This article originally appeared in the September 2024 issue of Security Business magazine. Don’t forget to mention Security Business magazine on LinkedIn and @SecBusinessMag on Twitter if you share it.
The growth of cloud-based solutions has changed the face of the security industry. As organizations identify ways to leverage cloud technology to drive greater efficiencies, reduce their IT infrastructure, and analyze data in exciting new ways, some vendors that once relied heavily on integrators are shifting toward end-to-end solutions that enable them to deal directly with customers.
This has led many to wonder what the rise of the cloud means for system integrators – and how they fit into the modern security ecosystem.
While it is understandable to ask these questions, organizations attempting to reduce the role of integrators are making a significant misstep – one that threatens to weaken their relationships with partners and customers and eliminate a valuable source of knowledge and expertise. The fact is, the emergence of the cloud means integrators have never been more important, and it is critical for vendors to understand the value integrators bring to the table.
As cloud adoption soars, it will continue to create new opportunities for integrators to leverage their knowledge and experience on behalf of the customers they serve.
Why the Cloud Continues to Gain Traction
Why now for the cloud? There are a range of reasons – all of which center around the added value the cloud can bring. Of course, the cloud is no silver bullet. Plenty of organizations prefer to maintain their own on-premises servers, which has its own list of advantages.
But for others, cloud computing has enabled capabilities that would otherwise have been out of their reach. Some businesses are even embracing hybrid architectures with on-premises deployments augmented by cloud solutions, allowing them to capitalize on the advantages of both. This increased level of flexibility has been a game-changing development – especially for smaller businesses.
In practice, there are many specific reasons the cloud has become an attractive option. Remote storage, lower initial investment, and increased scalability are all significant draws for businesses across a wide range of industries. The cloud also offers conveniences like remote management, automatic updates, and included security capabilities.
While organizations still bear some responsibility for cybersecurity, providers can push firmware and software updates automatically, reducing the burden on IT and security teams that the patching and updating can impose.
Perhaps most importantly, today’s cloud solutions – especially those that prioritize open architecture – are designed to integrate with a wide range of tools and applications, meaning that organizations can choose the right solutions for them. This is where integrators play a key role: With so many options at their fingertips, customers often need help understanding how best to achieve their goals.
End-to-End Solutions vs. Custom Deployments
While a high degree of customization is usually viewed as an advantage, it also adds complexity. As a result, some organizations may prefer the convenience of an end-to-end cloud solution.
While end-to-end solutions do offer certain advantages, they also bring risks. What if the provider stops supporting a critical solution? What if the organization’s needs change as it grows, and the original vendor can no longer provide adequate features or support? Once locked into a single vendor, changing can be very difficult (and expensive).
That said, some vendors prioritize openness even in their own end-to-end offerings – but it is important to understand whether this is the case before committing to a solution. An open-platform end-to-end solution may still offer opportunities to work with integrators, but those who opt for closed systems risk cutting integrators out of the equation entirely, which means losing access to a wealth of expertise.
If a cloud solution is not functioning effectively, a good integrator can either remediate the problem or recommend a different solution better suited to address the problem. If they are locked into a single product ecosystem, customers can only hope that the vendor can solve the problem, or they may simply be out of luck.
Integrators can foreground more open solutions that enable their customers to embrace the advantages of the cloud while maintaining access to the specific tools and applications that work for them. In the security world, that means organizations can use a video management solution (VMS) of their choice without worrying about vendor lock-in. They can then leverage the video analytics solutions that work for them, whether they are limited to security-focused applications or more business intelligence-related uses.
The key takeaway here is that the cloud is putting new choices in customers' hands – and integrators have an important opportunity to help them make sense of it.
Integrators work directly with customers to identify which device or software solutions are right for them, and as cloud solutions become increasingly open and software applications continue to multiply, they have more solutions to choose from than ever. Far from reducing opportunities for integrators, open cloud solutions create more chances than ever to recommend valuable new solutions from a wide range of sources. Cloud solutions aren’t cutting integrators out – if anything, the rise of the cloud has made integrators more important than ever.
How the Cloud is Changing Relationships in the Industry
From a vendor perspective, the temptation to bypass integrators and provide an end-to-end solution might appear understandable – after all, why risk an integrator recommending someone else’s product to a customer? But the truth is, there are many answers to that question.
A vendor attempting to cut out integrators will miss out on the wealth of local knowledge that integrators bring to the table. It is important to remember that this is a two-way street: integrators play a critical role in providing feedback to vendors, helping them better understand what customers actually need.
For example, an integrator may find that a product or solution has issues the vendor could easily address. A vendor who acts on that information will gain a reputation for being receptive to feedback and responsive to their customers' needs. By helping vendors better understand where their products may create friction for customers, integrators play a crucial role in helping to improve them over time.
Without feedback, vendors may find that customers are abandoning their products, and they may never know why. It is important that integrators convey this value proposition to vendors who may not fully recognize the benefits they bring to the table. Without the knowledge and expertise that integrators provide, vendors can only guess at the needs of their customers.
The cloud also generates significant benefits for integrators themselves. Cloud solutions offer ease of service delivery, reducing the burden on integrators who may no longer need to travel to physical locations to service or update certain products. The ability to offer managed services and more responsive customer service adds substantial value to the relationship between customers and integrators.
What’s more, integrators can now provide cloud-based system and device management, data analytics support, and other services that enable them to generate recurring revenue streams. This is particularly important at a time when many IT departments are strapped for resources, even as they are asked to do more than ever. Integrators bring an immense and invaluable level of expertise and experience to the table and can help overworked IT and security departments implement and maintain security solutions more effectively.
Integrators also play a critical role in creating a competitive market. The role of the integrator is to recommend the product that best meets the needs of the customer, which means the best solutions will rise to the top. This creates a perfect, symbiotic relationship: integrators provide vendors with the knowledge and feedback they need to improve their products, and those vendors then provide better solutions for integrators to recommend to their customers.
Vendors dedicated to continuous improvement shouldn’t run from this type of relationship, they should embrace it.
