industryopinion
What’s next for the cybersecurity market?
James Anderson, AVP, EMEA channels at Exabeam looks at the commercial opportunites current trends present in the cyber security market.
T
he commercial opportunities facing the cybersecurity industry are significant. In 2023, the adoption of hybrid and multi-cloud architectures is providing organisations with new
capabilities and opportunities for innovation. However, combined with a large number of new and increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks, the growing complexity of IT ecosystems means organisations have become increasingly reliant on their technology partners for specialist know-how and support. However, with IT budgets under pressure thanks to the economic downturn they’re now looking to these partners for highly optimised and cost- effective services that will deliver robust outcomes. With this backdrop, the future success of cybersecurity vendors
and their partners depends on navigating some key trends on the horizon in the coming months. Let’s take a look at the top issues set to drive the business agenda throughout 2023. Te ongoing decline in product margins within the IT
Channel will further fuel the growth of value-added services to plug the gap. However, with many vendors now delivering SaaS applications and tools built on hyperscale platforms, direct- to-customer marketplaces such as AWS, Azure, and GCP are becoming an increasingly attractive procurement option for customers. Tis growing trend will pose a particular challenge for providers
of complex enterprise solutions such as SIEM, where the partners’ selling effort on the part of vendors remains high while the margins retained for fulfilment via this route are low. For certain vendors, there will be a drive to ensure their value-
driven partners can still make money, keep customers happy, and contribute commercially to the bottom line. In the face of these pressures, soſtware vendors and other
partner-focused sellers will need to focus on building programmes that support and enable partners to traverse these challenges and demonstrate value. Recent high-profile attacks and breaches have highlighted the
importance of being able to see through the sea of alerts and enrich them with context so that better decisions can be made, faster. However, the typical SOC (Security Operations Centre) still
has a plethora of different tools that need to be monitored and understood, each of which does a different task. While some of these tools integrate well, others do not.
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Tis issue is fuelling a shiſt towards open vendor technologies
that can be easily integrated into a tech stack to deliver greater interoperability and visibility at a platform/SOC level. As a consequence, open integration is now key. Today’s tools and their users are generating ever-increasing
volumes of security data. Storing and making sense of all this data requires cloud-scale platforms that use algorithms and machine learning to identify trends and anomalies. Expecting customers or partners to throw human resources
at the problem isn’t a viable option. However, the use of technology at cloud scale will help tackle three key challenges simultaneously: making sense of vast volumes of security data; dealing with today’s increasingly complex attack profiles; and addressing the cybersecurity skills gap. All the above trends mean that more and more customers are
looking for partner-led Anything-as-a-Service (XaaS) options, where the focus is on outcomes and not technology. A classic example of this is the rise of Detect and Respond – or MDR – services where a partner (or a vendor) blends technology and people to deliver a defined outcome to the customer based on agreed KPIs. In the case of MDR, metrics such as Mean Time to Respond
or the number of incidents investigated in a time period will be employed. While these performance metrics are important, customers are increasingly looking to see the achievement of more defined business outcomes, especially in light of their growing demand for full-service offerings. This will challenge managed security service providers to
become more innovative and business focused when it comes to reporting and articulating the value of their services. It also means that managed service providers may well look to partner and work together in co-creative models to deliver industry- specific solutions and pricing models that are flexible enough to scale. As software vendors and their partners prepare to navigate
the challenging market dynamics that lie ahead, they’ll need to rethink their go-to-market strategies and refine their capabilities to address the needs and priorities that matter the most to customers. For those that get it right, the rewards will be better outcomes for customers; the development of lasting strategic partnerships in their ecosystem; and ultimately greater value realisation in their business.
May 2023 | 15
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