Growing concerns about cybersecurity have left your organization with little choice: Your company needs to bolster its cyber defenses, or risk falling victim to a costly incident like a data breach, or ransomware attack.

There’s just one problem: You lack the budget to hire top cybersecurity talent and to keep your network infrastructure up to date with the latest safeguards.

Research shows that your company is not alone in facing this problem. According to ESG, 46 percent of companies have a “problematic shortage” of cybersecurity skills this year. And the demand for cybersecurity professionals will increase at a rate of 53 percent by 2018.

Adding to this challenge is the fact that, as Network World recently pointed out, information security managers’ salaries are rising across the board. From 2015 to 2016, for instance, salaries increased by 6.4 percent, exceeding increases in all other IT professions.

The public sector is especially hurting for cybersecurity talent. According to the New York Times, for instance, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is having difficulty recruiting computer experts, largely due to the fact that the government has even less money to spend than the private sector. Also, the private sector tends to afford greater worker flexibility and better benefits, making it a more attractive option for most job seekers.

“We are competing in a tough marketplace against a private sector that is in a position to offer a lot more money,” Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson was recently quoted as saying to senators during a March hearing. “We need more cybertalent without a doubt in D.H.S., in the federal government, and we are not where we should be right now, that is without a doubt.”

With these points in mind, decision makers in both the private and public sectors should strongly consider outsourcing their cybersecurity needs. Managed service providers offer direct access to top cybersecurity experts and services for much less than it would take to hire or purchase them firsthand.

Apex Technology Services is one such managed services provider currently serving the greater New York City and Fairfield County areas. To learn more about how Apex can help bolster your organization’s cyberdefense strategy, click here.