Four IT giants wiped from Gartner's latest MSSP quadrant

Alert Logic added but DXC Technology, BT, Orange Business Services and HCL Technologies fall from rankings

Four IT giants have vanished from Gartner's latest managed security services provider (MSSP) report.

DXC Technology, BT, Orange Business Services and HCL Technologies were all included in one of the four sections last year, but are now nowhere to be found.

Gartner did not directly comment on why those names have been dropped but praised new addition Alert Logic's comprehensive pricing tiers, extensive support for Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure customers, and higher-than-average customer reference scores.

Alert Logic joined the ranks of SecureWorks, Trustwave, Symantec, Verizon, IBM, AT&T, CenturyLink, BAE Systems, Atos, Capgemini, Wipro, NTT and Fujitsu in the magic quadrant.

"We review and adjust our inclusion criteria for Magic Quadrants as markets change," the report stated.

"A vendor's appearance in a Magic Quadrant one year and not the next does not necessarily indicate that we have changed our opinion of that vendor.

"It may be a reflection of a change in the market and, therefore, changed evaluation criteria, or of a change of focus by that vendor."

Orange has bolstered its cybersecurity presence over recent months, with the acquisitions of SecureData and SecureLink.

This year's quadrant sees both Alert Logic and CenturyLink being placed in the "Visionaries" section of the quadrant - which was notably empty in last year's version.

No vendor managed to infiltrate the "Challengers" segment, while Secure Works, Trustwave, IBM, Symantec and Verizon were all ranked as "Leaders" with the remaining MSSPs filling the "Niche Players" section.

The analyst assessed the MSS market as "mature", estimating its market size at $10.7bn (£8.3bn) in 2018.

The report hailed the MSSP market for being quick to adapt to the challenges facing organisations, such as increasingly complex IT environments that include infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), software-as-a-service (SaaS), the growing hostile external landscape, the continuing skills shortage in security and the needs of "less mature organisations" with basic security functions.

"As our clients pursue cloud-oriented and cloud-first approaches, the scope of security monitoring service requirements is also expanding," stated the report.

"It includes monitoring of cloud-delivered services, both SaaS and IaaS, as well as operational technology (eg ICS/SCADA) environments and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

"This reflects the expansion of security event monitoring beyond the confines of an MSS buyer's on-premise perimeter."