Smaller resellers offering cybersecurity solutions tailored for SMBs are primed for a successful start to the year, according to IT market intelligence company, CONTEXT. The forecast is one of CONTEXT’s four takeaways from the Black Hat Europe event in December. It’s also based on analysis of market trends from the past year. The year-on-year revenue sales performance of France is illustrative of the trend said the firm – and the UK is not far behind.
► Smaller resellers are capitalising on increased demand from SMBs
► Renewed focus on user training and awareness
CONTEXT figures for Week 52 of 2023 showed France as the strongest performer in cybersecurity sales through distribution. ‘France has been very positive in cloud, endpoint and network security, with over 20% year-on-year (YoY) growth in all three segments,’ explained Joe Turner, global director, research and business development at CONTEXT. ‘This is down to small and medium resellers having a strong presence in security, that’s where we’ve seen an uplift in sales.’
In France, and to a lesser extent the UK and Italy, small and medium resellers have been able to capitalise on growing demand from an SMB market, buoyed by greater investment and the need to provide customers with more tailored solutions, according to Turner.
Across Europe, cloud security revenue sales as of Week 52 stood at 4% YoY, with endpoint security (-1.5% YoY) and network security (-0.5% YoY) faring worse due to a weak Q3 and Q4 2023. In the cloud security segment, France led overall European revenue sales growth for the period, with sales of 26.2% YoY, followed by the UK (13.9%) and Italy (11.8%).
Cybersecurity revenue sales as a whole slumped slightly -0.3% YoY but finished the year strongly after a significant uptick in Week 50 across the top five markets. This is typically an important time of the year in cybersecurity channel sales, due to customer renewals and upgrades, and CONTEXT predicts the positive performance will carry over into the start of 2024.
Among the other takeaways from Black Hat Europe, CONTEXT predicts that 2024 will bring:
- A year of deception as misinformation and disinformation efforts, alongside more traditional cyber-threats, aim to disrupt and capitalise on big elections in the US, UK and Europe, as well as major sporting events including the Olympics
- A transformation in AI as the technology moves from hype to practical use in applications such as threat intelligence and data analysis. Unfortunately, 2024 will also see AI used in more sophisticated ways by threat actors, in deepfakes and to scale phishing campaigns
- A renewed focus on user training and awareness as humans continue to be the weakest link in the security chain
