Evolution of Managed Security Services in the Future

As organizations avail Managed Security Services (MSS) to ensure the protection of their sensitive corporate data, it’s critical that MSS providers enhance their security offerings and include threat predicting tools to stay alive in an extremely competitive market.

The need to protect delicate information and sensitive data as well as thwart organized cyber attacks has driven industries across several verticals—including banking, manufacturing, healthcare, and retail—to employ Managed Security Services (MSS). MSS are third-party security service providers that remotely monitor and manage the network infrastructure of such organizations. While most organizations today manage IT security in-house, a rising trend among IT professions is to partner with an MSS provider to outsource the mammoth and important task of securing their organization’s network. This also helps bourgeoning businesses secure their network at a nascent phase as they lack capital resource and skilled IT staff to do it in-house.

Industry Insights

According to a recent report by Allied Market Research, the global MSS market is expected to garner $40.97 billion by 2022, registering a CAGR of 16.6 percent during the forecast period 2016-2022. The current global market has a strong foothold in North America. However, Asia-Pacific region is poised to witness the highest growth during the forecast period, with a CAGR of 20.3 percent.

Various Applications of MSS

MSS providers offer numerous applications to industries that encompasses their entire network security requirements. The most common of them are Managed Intrusion Prevention/Detection Systems (IPS/IDS), which constantly monitors the network for signs of any forced entry. Other MSS applications include Distributed Denial of Services (DDoS), Unified threat management (UTM), and Secured information & event management (SIEM). There is also a growing trend for Endpoint Security Services, which protects the corporate network when accessed via remote devices such as laptops and smartphones. The trend is driven by the rapid adoption of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) in workspaces, which allows employees to access corporate data through personal devices in an attempt to improve productivity.

Growing Trends in MSS

The MSS market has shown some definitive trends during the past couple of years, indicating that the prevalence of certain aspects is bound to increase in the future. A few significant ones are:

a) A shift towards cloud-based services – At present, MSS applications are either on-premise based or cloud-based. Hosted or cloud-based security services are gaining momentum as enterprises themselves are embracing cloud-based facilities. Moreover, cloud-based MSS applications also help facilitate network security effectively than traditional on-premise applications.

b)  A demand for Predictive Analytics and Network Behavioral Analysis – An increasing number of organizations are demanding advanced prediction and behavioral tools to keep up with the evolving nature of threats. This has propelled MSS providers to incorporate such tools in their portfolio to keep up with the competition. Through predictive analytics, MSS providers assist their clients in mitigating new risks and incidents that might have slipped under the radar through traditional methods. Network behavioral analysis, on the other hand, monitors the client’s network and system for unknown hidden threats by identifying suspicious behavior and policy violations. Both these tools can be seamlessly integrated into SIEM, email security, and identity access management to help predict unknown future events that might be detrimental to the security of an organization.

c) Enhancement of security offerings – While predictive tools can help detect future threats, MSS providers are also under pressure to continually update their security offerings to combat the rapid increase in cybercrimes. According to a report by PandaLabs, 18 million new malware samples were captured in the third-quarter of 2016 alone. Also, a report by ThreatMetrix indicates that 151 million cybercrimes attacks and 1.6 billion bot attacks occurred globally in the second-quarter of 2018. Industries demand effective security services to prevent, monitor and mitigate such threats—which are increasing in size and severity. Cyber threats are also rapidly evolving in nature, forcing MSS providers to develop new offerings that detect and address any new kind of threat as quickly as possible.

d) Integrating security into everyday business operations – Another growing trend among MSS providers is incorporating security into the day-to-day operations of businesses. Through this process, MSS providers move into a value-creation role by teaching customers about myriad security aspects that improve their overall experience.

The Future of MSS

The future of MSS is heavily dependent on government regulations regarding data security. In the United States, strict regulations on information security and growing awareness regarding its complexities are driving enterprises to MSS. At the same time, MSS providers under constant pressure to develop more intricate and robust threat-monitoring systems that completely secures the network infrastructures of organizations and doesn’t leave any unsecured point of attack. Such organizational infrastructures are also becoming more complex in nature, as businesses grow in size and structure while utilizing social media, cloud services, artificial intelligence, and various other computing devices. In order to develop such systems, MSS providers are constantly on the lookout for talented candidates that understand the complex landscape of cybersecurity. MSS providers should also collaborate with national cybersecurity agencies to help identify the evolving nature of threats, in order to develop appropriate counter-measures.

Rajarshi Mukherjee is a Content Writer at Allied Market Research.

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