Chances are, plenty of managed service providers are popping up in your neighborhood. In addition to worrying about local competition, you better keep an eye on global competition. A case in point: Sify Technologies Ltd. of India is launching managed security services that have global reach. Here’s why you should care.
While local solutions providers leverage personal customer relations, larger MSPs are gaining financial clout. Sify’s most recently quarterly revenue topped (US) $38 million, up 8.7 percent compared to the corresponding quarter in 2006. In a release, the company said it continued to strengthen its position with banking, financial services and insurance customers.
Sify’s “end-to-end” managed security services will leverage the company’s security operations center in Bangalore. The company says it will offer a suite of services featuring 24×7 monitoring, security event correlation, vulnerability protection, compliance monitoring and forensics services.
The managed security market is getting crowded. Nearly 90 percent of the managed service providers offer some form of managed security, according to more than 500 participants in our MSPmentor 100 survey. (Read the complete MSPmentor 100 report here.)
Several new managed security platforms will debut soon. Symantec, for one, plans to introduce its Symantec Protection Network (SPN) within the next few weeks. SPN initially supports storage services, with security services to follow later this year. SPN will be positioned for small and midsize businesses, and promoted through Symantec’s partner network.
For managed service providers, security has become one component within a larger suite of services they now have to offer to customers. Also, the services have pushed beyond basic capabilities like anti-virus and anti-spam services, and must now include complete endpoint protection. In other cases, MSPs are even melding their IT security services with facility and building security. Through video surveillance and IT security, many MSPs hope to protect their customers in both the real world and in the virtual world.
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Personalized services and great communication will win the MSSP battle! Most MSSP’s are trying to develop their own platforms (Golden Egg) to deliver their services and are not focusing on monitoring and customer support. We have standardized our managed security services on platforms that are rated as leaders in industries by The Gartner Group (such as: Loglogic, Tipping Point and nCircle) freeing valuable resources which allows us to focus on the unique service delivery and monitoring requirements of each individual client.
The proliferation of global MSP’s and service offerings from large traditional software vendors is inevitable. HOWEVER – the same problem exists for these players that has always troubled them – customer reach and access to mid-market and SMB. Just becase the offerings are services vs. traditional product does not mean they have solved the reach problem. Solution Providers are still in the drivers seat. Vars need to stay focused on their own brand and the differentiation of that brand to their customers. Work with partners that let you lead with your Var brand – not the vendor or MSP brand – allowing you to deliver the customer touch and support you always have. Vars can deliver high quality services thru platforms like Ingram Micro Seismic while maintaining their own brands. The “global MSP” from India can’t beat the SMB var for quality, value, and service.
Well said Justin.