Most UK and US businesses are looking to change their IT security management

Service providers are set to be busy over the next 12 months, with as many as 80 per cent of business planning to change their IT security management in 2018.

Research by SolarWinds 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. The market turbulence is down to several factors. According to SolarWinds, 17 per cent of companies surveys intend to switch their current service provider in the next 12 months, while 10 per cent want to cease outsourcing in favour of in-house management, and a huge 49 per cent are planning to outsource their security for the first time.

According to Tim Brown, vice president, security architecture at SolarWinds, this latter group represents an ‘enormous opportunity’ for IT solution providers and MSPs able to prove their security services credentials. "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 Brown.

"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 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. With the report also showing that 70 per cent 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.