‘Securing’ the channel: what lies ahead in a time of great uncertainty

The global economic landscape has shifted. Inflation, rising interest rates and ongoing supply chain issues have led to increased budget constraints and corporate cutbacks yet the demand for IT managed services remains high. This has led to opportunities for channel companies to integrate multiple products and provide them as a platform with managed services and consultancy included. This helps companies solve multiple challenges and augment their expertise while reducing overall costs. A recent report by Canalys indicates that approximately 90 percent of the sales in 2023 for the global cyber security market came from the channel alone, and suggests there will be continued growth throughout the year, highlighting an uptick of change in customers’ purchasing decisions.

Vendors have had to review their current product offerings and portfolios as customers are seeking real-time solutions in a time where security teams have shrunk and they are increasingly turning to channel partners to help seal gaps in their offerings. New technology advanced in areas such as AI also provide opportunities for channel partners to add value and expertise where vendors may be lacking.

The UK’s threat landscape

The UK is no stranger to its share of cybersecurity attacks and breaches as British entities have a large and diverse attack surface that can be targeted. According to the government’s latest Cyber security breaches survey (2023), 32 percent of businesses in the UK have experienced a cybersecurity attack in the last 12 months alone.

Cyber criminals are now well-funded with an arsenal of sophisticated attack tools. Ransomware continues to be a dominant form of attack in the UK and as it typically causes long term business disruption, it is a main concern for organisations. According to the same report, most cyber actors are using social engineering techniques to gain access to the target organisation’s networks. Over half (56 percent) of the organisations surveyed considered phishing attacks the most disruptive attack vector to their business.

Clearly the attack method is shifting. Whilst companies may feel pressured to reduce their cybersecurity budget in light of the current economic landscape, threat actors are ramping up their efforts. As threats are high in volume, security teams struggle to keep up with them and need assistance.

AI: the new tool in partner’s portfolios

Generative AI adoption into cybersecurity portfolios has become commonplace to augment data analysis, customer service, reporting and documentation. This is resulting in a new set of product and service options that are based on AI and can be used to solve specific problems, lightening the load for security teams. AI has been an increasingly major contributor in the development of cybersecurity technology. For example, AI is being utilised to write software programmes that give developers a short cut to faster development of generic software snippets. This enables developers to spend their time on higher level architectural decisions and more complex software. Additionally, AI is being used to create automation that allows for the testing of new software with less resources. This is enabling cybersecurity companies to develop new solutions and bring them to the market quicker.

Ultimately, these new AI-powered solutions are increasing the efficacy of new cybersecurity solutions in detecting and mitigating these cyber threats which may play a fundamental role in the influencing of customer purchasing decisions. It is still early into its inception, but partners are working together to consolidate their portfolio and offer a more affordable product range with greater capabilities.

Given ongoing budget constraints, security teams within companies are now being asked to do more with less. They have to consider new solutions in areas such as Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)/Secure Service Edge (SSE), zero trust, micro-segmentation, and API protection and are turning to trusted channels to deliver these solutions. This creates a challenge for the channel partners to adopt and integrate these disparate product offerings into a cohesive solution. Innovations in generative AI could hold the key to doing this more quickly and effectively. AI has an integral role here as it can automate certain tasks as well as assist with threat monitoring across different products. Ultimately, this should lead to the production of new integrations and workflows that will make the deploying of these capabilities easier and channel partners are in a unique position to develop their own intellectual property in this area to further differentiate themselves from their competition.

As cyber criminals continue to adapt their attack strategies, organisations must be able to match them with the latest security methods and AI may hold the answer. AI is currently being employed to analyse unusual or suspicious activity in real time to enable teams to intervene far more quicky. AI can also facilitate faster and a more complete analysis of an incident against other similar incidents that have been seen before and suggest the best courses of actions others have taken in similar circumstances. This enables the circulation of best practices where they can then be analysed to ensure they are appropriate before application to maximise defences. Channel companies can take advantage of the breadth of solutions providing them data to maximize their value to customers.

Future of the channel: how do we see it evolving?

Channel partners have a responsibility to actively solve the challenges customers are facing by expanding their portfolio and creating unique integrations to solve for new threats. Ideally, they should provide end users with integrated solutions that mitigate security risks and leverage their expertise on these services to augment the customers’ capabilities and expertise. Customers can utilise these combined functions as a service and rely on the partner to operate and integrate them. By doing so, enterprises will not only have a stronger security posture, but it will free the company’s resources for the more critical security functions.

Combining multiple products into one service allows the channel to decrease the number of vendors the customer must work with as well as reduce the overall spending budget. The channel has had to respond to aggressive emerging such as sophisticated spear phishing and new ransomware techniques while the economic downturn has led to customers’ budgets being increasingly limited. As a result, channel partners have adopted AI to solve the more complex issues in a more budget friendly manner. AI can identify malicious and suspicious activity quicker than a security team could. While AI is still early in its evolutionary cycle, it presents the channel with an opportunity to develop unique intellectual property and create differentiation in the market.

As the threat landscape evolves and the industry’s protection efforts evolve with it, notably its innovation in AI, the channel remains crucial to providing end users with the most up to date cybersecurity solutions to battle prevailing threats.