Growing security practice shows engagement with customers who understand managed services While there is still too much risk-taking among enterprises, the pressure to solve security problems, recognition of managed services as a concept and the shortage of skilled people inside customer organisations is allowing NTT Com Security to grow and expand its offerings. Having acquired a few European security resellers along the way, using the resources of its giant parent, expect it to add more in future.
Formerly the security reseller Integralis, it has been part of the NTT organisation for a while, and CEO Simon Church tells IT Europa that it is able to offer a unique service, and has the skills in place to continue expanding what he says is a “half-bespoke” managed service.
But we thought managed services was all about having something repeatable, scalable and with low marginal costs, not using costly expertise to solve individual issues, thereby competing with traditional VARs, integrators and specialists? With the global nature of business, he says, the local VARs and smaller integrators can’t operate out of their home territory. The larger integrators, on the other hand, are too busy trying to sell their other services and the very big players are good on strategy but less so on implementation. Hence NTT Com Security's expansion plans, having already made a number of acquisitions in the Nordics, Germany and elsewhere. Western Europe is obviously the market growth region; with a lot of activity in the DACH region, Benelux and the UK.
The clients are now third or fourth generation users of managed services, he says and get the idea. It is also based on critical expertise, a semi-bespoke model, as he explains: a unique proposition to a customer base of large enterprises employing probably between 250-2500 people. All the situations are different, which is why NTT Com Security employs and retains a strong skills base, presenting their staff with different challenge each time; “obtain and retain staff” is a key theme.
And the markets have grown to match its ambitions; from financial services, there has also been a boom in business in new media, as well as manufacturing. “The concern is always about loss of intellectual property, and the bad guys here are always getting more numerous.”
He has headed the business to where the market has been going as traditional IT models have broken down, especially with the threats inherent in BYOD. “Clients want solutions to all aspects of security as part of their business problem-solving.” And with a next-generation workforce, the problem can only multiply.
There is some problem with how security is perceived, however. A survey by NTT Com Security last month of over 800 business decision makers outside the IT department found that most report that a majority of their data is not complete secure, to their knowledge, and nearly two-thirds expect to suffer a security breach at some point.
“Yes, there is an educational job to be done,” he agrees, professing to be shocked at the lack of security in some organisations. Just 9% of those surveyed see poor data security as their single greatest risk – fighting competitors, finding skilled people, profitability and paying for IT are the major business concerns that continue to edge out security as a issue. It is an area he intends to go on campaigning about, however – the bad guys are not going away.
- Peter Cunningham has just been named as SVP Northern Europe for the company. As SVP Northern Europe, Peter will be responsible for leading the continued growth of NTT Com Security in the UK, Nordics and Benelux. He held senior roles at McAfee and Sun Microsystems as well as at global air transport solutions provider SITA, leading major business transformation initiatives. Most recently he was CEO at Olton, where he created an intelligence software product and analyst consulting business.