The global cybersecurity market is only going to grow this year and the opportunity for MSSPs is immense. Security services providers now need to take advantage of it, according to Jay McBain, chief analyst with Canalys Research.
In a blog post on LinkedIn, McBain wrote that the worldwide cybersecurity market will likely increase 11% year-over-year in 2025. However, in drilling down into the numbers, he wrote that channel partners will add $2 of profitable services to every $1 in vendor sales, which combined will expand the overall market to $282 billion.
Partner cybersecurity services will increase even faster than vendor products, reaching 13% growth, with managed security services moving up even faster, at 15%.
“The question turns to how?” he wrote. “Whether I am an entrepreneur or a long-established brand, how do I build an incremental services practice around cybersecurity?”
Complex Cyberthreats, Skills Gap Driving Growth
There are myriad drivers fueling the escalating adoption of third-party security services, key among them being the growing number and complexity of modern cyberthreats and ongoing difficulties by companies to find quality cybersecurity pros. In addition, there is an increasing number of data security and privacy regulations at both the national – such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – and state levels that need to be adhered to, which is help to expand the need for managed compliance services.
The ongoing adoption of cloud computing expands the security challenges organizations face. Often it makes more sense in terms of security and costs to bring in a MSSP with the tools to handle these various aspects of protection.
“Managed security services (MSS) can be a game-changer for businesses seeking cyber resilience,” cybersecurity consultancy and solutions provider Optiv wrote in a blog post earlier last year. “MSS offer a systematic approach to managing an organization's security needs. The services can be conducted in-house or outsourced to a provider that oversees and administers the security of the client's information systems. The most significant benefit of hiring a managed security service lies in the peace of mind it provides.”
2025 Will Be a Big Year for MSSPs
The cybersecurity product market this year will hit about $97.5 billion in 2025, according to Canalys’ numbers. However, cybersecurity services will generate about $184.5 billion this year, with managed services accounting for $92.9 billion, growing more than 15% over 2024, according to Canalys’ figures. Those managed services include managed technology and managed detection and response (MDR) to security operation centers (SOC) and security information and event management (SIEM).
Canalys’ study also illustrated the critical role partners are playing in cybersecurity, with about 95% of cybersecurity products and services will flow through partners in 2025. The opportunities for MSSPs are significant, including $30 billion in the advising and designing market, $37 billion for maintaining and supporting, and $19 billion for deploying and integrating technology, all of which are growing 8% to 17% year-over-year, Canalys found.
There also is a $99 billion opportunity in the managing and outsourcing space, which is expected to grow 14% over 2024.
Questions to Answer
“The Top 16 (publicly listed) cyber vendors grew 14.2% in Q3 with 11 out of 12 exceeding their high-end guidance. Partners should be exceeding their numbers too – at a 2X revenue pace of this, McBain wrote, adding that 13 of 15 vendors that held earnings calls pointed to their investments into partners as an important success factor.
“Are you collecting these investments?” he asked. “Are you building the right type of business to win ‘partner of the year’ in 2025 with these vendors?”
When building a cybersecurity practices, questions service providers should ask themselves is, whether they should specialize in remediation-based managed services, an area doubling in size at 104% year-over-year. They also need to decide whether to invest further in deployment, provisioning, implementation, and integration skills, which combined are growing at 17%.
Services providers also need to find out which organizations – in which industries, geographies, segments, and business models – will offer the best return in 2025.
