Jesse Emerson, Chief Product Officer at LevelBlue, the world’s largest pure-play Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP), recently sat down to answer a few questions about what makes an MSSP a valuable client resource and how he sees the MSSP’s role changing in the coming year.
Question: What makes a world-class MSSP?
Jesse Emerson - There are many things an MSSP must have to be considered at the top.
First, there's the breadth of their portfolio. How many problems and challenges can that provider help their clients address? And that extends not only to the managed offerings but also to the consultative services they provide to help clients reach the security program outcomes that really matter. Next, there's the breadth of technologies an MSSP can support with deep expertise and integration. Most organizations have dozens of different tools and vendor technologies at play in their cybersecurity program. The ability to simplify a client’s experience in getting value out of those investments with their MSSP is key.
Finally, transparency is extremely important. This is the way an MSSP can establish a trusting relationship with its clients.
Really, it's a wide breadth of capabilities and characteristics exhibited by MSSPs with me on the panel and likely across the MSSP Alert’s Top MSSP 250.
Question: What strategic decisions or mindset shift do you think will have the biggest impact on LevelBlue’s ability to scale securely and sustainably?
Jesse Emerson - LevelBlue has been on a rapid growth trajectory for the last year and a half. We were spun out of AT&T Cybersecurity in 2024 and have acquired a number of leading and complementary companies over the last several months. Deciding how to integrate our acquired capabilities and take care of our clients along that journey are top priorities.
We are constantly evaluating how to rationalize our portfolio and decide where we can excel and help clients in the most impactful ways.
At the same time, we must be honest and transparent with our clients about the few areas where we may not be able to help. In these cases, we may need to bring in another provider to round out a particular client's specific needs.
Adopting and implementing AI across our business is also key to improving our scalability and velocity as a company. AI can have an impact on our development teams, our delivery teams, and our client interactions. This gives us a tremendous opportunity to not only scale but also improve quality at the same time. Being able to accomplish more, whether it's my team writing product requirement documents or our security experts conducting investigations and troubleshooting, AI can be transformative.
Question: What capabilities and processes must MSSPs have in place today to remain credible and trusted by customers, heading into 2026?
Jesse Emerson: As I mentioned previously, transparency is key. High levels of transparency for clients into the work we perform for them is a demonstration of the level of commitment we have for delivering great service, and it’s what our clients expect.
This is not the first rodeo for most of our clients. They've been through providers and know what they like and, more importantly, what they don't like when they're looking for an MSSP partner.
When it comes to building relationships with new and legacy clients, our ability to make realistic commitments and deliver with transparency is huge.
Question: As you think about 2026, what shifts in the threat landscape and customer expectations are you actively preparing for right now?
Jesse Emerson: We need to look at this in three parts.
The first is centered on enabling a client’s AI journey. Organizations are eager to adopt AI, but they need a roadmap to do it safely. We are elevating our AI consulting offerings to help our clients move to a higher level of maturity, transitioning from experimental use to a secure, enterprise-wide implementation.
Second, as the attack surface changes, so must our defenses. LevelBlue will be launching a suite of API and AI protection offerings throughout the year. These are specifically designed to secure the applications themselves and the data flowing through them, ensuring that "convenience" doesn’t come at the cost of security.
The third is actionable threat intelligence. In a faster threat landscape, intelligence is only useful if it’s shared and usable. Leveraging our Open Threat Exchange, we are focused on two goals:
- Producing high-fidelity, proprietary cyber threat intelligence.
- Actively sharing that data with industry peers and clients to ensure our collective defenses stay ahead of the latest threats.
Ultimately, we are preparing our clients to not just survive, but thrive, in this new era of automated technology.
