Managed Security Service Providers are thriving in the North American market as businesses struggle to keep up with data security concerns and compliance mandates, analysts with Frost & Sullivan announced Thursday.
Even as other IT products and services are seeing declines or flat sales figures, Frost & Sullivan reports that MSSPs will continue to experience steady growth and should double its figures in the next six years. Last year MSSPs grew their sales by 12 percent in North America, up to $1.06 billion. Frost & Sullivan expects this figure to hit $2.40 billion in 2015.
The analyst firm cites compliance mandates such as PCI DSS as key drivers of security services adoption, particularly in emerging vertical markets such as manufacturing, energy, retail and utilities. Another key driver is the growing base of sophisticated attacks assaulting organizations both small and large, which are unprepared to do anything but react with meager in-house resources.
"Threats continue to be malicious and complex, and malware is increasing alarmingly, highlighting the need for companies to defend all the endpoints attached to the corporate network," Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Martha Vazquez said in a statement.
Vazquez says that MSSPs have a real opportunity to grow their businesses if they can continue to create programs that aid companies in developing preventative security postures.
Vazquez reports several obstacles are still keeping MSSPs locked out of certain organizations, primarily the fear of giving control of sensitive information to third parties and the skepticism of ROI benefits when it comes to actually reducing data breach risks. Frost & Sullivan recommends that MSSPs enhance their education efforts surrounding outsourced security and improve potential client’s access to statistics about the costs inherent to major breaches and compliance failures.
Similarly, the analyst firm also believes that MSSPs need to take a better leadership role in clearing up confusion over regulatory policies that vary between industries and regions.
"While the industry-specific legislation is often nebulous, the combination of overlapping and exclusive laws affecting their respective regional markets has been a source of considerable confusion for administrators," Vazquez said. "Multinational corporations, in particular, are scrambling to comply, and that confusion itself is slowing MSS industry growth."
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