R&B and soul singer Etta James had a belter of a voice. Her most famous song was probably I’d Rather Go Blind but she sang many other terrific tunes, including At Last, Something’s Got A Hold On Me, Tell Mama and one called Security.
The song came to mind after I read a press release from Gartner predicting that worldwide information security spending will grow by 7.9% this year to $81.6 billion. I’m not going to quote the lyrics at length, but after saying that she wants security because “without it I’m at a great loss”, Etta adds: “And I want it any cost, yes I do now.” Sound familiar?
Judging by Gartner’s analysis, IT security is one of those areas that organisations have realised they just can’t afford to be without in today’s world where threats are growing exponentially. So while preventive security will continue to show strong growth, Gartner senior research analyst Elizabeth Kim notes that organisations are “increasingly focusing on detection and response, because taking a preventive approach has not been successful in blocking malicious attacks”.
The good news for channel partners is that consulting and IT outsourcing are the largest categories of spending on information security. And Kim predicts the highest growth will come from security testing, IT outsourcing and data loss prevention (DLP) until the end of 2020.
The better news is that she expects security spending to “become increasingly service-driven as organisations continue to face staffing and talent shortages”. As Etta put it rather more soulfully, security is not something that comes easy, and many organisations are finding that out for themselves.
Kim says many are struggling to deploy, manage and use an effective combination of expertise and tools to detect threats and then bring their environment back to a known good state. This is leading to a rise in managed detection and response (MDR) providers who Kim believes will be an additional driver for security spending for large and smaller organisations.
I don’t think it’s just me but when someone mentions the words ‘managed’ or ‘as-a-service’, I tend to think ‘channel revenue opportunity’. IT security has become a fundamental issue for businesses and organisations today but few of them have the capabilities or resources to address it without detracting from their day-to-day activities. This creates a perfect space for channel partners and specialists to deliver the security those organisations need either as a managed service or as-a-service.
Allied to the fact IT security spending is growing strongly and Gartner sees no sign of it diminishing (why would it when new threats are emerging all the time?), this looks like a pretty good area to be operating in. Some resellers are perfectly capable of delivering managed security services by themselves but others might need to market repackaged services to customers provided by distributors or vendors. Whichever way they go about it, it still looks like good business.
After all, it’s only what Etta was saying years ago.
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