By Jane Wright (jane.wright@tbri.com), Principal Analyst, Security; Elitsa Bakalova, Senior Analyst, Professional Services
TBR perspective
Cybersecurity is an important pillar of Atos’ corporate strategy, and its commitment to excel in focused segments of the enterprise security market was evident at the Atos Analyst & Advisor Global Conference. Atos presented its capabilities in fast-growing market segments, including identity and access management (IAM), data encryption and data loss prevention (DLP), security analytics, security operations center (SOC) and incident response (IR).Atos differentiates from competitors such as T-Systems, Capgemini, IBM and Accenture by:
- linking its cyber defense experience in the public sector, such as the military, to security efficacy for civilian businesses
- leveraging its extensive data center infrastructure to apply big data analytics for customers with large volumes of security data
- using its own IP, such as Hoox and Evidian, thereby reducing its dependence on partners to fill portfolio gaps
- focusing development, sales and support resources on a limited number of security requirements and accounts
Nearly two years into its amplified mission in the enterprise security market, marked primarily by its acquisition of Bull in 2014, Atos has developed a strong security services portfolio that creates new opportunities and drives revenue growth for the company. Although security professional and outsourced services and its underlying security technologies contributed a small percentage — approximately 3%, according to TBR’s estimates — of Atos’ total revenue in 2015, its security portfolio is generating strong, double-digit year-to-year growth for the company. To maintain this momentum, TBR expects Atos to form more alliances that help the company expand its reach to enterprise customers, and to promote its security analytics capabilities as the foundation for new services engagements.
Atos extends defense-grade security technologies to civilian security use cases
With a history of providing cybersecurity solutions that meet public sector requirements, Atos messages the value of applying defense-grade security technologies to enterprise threat protection as well as enterprise threat telemetry for stronger public defense. Other security companies with extensive defense backgrounds have also taken this go-to-market approach in the past, with uneven success. For example, General Dynamics acquired security vendor Fidelis in 2012, but then sold it last year — in part due to the difficulties associated with shifting strategies from defense to enterprise customer scenarios. Thales, a more direct competitor to Atos, has had better results, offering threat prevention, detection, analysis and response services to defense and critical infrastructure enterprise customers. If Atos is able to train its sales, channel and support teams to engage effectively with enterprise customers, TBR expects the company will win more enterprise sales against Thales and some other competitors on the strength of its extensive resources (Atos has nine SOCs, including four outside of Europe) and focused investments in IAM, encryption and IR.
Atos applies its extensive data center infrastructure to provide big data security analytics
Atos shone a spotlight on its security analytics capabilities at the conference, describing new advances in the Atos Codex big data analytics platform. Atos initially codeveloped Codex with Siemens under the name Industry Data Analytics, utilizing high-performance computing and analytics resources obtained from the Bull acquisition. Security analytics is a top use case for Atos Codex as the company’s security researchers apply the technology to deliver faster and more effective incident response decisions for defense and enterprise customers. Competitors such as Niara, IBM and EMC RSA are also investing in the security analytics segment of the enterprise security market, and mindshare and market share leadership are still undetermined in this fast-growing but relatively immature segment.
Atos points to its extensive (exascale-class) supercomputer infrastructure to demonstrate its ability to ingest and analyze security data at lightning speed. This value proposition will resonate with enterprises that have large volumes of card payment transactions, such as retailers, as they require high-performance compute power delivered as a global service to make thousands of security decisions every second. Other enterprises, however, will evaluate different delivery models, such as hybrid security analytics programs, which employ both local and cloud-based compute resources to make and execute security decisions closer to the threat.
Atos develops or acquires technologies to add value to its flagship security service offerings
Atos’ acquisition of Bull was a significant step in integrating more security technologies with Atos’ services to capture a greater portion of customers’ security spending. In many cases, Atos deploys its own security technologies as part of its consult-design-build-operate service offerings. For example, Atos offers the secure smartphone Hoox and the Evidian IAM suite, both of which were obtained in the Bull acquisition. By comparison, competitors such as Capgemini, T-Systems and Accenture rely more on technology partners to supply security technologies when providing integrated security product and services solutions to clients.
Atos focuses resources on key segments of the security market
Atos provides a limited range of IP-owned security solutions, including authentication, encryption, and mobile security products and SOC technologies. It does not cover certain security segments such as network firewalls on its own, but this is by design as the company aims to excel in select areas rather than serve every security product need. Moving forward, TBR expects Atos to aggregate its security technologies and services competencies to further address burgeoning requirements such as Internet of Things (IoT) security use cases. For example, Atos is currently helping Siemens secure both operational technology- and information technology-based networks, enforcing identity policies and scanning for signs of malicious activity. This initiative will serve as a proof of concept for Atos in the evolving IoT security market.
Atos already presents one of the most visible proofs of concept to customers as the official IT and security provider for the Olympic Games — a responsibility the company has held for the past 15 years. This demonstrated security proficiency, combined with Atos’ role as a security consultant, integrator and operator, positions the company to continue to engage with customers across many vertical industries.
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