By Tom Bain

Endpoint security means protecting customers from the usual viruses and malware, but also guarding against data loss and attempts by attackers to get into the network through a compromised device. Analyst firm Radicati Group says this opportunity alone will top $5.7 billion by 2019, and that makes sense. Endpoint security is relevant for all organizations — from small shops to large, regulated verticals and everything in between.

The aggressiveness of today’s cyberattacks is waking customers up to the realization that keeping bad guys out of their environments isn’t as simple as deploying firewalls and antivirus. There is no perimeter anymore. In fact, cybercriminals are now shifting their focus, targeting individual employees. That means customers must pay close attention to how people are behaving on their devices. Teasing out that insight takes time and expertise that most companies just don’t have.

As a result, managed security services are taking off, and not just for endpoint protection. Trusted security advisers are expected to making smart, innovative security recommendations, leveraging innovation in the cybersecurity market to help combat advanced, persistent threats.

My company makes endpoint detection and response (EDR) technology that enables continuous monitoring, threat hunting and remediation capabilities. But the principles of adding advanced managed security services to your portfolio to better service customers are relevant across a number of fronts.

1. Emerging security technologies require advanced skills, so hire smart.

As EDR technologies emerge, I’ve seen large, sophisticated enterprises with deep security benches being the early adopters, primarily because of the diverse skillsets that team members bring to the table. For example, they can more easily consume data on, for example, process execution, malware mutations and OS state changes, to understand the intersection of behavioral analysis data and real-world effects. Smaller organizations with fewer resources, headcount and expertise are the sweet spot for partners — but only if you can take on the responsibility of digesting often huge amounts of data, depending on number of endpoints monitored. Hiring these experts can be difficult and expensive, but often, vendor partners can help, whether with training opportunities or by automating and abstracting some complexity. The payoff is that, by removing barriers to adoption of cutting-edge technology for SMB customers, you gain a lot of stickiness.

2. Protecting endpoints demands changes in how end users operate, so get your training hat on.

There can be challenges deploying advanced security, as there are with any new platform that is integrated into the enterprise workflow — and especially where software agents are deployed to server, laptop and workstation endpoints. Security training is an often-overlooked but lucrative and valuable service, and rolling out a new endpoint protection or other advanced technology is a prime educational opportunity.

Related, look for broad OS support in security solutions. Even SMB environments today are heterogeneous, comprised of Windows, Mac and Linux systems as well as a myriad of mobile devices and cloud services. It is essential for a partner to have intimate knowledge of the customer environment before recommending a technology. That brings me to point No. 3.

3. Scope the job well. Successfully implementing and managing an EDR solution depends on a few key elements:

Today, managed security services account for over 50 percent of enterprise security spending, and that number is expected to rise to 80 percent by 2019, according to Gartner’s recent Predicts 2016: Threat and Vulnerability Management report.

As this $14 billion market continues to grow, based on the magnitude of cyberattacks, this already huge opportunity for MSSPs is increasing. Time to get in on it.  

Tom Bain is VP, sales and marketing, at CounterTack. Tom has more than 13 years of experience with leading IT security organizations. He also serves as a key cybersecurity evangelist for CounterTack. Bain’s responsibilities include strategic managing field and inside sales, messaging, security research, demand generation and analyst/investor relations. Prior to CounterTack, he spent time with Security Innovation, Q1 Labs (an IBM Company) and Application Security, Inc. (a Trustwave company), and has worked with leading security brands including Wave Systems, Sophos, CA and Red Hat.