Hours away from 2019, we sat down with Greg Cobb, Digital Guardian's Vice President, Global Channel Sales, on where he expects the channel to go in 2019.

As we head into the new year, are there any new particular capabilities or strategies you see companies deploying?

Greg: We’ll see increasing demand for full lifecycle, data-centric, incident management capabilities. As the volume of data continues to rise, and the cyber threats IT security teams face grow ever more complex, companies will look for a solution that provides visibility and context around the movement and use of their data – where ever it resides – in the cloud, on an endpoint or on the network. In addition, in order to comply with regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation, organizations will need to prove the data they hold is properly safeguarded, and that should the worst happen they have a solid incident response procedure and policy in place to mitigate the risk of data loss.”

How will the evolution of the cloud affect companies?

Greg: “In the face of an ever-complex threat landscape, a continued skills shortage and increasing comfort levels with cloud technology, 2019 will see a surge in demand for managed security services. The winning solutions will be those that leverage the power of artificial intelligence, and its subset, machine learning, to help identify and manage threats hidden within the sheer volume of data produced by organizations today.”

Will companies continue to consolidate vendors and products in 2019?

Greg: “Today’s cyber-security market is currently very fragmented and, as a result, I predict we’ll see more market consolidation within the vendor landscape itself, as well as the portfolios offered by the channel partners. For the channel in particular, it’s not just about having the expertise and talent related to each of their vendors, it’s the broader business planning and sales and marketing efforts that need to be deployed. As it stands, with the effort and investment required to do this well, it’s not a sustainable business model. We’re seeing this in the vendor community too, with more and more adopting a platform approach. The net result will be that channel partners will reduce the number of vendors in their portfolios, which in turn will help address the shortage of cyber-security experts, lower business overheads, and ultimately help them be more profitable.”