The Fast Future of Digital Risk – Are You Ready?
Digital transformation is about business model change, not product evolution cycles. Here’s why you should adopt a managed security service provider program.
There are two “unshakeable facts” that will alter the direction of converged security in the future. The first is that digital communications have fundamentally redefined the concept of business risk. Not many years ago, executives, boards and business owners were not considering the damage to their operations and reputations that a cyberattack could generate.
The second factor, simply stated but not readily understood, is speed. The pace of business change is occurring much faster than most people understand. Some physical security integrators use the “analog to digital” camera transition as a model for today’s pace of change. This is a huge mistake. Digital transformation is about business model change, not product evolution cycles.
Today’s technical advancements are not just impressive individually, but they are overlapping and integrating, which actually accelerates the speed of change. It is one thing to recognize the pace of technical change — it’s another to adjust your business model and execute on it. Change impacts company culture through solution delivery performance matrices and compensation plans.
Dan Dunkel, Managing Director, MSSP Program
Today’s security integrator needs to have a holistic view that integrates open systems, Cloud and hybrid architectures, robust end points, and vast storage arrays to manage Big Data and analytics. These overlapping technologies are here today. Critically, the foundation of their delivery lies in understanding information protection, both in transit and at rest. A lack of cybersecurity knowledge in the digital world makes you irrelevant as an integrator moving forward. Your RFPs and bids are reflecting this reality.
One key focus area for PSA has always been protecting member assets. Moving forward, this model is evolving to address the convergence of digital threats with physical security solutions. Today there are digital (cyber) risk factors that the physical security integrator community did not consider even five years ago. Our members are increasingly responsible for securing network-connected endpoints (think IP cameras).
We hear from integrators that their end users are expecting them to secure their cameras now in addition to installation. With the Internet of Things (IoT) market rapidly expanding, cameras are becoming harder than ever to secure as the hacking community has more access than ever. As security deployments integrate across network infrastructures, cyber breaches continue to escalate rapidly.
This has driven PSA to focus on building a program for our integrators that helps them better secure their own businesses as well as those of their customers. We can provide a path to leverage SMB cyber needs into recurring revenue generating managed services.
Managed services have been successfully deployed in the Information Technology (IT) sector for over a decade. Cloud-based subscriptions and recurring monthly revenue (RMR) models are also well established, and greatly increase operating margins over traditional break/fix contracts while building significant equity into integrator business valuations. Currently PSA’s MSSP program consists of select partners with solutions addressing access control, video surveillance and cybersecurity. The annual growth of each respective sector is impressive.
The pace of technical change is accelerating and integrating physical security solutions faster than many practitioners realize. The major advancements in Cloud, Big Data, analytics and IoT can offer tremendous business opportunities for integrators who embrace digital transformation and adjust their business models. The old adage: “He who hesitates is lost,” certainly applies to the physical security industry in 2020 and beyond. Imagine this industry in five years! Are you ready?
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I agree with your sentiments 100%. Our 2 worlds our converging, cyber security and physical security are becoming one, where we need to bridge the gap. I partnered with local IT firms specializing in cyber security to offer a one stop security shop for customers. Our businesses go hand in hand, we are all riding on the network and need to secure the customer’s physical AND digital assets. What interests me most about the security space is the level of automation and “analytics” that are becoming more commonplace and really take a business to the next level. Being these tools are all software-based, and mostly equipment agnostic, we can offer a full turn-key security solution to help with more than just security.