that offers managed services. MSPs are companies that provide end users and enterprises with a defined set of technological solutions or services on a proactive basis.	Managed security service provider (MSSP) is a term used to describe a company that provides managed security services. MSSPs are businesses that specialize in offering complete security solutions as a service, reducing much of the labor needed in keeping end users secure.
Responsibilities	MSPs are in charge of all IT components of a company, from maintenance to bug patches, help desk support, website management, and performance monitoring of data center servers.	Virus protection, firewall administration, URL blocking, intrusion detection, website risk assessment, network security monitoring, and other security monitoring and oversight services are provided by MSSPs.
Primary Focus	MSPs concentrate on all aspects of IT management, from infrastructure and systems to cloud technologies, in order to achieve business objectives and improve operational efficiency.	MSSPs specialize in delivering a variety of security monitoring and oversight services. They provide businesses with round-the-clock security monitoring and management services.

MSP vs. MSSP comparison

Managed services encompass all of the bells and whistles associated with assisting businesses in managing their IT infrastructure. MSPs specializes on IT administration, from managing IT infrastructure and systems to managing cloud technologies, whereas MSSPs are responsible for handling and mitigating security threats across an organization’s infrastructure, network, and applications. MSSPs provide entire security solutions as a service to manage an organization’s security needs, whereas MSPs focus on meeting end user demands by remotely maintaining and monitoring their IT infrastructure, including PC and server performance and managing upgrades.