As Managed Cybersecurity Services Become the Norm, Unified Platforms Are Essential for MSPs
The cybersecurity industry is constantly adapting and reinventing itself as the complexity of the threat landscape is increasing each year. Unskilled and insufficient employees are significant barriers making organizations unsafe. The lack of competent cybersecurity partners and the shift to remote working are additional barriers to making organizations secure. Organizations are therefore turning to MSPs to address these challenges.
Thus, the role of MSPs is expanding, with 53% of organizations expecting their security vendor to handle more responsibilities. A new report from Frost & Sullivan shows that the expected revenue growth for MSPs between 2021 and 2024 is a stunning 29%.
The report predicts high revenue growth will soar across every market, from the Americas to APAC regions such as Japan, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand to Latin America, where security maturity in organizations has fallen behind.
The figures are equally high for regions with high-security maturity and elevated rates of technology adoption such as North America (+30%), Northern (+29%), Central (+25%), and Southern Europe (+26%).
This market growth is directly traced to increased digitalization across the globe. As the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated digitalization worldwide, cyber-attack surfaces for most organizations have expanded, requiring companies to secure everything from endpoints to new Cloud environments via partnerships with IT service providers and security vendors.
The report found that, on average, an organization typically uses 11 different products for its security needs, which underscores the importance of employing hybrid security strategies and partnering with security vendors with extensive portfolios.
How can MSPs meet the need for integrated security?
To meet the need for integrated security, security vendors are broadening their portfolios with an increasing number of managed solutions that can match widely varied use cases for every type of organization. MSPs and channel partners must take note and provide emerging services – such as breach and attack simulation, SIEM, IoT/OT security, and MDR – along with their established managed services such as firewalls, vulnerability management, and penetration testing. Partnering with a security vendor that offers a tightly integrated solution portfolio, instead of multiple vendors offering specialized solutions, can help MSPs scale efficiently.
In addition, flexible pricing models are vital for MSPs, especially when working with small and midsize businesses. Allowing growing companies to pay incrementally as they transition to the Cloud and digitally transform their networks is crucial for their success.
