SolarWinds MSP,
a global leader in delivering comprehensive, scalable IT service
management solutions to IT solution providers and managed service
providers (MSPs), has found that four out of every five businesses
across the US and UK will change how they deal with security in the
coming 12 months.
This market turbulence is comprised of 17%
of companies intending to switch their current service provider in the
next 12 months, 10% wanting to cease outsourcing in favour of in-house
management, and a huge 49% planning to outsource their security for the
first time. This latter group represents an enormous opportunity for IT
solution providers and MSPs able to prove their security services
credentials.
The report, entitled, "The Path to MSSP",
examined the views of more than 400 SMEs and enterprises in the US and
UK and explores the opportunity for MSPs in security. In particular, it
looks at what it means to be a managed security service provider (MSSP)
and the opportunities for MSPs considering this path.
The five types of IT security opportunity the report has revealed over the next 12 months are, in order of value:
- Businesses
currently handling security internally but now want to outsource their
security primarily due to cost (25% of the market)
- Businesses currently handling security internally but now want to outsource it to improve performance (24% of the market)
- Those currently outsourcing but considering taking security back in-house in the next 12 months (10% of the market)
- Businesses considering switching service providers due to poor performance (9% of the market)
- Businesses considering changing providers to reduce costs (8% of the market)
The
report also details how these opportunities can only be seized by
delivering robust MSSP services, rather than just offering a basic
security function. MSPs need to demonstrate they have the Knowledge, Organisational Ability, and the Technology, Tools, and Resource to deliver in the four key areas of IT security: Infrastructure, Data Security, Risk & Vulnerability Management, and Identity and Access Management.
MSPs can use these core requirements to judge if they can provide what
their customers need from a specialist MSSP, and if they fall short,
where they need to invest.
With the report also showing that 70%
of businesses would have more faith in an MSSP's security capabilities
over a standard MSP, those fulfilling the MSSP criteria will be in a
better position to make the most of this outsourcing opportunity.
"Every
day brings news of a new security hole that needs to be patched, a
massive data breach, or new strain of ransomware that businesses need to
watch out for," said Tim Brown, vice president, security architecture
at SolarWinds MSP. "Understandably, this creates nervousness amongst
enterprises and SMEs and greater scrutiny of the IT security measures in
place. Where there is market turbulence, there is also opportunity, and
the good news for IT service providers is that this has resulted in
almost half of all businesses planning to outsource their security needs
to specialists. However, IT service providers need to remember that
more opportunity inherently means more competition," warns Brown.
"Providers need to be able to prove their knowledge, capabilities, and
available resources to take full advantage."
The full report is available for download here