In a significant move set to reshape the competitive landscape for cloud-delivered security, Cisco has announced foundational multi-customer management capabilities within its unified, AI-powered management platform, Cisco Security Cloud Control.
The innovation is purpose-built to empower Managed Service Providers (MSPs), enabling them to streamline operations, significantly reduce costs, and accelerate business growth. By unifying the deployment and management of advanced security as a service market offerings, such as the Hybrid Mesh Firewall and Secure Access (SSE), from a single pane of glass, Cisco is directly addressing the operational fragmentation that has plagued partners.
Reports quoting CBTS Chief Product & Technology Officer, Justin Rice, suggest that having a single dashboard for multiple customers with robust role-based access control is a “game changer,” dramatically reducing the workload for their teams. This consolidation and automation, leveraged by advanced AIOps and AgenticOps, is designed to enhance profitability and allow MSPs to deliver superior security outcomes more efficiently.
The Convergence of Managed Services and the Security as a Service Market Boom
Cisco’s strategic focus on simplifying security delivery for its MSP partners is a direct response to the massive expansion of the security as a service market.
Security as a service (SECaaS) is an outsourcing model where security management and functions are delivered via the cloud on a subscription or pay-as-you-go basis, making enterprise-grade protection accessible to organizations of all sizes, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This market is experiencing explosive growth, driven by the increasing frequency and sophistication of AI-powered cyber threats, as well as the widespread adoption of cloud infrastructure.
The global security as a service market was estimated at USD 17.12 billion in 2024 and is projected to soar to approximately USD 55.71 billion by 2033, demonstrating a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.3% from 2025 to 2033. This rapid value appreciation underscores the urgent, market-wide demand for scalable, outsourced security solutions.
Security as a Service Market Drivers and Cisco’s Alignment
Cisco’s announcement directly targets the dominant and fastest-growing segments of the SECaaS industry:
- Managed Security Services: This category, which encompasses 24/7 monitoring and response, accounts for the largest revenue share in the broader security services market. By providing MSPs with a simplified platform to deploy their Hybrid Mesh Firewall and other offerings, Cisco enables them to capitalize on the high demand for outsourced, comprehensive threat protection.
- Efficiency and Cost-Effectiveness: SECaaS thrives because it lowers the barrier to entry for robust security. Cisco’s multi-customer management and operational automation allow MSPs to achieve lower operational costs and faster time-to-market for new customers. This profitability boost enables MSPs to offer highly competitive, cost-effective cloud-based solutions, which is a key driver for customer adoption.
- Cloud-First Adoption: With over half of the security services market revenue coming from cloud deployments, a unified, cloud-native platform like Cisco Security Cloud Control is essential. It ensures that security is defined once and enforced everywhere, across data centers, clouds, and edge sites, a model perfectly aligned with the distributed, Zero-Trust security architectures that define modern SECaaS.
The move confirms that the future of enterprise security is not just in the cloud, but in the hands of third-party experts who can manage complexity at scale. As organizations continue to migrate their digital assets, platform advancements that simplify the deployment and management of advanced defenses will be critical accelerators for the projected value growth of the SECaaS market.
