9. MSPs, IT Services Vendors Will Tap Into Managed Security Services Goldmine

Managed security services are one of the channel's largest untapped areas, and distributors and IT service management vendors will take bold action to ensure a leadership position in the market.

Remote monitoring and management (RMM) vendor Continuum said in September that it plans to build out a security operations center so that it can quickly remediate customer issues. That same month, Professional Services Automation (PSA) vendor Autotask launched a fully automated endpoint backup offering in September that will address the heightened vulnerability posed to endpoints by ransomware such as CryptoLocker.

In November, Avnet launched a managed security service focused on providing SMB and midmarket customers with intrusion detection, vulnerability assessments, and security incident and event management (SIEM).

Meanwhile, NTT unified its security subsidiary brands into a single managed security services company in August, and standardized its capabilities around asset inventory, vulnerability management, policy compliance and web app security in October.