Which established manufacturers will kick on this year? We asked executives from VARs and MSPs including Softcat, OCSL and ANS for their tips
Andy Barrow
CTO, ANS
Tips: Alert Logic, AWS, Microsoft Azure
Competing with the likes of Rapid7, Cardiff-based Alert Logic specialises in security-as-a-service and is poised for a stellar 2018, according to ANS CTO Andy Barrow.
ANS is picky about which vendors it carries, typically curtailing its portfolio at around 10 brands, but Barrow (pictured) pinpointed Alert Logic as a relatively new addition he is backing to the hilt.
"Effectively it's a SOC [security operations centre] in a box," he said. "You are effectively buying into - on a monthly fee - about 40 cybersecurity PhDs who are permanently watching your network, servers and systems, and it's a full defence and response service."
Alert Logic's strength lies in its ability to solve the current riddle end users face around the cybersecurity skills shortage, according to Barrow.
"It's very difficult to find cybersecurity expertise for enterprise money that can deal with modern cyber warfare," he explained. "If you look at the attacks we had last year - WannaCry, for example - it's not simple stuff any more and you need to build a team of the world's best.
"There are quite a few vendors in this space doing similar things but because Alert Logic are UK based, when it comes to security and sovereignty all your data is kept in the UK. Some of the others are based in Israel, or the Nordics, and it can sometimes be a bit of a challenge when talking to CISOs, but Alert Logic have one hell of a facility in Cardiff."
Barrow also backed public cloud goliaths AWS and Microsoft Azure to enjoy a prosperous 2018.
"Who will win the war? They will both win. They've both got demographics they deal with," he said.
"I see the race as being four - you are probably talking AWS, Azure, Google and Alibaba. There are vendors that will trail after that and you'll probably see them go into more niche markets where they are maybe providing higher-touch service management, or maybe doing one thing really well. There are lots of services we probably haven't even thought of."
