Establishing and Keeping the Trust: The Cisco Duo Managed Services Story

You’re about to close your day when you receive a call from your customer asking for an urgent meeting tomorrow. They want to know if one of your Managed Security offers includes something that can help them improve their secure workforce environment. You know what it’s all about. Last week, a company in the same industry suffered significant losses due to a compromise access from one of their top executives. The good news is you’ve already done the hardest part–earning customer trust in the cybersecurity world, where the digital and human mix and “trust no one” is the premise. That a customer trusted you to manage their Zero Trust journey is both an honor and a responsibility.

The journey to Zero Trust involves many solutions. Still, there’s one solution that connects them all. Cisco Duo, a multi-factor authentication solution, is the steppingstone of a Zero Trust architecture, verifying identity, establishing the device’s trust, and finally allowing access to the application.

In this blog, we will explain how Cisco Duo for MSPs, with its simple-to-operate and modern approach, will help you scale and provide a frictionless customer experience.

Finding the balance between security and productivity

Zero Trust is a cybersecurity framework that assumes threats exist both inside and outside the network and uses continuous monitoring and adjustment of trust levels before granting access. Its principle is, “never assume, always verify, and trust no one”. The benefits of Zero Trust include risk reduction, enhanced visibility, and a smaller attack surface due to micro-segmentation.

Cisco Duo helps balance productivity and security in the Zero Trust framework, simplifying access management for all devices and enabling flexible Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) deployment. Risk-based authentication also provides password free experiences, which evaluate profiles, resources, context, and risk signals to determine access.

24% of the companies surveyed in the last Cisco Cybersecurity Readiness Index ranked identity management as the number one risk. – Cisco Cybersecurity Readiness Index

Cisco Duo MSP: Scaling zero trust services

Identity management is still a significant concern among cybersecurity leaders. Cisco Duo can solve their problems thanks to its open platform, which can work with different operation systems on mobile phones, tablets, and PCs. Another advantage of Duo is that it is also Mobile Device Management (MDM) agnostic, protecting access from unmanaged devices.

For you as a partner, Duo has a Managed Service Platform (MSP) to help you accelerate your customer journey to Zero Trust without security compromises, and with the best customer experience and optimal operational management. Cisco Duo MSP allows you to offer licenses by consumption, opening more choices for our customers to meet their budgetary goals.

One of the benefits of Cisco Duo MSP is that it offers a multi-tenancy interface, enabling you to manage various customer tasks without switching screens. Further, Duo MSP provides a well-documented integrations library and comprehensive support. Another key attribute for service growth is that Duo MSP allows the possibility of trial management, training access, and the Not for Resale (NFR) program that enable you to be your first customer.

Time to earn the trust

You have the knowledge, you have the practices, and you have the Duo MSP platform. Now it’s time to meet your customer. Here’s your checklist for a successful meeting:

• Establish the objectives: What Zero Trust outcomes do they want to achieve first–secure workforce, secure workflows, or secure workplace?
• Run a Gap analysis: What challenges do they have now that impede this objective?
• Draft a plan: Map the analysis outcome with where they are in the Zero Trust journey and determine what the next steps should be.
• Lead with Cisco Duo MSP: This is a good starting point thanks to the solution’s role in the framework and its scalability and ease of operation.
• Don’t forget the trial: It’s an opportunity to showcase the platform attributes and your value as a trusted partner.

Want to learn more about Zero Trust and Duo MSP?

• Watch the recorded November session of the Managed Services Voice of the Engineer. During this session, the Managed Services Americas Partner Organization (APO) team expanded on the challenges and considerations of Zero Trust managed services and explained how Duo MSP is the point of entrance for a successful journey.
• Visit Duo’s MSP Program to explore the solution and the Duo MSP program.

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