451 Research: Herjavec Group aims broad suite of custom managed security services at global audience

April 4, 2018

451 Research is a preeminent global IT research and advisory company. The firm recently published its analysis of Herjavec Group’s security services offering. The complete summary is below and available here.

Strengthening and enhancing the organization's security posture is one of the top priorities for enterprises across all industries. However, many security leaders report that – although they are seeing security budgets increase and are spending more on people, tools and a variety of security initiatives – they are only experiencing marginal results in improving their security posture. Looking for a solution, these organizations are turning to managed security service providers (MSSPs) for help, but are finding that the one-size-fits-all or niche services offered by many providers often fail to meet their needs.

Pure-play security service provider Herjavec Group believes its holistic and customizable approach to security addresses many of the cybersecurity challenges and threats facing enterprises today. The company offers a broad suite of customizable and flexible security services and capabilities, including project, consulting, and managed security services providing automation, intelligence, and expertise for complex and global environments.

The 451 Take

According to a recent 451 Research Voice of the Enterprise survey, the percentage of enterprise security budgets going to third-party security service providers (including MSSPs) is steadily increasing, while the percentage spent on third-party security software and hardware is slowly declining. Considering the state of cybersecurity in most enterprises (lack of expertise, increasing attacks and security incidents, expanding regulatory requirements, a deluge of alerts), it is projected that the rate of adoption of managed security services within enterprises will continue to increase, and Herjavec Group is poised to take advantage of this growing opportunity. The company's broad portfolio of security services blends the elements of managed detection and response services with managed security services, and delivers professional and consultative services, providing expertise and support to address the challenges of compliance, strategy, deployment, vulnerability assessments and penetration testing. With its broad appeal, proprietary framework and analytics platform, and ability to support a wide range of security technologies and architectures, the company will likely continue its growth as it expands its market footprint globally.

Context

Founded in 2003 by entrepreneur and CEO Robert Herjavec, Herjavec Group is focused on providing cybersecurity services and products to organizations around the world. Herjavec, also known for co-starring in the TV series Shark Tank, started in cybersecurity in 1990, founding security integration company BRAK Systems, which he eventually sold to AT&T Canada in 2000.

Based in Toronto, the company employs over 300 people, with offices in Los Angeles; New York; and Reading, United Kingdom, as well as several offices located throughout Canada. Herjavec Group also operates four PCI-compliant security operations centers (SOCs) in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, providing 24x7x365 defense and remediation of cyber threats.

The company started as a firewall vendor offering basic firewall management services; however, Herjavec quickly recognized that enterprises were struggling to manage their security posture and began offering managed security services to its customer base in 2005. Through a number of acquisitions, including Cyberklix in 2010, Zentra Computer Technologies in 2011, Galaxy Tech in 2014, Sentry Metrics in 2014 and Sysec in 2015, the company has grown to an estimated $150m-plus in annual revenue.

Security Services

Targeting enterprises with over 1,000 employees, the privately held company takes a broad approach to security, offering a comprehensive catalog of consulting, professional and managed security services. Herjavec Group's managed security services portfolio is robust, offering a range of customizable and flexible services, including endpoint protection, data-loss prevention, firewall management, threat hunting and detection, intrusion prevention and detection, content filtering, and vulnerability management. Additionally, the company has core service offerings for cloud SIEM, identity and access management services, and incident response. The company says its services portfolio has been specifically designed to protect large, complex multi-technology environments, and is capable of securing cloud, on-premises and hybrid architectures. Taking a vendor-agnostic and best-of-breed technology approach, the company says it is able to meet the needs and preferences of most any organization.

Herjavec Group believes enterprises are facing an expanding number of challenges when it comes to securing the organization, ranging from the shortage of security expertise in the market and a lack of specialized knowledge in-house to the inability to manage and respond to the increasing flood of alerts and incidents. Recognizing that security is not just a technology issue, Herjavec Group has developed its proprietary HG Analytics Platform and HG Threat Framework, combining technical and human intelligence in order to proactively identify attacks, deliver enriched threat intelligence data, dynamically model threats and provide actionable alerts to increase customers' security postures.

The company says its platform and framework provide an automation, orchestration and analytics engine that enables it to quickly identify attacks across customers' ecosystems and automatically conducts trending, cross-client correlation, anomaly detection, IP reputation scoring, and de-duplication and aggregation – often followed by further investigation by Herjavec Group's SOC security analysts. According to the company, the platform provides customers with a deep and wide centralized view of their entire environment, adding context and value to help them understand the threats and risks in their organizations.

Partners, customers and growth

Herjavec Group says it partners with a growing number of 'best-of-breed' technology vendors to deliver services aimed at improving its customers' security posture. The company says it has developed expertise and deep integration with over 40 security platforms, including Splunk, CyberArk, FireEye, Check Point, RSA, CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, Blue Coat, Bromium and Darktrace.

The company's clients cross a number of verticals, including financial, insurance, manufacturing, automotive, technology and legal. While the company's initial growth was centered in Canada, it has made significant inroads into the US and UK markets in recent years, and believes those markets hold the greatest opportunity for future growth as it continues to expand globally. The company also believes that it has substantial growth opportunity within its current customer base as it continues to grow its managed security services portfolio and invest in new security services, such as identity and access management.

Competition

The managed security services sector is a crowded and fragmented space, with security services marketed by a wide range of providers, including traditional telcos, technology vendors, MSPs, MSSPs, MDR providers and a variety of niche providers. Herjavec Group's broad portfolio of services places it in direct competition with most varieties of security service providers, including global technology and security goliaths such as IBM, BT Group, Tech Mahindra, SecureWorks, CenturyLink and NTT, as well as other pure-play security service providers, such as Sword & Shield Enterprise Security, Security On-Demand and Proficio.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Herjavec Group's decade of experience in the managed security service space, coupled with its proprietary framework and analytics platform and broad services portfolio, places it in a unique position in a market crowded with newcomers and niche providers.

Weaknesses

Although CEO Robert Herjavec is a known personality, the company is still building global brand recognition among enterprises in the high-growth opportunity markets of the US and UK.

Opportunities

While the US and UK are potential high-growth markets for Herjavec Group, partnering with managed service providers that lack the ability to provide security services on their own could provide the company with new greenfield opportunities for growth.

Threats

As the company continues to grow at a rapid pace and expands into new markets and geographies, the ability to scale its platform and swiftly add expertise to its security operations centers will be a challenge.

Originally posted on 451research.com

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About 451 Research

451 Research is a preeminent information technology research and advisory company. With a core focus on technology innovation and market disruption, we provide essential insight for leaders of the digital economy. More than 100 analysts and consultants deliver that insight via syndicated research, advisory services and live events to over 1,000 client organizations in North America, Europe and around the world. 451 Research analysts cover emerging technology segments such as cloud computing, datacenter technologies and mobility. Clients of the company – at vendor, investor, service-provider and end-user organizations – rely on 451 Research’s insight to support both strategic and tactical decision-making. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in New York, 451 Research is a division of The 451 Group.