New research by Westcon-Comstor has revealed that cybersecurity leaders are planning to ramp up spending on cloud security in 2025 and want channel partners to help them maximise their ROI with new growth opportunities.
The specialist distributor surveyed 500 CISOs (Chief Information Security Officers) and other senior security executives at end-user organisations with at least 1,000 employees across five countries: France, Germany, Italy, UAE and the UK.
The results showed that 83% of security leaders intend to invest in Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) and other cloud security technologies over the next 12 months.
The top three priority areas for investment will be AI Security Posture Management (AI-SPM), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) and Application Security Posture Management (ASPM).
This appetite to invest creates significant growth opportunities for channel partners in specific areas.
The vast majority (95%) of those surveyed currently engage with channel partners, including resellers and managed security service providers, when procuring and deploying such solutions.
Training and enablement emerged as the most valued benefit from channel partners in the eyes of security leaders as they embrace CNAPP, with 40% saying this is their main requirement.
A third (32%) said cost-effective access to new solutions was the primary reason for engaging with channel partners, while 28% said what they mainly value from partners is assistance when navigating the cloud security market and identifying the best solutions.
Security leaders also said consolidating capabilities into a single unified platform was a key driver, reducing the complexity that comes from using multiple cybersecurity vendors and tools.
Other motivating factors include the need to integrate security and compliance testing seamlessly, and a desire to unify risk visibility across cloud environments and the application development lifecycle.
Daniel Hurel, Senior Vice President, Westcon EMEA Cybersecurity & Next-Generation Solutions at Westcon-Comstor, (pictured) said: “As the cloud security market continues to evolve, we’re seeing CNAPP become the go-to solution for securing cloud workloads - this presents an opportunity for the IT channel, with particularly strong demand for training and enablement.
“Partners who establish themselves in this high-growth area stand to reap the rewards in 2025 and beyond,” he concluded.