Adam Hils

As Gartner’s main analyst covering security for small and midize businesses (SMBs), I hear both from smaller customers - and from the vendors who love them – what SMBs want, and what vendors are trying to sell them.

It’s no secret that MSS/cloud/security-as-a-service (SaaS)  offerings have become more attractive with the economic downturn.  Most industry experts predicted accelerated MSS uptake in hard economic times, as periodic operational expenses became easier for SMBs to digest than large capital outlays.

So I expected more interest than usual regarding managed security at this week’s Gartner Information Security Summit; I was unprepared, however, for how enthusiastic attendees at the conference were.  End users were actively investigating outsourcing options, and vendors were on the show floor, trying desperately to entice them.

I had a one-on-one meeting and hallway conversations with a vendor, successful in South America, plotting to compete in North America with a mix of lower-cost laber (resulting in lower prices), and what he thinks are superior services built on a home-grown log management product. He is building a go-to-market strategy to reach US SMBs.

I spoke to encryption and SIEM vendors about how to offer simple enough, value -priced services for smaller customers. One firewall change management vendor wanted to offer firewall-rules-management-as-a-service. Midsize end users were full of questions about which cloud services were ready for prime time, and which security functions should be MSS candidates.

The show floor was dotted with MSS vendors (safe to say it was more than ever) of all descriptions, and their booths were crowded with interested customers. Many of these providers invested in higher-level sponsorships, had big booths, and cool swag. One vendor told me that the degree of their involvement cost them two FTE salaries, but they saw a real opportunity right now to generate significant revenue among midsize (and larger) businesses.

Even more telling were the occupants of the Hospitality Suites on Tuesday night. These are event venues at which vendors spare no expense to ply prospective customers with food, drink, prizes and entertainment  More than half of these suites were occupied by providers whose main business is MSS/SaaS,  and a couple of others draw least significant chunks of their business from MSS. Solutionary and SecureWorks, both service providers with large SMB customer bases, had extremely fun/creative suites. Surprisingly, Solutionary’s suite far outshone the suite of a Very Large Company whose suite was located across the hall.

My point: SMB organizations are more willing than ever to consider outsourcing parts of their security operations, and vendors are scrambling to invest in upgrading/building/acquiring the capabilities necessary to service those customers. If Gartner’s conference this week was any indication, MSS adoption is spiking.