South African IT services player Dimension Data seems to have found its sweet spot- it is playing out its business on an international stage, having doubled its presence stateside over the past year, and is well on the way to achieving its five-year growth plan from $1 billion to $3 billion in revenue in its Americas market.

However it remains small enough and flexible enough to take on the kind of global managed services and integration that enterprises are increasingly in need of. As companies' IT arrays continue to balloon into complexity, outsourcing and managed services have become Dimension Data's biggest growth areas over the past year.

And as Neil Campbell, Dimension Data's group general manager for security explains, it doesn't get much more of a complex challenge than security.

But things have changed – getting the most value from a managed service provider is no longer just about the basics. The true measure of a managed security service provider in 2014 is its ability to react at the speed that threats occur, freeing up companies from the burden of constant vigilance.

The role of the managed security services provider has also evolved from a specialist to a global integrator with a holistic view of an enterprise's security lifecycle, says Campbell.

The full service approach means both the real-time response to security threats and the support and maintenance of security controls as they break or need upgrading.

But none of this makes the role of the enterprise security professional any less relevant to the enterprise- Campbell stresses that all outsourcing must build on a strategic foundation from within the organisation. Managing those services from the outside frees up security consultants to focus on what's important to the core of a business.