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The Future of Operations study series provides our partners with deep insight into the small to medium sized business segment. 

We invest in quantitative data to support your ability to respond ahead of emerging demand.  

Let’s turn this insight into action! 

To help our partners monetise demand trends in the study, we’ve matched solutions from our portfolio to analysis of SMB objectives, prioritised IT actions and adoption intent within the study. 

In this article, we’ll cover how partners can respond to the increased appetite for Zero Trust strategies and solutions, with Trend Micro.

Protecting the gains made through cloud transformation

Protecting the gains made through cloud transformation

SMBs across Asia Pacific are accelerating their cloud-first transformation agendas and embracing AI at a rapid rate. But with great change in the business comes great responsibility for securing its interests, at every layer of the IT and cloud environment.

The good news is that our latest study into SMB operations shows business leaders are more acutely aware that cybersecurity is not a short-term project play, but the whole ballgame. Now the value of investment into cloud and digital operations have been realised on the bottom line, SMBs have shifted focus to protecting everything they’ve gained so far and are yet to gain from AI. 

 

Awareness that the reality is ‘not if, but when’ for cyber-attacks has penetrated into the SMB segment and cybersecurity has – finally – become an all-of-business concern. 

In fact, SMBs have security and data privacy at the top of their strategic agenda.

Our survey of nearly 700 SMB operations across the region found:

  • 76% of SMBs rank improved security and data privacy as a high-to-critical IT objective 
  • 63% allocate the same critical priority rank to the reduction of both enterprise risk and IT risk exposure with the same critical focus 
  • 60% intend to increase their investment in cybersecurity over the next two years. 

This opens the door for partners to have more conversations with SMB decision makers about cybersecurity in general – and Zero Trust in particular.

Why Zero Trust is a priority for SMBs

Why Zero Trust is a priority for SMBs

Data from the study shows that 58% of SMB IT leaders are pursuing Zero Trust security strategies as a critical IT action.  With this comes a surge in solution adoption intent for Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA).

Market penetration for ZTNA with SMBs has been relatively low – approximately 30%. By the end of 2027, the data indicates this will jump to 78% making it a high demand zone in need of response.

What is driving this demand?

A common tipping point toward Zero Trust is endpoint sprawl. 

Every network connected endpoint – from laptops to mobile phones and IoT devices – represents a potential entry point for cyber threats. As businesses grow and increase the size of the workforce, the endpoint threat surface also expands. 

Maintaining visibility, applying security policies uniformly and ensuring compliance across every device is a challenge for any business, and it can also drive a lot of resourcing overhead.

Zero Trust security principles and ZTNA can address these challenges.

Zero Trust security models assume that threats may already be inside the network. They are predicated on strict verification for every device, user and application trying to access resources.

When this principle is applied to the network it ensures that access to applications and services is granted based on identity and context, not merely network location or the device being used.

Centralised management and policy enforcement can reduce the overheads managing numerous endpoints, and the continuous verification and least privilege access inherent to Zero Trust models enhance overall security posture.

This can be a boon for SMBs, especially if they run lean IT teams. As such, there’s increased demand for partners with the capabilities to help SMBs implement comprehensive Zero Trust strategies suited to their specific needs.

SMBs are scouting for strategic advice, solutions and services that:

  • Limit lateral movement within networks.
  • Validate identity and device trust continuously.
  • Apply least-privilege access policies.
  • Gain unified visibility across endpoints, users and workloads.
Respond to demand with Trend Micro

Respond to demand with Trend Micro

Lay the foundations for Zero Trust down with your SMB customers on a unified security framework that’s purpose-built for multi-cloud, hybrid, and modern work environments.

Trend Micro enables Zero Trust outcomes by offering:

  • Zero Trust Secure Access (ZTSA) to enforce identity-based access control across SaaS, web, and private applications
  • Integrated threat prevention across endpoints, networks, cloud workloads, and email
  • AI-powered detection and response (XDR) to improve threat visibility and response times
  • Identity and risk-based policy enforcement, adaptable to user

By bringing all of these controls together in one place, Trend Micro eliminates silos – with the risk of incompatible or inconsistent measures – while streamlining your ability to deliver secure access and data protection.

 

Opportunity aligned to SMB adoption intent.

SMBs are ready for Zero Trust, but they need the expertise of their trusted IT partners to land their most critical security related objectives, actions and adoptions.

For IT providers, Trend Micro offers a well primed opportunity to:

  • Modernise customer security frameworks using Trend Micro’s platform
  • Upsell security assessments, compliance services, and remediation support
  • Build recurring revenue through managed detection, response, and access services
  • Strengthen customer loyalty by aligning IT security to business resilience and regulatory requirements

Trend Micro gives partners not just the tools to meet customer demand—but also the foundation to build a sustainable, scalable, and profitable security services practice.

Why Trend Micro works for Partners.

Why Trend Micro works for Partners.

Importantly, Trend Micro’s Zero Trust platform is backed with partner-friendly tools, provides operational simplicity, and offers strong program support.

Working with Crayon, partners can:

  • Access flexible licensing and usage-based billing models aligned to SMB needs
  • Access partner portals, quoting tools, enablement resources and co-selling opportunities.
  • Learn how to maximise your use of the platform with training and certifications
  • Integrate with popular cloud marketplaces, to make procurement and deployment even easier

Partners can also access pre-configured solutions and support through Crayon that can help to maintain margin control.

For any partner looking to start, expand or scale out their security portfolio to encompass Zero Trust, Trend Micro offers a low-friction, high-value entry point.

Multi-tenant management and operational efficiency.

Operational efficiency matters for every partner, and Trend Micro’s cloud-native platform simplifies multi-tenant management. 

  • Monitor all customer environments in one centralised management console. 
  • Keep customers isolated with multi-tenant architecture and role-based access.
  • Simplify operations and service monetisation with automated reporting and billing.
  • Set up ongoing protection with pre-integrated threat intelligence and automated policy updates.
  • Ensure seamless service delivery thanks to native integration with SIEM, SOAR and PSA tools

With Trend Micro’s Zero Trust platform, partners can reduce administrative overheads whilst offering higher-value managed security services across diverse SMB environments.

Ready to get your customers moving toward Zero Trust?

Ready to get your customers moving toward Zero Trust?

From today and through to the end of 2027, cybersecurity will increasingly be a conversation about value. As SMBs push forward with digital and AI initiatives, security is not just a business imperative, it’s a growth enabler.

Trend Micro equips partners to deliver into the most critical business and IT objectives of SMB customers with a Zero Trust platform that is directly aligned to solution adoption trends and emerging service demand.

Let's talk about what come's next

Let's talk about what come's next

Trend Micro’s Zero Trust platform ensures partners can meet SMB customer objectives to improve security and data privacy, reduce enterprise risk and IT risk exposure.

If you’re ready to lead this conversation and align with customer objectives, we’re standing by to show you how Trend Micro solutions can help you deliver.

Simply enter “Zero Trust’ into the free text field when you leave your details, and we’ll be in touch to get a conversation started around:

  • Leveraging core security capabilities into Zero Trust solution and service offerings
  • Guiding customers in conversation around Zero Trust strategies and frameworks
  • Access to technical and pre-sales resources
  • Options to engage marketing support to promote customer wins and success stories.

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