#Infosec2025: Channel Bridges Security Skills Gap

A growing channel and reseller marketplace is helping cybersecurity teams plug gaps in their operations and compensate for skills shortages in critical areas.

At the same time, channel partners are helping security vendors enter new markets, as well as providing specialist industry expertise.

The worldwide cybersecurity technology market is now worth over US$21 billion, according to analysts Canalys. Of that, the total cybersecurity technology spending through the channel accounted for 91% of total spend.

Growth in cybersecurity purchases through resellers reflects an increasingly diverse market, with new vendors offering security tools, especially around artificial intelligence (AI).

At the same time, it is being driven by the need for smaller businesses to increase their security spending, in light of growing threats.

Small and mid-sized businesses are already the mainstay of the reseller channel in both IT and telecommunications. Adding cybersecurity tools and services is often a logical extension of existing business relationships.

In addition, the channel offers a route to market for new cybersecurity vendors.

Infosecurity Europe’s Dedicated Channel Zone

For the first time, this year Infosecurity Europe has hosted a dedicated Channel Zone.

The zone aims to increase the visibility of the reseller channel to CISOs and other security buyers, as well as provide exposure for those vendors who only sell indirectly.

Read more: Why Channel Partners are Critical for Cybersecurity

In an evolving landscape, the channel is changing the way it operates.

“Traditionally the channel was a market of technology providers who traded in siloes focused on vendor-led solutions.  However, over the past decade, channel firms have built much wider ecosystems in response to demands from the end client to be more outcome-focused,” said Richard Eglon, chief marketing officer at Nebula Global Services, a channel services organization.

Eglon sees a “new breed of vendor” emerging that is using the channel as a more effective way of reaching the market.

This view is echoed by Will Goodall, wholesale director at Elevate, a company that sells and resells connectivity and, increasingly, security services.

Vendors, he says, benefit from quicker access to a larger market, without the need to build up a large, possibly international, sales team.

“It also helps you get your products into markets you might not otherwise sell into, such as education, defence or the NHS,” explained Goodall.

Goldilock is a security vendor focused on the physical segmentation of assets and networks. The company only sells via the channel.

“At Goldilock, our channel-only sales model is strategic. As a disruptive player in a new category, we rely on trusted partners to bring credibility, scale and sector-specific insight,” says chief risk officer, Steven Brodie.

“The channel allows us to rapidly scale to support more verticals in more geographies …  and reduce time to value for both us and our customers.”

CISOs’ Advantage

Buyers, for their part, gain by being able to buy a wider range of products and services from a single reseller. CISOs can also benefit from the reseller or wholesaler’s buying power, both in terms of price and higher levels of support.

“You want to benefit commercially, and get better rates or better levels of service,” Brodie added.

“From a CISO perspective, this new channel marketplace brings huge opportunity to explore latest technology advancements, commercial models and more agile frameworks in order to deliver the outcome they are looking for,” says Eglon.

Eglon also sees “legacy” vendors making more use of the channel due to increasing competition, allowing CISOs to buy from both established and new vendors via a single partner.

Enterprises are also seeing the channel as a way to bring together security tools and service from multiple vendors, reducing purchasing overheads and bringing solutions into service more quickly.

“For our enterprise customers, it means faster deployment, access to bundled services and tailored security solutions with a measurable ROI,” Brodie explained.

Value-Added Services

Value-added services are another reason IT security teams choose to buy through the channel.

Faced with skills shortages and the difficulties in recruiting experienced staff, CISOs might opt instead to use a channel partner or value-added reseller. These organizations have the resources to enable and install technology, as well as to support it.

“CISOs often want to take a ‘best of breed’ approach when it comes to products and services, and a channel partner is better able to offer that, rather than a single-source vendor,” Rory Duncan, analyst at Richmond Advisory Group, told Infosecurity.

“This is also appealing for those CISOs who are concerned about the dreaded vendor ‘lock-in,’ where high dependency on one tech firm or service company can lead to higher potential risk.”

“There is a company size element too. The largest enterprises potentially don’t need a channel partner as much as smaller firms. Medium to small size enterprises and mid-market companies are much more dependent on third parties to take the complexity out of their security infrastructure because they have smaller, often less specialist IT and security staff,” Duncan added.

“Many of the tech vendors have services divisions, but they tend to only tackle the largest services opportunities.”