Q&A
EDITOR’S
STEFAN VAN DE GIESSEN,
CYBERSECURITY MANAGER AT
NETWORKS UNLIMITED AFRICA
To answer this question holistically,
we need to look at the different types
of reseller model within this sphere,
namely resellers (box droppers), system
integrators and managed service security
providers (MSSPs).
I see the traditional reseller’s share
of the market starting to diminish, as
customers start moving towards cloudbased
technology and the utilisation of cloud
portals, taking advantage of the benefits
offered by this approach, including a broader
reach, personalisation and focused customer
experience. I anticipate that bigger, global
vendors within this space, such as Amazon
Web Services and Azure, to name a couple,
will become more prominent in the small and
medium business (SMB) space, as price is
locked irrespective of your size. Consumers
are opting to engage directly with the vendor
via credit card to eliminate the ‘middle man’.
I anticipate that bigger,
global vendors within
this space, such as
Amazon Web Services
and Azure, to name
a couple, will become
more prominent in
the small and medium
business (SMB) space,
as price is locked
irrespective of your size.
The ‘box drop reseller’ would cease
to exist within the security space. System
integrators will have to adapt their business
to be far more reliant on generating income
from professional services and linked SLA,
as product revenue will diminish. Customers
migrating their networks into the cloud will
have far more flexible payment terms in
the form of monthly-in-areas, as opposed
to fixed term, upfront payment putting
pressure on cashflow.
We’ll see a further consolidation of
companies – which is already taking place –
and a growing need for the implementation
and maintenance of hybrid networks. The
MSSPs will continue to flourish, as the
majority of their revenue is already in
services, as opposed to pure product sales.
The relevance of the local MSSPs to offer
ZAR-based pricing, as opposed to paying
for a service in USD and making budgeting
impossible with our volatile conversion, will
come to the fore.
Lastly, I believe that in South Africa,
broad-based black economic empowerment
(B-BBEE) programmes will assist us, the SIs
and the MSSPs to flatten the adoption curve
to some extent, as we all strive to procure
locally and drive local investment back into
the market.
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