Managed Security Services

Managed Security Service Provider Survey (December 2004) — continued

During our last survey (April 2003), 27 providers participated by completing questionnaires for one or more security services. In this year's survey, 18 of 44 MSSPs who were invited to participate opted to do so.

This year's smaller turnout reflects market continuing market consolidation, as several past participants are no longer in business or have been acquired by another.

Since our last survey, Bangalore Labs became Net ProActive, Epoch became Netifice, Expertcity was acquired by Citrix, Guardent was acquired by Verisign, Interliant became NaviSite, Allegiance Telecom was acquired by XO, OpenReach's technology was acquired by Corente, Proseq sold its security assets to Telenor, and Ubizen was acquired by Betrusted, which then merged with TruSecure to form Cybertrust. Some of these acquired companies left the MSSP market, while others broadened their focus or reach.

And yet, new MSSPs are continuing to enter this market. Participating in our survey for the first time this year are Altoria, Fiberlink, Globix, Securalis, and VigilantMinds. As noted by Gartner's 1H-4 Magic Quadrant for MSSPs, "Capacity continues to exceed demand, and efficiency gains will cause this condition to continue for at least the next 18 months." Cited growth factors include an upward trend in outsourcing by larger companies; corporate concern over regulatory compliance, security audits, and reporting; and growth of vulnerability management activities that combine patch management with temporary quarantine.

In 2003, we noted growth in Managed Intrusion Detection services. In this year's survey, we see clear growth in Managed Intrusion Prevention services, offered either as one combined IDS/IPS service, or as two complementary-but-independent services. We also added one new category—Managed AntiSpam—which proved to be very popular, frequently delivered in tandem with Managed AntiVirus as part of Managed E-mail services.

To make room for AntiSpam, we dropped one category surveyed in 2003: Managed Scanning. Indeed, many of the providers participating in this year's survey do offer vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, security assessment, and/or vulnerability management services. However, these services increasingly combine remotely-initiated scans, on-site assessments, and security consultation in diverse ways, making side-by-side comparison difficult.

Finally, although not addressed in this year's survey, we also spotted growth in managed authentication and managed Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) services. This is a promising sign that weak password-based authentication is (finally) on the decline, to be replaced by stronger methods based on two-factor tokens, smart cards, and digital certificates. If this trend continues, we will add this category to our next survey.

In the following weeks, subsequent installments of this survey will detail managed firewall, managed intrusion detection/prevention, managed virtual private network, and managed antivirus, antispam, and content filtering services offered by this year's participants. Each new installment will compare detailed characteristics for two more services, accompanied by analysis of similarities, differences, and emerging trends. Stay tuned...

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