Managed security services are undergoing a timely and significant transformation, armed with new hyperscalable technology stacks, hybrid enterprise and cross-cloud protection complexities, and a demand to evolve from 24/7 eyes-on-glass into hands-on customer-integrated early warning and response. If it wasn’t a tired industry cliché we’d probably be adding “next-generation” or NG prefixes to many of these newly transformed managed services.

That transformation of traditional managed security services provider (MSSP) offerings, combined with an explosion of software product vendors and consulting services providers entering the fray with their newly hybridized managed detection and response solutions, is confusing to many. Whether from an MSSP, security product vendor or a consulting services provider pitch, the same vocabulary and acronyms increasingly mean different things.