North American managed security market continues to grow

Spurred on by increasingly innovative security threats and a growing need to ensure legislative compliance, the North American managed security service providers market has emerged from its introductory stage to record strong growth. MSSPs continue to grow as a result of strong testimonials and high profile security incidents, and ongoing investments in the form of acquisitions by leading systems integrators and telcos indicate that major market participants remain buoyant about the future of managed security services in North America.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, North American Managed Security Service Providers Markets, reveals that revenues in this market totaled $1.04 billion in 2006, and can reach $3.41 billion in 2013.

Managed security event correlation systems, sometimes referred to as security information management (SIM) or security incident and event management (SIEM), are an emerging offering in the MSS industry that are gaining momentum among the traditional MSSPs. With SEC solutions becoming an integral part of enterprise infrastructure, managed SEC services are likely to particularly appeal to small and medium size enterprises that may find the capital outlays associated with SEC deployment and management prohibitive.

In respect to the challenges, the North American MSSP market is likely to be restrained by the difficulty to measure the ROI on investing in MSS. Many potential clients remain unconvinced of the value of MSS unless they have already experienced a serious network security failure. While the impact of this restraint is gradually reduced each time a costly network security breach gains publicity, for example CardSystems, many companies appear to be willing to take their chances until legislation specific to their industry induces them to comply and invest in such solutions.

The fear of public embarrassment can be an effective motivator for enterprises to invest in network security or a managed security provider.