A CEO's Guide To Choosing An IT Service Provider

Cybersecurity questions for business leaders to ask potential MSP partners

The decision to select an IT service provider or managed service provider (MSP) is critical to any organization. As a business or technology leader, you need to be prepared to ask the tough, important questions to ensure that your IT provider is qualified to meet your needs. Along with legal and accounting, there are few service categories that require a trusted partner to handle and manage sensitive information as your technology provider. Choosing an IT partner requires someone who can be trusted to design, access, administer and secure your computer networks and data.

The CompTIA Cybersecurity Advisory Council developed this guide to help you ask the right questions—and solicit the right answers—regarding the support, stability, and security related to your systems. In addition, it will help you get clarity around how a service provider treats its own systems where your sensitive information may be stored and how remote access will occur. An IT service provider’s weak security practices could result in a cyber incident that in turn compromises its clients’ information too.

Below are recommended questions to consider asking your IT service provider or MSP. The questions should serve as a guideline but can be adjusted to fit your specific needs and complexity. Use this guide as a pre-selection tool to help select a new IT provider, or to help evaluate the partner that you already leverage for technology support.

Have your IT provider fill out this form or answer these questions to get the insights needed to help choose the right partner for your company.