Data Security MARKET REPORT
“Cloud application usage continues to compound each year, exposing businesses
to cybersecurity vulnerabilities.“ Emily Nerland, Channel Director - EMEA, Masergy
Graham Wilkinson, Head of
Sales, Beyond Connectivity
to one study, the average
enterprise has more than 888
unauthorised SaaS applications
running unbeknownst to IT
departments.
Embarrassment is another
hurdle for resellers to overcome.
You must get past the client
shame of, ‘We’re shoving
security alerts in a drawer
and ignoring them because
we don’t have the skills and
people to handle this.’ e
vast majority of enterprises are
extremely immature in their
security improvement journey
and largely overwhelmed by
the exercise of reacting to a
constant barrage of only the
most visible threats, and then
hoping what they don’t know
won’t hurt them.
From experience, the
questions that can most
in uence the sales conversation
are:
• How does this save us money?
Do we do security in-house or
outsource it?
• How do I know where to
start and how to strategically
improve our security posture?
• How do I know who to trust
with our security?
“ ere is often complacency
amongst buyers around the
meaning of security,” says
Mark Adderley at Intercity
Technology.
“Investing in the correct
technology is one thing,
understanding how to deploy
it and maintain its e cacy
across an entire business is
another. at’s where resellers
contribute.
It’s about customers working
closely with partners to apply
>
ensures all data is examined
thoroughly, the strategy
requires in-depth knowledge
of data usage and data ow -
hence an advanced model.
ese issues all present the
necessity of a Managed Security
Service Provider like Masergy
for enterprise and the ongoing
nature of these issues means that
recurring revenue opportunities
are ripe. Embracing security
now will position you for the
future. If you’re selling network
services, you’re going to have to
start selling security. Network
Security (NetSec) convergence is
a rising trend. Gartner’s Secure
Access Service Edge (SASE,
pronounced sassy), calls for more
security features and functions
bundled within network
services.”
© Tierney-stock.adobe.com
Mark Adderley, Security and
Cloud Specialist for reseller
Intercity Technology says that
in an increasingly data-driven
economy, data must be gathered,
transferred, stored and protected
which leaves businesses
vulnerable to security breaches.
“As businesses grow and
evolve, so does the risk of
security breaches. is is
exacerbated by new technologies
creating new opportunities
for cybercrime and therefore
challenges for security. As a
result, the UK is in a constant
state-of-alert when it comes to
data and platform security.
at certainty of future
attacks presents a di erent set of
questions:
How do we minimise the
damage of future breaches,
recover data and services, and
return to business as usual as
quickly and cost e ectively as
possible?
e answer is to avoid
complacency. Maintaining a
state of readiness for a breach
as opposed to the optimistic
outlook of thinking you
can remove security attacks
altogether, should enable a
business to build layers of
security and multiple modes of
defence.”
How clued up are customers
when it comes to security
now? What kind of questions
can resellers expect to get
from their customers?
Graham Wilkinson at Beyond
Connectivity believes that
awareness is de nitely growing.
“Some companies are starting
to wake up and realise the
threat. ey know that if big
companies can be breached then
so can they. ere are thousands
of network threats each day.
e majority are unsuccessful
but ultimately, they could shut
a business down. I think quite a
lot of victims do pay a ransom.
For me it’s like a modern-day
bank robbery. Resellers are
de nitely going to get asked
lots more questions and they
need to have the answers and
solutions.”
Emily Nerland at Masergy is
certain that customers lack both
security education and threat
awareness.
“ ey may be worried by
the news of data breaches and
know key words and phrases,
like ‘ rewall’ but most decision
makers in non-tech rms don’t
understand the long list of
technologies that are required to
gain threat awareness, and they
may be out of touch with the
workforce challenges needed to
e ectively respond to threats.
One of the biggest root
causes of the awareness
issue is the proliferation of
SaaS applications. Cloud
application usage continues to
compound each year, exposing
businesses to cybersecurity
vulnerabilities. According
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