Most Master Service Providers and those technology resellers who are increasingly delivering IT Security Services understand they will outsource the heavy lifting associated with IT Security, compliance, and education. I think the time has come that there will be a new competition which will challenge Master Service Providers, especially those with limited resources. Two thousand nineteen will be the year of new options and game-changing competitors. Some will re-invent themselves becoming the new competitor, and some will struggle and fall victim to changing times.
It is the talk of the town IT security; it’s training, its compliance, and its need to be taken seriously. Technology re-sellers from all channels are littering their websites and marketing material with those two words, Cyber Security.
I think the whole of business is aware of the need to get secure, from both internal and external threats. There will be security providers coming out of the woodwork. There will also be organizations with proven security deliverables of their own, who will begin to look at expansion through channel distribution this creates the new threat to Master Service Providers.
Here are some of my predictions. Organizations such as ConnectWise and other PSA providers increase their security offerings. The largest Master Service Provider, Continuum will expand its security offering, their deep pockets and huge MSP customer base will give them a significant advantage over the small Master Service Providers. However, Resellers will see large enterprise corporations such as ATT push themselves into the SMB space with IT Security offerings, ATT’s motive with last year’s acquisition of Alien Vault. We should not dismiss our friends at Amazon, Office Depot, or even those large V.C. backed software conglomerates. Also, some in the print Services business will diversify into IT security or form relationships with IT Security Platforms inside or, outside of Master Service Providers.
Many understand the value of delivering IT Security so, current providers void imagination will be surprised by their potential replacements. Remember, no one ever believed that Amazon would own the cloud five or six years ago, and those who bet against that lost the bet.
The extremely high cost required for building IT Security Platforms which would attract resellers will take organizations with both substantial revenues and profits giving the advantage to those organizations with massive customer bases, customer bases which are the same as the MSP. New Security providers are courting the SMB customer, and the severe consequences related to IT Security will open the door for customers to evaluate their current service provider abilities. Most Managed Service Providers understand their customer relationships are only a component of their deliverable. Great relationships do not prevent IT disasters, or IT security threats, and will quickly be traded for the better abilities of the new provider.
I think many MSP’s are smart enough to understand if they are outsourcing to a Master Service Provider and the Master Service Provider is then outsourcing what they initially outsourced to them; the end-user will pay the higher cost. It will be interesting to see how the market evolves and how master service providers will define their deliverable in the ever-growing security-minded market place.
In Closing; All those in technology must be open to new possibilities. What seemed perfect just three years ago should now be thoroughly questioned. I am looking at organizations who can help TEASRA resellers help their end users navigate the security landscape. I believe with an open mind to possibilities, TEASRA will discover those who will challenge, change and replace, what needs to be challenged, changed and replaced in the delivery of IT Security.
After all, Status Quo is the killer of all that will be invented, and Status Quo in IT Services is the greatest threat to your IT Security.
Stay secure…
