Global spending on managed IT services, particularly in the area of security, is projected to go as high as $350 million this year, more than a 23% increase from last year’s $281.5 million spent in the global market. In the latest study in the managed IT and security market done by Gartner analysts, a prediction of an increase in market spending until after year 2020 can be surmised as organisational change, improvement in skills, and more adaptable services improve in execution.
The managed IT services and security market is continually growing because both businesses and consumers are starting to use more and more connected devices like wearables, and more companies are now open to the BYOD culture. Gartner analysts projects more than 6 billion connected gadgets will be used globally this year, a 30% increase from last year, and it can grow up to over 11 billion by the end of 2018. However, reasonable variation remains among different line of businesses as a consequence of various levels of IT management services priorities and security awareness.
Gartner reports that the managed IT services and its security market depends on the culture and adaptation by the consumers and various industry sectors. Endpoint spending is projected to be dominated by smart cars, as well as other connected vehicle and complex machines such as commercial air planes, heavy trucks, construction machinery, and farming equipment. Gartner also says that by the year 2020 it can be predicted that more than 25% of attacks on businesses will involve mobile gadgets and wearables although it will account for no more than 10% of the managed IT services and security budgets.
According to a recent workplace study, half of managed IT services professionals said that wearables are the likeliest to become the source of most future security breaches. Spiceworks, a network of managed IT services professionals, interviewed IT industry employees. A whopping 90% believe that wearables creates concerning privacy and security issues in the work place making it so much harder for managed IT services teams to keep business networks safe. Of all the managed IT services professionals interviewed, 53 % regarded wearables as the largest security threat, video equipment followed at 50%, next would be physical security at 46%, and appliances last at 45%. Even though 90% of managed IT services professionals think that the influx of gadgets and connected various wearables create privacy and security concerns in the workplace, the survey showed that only a third of organisations is taking a pro active approach and preparing for the impact that it could have on the entirety of their business.
Since the 2014 Spiceworks report, organisations that allow wearables to be connected to their business networks have almost doubled in numbers, showing an increase from 13% to a current rate of nearly 25%, with IT managed services professionals who were surveyed affirming the number of connected electronic peripherals, sensors, video equipment, and appliances has also been increasing.
The increase in various devices being connected to corporate networks creates a bigger mix of obstacles for IT management services professionals. Insufficient bandwidth for connecting business networks was the leading concern in IT two years ago. Today, managed IT security services is the top barrier reaching a 65%, and equipment concerns at 42% follows, Insufficient bandwidth challenges is now ranked third, showing a decline from 45% to 35% within the last couple of years.
The Spiceworks survey also shows that majority of businesses are not proactively preparing for the impact of wearables in the workplace, despite the security concerns, is because of the unclear value of monitoring when it comes to wearables. Managed IT services providers are currently encountering this concern are focusing on educating their clients and end users of the security risks, investing in infrastructure, investing in possible security solutions, and investigating on newer management tools for wearables.
Security companies will be expected to come up with usable security measures that managed IT services teams can easily deploy to provide better security for their enterprise and clients. Due to this, security vendors might give too much weight on spotting exploits and vulnerabilities, instead of segmentation and long-term solutions to better let managed IT services providers secure their networks. Businesses will need a better delivery mechanism that can keep up with the fast pace requirements in detection, monitoring, access control, and other managed IT services security needs.
