Shadow IT Isn’t Always Rogue. Here’s What Your MSSP Should Be Helping You Govern.
Shadow IT Has Evolved
Traditionally, Shadow IT meant unsanctioned tools quietly adopted by teams without IT approval. Today, the risk landscape looks different. Many of the highest-risk systems in your environment — Salesforce, Monday, SAP, Workday — are fully approved.
They’re also mission-critical, deeply embedded in daily operations, and... functionally invisible to your governance teams.
These tools often sit outside of security and compliance visibility because:
- They’re managed by business units.
- They don’t integrate cleanly into traditional SIEM or CSPM tools.
- They store and process sensitive data with little auditability.
This creates a dangerous blind spot — not because they’re unauthorized, but because they’re opaque.
What You Need from an MSSP Today
If you’re relying on a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) or GRC service partner, it’s not enough for them to monitor your cloud configurations and alert on threats. You need a partner who can help you govern — and that includes these high-value, low-visibility systems.
Here’s what to ask your MSSP:
1. Can You Help Us Ingest Data from Our Business-Critical Apps?
You’re not just protecting cloud infrastructure. You’re governing data and workflows that live in Salesforce, SAP, Monday, and more. Your MSSP should be able to:
- Ingest and normalize data from these platforms
- Use standardized formats (OCSF, JSON, CSV, YAML)
- Leverage collectors or APIs to bring this data into view
2. Can You Turn That Data Into Governance-Ready Intelligence?
It’s not enough to ingest raw logs or exports. Your provider should be transforming that data into a normalized format that supports:
- SQL-based querying
- Custom policy creation
- Compliance mapping
- Cross-data-source joins for richer context
This is where governance platforms shine — enabling structured insights from even the most unstructured app environments.
3. Can We Define Policies That Reflect Our Requirements?
You shouldn’t have to fit your business into a one-size-fits-all compliance checklist. Look for a partner that lets you:
- Build or import your own frameworks (e.g. SOC 2, HIPAA, internal policies)
- Customize policy logic based on roles, locations, business context
- Track enforcement across any data source, not just CSPs
4. Can You Help Us Orchestrate Remediation — Not Just Alert?
Governance isn’t just about visibility — it’s about action. A capable MSSP should be able to:
- Route violations to the right teams (security, ops, app owners)
- Integrate with tools like Jira, ServiceNow, or Slack for response
- Track resolution for audit and improvement
5. Can We Scale This Across the Organization?
As your organization grows, governance needs to scale — across teams, apps, and geographies. That means:
- Multi-tenant support (with no cross-client data mixing)
- Role-based access (RBAC/ABAC) for business-unit-specific governance
- Consistent policy enforcement across systems and silos
Why This Matters
Governance isn’t just about keeping a checklist for auditors. It’s about aligning your people, tools, and processes around the way your business works — and ensuring that your critical systems, even the ones outside traditional security coverage, are part of that governance strategy.
If your MSSP can’t help you see and govern these systems, then you’re still in the dark — just with a longer flashlight.
Final Thought:
Shadow IT doesn’t always mean rogue. Sometimes it just means invisible.
Your MSSP should help bring it into view — and under governance.
