At Mumbai-based MIEL e-Security, director Anuj Gupta, has been noticing a trend. Anti-virus (AV) and unified threat management (UTM), which used to contribute 65 percent to the firm's security revenues, had now fallen to less than half--about 30 percent. "UTM and AV had become commodities, resulting in a dirty price war," he says.

From a channel partner's perspective, the sale of more commoditized security products doesn't make a great deal of sense. The value of products like AV and UTM are shrinking by the day, given the number of foot soldiers needed to support customers. "Both pre and post sales support, and doing POCs, started to make less business sense," says Gupta.

So MIEL e-Security, which derives over 40 percent of its revenues from security, began to focus its sights on richer feeding grounds. Last year, director Gupta formed a separate division called 'Emerging Technologies Services' that focuses primarily on new security areas including DLP, SIEM, database security and cyber security for SCADA systems. (To see demand for DLP solutions, read DLP in High Demand)

Today, the new division is 30-strong and has been extensively cross-trained on new technologies, says Gupta. And it's beginning to makes its presence felt in the market with the acquisition of marquee customers. But with investments in expensive resources and a well-defined roadmap, it will take time to nourish, says Gupta.

MIEL e-Security isn't the only one seeing lower value from basic security technologies. So is ACPL Systems, a Delhi-based firm that specializes in security. "There's enough market pull for (for AV and UTM) to boost your top lines, but margins have shrunk. In no way do they contribute anything to the bottom line," says CEO Vishal Bindra.