Cole Grolmus’ Post

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Founder, Strategy of Security

A cybersecurity services business unit has more revenue than any pure-play cybersecurity company in the public markets today. Yep, you read that correctly. Accenture reported its FY'24 annual earnings yesterday. Security is a strategic business unit they break out revenue for. Guess how much cybersecurity revenue they had? ... Nine billion dollars. With 23% year-over-year growth. Just incredible. Palo Alto Networks is the only pure-play public company who is even close — currently at $8.03 billion of revenue (TTM). Of course, there is also Microsoft's reported $20 billion of cybersecurity products and services revenue, plus some very large business units in other companies that don't regularly report revenue. But any way you compare it, Accenture has a massive cybersecurity business. Product-focused companies get a lot of the hype, but services companies make it all go. This is exactly why Accenture and other large services firms are critical channel partners for almost every large cybersecurity product company. It's also a good reminder that services are an equally impressive and important part of our industry.

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Dan Drees

Global VP of Sales

6mo

Theres two more pieces of this puzzle IMO. Everyone talks about the shortage of trained IT professionals in the industry. This large service revenue at Accenture is a direct reflection of that gap. Palo Alto likely also has huge service revenue but its not on Palo Alto's books because its being provided by the VAR community. In short companies need the products and people/services to run them, it is largely a matter of who is booking that revenue a which part of the distribution and what part of the service is being down by FTE vs consultants.

Barry Rabkin

Drafting 2nd book. Focusing on insurance commerce and cyber. Insurance industry veteran. Analyst background launching / leading insurance strategy practices at The META Group, Financial Insights (IDC), & Omdia.

6mo

Good share

Kari K.

Cyber Security Manager at Hormel Foods

6mo

So this is saying what most of us already knew? The consultants are making the most money?

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Eduardo R. Ortiz 🧰

Global Head of Cybersecurity & Technology | Risk Management | Boardroom Certified Qualified Technology Expert (QTE) |

6mo

I was there when this model was being implemented many years ago, happy to see it pay dividends for everyone.

This is a faulty comparison. It's like saying the guy who farms the cows makes less money than the guy who sells dairy products. They're related but thats where it ends. In the case of Accenture, they are the guys who sell dairy products, and pure-play cybersecurity vendors are the guys who farm the cows. A more appropriate comparison would be with PWC, Deloitte, EY and since they're not public companies, why make this sort of comparison? It doesn't say anything other than peacock a few colourful feathers.

Denmark Francisco

Fractional CMO | 5 Exits ($892M) | Cybersecurity, IT, & Cloud Expertise (KnowBe4, DigitalOcean, Xcitium)

6mo

is accenture sales-led or product-led growth? 😂

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Prem Iyer

SVP, Strategic Pursuits at Palo Alto Networks | Revenue Architect | Impact Driver | Ecosystem Sales & Partner Programs

6mo

$1 Revenue does not equal $1 Revenue across products and services so... It's a good story, but I don't know if the comparison is one that is natural. You know I mean that respectfully, my friend. 😉

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