HfS Blueprint Report: Managed Security Services 2017

WHAT THIS BLUEPRINT REPORT COVERS

The 2017 Managed Security Services Blueprint presents a comparative analysis of the innovation and execution capabilities of 13 key service providers in this market. The report evaluates providers on their ability to help clients develop digital trust and become a differentiator in great customer experiences.

KEY MARKET DYNAMICS

• Analytics are non-negotiable components of security services today; predictive analytics will be non-negotiable tomorrow. Every provider we evaluated discussed the importance of strong analytics to find and report incidents to clients. Many talked about their work in predictive analytics to help clients mitigate new risks and incidents that perhaps aren’t found in traditional ways. Many challenges exist in proactive risk remediation (who wants to be the one who takes an action on a risk that hasn’t happened yet?) But despite the challenges, predictive analytics are critical to keeping up with constantly changing security environments.
• Industry expertise is moving beyond understanding of vertical-specific regulatory requirements and threats. Security needs to be integrated into the business, not just support the business. And a key way for security services providers to help clients is to understand their business context better. Providers and clients now expect stronger industry knowledge to provide this business context. Tying security into business operations helps move into a value-creation role and to drive improved customer experiences.
• Risks, specific threats, and the number of threat actors are all increasing – both in number and impact. Companies are looking for managed services firms to help them prevent, monitor, and remediate current threats. But companies also expect that their providers will evolve the services over time to ensure that new threats don’t go undetected.
• Talent wars complicate the security landscape. Like many complex technical spaces, the security area faces a talent shortage. We found that most providers are following standard recruiting and retention best practices. But some of the leading-edge firms show more creative approaches to ensure they have enough talent to serve clients and mitigate the cannibalism that happens in security services talent pools.

WHO SHOULD READ THIS REPORT

CISOs, information and cyber security leaders, risk executives, IT leaders, sourcing professionals and vendor managers 

SERVICE PROVIDERS WE DISCUSS

Accenture, Capgemini, Cognizant, CSS Corp, E&Y, IBM, Infosys, Luxoft, SecureWorks, TCS, Tech Mahindra, Unisys, Wipro

WHAT YOU’LL KNOW AFTER READING

Digital trust is the foundation for transforming businesses into customer-focused, experience-sensitive firms. This report helps readers understand how security is moving away from a siloed, “protect the perimeter” function to an integrated part of business strategy. Readers will understand how providers are building their business acumen and industry expertise to make security a differentiator in delivering great customer experiences. It also describes how security providers are investing in advanced technologies and techniques like automation and predictive analytics to stay current in a changing threat landscape.