Trends Impacting The SMB IT Security Market
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
According to CompTIA’s 2015 IT Industry Outlook and Trends to Watch, the democratization of technology is creating new opportunities for small and medium businesses (SMBs) that are embracing digitalization, including cloud-based technologies, to improve processes, and save time and money. Of SMBs surveyed by CompTIA, 47 percent plan to increase technology expenditures in 2015, and 50 percent plan to invest in new products or lines of business.
One thing this migration towards digitalization and the cloud does, however, is to increase security risks, creating a growing market for cloud-based security solutions geared for SMBs. As Neal Bradbury, co-founder and VP of channel development at Intronis, told Business Solutions, “Realistically speaking, it is not a matter of if, but when a cyberattack will occur. And, unlike larger enterprises that generally have the resources in place to prevent or mitigate the impact of cyberattacks, SMBs can find it challenging to deal with new and emerging cyberthreats and ransomware viruses such as CryptoLocker and the infamous CryptoWall malware. MSPs and solutions providers that take the time to fully understand the security risks faced by the SMB customers, and provide products and solutions that address these risks, will realize that there are significant opportunities to grow their businesses.”
Cameron Burke, senior vice president of business development at Cirius, also commented, ‘There is no question that SMBs are more ready, willing, and able to spend on IT services — in particular for security — than ever before. SMBs are constantly looking for new ways to boost productivity and profitability and require services that are agile and can scale with their business, as well as support a remote workforce.”
“According to hosting and cloud services provider Parallels, the value of the worldwide SMB targeted Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications market will grow to $33.8 billion this year up from $14.5 billion in 2012. When it comes to cloud solutions, the SMB sector is expected to grow by almost 20 percent over the next five years, with three in 10 midsize firms adopting cloud solutions,” Burke said.
As Darren Miller, senior director of worldwide alliance and channel marketing at Webroot told Business Solutions, “With the need to buy and maintain on premise hardware and software eliminated, cloud security solutions make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to deploy or be managed by a third party such as a managed services provider (MSP). For these reasons, SMBs have the opportunity to emerge as an important market for cloud-based security and according to Gartner, more than 30 percent of security controls deployed to the small or midsize business (SMB) segment will be cloud-based by 2015.”