A recent study found that over 80% of Irish consumers buy their meat from supermarket chains. The remaining 20% or so—myself included—choose to shop at their local butcher. Sure, I pay a little extra, but that few euro is well worth it for the quality, variety, and personal service.

My butcher knows me by name and remembers what I like. If the cut I want isn’t on display, he heads to the fridge and slices exactly what I need. That’s customer service 101.

So, why all the talk about meat?

It’s actually a useful analogy for how businesses should think about cybersecurity. You can stick with your general IT provider (MSP), or you can choose a firm that specialises exclusively in cybersecurity (MSSP).

Cybersecurity covers a wide range of disciplines and while most MSPs do a solid job managing your day-to-day IT needs, they’re generalists. They often lack the specialised tools, knowledge, and personnel needed to deliver truly robust cybersecurity services.

Unless your MSP has invested in a dedicated cybersecurity team, they’re missing one crucial ingredient: focus.

To give you an idea, an MSP with 100 SME clients typically handles around 3,000 tickets per month *. In that sea of support requests, it’s easy for a critical cybersecurity alert to get overlooked—and in cybersecurity, every second counts.

By contrast, an MSSP receives far fewer tickets—typically between 100 and 300 per month for the same client base. That’s because MSSPs use cybersecurity specialists to triage and analyse events, reducing noise and ensuring critical incidents are dealt with immediately—by staff who aren’t juggling 20 unrelated tasks at once.

When it comes to compliance and governance, your MSP shouldn’t be marking their own homework. Even the most well-meaning provider can struggle to be fully objective about your cybersecurity posture.

At CyberContego, we deliver comprehensive MSSP services. We work alongside your MSP, not in competition, to provide your business with top-tier cyber protection—without blowing the budget.

Want to know more? Talk to Seamus—your local cybersecurity butcher—today.

* calculation based on 100 clients with an average of 20 staff each, creating 1.5 tickets per month / per staff member.