SonicWall accelerating business for MSSPs

Channel Post speaks with Shahnawaz Sheikh, Sales and Channel Director at SonicWall (META & CEE) regarding the opportunities in the Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) space and how SonicWall’s SecureFirst MSSP Partner Program enables partners to cash in on such opportunities.

Shahnawaz Sheikh, Sales and Channel Director at SonicWall (META & CEE)

Please comment on the state of Managed Security Services market and how do you address this market space?

According to a latest report by Research for Markets, the Global Managed Security Services Market that accounted $20.22 billion in 2016 and is now expected to reach $55.10 billion by 2023 growing at a CAGR of 15.3% during the forecast period. There are several elements that are driving the growth of this segment and for SonicWall, it is one of the key markets and our product portfolio boosts a wide range of products that enables Managed Security Services to addresses much wider areas of security solutions, via, Next Generation Firewalls, Next Gen Endpoint, Email Security, Remote access solutions and Wireless security to name the primary technologies.

How do you target this growing market?

We have taken a very structured and focused approach to target this market. Recently, we have introduced our new SecureFirst MSSP Partner Program that offers exclusive financial, enablement and support components designed to help our partners build and accelerate their managed security service business.

Available to SecureFirst Silver, Gold and Platinum partners, the SecureFirst MSSP Program is designed to develop, enable, and support a robust, global network of MSSP partners. We believe that our program is going to be unique in the market as we are positioning every aspect to make it easy for new MSSP’s to build services and for existing MSSP’s to mature their services in easy and operationally efficient manner and better protect their customers through the best use of our platform.  We will have enablement capabilities and blueprints they can follow. As such, MSSP Partners can either implement our SonicWall MSSP blueprints by leveraging SonicWall training, technical resources and marketing assets, or jointly develop custom MSS offerings that build on the partner’s existing managed service core competencies and expertise.

In your experience, what is required by Managed Security Services partner to drive their business?

The most important requirements are the investments in Security Operations Center (SOC) that should possess all tools of SOC infrastructure including good servers, connectivity, management and diagnosis tools with highly experienced and qualified resources who should possess a sound knowledge of Multi-vendor security products and technology.

Another key area is the understanding of user experience all the way upto knowledge on diversified areas of security, ie., Perimeter, core network, wireless, emails, DLP’s, Remote access, application management etc. In addition to that, the services team should possess noy just skills but hands on experience working in a SOC environment to have the clarity about the severity of escalation and response to resolution. The fundamental value of an MSSP relies on their state- of-the art infrastructure, the management and reporting tools and qualified resources with domain expertise. The flavors of services can vary by defining SLA’s and benefits according to the type of service opted.

What is driving momentum for Managed Security Services in the region?

Businesses and organizations in the region have started to realize the need for MSSP’s to manage their requirement for many reasons, including:

  • Opex model versus Capex model that encourages customers to incline towards MSSP’s
  • The Security/Networking experts who understand the subject deeply and offer timely resolution to keep the businesses working
  • MSSP’s ability to offer multiple SLA’s depending on the severity of the case and also availability of right resources to work on reported problem.
  • From customer’s perspective, a centralized help-desk management available to mitigate problems and keep the business continuity on.

Which industry verticals are the early adopters of Managed Security Services in the region?

Managed Security Services has attracted SME market segment, however, even large enterprises these days are considering a better value from MSSP services. In terms of verticals and market segment, this can be a good fit for distributed enterprises where organizations have businesses spread across multiple geographies and MSSP’s services can help them with minimal investment to protect and manage business in multi geographies. The key verticals could be BFSI, Retail, Healthcare, Hospitality, Energy, Transportation or SME’s in general.

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