Cloud security services account for nearly 17% of small- and medium-sized businesses’ (SMBs) total security spending, and that´s going to grow substantially in coming years, according to a new report from Access Markets International (AMI) Partners.
On-site and cloud spending on security will increase at a 10% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2011 and 2016, according to AMI´s upcoming “2012 Global SMB Security Market Assessment.”
Cloud services security is a particular concern for SMBs for several reasons, AMI points out, including:
- Proliferation of mobile devices, both officially purchased company-sanctioned devices and employees’ own devices being used for both private and work related activities (BYOD “Bring-your-own device”) are significantly heightening security risk exposure which is becoming unmanageable for SMBs
- Employees also want to use devices to access and disseminate company data in the same way they do in their private lives through a variety of social media
- Keeping abreast of security on all these devices is a major challenge for SMB ICT management teams – where they exist
- Weak prevailing economic conditions and capital expenditure restraints mean that the cloud payment model offers a better way of procuring sophisticated ICT solutions, and keeping them up-to-date and “state of the art”
“Security is a complex issue with rapidly changing permutations.Widespread lack of technical resources and expertise is leading to an increasing desire to outsource the problem amongst small and medium businesses,” commented Hugh Gibbs, report author and VP of Research for EMEA for AMI. “This is presenting major opportunities for managed service solutions – particularly for skilled, local channel partners and managed security service providers (MSSPs).”
Critical to SMBs addressing cloud and mobile services security are the following, AMI finds:
- Easy-to-deploy cloud service offerings within attractively-priced service bundles. Bundling increases potential service uptake by a factor of 4 or 5 AMI research shows
- Availability through different channels including cloud-enabled local channel partners, service providers and retail/e-tail stores
- Promotion through multiple information sources and communication channels, including both traditional and web based social media
The increasing trend toward “Bring Your Own Device”—is also a growing security concern for organizations more generally, according to a recent report from Juniper Research.
