Treat an MSP as your primary care physician and a CSSP as the cardiac specialist you need
Your primary care doctor provides essential, broad-based care – monitoring your overall health, managing checkups, and catching problems before they get serious. Similarly, a managed service provider (MSP) oversees your IT environment – keeping users supported, systems patched and networks stable. From software updates to help desk tickets, MSPs ensure your “IT body” stays healthy and functional.
But when the problem becomes more specific and complex, like a heart condition, you don’t stay with your general practitioner. You go to a cardiac specialist. That’s where the cyber security service provider (CSSP) comes in. A CSSP has deep expertise in the “heart” (ha!) of cybersecurity. A CSSP provides proactive, strategic solutions to detect and treat the most serious risks that could cripple your organization.
So, while your MSP ensures the IT system runs smoothly, it’s not really in the business of fighting against today’s sophisticated cyber threats. A CSSP doesn’t replace your MSP – both are vital – but the CSSP’s role is specialized, vigilant, and lifesaving when it comes to ensuring you survive cyber attacks. In short, an MSP keeps your IT healthy; a CSSP keeps your digital environment – and company – alive.
We went to AI and asked it to look at the 2025 top 10 MSPs as rated by a respected third-party tech site. We asked it to look at the MSPs’ own websites for customer reviews, testimonials and case studies to rank, in order of frequency, the top five most often praised topics / areas of service. AI found “strong and consistent patterns” in what the customers had to say about their MSPs:
| Rank | Topic / Service Area | What customers say / praise |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Responsiveness & Support (Help Desk, Day-to-Day Issues) | Fast ticket resolution, accessible 24/7 support, technicians who “get it” |
| 2 | System Uptime / Reliability / Infrastructure Stability | Fewer outages, infrastructure that “just works,” less downtime |
| 3 | Proactive Maintenance (Patch Management, Preventive Care) | MSP anticipated problems, fixed things before they escalated |
| 4 | Cloud Migration / Scalability | Moves to cloud or modern infrastructure for growth and agility |
| 5 | Security & Data Protection | Feeling more secure, having data properly protected |
MSPs are very good at what they do, but for their customers, cybersecurity is fifth in what they’re looking for. And it’s most likely that the MSPs are directing the vast majority of their time, workforce and resources to service areas 1 through 4 – their “bread and butter.” The security and data protection MSPs do provide are usually known as “blue team” protection – playing defense – such as monitoring defined endpoints and alerts for unusual activity, then generating an incident report. An MSP will try to contain an attack that is underway or has already happened.
Your CSSP provides both blue team (reactive) and red team (proactive) cyber protection offerings for defensive and offensive security operations that can be utilized separately or combined into integrated services. On the blue side, the CSSP continuously monitors networks, endpoints, and cloud systems to detect, block, and respond to attacks in real time. On the red side, the CSSP proactively tests those defenses through authorized hacking, penetration testing, and simulated attacks to uncover weaknesses before real bad actors can exploit them.
Let’s list some of these blue and red offerings:
- Threat Detection and Response: Monitors for and responds to security incidents in real time.
- Security Information and Event Management (SIEM): Aggregates and analyzes logs for unusual activity.
- Firewall and Endpoint Security: Manages and configures security tools to protect the network perimeter and endpoints.
- Incident Response and Forensics: Provides rapid containment and investigation of breaches.
- Compliance Assistance: Helps businesses meet regulatory requirements like GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI DSS.
- Strategic Cybersecurity Consulting: Provides guidance on long-term security strategies and architecture.
- Proactive Risk Management: Conducts vulnerability assessments and penetration testing to identify and address risks before they become threats.
- Security Awareness Training: Empowers employees to recognize and respond to potential cyber threats.
- Advanced Threat Hunting: Actively searches for hidden threats that traditional tools may miss.
- Cloud and Application Security: Focuses on securing modern environments, including SaaS, IaaS, and custom applications.
By being both a defender who guards and an attacker who probes, CSSPs are the true cybersecurity experts.
Defender and attacker – that’s how Guardian works. Our proactive red and reactive blue teams work together as one defense to hunt threats, identify gaps, and stop breaches before they start. We don’t replace your IT provider or MSP agreement; we work alongside them to provide what they can’t – an approach that gives you full confidence and peace of mind.
Why? Because cybersecurity is a hard, ever-changing environment. And anyone who tells you it’s simple, or that they already have you covered as part of other managed services, doesn’t understand today’s high-level threat landscape. We do understand – and that’s the Guardian difference.