Meet the leading MSSPs in Asia Pacific

Accenture, Deloitte, EY, IBM, NTT, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Trustwave and Verizon have been recognised as “leaders” in an expanding managed security services market across Asia Pacific, according to new IDC findings.

In assessing the top-performing managed security service providers (MSSP) in the region, the analyst firm profiled partners across the categories of leaders, major players, contenders and vendors to watch.

Specific to major players, BT, CenturyLink, DXC, Fujitsu, HCL, Orange Business Services, Secureworks, Tata Communications, Telstra and Wipro were named in the category.

Taiwanese vendor ACSI was identified as a contender in the study, while Capgemini and Ensign Infosecurity were highlighted as vendors to watch.

“The leading MSSPs not only have excellent technical expertise and threat life-cycle management capabilities, they also have vast experiences in cyber risk strategy and services,” said Cathy Huang, associate research director of Services and Security at IDC Asia Pacific.

“To build effective cyber risk strategies, a MSSP has to align with business goals, which requires deep industry expertise and capability - to develop industry-specific threat models that go beyond conventional infrastructure layer monitoring.”

Participating MSSPs were assessed against 29 different market determining criteria, including breadth of service offerings, portfolio benefit, services delivery model, market execution, cost management, customer satisfaction, and business performance.

IDC also conducted a series of interviews with vendors and customers, in addition to performing a multipoint assessment to “comprehensively capture” the differentiating factors, strengths and challenges of each MSSP.

“The threat landscape continues to evolve at a breakneck speed, and security providers have to consistently be one to two steps ahead of the bad actors,” added James Sivalingam, research manager of Services and Security at IDC Asia Pacific. “The situation is made more challenging in a rapidly digitalising region such as Asia Pacific, where organisations have varying levels of maturity across different countries and verticals.

“However, the study has found that all the major security vendors servicing the region are more than prepared for the challenges for the time being.

“In addition to robust capabilities, technologies, and bandwidth to mitigate the prevailing risk factors, security services providers should position themselves as strategic partners to their respective clients and help them achieve security by design to deliver true value to the customer in the region.”