Educause Security Discussion mailing list archives
Re: Managed services provider question
From: Tom Miller <thomas.miller () CNU EDU>
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2019 16:18:05 -0400
Andrew, To be sure I understand, are you stating that the MSP expects you to use the MSP's director (AD, whatever) for authentication, even with your third-party connectors (Banner, Google, Office 365, AWS, etc.)? I might not be properly understanding. If your answer is yes, that's a big change to move from the current model (yours and controlled by you) to an MSP's platform. I had a previous role in an MSP similar to yours, and we never used that model: our authentication model was for our systems only, and we had accounts on customer's platforms. I can see how your MSP wants to move to that model: easier for the MSP to manage their staff accounts, easier to manage client account. But, this is a clever way for an MSP to make you heavily dependent on the MSP and exaction from the MSP could be quite a challenge. You might want to review your contracts with your connected partners to see if there would be any issues. If you go this route, I would ask to speak with other MSP customers who went with this model and ensure you have good protections in a contract. On Wed, Jun 12, 2019 at 1:40 PM Pete, Andrew < 000000d06e28c017-dmarc-request () listserv educause edu> wrote:
Hi All, I wanted to get some opinions on a discussion we are currently having with our managed service provider. We are a smaller department and rely on an MSP for monitoring/alerting. In addition to monitoring, we recently decided to have them co-manage our critical infrastructure so that we can lean on them to back us up in the event we need more man power or need assistance with major issues. Our MSP was bought in the last year or so and with our renewal, they are moving us to a new managed service platform and structure. As part of this process, the MSP has insisted that we have to move from our TACACS infrastructure to theirs. We do not see this as a good move for our organization and this discussion is holding up the process of them onboarding all of our necessary infrastructure so they can provide us with services. The MSP has continued to push the issue only citing that it is how they do things as to why we have to switch. We finally got a little more of an explanation from them as to why we need to move to their TACACS. Below is what they gave us with any org names removed. Advantages • Centralized, standardized, and auditable repository of access controls • Included in the service (we do the work) • Security wrapper Risks • Security. *MSP* will have no control over access, but instead be subject to *customer’s* policy/procedures • Maintenance - *MSP* cannot manage a device it does not have access to. • Human Error - *customer* will be the only customer of roughly 300 who procured *MSP* management, but owns TACACs Protections for MSP • SOW modifications to protect *MSP* against any security breach damage • SOW modifications to protect *MSP* against SLA violations on those devices • Additional hours to modify procedures for change management; continuous updates We discussed their response internally and many of the things they list would be exactly the same or similar regardless of switching to their TACACS or continuing to use ours. We even are going back to them that we want them to co-manage our TACACS server as part of the MSP agreement to ensure they have the ability to support our TACACS infrastructure. I’m curious if anyone out there has ever seen this type of request out of a MSP. Even if not, I’d love some input on the matter. I have worked for about 7 years for two different MSPs doing both managed services and professional services for many customers. In my role, I also did some sub work for a few other MSP/PS companies. In all those cases, I have not run across a MSP that requires the use of their own authentication infrastructure for a co-managed network. Thanks, *Andrew Pete* *Information Security Architect* *New England Institute of Technology* One New England Tech Boulevard East Greenwich, RI 02818-1205 401-780-4460 (Direct) apete () neit edu *[image: NEIT_Full_Stack_H_White_BG_PNG1]*
-- Tom Miller, MBA Internal IT Auditor Christopher Newport University 1 Avenue of the Arts Newport News, VA 23606-3072 Phone: 757-594-8610 E-mail: thomas.miller () cnu edu
Current thread:
- Managed services provider question Pete, Andrew (Jun 12)
- Re: Managed services provider question Tom Miller (Jun 12)
- Re: Managed services provider question Pete, Andrew (Jun 12)
- Re: Managed services provider question Tom Miller (Jun 13)
- Re: Managed services provider question Pete, Andrew (Jun 13)
- Re: Managed services provider question Sonder, Henk E. (Jun 13)
- Re: Managed services provider question Pete, Andrew (Jun 12)
- Re: Managed services provider question Tom Miller (Jun 12)