Cloud, SaaS Security Creating Big Boom For MSPs

Cloud- and SaaS-based security offerings are driving big bucks to MSPs, research firm Infonetics Research revealed in a recent report.

According to Infonetics, revenue for managed security services jumped 12 percent in 2010 and that number is expected to grow by several times over the next five years, with the managed security services market expected to hit $17 billion by 2015 on the backs of cloud and SaaS.

"2010 was a good year for managed security services, which, for the most part, met our expectations for buyer uptake and provider innovations. Revenue grew 12 percent in 2010 and will grow 62 percent over the next five years, driven by cloud-based services and SaaS," Jeff Wilson, analyst for security at Infonetics said in an analyst note. "Our 2010 forecast was 4 percent high, but there was no decrease in fundamental demand for managed security, just a sluggish global economy."

According to the report, SaaS and cloud-based security services are expected to make up close to half of the overall managed security services market come 2015. That comes at a time when worldwide SaaS revenue is expected to dramatically increase over the next few years with a compound annual growth rate of 23 percent between last year and 2015.

All told, Infonetics Research expects the overall managed security services market, which combines CPE, SaaS and cloud services, to inch close to $17 billion by 2015.

And for managed service providers, managed security services offer a location independent offering, Infonetics Research found. According to the research, managed security services have already taken hold in North America and EMEA and massive growth is expected in Asia Pacific and Central and Latin America in coming years.

In a second report, Infonetics found that security spending in virtualized environments is on the rise. According to the firm, companies expect to spend an average of 51 percent more on security for virtualized environments in 2012 than they did in 2010.

Infonetics found that companies are turning to security for virtualized environments to prevent threats specific to virtual environments, prevent inter-virtual machine threats and to maintain secure server configurations.

And as the market grows, the vendor landscape for security for virtualized environment is continuing to shake out.

"While the market leader in the data center/cloud security space is at this point undecided, at the center of the leadership puzzle is the emerging segment of security solutions for virtualized environments," Wilson wrote in an analyst note. "Microsoft, Cisco, and VMware lead in brand awareness and strength overall now, but this is only one -- admittedly early -- piece of the virtualization/data center security leadership puzzle. It's possible that when it comes down to who will actually be able to best monetize security solutions for virtualized environments, players with much lower brand presence will do better than some of the players with stronger overall brands, if they deliver a better product."