Almost 67% of Indian Enterprises Looking to Outsource Key Areas of their Security Landscape

• 18 May 2023
• TM Team
• 0 Comments

According to the findings from International Data Corporation’s (IDC) recent Future of Trust India survey, almost 67% of Indian enterprises stated that they are looking at outsourcing key areas of their security landscape to managed security service providers (MSSPs) in next three years. However, it is also observed that there is an increasing trend towards consolidating the number of MSSPs the enterprises are partnering with, going forward.

"While traversing towards investing in digital transformation initiatives and running a viable digital business, enterprises in India must also look at outsourcing key functions such as threat detection, security operations, and risk mitigations to external security services providers as a part of their enterprise strategy and also to improve operational efficiencies and bottom-line. A lot of enterprises go with security service providers that can offer global capabilities in a local delivery model and can help them in unifying their vendor ecosystem by offering a plethora of services under one umbrella," says Sakshi Grover, research manager, Future of Trust, IDC India and Asia/Pacific.

IDC's Future of Trust India survey also reveals some of the enlisted insights, that can provide guidance to business leaders on specific technologies such as threat intelligence, secure access service edge (SASE), the convergence of operational technology and information technology, identity, and access management (IAM) and achieving trust in a threat-prone ecosystem:

#1: 72.5% of the enterprises stated that they use threat intelligence products or services in their organization, and 26.5% stated that they plan to implement it in the next two years.

#2: Almost 92% of the enterprises stated that they believe the use of secure access service edge (SASE) will grow as a part of their enterprise's strategy to implement a more agile, pervasive cybersecurity strategy.

#3: Majority of the enterprises stated that their major challenge using an IAM solution is deploying authentication and access controls for partners and contractors, and balancing security requirements and user experience for customers and employees concurrently. A similar trend is observed across all industries such as BFSI, professional services, healthcare, and retail and wholesale, with the exception being manufacturing, where challenges arising from legacy solutions and perimeter-based architecture were also predominant.

#4: Majority of the enterprises stated that the alarming increase in sophisticated external cyber threats and cybersecurity attacks is one of their greatest challenges in establishing organizational trust today.

#5: The survey also revealed the key drivers towards establishing trust in today's ecosystem, and the number of times enterprises interact with the CEO and the board on the topics of trust.

"Security must now become a central and vital topic within operations, across the C-suite, and elevated at the board level. The principal challenge Indian enterprises are facing today is the difficulty to tackle increasingly sophisticated external cyber threats and cybersecurity attacks. Beyond the same, complex regulatory requirements, lack of visibility into applications and data assets, and lack of security culture and awareness amongst employees remain a common challenge," says Sharath Srinivasamurthy, Associate Vice President, IDC India.

Data listed here is from IDC's Future of Trust India Survey. The survey was released in January 2023, and covers insights from 200 B2B Indian enterprises, focused on personas such as Senior IT management, responsible for IT security (CIO, CTO, CISO, CRO, CSO, CPO, CCO, IT Director, VP of IT, Head of IT or IT security). Apart from the technologies aforementioned, the survey also covers various aspects of security, risk, privacy, compliance, trust, and priorities, drivers, challenges, and investment plans for Indian enterprises in 2023 and two years from now. The insights run across large* enterprises and SMBs, as well as seven industry segments namely, Banking, Financial Services, Insurance (BFSI), Manufacturing, Retail Trade & Wholesale, Healthcare Services, Professional Services, Communications & Media, Government.