The Growing Opportunity for MSPs in the Nordic Region
The Nordic region has long been at the forefront of IT innovation and a global leader when it comes to the adoption of digital technologies for business, economic and societal benefits. Sweden, Denmark and Norway all appear in the top 10 in IMD’s global ranking of digital competitiveness and Finland, Denmark and Sweden lead the European Union’s (EU) Digital Economy and Society Index, tracking the countries making the greatest progress with digital transformation. Today, the region is doubling down on its investments, with an ambitious goal of becoming the “most integrated region in the world” in terms of digitization by 2030.
To achieve that goal will require not only additional investment in technology, but also in services and human capital. The next several years are expected to bring tremendous opportunity and rapid growth to the burgeoning IT and Information Security services markets. According to Gartner®, Information Security and Risk Management spend in the Nordic region (Denmark, Finland, Norway & Sweden) is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 12.1% from 2021 to 2026, as compared to a CAGR of 11.1% in Western Europe or a global average of 10.4%[i].
Businesses in the Nordic region already rely heavily on IT outsourcing and managed service providers (MSPs), and the outlook continues to be promising. According to the analyst firm Canalys[ii], “The opportunity for managed service providers in the Nordic region is growing fast. It is estimated that in 2021 the overall MSP revenue in the Nordic region grew 13.3%, faster than in Western Europe (12.4%) or in EMEA in general (12.4%).”
Cybersecurity Is Driving MSP Growth
Security services, in particular, are fueling the rapid growth of MSPs. A large portion of businesses in the Nordic region are small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs). They are a key driver of the region’s economic activity but due to their size, often lack the internal staffing and skills needed to handle all their cybersecurity needs amid today’s fast-changing threat landscape. Globally, there is a workforce shortage of nearly 3 million skilled cybersecurity professionals, and SMBs face some of the toughest challenges in recruiting talent, as they have to compete against larger organizations with bigger budgets. As a result, more SMBs are turning to MSPs to provide the round-the-clock cybersecurity protection, threat detection and response they need.
Threats Continue to Grow in the Nordic Region
SMBs may lack the staffing levels and security budgets of their larger counterparts, but they cannot expect to fly under the radar and go unnoticed when it comes to being targeted for cyber-attacks. Organizations of all sizes and in all industries are increasingly facing frequent, sophisticated attacks such as ransomware and advanced persistent threats. Nordic companies, in particular, experienced a wave of malicious cyber-attacks in late 2021 and the Nordic governments are holding cross-border talks about IT network security collaboration and a plan to launch projects to strengthen their joint network defense capabilities against cyber threats.
Strengthening MSPs’ Cybersecurity Offerings
The combination of growing threats and a challenging cybersecurity skills shortage in the Nordic region presents an opportunity for MSPs in the region. The need for MSPs to provide strong, multilayered cybersecurity services and effective attack prevention will only continue to grow. That is why Gridheart has partnered with Bitdefender, a global cybersecurity leader, to make it easy for MSPs to procure licenses and leverage Bitdefender next-generation endpoint protection across their customers’ organizations. Bitdefender advanced attack prevention solutions for MSPs provide state-of-the-art threat protection that is easy for MSPs to deploy and manage across all their customer sites.
Bitdefender leverages an extensive set of systems hardening, threat prevention and detection technologies as well as machine learning and behavioral analysis to provide advanced attack protection for Windows, Mac and Linux environments, across physical, virtual and cloud workloads. It enables MSPs to maximize remote work protection and help customers build resilience against sophisticated ransomware attacks and breaches.
Gridheart partnered with Bitdefender because we believe it is one of the best security solutions available on the market, with its advanced antimalware and endpoint protection offerings consistently ranking first in independent, third-party tests and evaluations.
MSPs can access Bitdefender Cloud Security for MSPs through the Gridheart Marketplace, where they can centrally manage Bitdefender and other services, create quotes from the service catalogue, and detailed cost and billing reports by customer site or globally.
Delivering Strong Cyber Resilience Across the Nordic Region
The Nordic region will continue to be a leader in digital transformation and IT innovation. However, as businesses in the region struggle with increasing cybersecurity threats and a simultaneous skill shortage, they will need the help of trusted partners and service providers to strengthen their cyber resiliency. With Gridheart and Bitdefender, we believe that MSPs in the Nordic region can deliver the advanced threat prevention, detection and protection that businesses demand.
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[i] Gartner, Forecast: Information Security and Risk Management, Worldwide, 2020 – 2026, 1Q22 Update. [ii] Canalys, Worldwide Managed Service Provider Opportunity, June 2021.