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Cybersecurity is now of strategic importance to customers – and partners
e92plus
January 2025
by Hannah Long
Cybersecurity has clearly become established as a strategic imperative, a channel survey has found. The report published this month by e92plus, the leading cybersecurity VAD, across over 300 VAR and MSP partners, highlighted that nearly half of their customers view investment in cybersecurity as a strategic business investment.
“It’s clear that cybersecurity is no longer simply just an IT expense for businesses, but an essential part of their IT strategy” explains Neil Langridge, Marketing & Alliances Director at e92plus. “While tactical responses to events such as a data breach or needing to secure a new IT project will arise, cybersecurity can now be discussed properly as a long term investment. For partners, this can bring a confidence in making it a more established part of their portfolio, evolve their outbound marketing with more positive messaging, and explore emerging technologies that can help differentiate themselves”.
The importance of compliance requirements in 2025, as NIS2 and DORA are established and the new UK Cyber Security and Resilience Bill is introduced, mean that partners will also need to identify those solutions that are strategically important to different verticals. Specialisation can help accelerate sales, and we’ve seen customer wins and testimonials a strong driver in winning new business.
In other highlights from the report, cybersecurity may be important but budget constraints showed that often it’s still the general IT team that is responsible, with less than 25% of businesses (especially in the SMB sector) having dedicated cybersecurity staff or senior leadership driving procurement. This highlights the essential role that partners can play in providing the guidance needed beyond just procurement – to how it secures and supports their overall technology stack, and integrates with their business so it’s not simple an overlay or business prohibitor that slows efficiency.
In terms of the driver for cybersecurity spend, the threat landscape and technology spend was the biggest influence for over half of respondents. SO while economic factors will be an influence, and around one fifth will stick to their defined budget, it’s essential that partners are flexible and continually engaging with their customers on market changes. This applies to training and education as much as technology, and also to ensuring that new IT innovations (from 5G or OT deployments) are secured as they represent not only a new attack surface, but also potentially new investment by their customers.
In conclusion, partners need to ensure their portfolio expands beyond just traditional solutions like endpoint and gateway– customers are looking for trusted partners with the expertise to support strategic investments. Partnerships with platform vendors can help provide focus, but working with channel partners and distributors to cover new concepts as they go mainstream (such as Zero Trust) or emerging technologies (such as post-quantum PKI) can help establish credibility, as well as gain access to essential market trends.
Download the report here
“It’s clear that cybersecurity is no longer simply just an IT expense for businesses, but an essential part of their IT strategy” explains Neil Langridge, Marketing & Alliances Director at e92plus. “While tactical responses to events such as a data breach or needing to secure a new IT project will arise, cybersecurity can now be discussed properly as a long term investment. For partners, this can bring a confidence in making it a more established part of their portfolio, evolve their outbound marketing with more positive messaging, and explore emerging technologies that can help differentiate themselves”.
The importance of compliance requirements in 2025, as NIS2 and DORA are established and the new UK Cyber Security and Resilience Bill is introduced, mean that partners will also need to identify those solutions that are strategically important to different verticals. Specialisation can help accelerate sales, and we’ve seen customer wins and testimonials a strong driver in winning new business.
In other highlights from the report, cybersecurity may be important but budget constraints showed that often it’s still the general IT team that is responsible, with less than 25% of businesses (especially in the SMB sector) having dedicated cybersecurity staff or senior leadership driving procurement. This highlights the essential role that partners can play in providing the guidance needed beyond just procurement – to how it secures and supports their overall technology stack, and integrates with their business so it’s not simple an overlay or business prohibitor that slows efficiency.
In terms of the driver for cybersecurity spend, the threat landscape and technology spend was the biggest influence for over half of respondents. SO while economic factors will be an influence, and around one fifth will stick to their defined budget, it’s essential that partners are flexible and continually engaging with their customers on market changes. This applies to training and education as much as technology, and also to ensuring that new IT innovations (from 5G or OT deployments) are secured as they represent not only a new attack surface, but also potentially new investment by their customers.
In conclusion, partners need to ensure their portfolio expands beyond just traditional solutions like endpoint and gateway– customers are looking for trusted partners with the expertise to support strategic investments. Partnerships with platform vendors can help provide focus, but working with channel partners and distributors to cover new concepts as they go mainstream (such as Zero Trust) or emerging technologies (such as post-quantum PKI) can help establish credibility, as well as gain access to essential market trends.
Download the report here