Attack Surface Management: Why MSPs Don’t Need Another Tool

MSPs are being told they need dedicated attack surface management solutions when what they really need is better visibility from the tools they already have.

The security industry keeps introducing new categories of tools that promise to solve visibility problems. Attack Surface Management is the latest. But for most MSPs, adding another specialized platform creates more problems than it solves.

After speaking with MSP experts and reviewing industry data on tool sprawl, a clear pattern emerged.

The most successful ones aren’t buying more tools – they’re consolidating the ones they have. And in the process, they’re getting better attack surface visibility than dedicated ASM tools provide.

The Tool Sprawl Problem Nobody Talks About

“We had roughly 76 different core products and services that MSPs use,” Kevin Lancaster, founder of Channel Program, told us during an episode of the MSP Security Playbook.

“And we arrived at that number based on popularity from about 50,000 products that have been added to MSP stacks.”

That number isn’t a typo.

Seventy-six different tools. Some larger MSPs report managing over 1,000 unique vendor subscriptions.

Now imagine you’re running an MSP.

You’re already juggling an RMM, PSA, backup solution, endpoint protection, network monitoring, compliance tools, and email security. Someone comes along and says you need dedicated attack surface management on top of all that.

The response is predictable: MSPs are already overwhelmed managing their existing tools without adding another specialized platform to monitor.

This is the reality vendors don’t want to acknowledge.

MSPs aren’t looking for more tools to manage their attack surface. They’re looking for ways to understand and control it without adding to their operational burden.

What MSPs Actually Need (And It’s Not What You Think)

The conventional wisdom says attack surface management requires continuous external scanning, asset discovery tools, and specialized vulnerability databases. But when we dug into how successful MSPs are actually managing their attack surfaces, a different picture emerged.

The most effective approach we’ve observed doesn’t involve buying dedicated ASM platforms or running external scans. It focuses on getting visibility through tools that are already part of the security stack.

The most effective attack surface management isn’t happening through specialized ASM tools. It’s happening through unified platforms that provide visibility as a byproduct of actual security operations.

The Hidden Cost of Dashboard Sprawl

Something every MSP will relate to: Microsoft alone has over 100 different portals and dashboards across their ecosystem. Add your security vendors, compliance tools, and infrastructure monitoring, and you’re looking at logging into dozens of different systems just to understand what’s happening in your environment.

This sentiment is echoed across the MSP community – the preference for proactive information delivery over manual dashboard monitoring.

This isn’t about convenience. It’s about operational efficiency. When you’re managing security for multiple clients while trying to grow your business, every minute spent clicking through dashboards is a minute not spent on revenue-generating activities.

When vendors pitch attack surface management tools, they’re essentially asking you to add another dashboard to this mix. Even if the tool provides valuable insights, it often gets lost in the noise of everything else you need to monitor.

The attack surface management approaches that work recognize this reality. They deliver insights within workflows that already exist, rather than creating new workflows to maintain.

Why External Scanning Isn’t Enough

Most attack surface management discussions focus heavily on external discovery – scanning the internet to find your exposed assets and vulnerabilities. This external view is valuable, but it’s only part of what MSPs need to manage.

The real attack surface for most MSPs extends far beyond what’s visible from outside. It includes the complex web of interconnected systems, users, applications, and vendors that make up modern IT infrastructure. Many of the most damaging attacks never touch your external perimeter.

Consider these common attack vectors:

• Compromised credentials from a SaaS application
• Lateral movement through poorly managed privileged accounts
• Email-based fraud that bypasses perimeter security
• Supply chain attacks through vendor relationships

Traditional external ASM tools won’t catch most of these. You need visibility into user behavior, application access patterns, privilege escalation, and vendor risk – not just open ports and exposed services.

The Agent Fatigue Factor

There’s a term gaining traction in MSP circles: agent fatigue. It’s the exhaustion that comes from managing too many security tools, each requiring its own agent, dashboard, and operational overhead.

“The sprawl is real,” Lancaster continued. “You try managing that on an Excel spreadsheet, right? It’s just chaos, absolute chaos.”

This chaos isn’t just operational – it’s a security risk. When teams are overwhelmed by complexity, important things get missed. Alerts get ignored. Updates get delayed. The attack surface grows not because of new threats, but because existing defenses break down under operational stress.

When vendors pitch attack surface management as another tool to deploy, they’re often adding to this problem rather than solving it. MSPs don’t need more agents to manage. They need fewer tools that do more.

Download your copy of The State of MSP Agent Fatigue in 2025 report.

What Actually Works: Integration Over Addition

The MSPs achieving the best attack surface visibility aren’t buying dedicated ASM tools. They’re using integrated security platforms that provide attack surface insights as part of broader security operations.

Effective attack surface management looks like this when built into unified security platforms rather than added as a separate tool.

Unified Visibility – Platforms that combine endpoint protection, vulnerability management, and asset discovery with shared data and unified reporting, eliminating the need to correlate information across multiple dashboards.

Automated Context – Solutions that automatically connect vulnerability data with asset criticality, user access patterns, and business context, rather than requiring manual analysis to understand risk prioritization.

Proactive Alerting – Automated reports and alerts that highlight changes to your attack surface and prioritize response actions, delivered within existing workflows rather than requiring additional dashboard monitoring.

Integrated Response – Remediation capabilities within the same platform that detected issues, avoiding context switches between discovery and response tools.

This approach solves the attack surface management challenge without adding operational complexity. In fact, it reduces complexity while improving security outcomes.

Heimdal’s XDR platform demonstrates this integrated approach.

Rather than positioning ourselves as an ASM vendor, they provide attack surface visibility through endpoint protection, vulnerability management, patch management, and privileged access controls – all within a unified platform.

MSPs get comprehensive attack surface insights without adding another vendor relationship or dashboard to monitor.

The Compliance Reality Check

Compliance requirements are expanding, creating another factor that drives MSP decision-making beyond just security considerations.

“You’re going to start to see a lot more top-down legislation that’s going to put the onus on the MSP to really understand their supply chain and their stack in general,” Lancaster warned.

This means attack surface management isn’t just about security anymore – it’s about demonstrating due diligence and maintaining audit trails.

MSPs need platforms that provide compliance reporting and audit capabilities, not just vulnerability scanning.

The traditional approach of buying specialized ASM tools and trying to extract compliance data from them isn’t sustainable. MSPs need integrated platforms that capture compliance-relevant data as part of normal security operations.

Stop Adding, Start Consolidating

When evaluating attack surface management solutions, MSPs should ask one critical question: Will this give me better visibility than consolidating my existing tools?

In most cases, the answer is no. You don’t need another specialized platform.

You need better integration and automation within your existing security stack.

Look for platforms that provide

• Multi-function capabilities that replace multiple point solutions
• Automated reporting that delivers insights without manual effort
• Unified workflows that don’t require context switching between tools
• Native compliance features that support audit requirements
• Vendor consolidation opportunities that reduce your overall tool count

The goal isn’t perfect attack surface visibility. It’s actionable intelligence delivered efficiently enough that you can actually use it.

The Bottom Line

Attack surface management is critical, but adding specialized tools to already complex security stacks often creates more problems than it solves for MSPs.

The MSPs succeeding at attack surface management are consolidating, not expanding. They’re choosing integrated platforms over point solutions, automation over manual processes, and operational efficiency over feature completeness.

If you’re serious about understanding and controlling your attack surface, start by auditing your existing tool stack. How many vendors are you managing? How many dashboards do your team members log into each day? How much time are you spending on tool management versus actual security work?

The answers to those questions will tell you more about your attack surface management needs than any vendor pitch.

What our conversations with MSPs revealed is this: the biggest risk to your attack surface often isn’t what you can’t see. It’s the operational complexity that prevents you from acting effectively on what you can see.

Want to see how unified security platforms can simplify attack surface management without adding operational overhead?

Heimdal’s XDR platform provides comprehensive visibility through endpoint protection, vulnerability management, and privileged access controls within a single solution.

Learn more about reducing security complexity while improving protection.

Danny Mitchell