06 March 2025

Research conducted by Six Degrees reveals that UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are set to increase their reliance on managed security services in 2025.

According to the ‘Mapping the UK SME Cyber Security Landscape in 2025’ report, two-thirds of SMEs plan to be more reliant on these services over the coming year, with 80% viewing this trend positively. A minority of 13% anticipate lesser dependency, while 19.5% expect to maintain their current level of reliance.

The research identifies that the primary reasons for SMEs purchasing managed security services include a lack of specialist skills to handle increasingly complex cybersecurity challenges (37%), and the necessity to meet various compliance demands such as legal, industry-specific, and regulatory requirements (36%).

These drivers surpass the motivations to combat the increasing volume and sophistication of cyber-attacks at 34%, to handle spikes in cybersecurity activity at 31%, and the need for 24/7 support at 28%. Notably, over 20% of SMEs engage managed security services to shift responsibility to third parties.