Catching the wave
An SaaS storm surge is approaching and resellers may sink or swim
Andrew Mason: For the channel, this new take on SaaS, security as a service, can make sense from many perspectives
The software-as-a-service (SaaS) bandwagon is well and truly rolling, with Gartner forecasting the worldwide market to pass $19bn (£12bn) in three years. But is SaaS a paradigm shift? And will some stellar sectors outperform others?
SaaS is now moving into the IT security or IT security management space. The market in point security solutions has exploded in line with the exponential increase in malicious threats, particularly over the past five years or so. This has
combined with regulatory pressure on organisations to ensure confidential data on their networks is not compromised.
The result of all this activity for many organisations can be a complex array of technologies and new network security appliances defending an already complex corporate IT infrastructure and requiring a full-time team to manage.
Various security software vendors have developed applications with the aim of helping simplify the network management process. However, this often means buying expensive software and packing yet another appliance into an already crowded rack, which itself requires professional management.
In this type of environment it is easy to see why an on-demand, web-based system of monitoring the vulnerability of an entire
business network would appeal.
For the channel, this new take on the SaaS concept, security as a service, can make sense from many different perspectives.
At a simple level, SaaS can provide resellers with an opportunity to earn additional revenues by charging customers a fee to enable them to check their basic security posture as part of a best practice security policy. However, for specialist
security practices this may also provide a platform around which specialists can develop value-added services.
Such services can provide additional information to standard reporting, leading to high-value consultancy projects and lucrative network security product sales.
Like SaaS itself, the security market is also predicted to continue to grow for the foreseeable future, a trend that is being fuelled by initiatives such as the Payment Card Industry (PCI) data security standard. Even small merchants will now have to take this standard seriously to avoid the heavy fines that a loss of customer data can incur.
A key requirement for PCI compliance is a quarterly vulnerability scan and, with the number of card payment transactions predicted to rise from nine billion to 15 billion a year by 2016, according to UK payments body the Association for Payment Clearing Services (APACS), the need for an on-demand system of checking compliance can only increase.
The downside of this approach is that success is dependent on scale, which makes it important for resellers to gear up now for this market explosion and allow time to reach the critical mass needed to maintain a sustainable revenue stream for the business.
Andrew Mason is chief executive of IT security services provider Randomstorm, which provides vulnerability management SaaS.