Managed Wireless Security: A Huge New Market for MSPs

The explosive growth of large WLAN deployments is spurring organizations to outsource their security management, opening new doors for managed services providers.

By Cecilia Galvin

The market for managed wireless security services will more than triple in size over the next five years, experiencing a robust, recession-resistant compound annual growth rate of 27 percent for the years 2008 to 2014, and exceeding $1 billion at the end of that period.

That rosy forecast is part of Wireless Security Market Data, a new report from ABI Research.

"The managed wireless security services growth rate is quite dramatic," says ABI Research vice president Stan Schatt. "It's due to the explosive growth of large WLAN deployments. As these grow, organizations in certain markets such as healthcare and hospitality are finding it more efficient to outsource their security management rather than to do it themselves. That's particularly true of institutions that have many smaller branches without trained IT personnel."

There is also what Schatt calls "an absolutely incredible opportunity" among small and midsize businesses: As these companies increase their Wi-Fi usage, they see great benefit in having their wireless security--especially wireless video surveillance--managed for them.

"Managed service providers can address this market more effectively by including support for wireless video surveillance in their offerings, including portals for review of surveillance tapes and activity reports," says Schatt.

These managed services are currently being provided by a variety of companies: some WLAN equipment companies such as Cisco, and some resellers of intrusion protection systems. In the future, these will be joined by large professional services companies such as HP and IBM. Mobile operators and other telcos will also be giving this market a great deal of attention. In fact,  AT&T is already active in this space.