Edmund How (OneSecure Asia)
OneSecure Asia is prioritising the delivery of cloud-based cyber security services across Southeast Asia in 2020, targeting customer acquisition amid regional expansion plans.
Shaped by a focus on SME and enterprise-level businesses, the Singapore-based managed security service provider (MSSP) is building out a portfolio capable of offering enhanced protection following strategic alliances with RSA and Accedian.
“During the past several years, we have built up product lines consisting of managed services and cyber security solutions that cater to SME and enterprise customers,” outlined Edmund How, founder and managing director of OneSecure. “We’re now focusing on reaching out to new customers to deliver these much needed services to protect networks, brands and digital assets.
“We’re also prioritising upgrading our current suite of solutions to address the emerging threat landscape while reaching a broader group of customers.”
Within Southeast Asia, How said plans are underway to increase focus on the key markets of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, supported by recent vendor partnerships and a team of more than 30 specialists.
Specifically, OneSecure recently upgraded security information and event management (SIEM) capabilities in Singapore, enhancing innovation and protection levels through the deployment of RSA technologies.
The roll-out of RSA NetWitness Platform is designed to improve threat detection and response through data collection and analysis across increased capture points and computing platforms, spanning physical, virtual and cloud environments. Fully implemented effective July 2020, the upgraded SIEM is housed in a tier-3 data centre within the city-state.
Meanwhile, the MSSP partnered with Accedian in September 2019, centred around enhancing IT infrastructure performance through visibility-as-a-service, leveraging the vendor’s Skylight solution.
“Our strategic partnership with RSA in particular enables us to address the sophisticated cyber security needs of large enterprise businesses,” How added. “We deliver value-based best of breed security solutions that, when bundled with our cyber experts and our ISO27001 certified process-based delivery models, will cater to customers that don’t have the in-house expertise nor budget to build an internal cyber framework.”
Since venturing into the MSSP business, OneSecure has experienced a 95 per cent customer retention rate which according to How, emphasises the market demand for managed services across ASEAN.
“Flexibility is crucial in mastering stringent business requirements, in addition to providing trusted and reliable service delivery for customers,” How outlined. “This is alongside being innovative enough to constantly stay on top of the latest cyber threats.
“Customers all have common cyber security concerns but they may also have unique concerns specific to their business. As a technology provider, we must be able to address these nuanced requirements in order to truly succeed in delivering business value.”
Speaking exclusively to Channel Asia, How acknowledged that providing a “trusted and reliable service” represents the “backbone” of any successful services-based business in 2020, supported by 24x7x365 mission-critical offerings in keeping with tightening SLA requirements.
“Trust and reliability is built over time and when done properly, leads to long-term engagement between supplier and customer,” he said. “Innovation is also critical. Cyber threats are a moving target and constant monitoring of the latest global trends and point issues is a must to ensure antidotes and technologies are properly deployed to ensure digital assets are suitably protected.”
Customers embrace managed security services
Managed services is expected to account for the “largest and fastest growing” segment of the security market during the next six months, triggered by heightened customer demand for protection amid a sustained shift in remote working.
Billed as ‘single-tenant solutions operated by third-party providers and residing on customers' premises’, increased end-user appetite for managed security offerings delivered via the channel comes in response to the continuation of wide-scale lockdown measures which in turn have prompted a significant rise in cyber threats.
According to IDC findings, such demand is followed by integration services and consulting services, with the overall security services market accounting for approximately half of all security spending in the short-term.
Looking ahead, security services investment is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.5 per cent during the next five years, with managed services in particular set to outpace the market at 13.6 per cent.
“Visibility is key,” How advised. “Visibility inside the wire, visibility outside the wire and intimately understanding what’s happening on the digital attack surface.
“We find that an ‘all-in-one’ appliance doesn’t offer the required technologies to capture everything going on in the cyber security fabric meaning that best of breed solutions are needed to properly monitor, identify and mitigate any cyber threats in the wild.”
In response, How said the business is prioritising providing cyber security-based network traffic analytics in the form of Network Traffic Security Analytics (NTSA) solutions, cited as key to "forensically ensuring" organisations remain protected from rising threat levels.
“NTSA is certainly a hot area right now,” he said. “Establishing network traffic visibility through network traffic analysis and overlaying a cyber security framework on top of this is key to identifying any cyber threat in the wire.
“Phishing is another major concern we see and establishing a centralised strategy to educate, simulate and adopt learning-based phishing solutions is crucial inn minimising intrusion at endpoints in a corporate network. Finally, cloud-based SIEM is fast gaining acceptance as the starting point to establish a cyber security framework for SMEs and small enterprises across the region.”
While acknowledging “some delays” in cyber investment due to the impact of Covid-19, How said customers have so far avoided cancelling projects due to the “mission-critical” nature of security.
“Operationally, there wasn’t any major changes as all of our MSSP offerings are cloud-based,” he explained. “We haven’t really made any adjustments to our technology service offerings to our clients since we deliver a purely services based business to protect their networks and digital assets from cyber threats.
“Covid-19 has not changed our service delivery engagement models with how we deliver to our clients. Nor has our business model changed as well other than how we engage with our customers on a sales side through purely digital means.
“In fact, Covid-19 gave us an opportunity to focus on more of our product developmental plans to research and fortify our solutions and services that we aim to offer to the market during the second half of 2020 and into 2021."
In looking ahead, How acknowledged that if budget allows, building an in-house security team housing best of breed technologies and experts is always preferable for customers, yet cautioned that such an approach is plagued with challenges.
“Customers are realising that the cost to maintain a proper cyber security posture in-house is too expensive,” he explained. “Finding qualified professionals to maintain their networks is also difficult as well as costly.
“Keeping abreast of the latest cyber threats is next to impossible since this is a highly technical and specialised topic and companies simply don’t have the time to research and implement the latest solutions when they are trying to keep their main business afloat during this global pandemic.
“Keeping customers safe from online perpetrators is getting more difficult as the attacks get more sophisticated and hiring in-house cyber security expertise comes with a large premium.
"Outsourcing can help customers balance growth and the risk of building a business means minimising cost and maximising profitability for long-term existence. Also, outsourcing becomes a key part of customer business decisions to offload the non-core pieces to external experts while focusing on core strengths."
Channel Asia Advance is a centralised editorial resource designed to help partners access forward-looking content as the ASEAN and Indian markets attempt to reposition for growth.
