While Vodafone remains one of the leading global telecommunications providers, they face the need to transform their services and reach out to a wider audience. The customer base of a typical telecom provider is shifting, and they can no longer afford to just focus on consumers and need to include enterprises in their go-to-market strategy. Beyond the usual offerings of connectivity and mobile plans, Vodafone Business has solutions for Unified Communications, IoT and Cloud, to help grow their enterprise customer base. Ecosystm Principal Advisor, Tim Sheedy says, “Vodafone is one of the most successful telecom providers in the business space. Vodafone Business already represents around 30% of the Vodafone Group revenue, and unlike most in the telecommunications sector, they are showing growth (albeit moderate!).”
The Role of Telecom Providers in the Cybersecurity Market
An area where enterprises continue to need guidance and support is cybersecurity. The results of the UK Government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2019 found that 32% of UK businesses had experienced a cyber-attack in the previous 12 months. More than a third of UK organisations have made changes in their cyber policies because of the GDPR – a majority focusing on policies first. It is not surprising therefore that Vodafone should identify cybersecurity as the next area of focus for their enterprise offerings.
Sheedy says, ”Cybersecurity services are one of the fastest-growing areas in technology. But because of this, it is a also a crowded market with everyone – from the big telecom providers, IT services providers, big audit firms, mid-sized technology providers down to the smaller cybersecurity experts – playing for this growing spend. It can, however, be argued that telecom providers have some of the deepest experience in cybersecurity and managing the risks – their networks are probably the most targeted by hackers and malicious actors. Telecom providers have massive teams just to stop threats from one or two countries. With all the work they do to protect their own network, they should have the skills to help protect the networks and assets of their clients.”
Ecosystm Principal Advisor, Alex Woerndle concurs, “Telecom providers are perfectly positioned to transition into managed security service providers (MSSPs). They already have the experience in providing a range of managed services, the ability to scale to support clients and some ready-made expertise internally in their in-house cybersecurity capabilities.”
Vodafone’s Foray into Cybersecurity
Vodafone Cyber Enhanced focuses on selected cybersecurity areas – threat analysis and intelligence, managed firewall and managed security services. The global Ecosystm Cybersecurity study finds that the solutions that organisations will invest in most in 2020 are Security Operations (SecOps) & Incident Response (by a third of global organisations) and Threat Analysis & Intelligence (by 20% of global organisations).
Commenting on the areas Vodafone is focusing on, Woerndle says, “Threat analysis and intelligence is where a lot of established SecOps providers and MSSPs are really focusing now. Previously it was simply a matter of monitoring alerts and reporting. Businesses and in-house security teams are now seeking more proactive assistance in searching for threats, before they become attacks. The challenge they face is catching up – effectively jumping from just being another SecOps centre (SOC) monitoring and reporting alerts, to matching the more mature SOCs with proactive threat intelligence to help clients mitigate before an attack is launched. This takes time, as it needs maturity of the SOC and the team, and also data, which established providers have accrued plenty of, over an extended period. While a managed firewall is not really a new service, it makes some sense to couple it with other managed security services to deliver a broader program. Vodafone is absolutely targeting the areas that businesses are looking into presently.”
Woerndle adds, “MSSPs will be crucial to the security sector moving forward. There has been a rapid growth of vendor solutions creating a very confusing market for tech buyers. This is coupled with a tight labour market for skilled people who can manage the tools. It is not surprising , therefore, that 86% of organisations across the world will look to engage with an MSSP when deploying a cybersecurity solution, according to Ecosystm research.”
Sheedy sees an opportunity for Vodafone to go global with their cybersecurity capabilities. “If Vodafone can compete with the bigger players (and perhaps partner with or complement the offerings of the smaller ones), then they should find a significant opportunity, especially within their larger clients – particularly as they move into the software-defined networking space. However, given the confusion around cybersecurity, they should expand their focus beyond larger enterprises to businesses over about 100 employees. As one of the largest global telecom providers, with one of the largest networks, they can be an important player in the cybersecurity space – growing the spend in their business clients. And while this is a UK play for now, one assumes that they will look to expand across their operating countries as Vodafone Cyber Enhanced gains traction.”