Security as a Service: Holds immense market potential with burgeoning cloud computing usage

The market for security-as-a-service (SaaS) is expected to prosper with the growing popularity of cloud computing among various end-user industries, small, medium and large. The SaaS provider is responsible for ensuring security for apps, data, and operations that run through the cloud.

The security as a service comprises security software that is delivered on the cloud, offered by a third party. This is utilized for in-house security management as well. Hence, the growing adoption of these services is mostly attributed to the shortage of security resources in an enterprise, which also involves the shortage of technical workforce in providing information security, further driving the market growth. The increasing concerns regarding ever-expanding cybersecurity threats are further propelling the market demand. This is because of the fact that on the cloud there lies a multi-tenant environment and a shared network infrastructure. Hence, this may allow potential access to a customer’s data, which seems to be a risky procedure, creating a market demand for exclusive data protection, propagating the security-as-a-service market growth. Additionally, the companies worldwide find the provision of security-as-a-service as a cost-effective option in comparison to investing in security provisions in their own IT infrastructure. There are significant upfront costs for the deployment of hardware, in addition, for continuing the use of software, there is a requirement of licenses for allowing the utilization of software, hence, adding to the costs. However, security as a service, allows the user to utilize the same tools with the use of a web browser, hence, making it quite affordable and direct in the application.

Organizations are also implementing the security-as-a-service model in the form of hybrid solutions for on-premise implementations, this is further providing assistance in enhancing the functionality of the existing on-premise security solutions. Hence, for the companies, it has become quite flexible for them to choose the desired security options for various remote premises and headquarters. By deploying the security services and solutions on the cloud it is able to provide much better security. This is because of the fact that these utilize multiple malware-scanning systems in comparison to the single malware scanning in on-premise systems. By deploying the security solutions on the cloud, the ability to update new signatures and other defences have become faster. The convenient, highly scalable, and fast deployable security solutions are widely available in the form of cloud services to be utilized by customers worldwide, thus, burgeoning the market growth with wider cloud-based Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solution adoptions.

Some of the security-as-a-service offerings are listed below:

1. Identity and Access Management: It helps in the management of access to enterprise resources through the verification of the identity of an entity and granting it the correct level of access on the basis of its authorized level.
2. Data Loss Prevention: This provides data protection and data security at varied stages in the cloud which consists of data at rest, data in motion and data in use, in both cloud as well as on-premises, hence preventing loss of useful data.
3. Web Security: This offers protection in real-time through the cloud. Web security is achieved through redirecting the web traffic to the cloud provider and then passing on the clean traffic to the consumer organization.
4. Email Security: This provides control over the incoming and outgoing emails and providing protection against phishing and malicious attachments as per the customer organization requirement.
5. Security Assessment: This performs an audit of the current security measures of the on-premise systems or cloud services through cloud-based solutions and verifies whether these are in compliance with the industry standards.
6. Intrusion Management: These helps in the detection and management of unusual events and behaviours by utilizing pattern recognition technology.
7. Encryption: This makes the user data unreadable unless it is decoded by using the right numerical and cryptographic codes.

By using security-as-a-service, the user is always using the updated version of their anti-virus software, hence there is no need for regular updating of the anti-virus software, this includes updating and maintaining the spam filters as well.

Moving on to market players, McAfee, LLC is a pioneer in the security industry and contains a wide product portfolio for maintaining cloud security. The company’s security solution offers advanced correlation content incorporating intelligence on emerging threats and threat indicators from various sources. The company lab, McAfee® Labs is one of the leading research labs for threat research, threat intelligence, and cybersecurity. Their unique multivendor management capabilities and expertise is focussed on addressing compliance mandates and is geared to prepare for future security requirements, in addition to controlling costs. The company’s product offerings include McAfee Web Gateway, McAfee Web Gateway Cloud Service, and McAfee Web Protection providing best-in-class threat protection.

The market may prove beneficial to the growing number of SMEs and start-ups, as these may find security-as-a-service as a cost-efficient option in comparison to the traditional on-premise deployment.

The adoption of cloud computing solutions by many SMEs that have not yet deployed this technology may serve as a driver in driving the growth of the global security-as-a-service market. It is being observed that SMEs worldwide are gaining significance worldwide, this is because of the fact that these are playing an important role in providing occupation chances, contributing to declining poverty, and generating profits, also, contributing to a country’s prosperity as well. For example, in China, owing to the increasing government pressure for domestic production, the SMEs are abundant in the country. Among them are small organisations that are known to contribute around 70% to the country’s GDP, 74.7% contribution is being made by the SMEs in the industrial added productivity rate (source: IEEE). Furthermore, these are known to contribute to around 80% of the employment in the city (source: IEEE). Hence, the SMEs here are considered as vital for driving financial development in the country. In spite of the fact that cloud computing has been widely adopted worldwide, still many small and medium-based enterprises have not completely adopted it. Hence, such organizations in China and other regions of the world hold high potential for the adoption of cloud computing solutions along with cloud security solutions, strengthening the market growth at present and in the upcoming years. This is majorly due to the fact that cloud computing is still at its initial phases and hence require robust cloud security infrastructure, fueling the market demand.

With the growing number of start-ups worldwide, the security-as-service market is further expected to grow at a significant rate with the increasing adoption of digital technologies. The major reason being the cost benefits in deploying services on cloud with the growing internet penetration. This growing start-up and entrepreneurship trend is further supported by the increasing initiatives for supporting women-only start-ups, which are currently low in number. To achieve this, certain entrepreneurship programs dedicated to women entrepreneurs for increasing economic opportunities for women candidates worldwide are further providing an opportunity for the market to grow in the upcoming years.

Knowledge Sourcing Intelligence is a market research and consulting firm based out of India. Steered by some of the industry experts, the company provides syndicated reports, custom research, and consulting services.