TBR: SaaS Usage Disrupts Security Vendor Sales

Traditional security vendors may have a difficult 2014 (and beyond), thanks to cloud computing. According to a Technology Business Research (TBR) report, the rise of software-as-a-service (SaaS) has led organizations away from traditional security products in favor of—you guessed it—cloud-based security services.

In a survey of end user organizations, 53 percent of respondents indicated they expect their security controls to be selected and integrated by their cloud services providers. And of those organizations that have already deployed SaaS, more than half said they will not purchase or deploy their own security products or services to protect the applications they moved to the cloud.

“As cloud adoption increases, security vendors will not be directly involved in as many organizations’ security purchasing decisions,” said Jane Wright, a TBR senior analyst focusing on information security, in a prepared statement. “Security vendors will be challenged to replace these lost sales opportunities through other initiatives, such as technology partnerships and marketplace alliances with cloud service providers.”

That makes a lot of sense. Although there is a joint ownership of security obligations between cloud services providers and end customers, many customers still want to take a hands-off approach, leaving everything to the provider. And that means less in the way of security infrastructure and software and more in the way of cloud services—preferably subscribed through a third party.

This creates a potentially huge opportunity for cloud services brokers, who can layer on cloud security services on top of SaaS applications and migration services.

The TBR study was part of a series of research studies that investigate the state of security in public, private and hybrid cloud environments.