Why “Right of Boom” Is a Terrible Strategy for MSPs and MSSPs
There’s a phrase that keeps getting celebrated in cybersecurity circles – especially in the MSP and MSSP community – that deserves a little less applause and a lot more scrutiny.
“Right of Boom”
It sounds tough. Tactical. Almost heroic. Like you’re standing in the wreckage, sleeves rolled up, ready to save the day.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: embracing “right of boom” as a primary strategy is an admission of failure, not maturity. And worse, it’s quietly training security service providers – and their clients – to accept preventable damage at the cost of doing business.
That’s not leadership. That’s resignation.
What “Right of Boom” Really Means in Cybersecurity
Let’s level-set before anyone gets defensive.
“Right of boom” generally refers to everything that happens after an incident:
- Detection and alerting
- Incident response
- Forensics and recovery
- Insurance notifications and regulatory cleanup
To be clear, these things matter. Breaches happen. Response capabilities are necessary.
But somewhere along the way, “right of boom” stopped being a contingency plan and became the plan.
That’s the problem.
When MSPs and MSSPs anchor their value around “right of boom,” they’re implicitly telling clients:
“This is going to happen. We’ll just be really good at dealing with it.”
That mindset has consequences.
The Business Model Problem With “Right of Boom”
Here’s the part nobody likes to say out loud.
“Right of boom” is a fantastic revenue model.
It is a terrible security model.
It thrives on:
- Complexity after failure
- Urgency after damage
- Anything to-stop-the-bleeding spend
- Fear after compromise
And it quietly deprioritizes the boring, unglamorous work that actually reduces risk before something explodes.
If your service catalog shines brightest after something goes wrong, you are structurally incentivized to live “right of boom.”
That doesn’t make you malicious.
But it does make the system self-reinforcing.
Why Clients Don’t Actually Want to Live “Right of Boom”
Clients may tolerate “right of boom,” but don’t confuse tolerance with desire.
Boards don’t ask:
- How fast was our incident response call?
- How smooth was the forensic report?
They ask:
- Why did an attacker get access in the first place?
- Why did credentials still work after an employee left?
- Why didn’t we know this system even existed?
Those are not “right of boom” questions.
Those are “left of boom” failures.
The Real Cost of Living “Right of Boom”
When organizations live primarily “right of boom,” a few patterns always show up:
Asset Blindness
You can’t protect what you can’t see. Yet many environments still lack a real-time understanding of:
- Which systems are alive
- Which SaaS apps are in use
- Which certificates are valid, expired, or silently trusted
When something breaks, everyone suddenly scrambles to build an asset inventory that should have existed already.
Access That Outlives Its Purpose
Most breaches don’t start with elite hacking. They start with:
- Over-permissioned SaaS accounts
- Forgotten service accounts
- Certificates that never expired because nobody was tracking them
These are “left of boom” problems that show up right of boom.
Cleanup Instead of Control
Incident response becomes a substitute for design.
Detection becomes a substitute for prevention.
Heroics become a substitute for governance.
That’s not sustainable—for clients or service providers.
“Right of Boom” vs “Left of Boom”: The Real Difference
Let’s simplify the comparison.
“Right of Boom” Thinking
- Assume compromise
- Focus on alerts and response
- Optimize for speed after damage
- Measure success by recovery time
“Left of Boom” Thinking
- Assume complexity
- Focus on visibility and control
- Reduce blast radius before failure
- Measure success by what never happened
“Left of boom” isn’t naïve optimism.
It’s disciplined realism.
What “Left of Boom” Actually Looks Like in Practice
This is where things get uncomfortable—because “left of boom” requires work before there’s a fire.
Asset Visibility as a First-Class Requirement
If you don’t know:
- What workloads are running
- What certificates they trust
- What SaaS services they talk to
You’re already operating “right of boom,” whether you admit it or not.
Modern environments change too fast for annual inventories and spreadsheets. Asset awareness must be continuous, automated, and boringly reliable.
SaaS Access Control That Matches Reality
SaaS is now the enterprise perimeter. Pretending otherwise is fantasy.
“Left of boom” means:
- Knowing which SaaS platforms exist
- Controlling who and what can access them
- Revoking access when conditions change—not weeks later
Most breaches don’t require lateral movement if attackers can just log in.
Certificate Lifecycle Management That Isn’t an Afterthought
Certificates are silent trust relationships. They don’t alert. They don’t complain. They just work—until they don’t.
Expired, over-trusted, or orphaned certificates are:
- Invisible to most security tools
- Trusted by default
- Perfect for attackers who want persistence
Managing certificate lifecycles before they fail is one of the most underrated “left of boom” controls in existence.
Why MSPs and MSSPs Are Stuck “Right of Boom”
This isn’t about capability. MSPs and MSSPs are uniquely positioned to lead “left of boom.”
So why don’t more do it?
Because:
- “Right of boom” is easier to sell
- “Left of boom” requires explaining value before pain
- Prevention doesn’t generate adrenaline—or emergency invoices
But here’s the opportunity: clients are exhausted.
They don’t want another post-incident report.
They want fewer incidents.
The Shift MSPs and MSSPs Need to Make
“Right of boom” should exist.
It should just stop being the headline.
The real differentiator going forward will be service providers who:
- Lead with visibility, not alerts
- Lead with access control, not cleanup
- Lead with trust management, not forensics
That’s how you move from being the cleanup crew to being the risk authority.
Final Thought: “Right of Boom” Is the Backup Plan, Not the Strategy
No one wins awards for the best fire extinguisher if the building never catches fire.
The cybersecurity industry doesn’t need faster reactions.
It needs better design.
If “right of boom” is where most of your value lives, it might be time to ask a hard question:
What would your services look like if your goal was to prevent the boom altogether?
That’s the work worth doing.
That’s where real leadership lives.
That’s “left of boom.”
