"If you go into any major enterprise they probably outsource legal, accounting and part of HR," he said. "Executives understand that other companies can help with non-core functions and are quite happy to outlay some risk. But in IT there are still too many people protecting their patch and they need to grow up a little bit."

Check Point country manager, Scott McKinnel, said there was definitely a large mid-market opportunity for the local reseller community if they could find the balance between bespoke and economies of scale.

"Having said that, we don't see much outsourcing in the mid-market yet and I don't understand why," he said. "Maybe it's the chicken and egg scenario where customers aren't asking for it so the resellers aren't offering it and vice versa."

Dimension Data's Stitt said one of the impediments in the mid-market was that vendor products were becoming more like services over time. Products that have a central database and download updated signatures remove a piece of what has been done by a managed service provider.

Matrix CNI's managing director, Deni Saupin, also highlighted another problem being created by the increased perception of automation.

"If we had an infrastructure meeting with a client three years ago there would already be a security guy in the room when we arrived. Whether they said anything during was another matter but they would always be there," he said. "Now that's declining and I get the feeling that people believe a problem is no longer a threat once a solution has been put in place. They realise security is as important as cash flow but they don't check it as regularly. They need to start doing that."