Healthcare and public sector organisations are increasingly turning away from generalist managed security service providers (MSSPs) in favour of specialists with deeper technical expertise, and a recent NHS deployment is being held up as a case study in why that shift matters.
Check Point Software has highlighted the growing demand for specialist MSSPs as organisations across healthcare and highly regulated industries look to secure increasingly complex hybrid environments. The trend is reflected in the continued growth of SEP2, a UK-headquartered Check Point Elite Partner that has built its business around a deliberately narrow technology stack.
Founded in Leeds in 2016, SEP2 operates a 24/7/365 UK-based Security Operations Centre and has reported year-on-year revenue growth of approximately 35–40%, onboarding 88 new customers in 2025 compared with 54 the previous year. Around 70% of its Wingman Secure Access team holds elite-level Check Point certifications.
The company’s approach, which it describes as “go deep, not wide,” centres on a limited number of best-of-breed technologies rather than broad but shallow coverage across dozens of platforms. For network and access security, that has meant Check Point since day one.
“Check Point has been a cornerstone of our business from day one. Check Point enables us to compete with larger competitors and has levelled the playing field for us,” said Mark McDaid, Head of Go-to-Market and Alliances at SEP2.
The partnership recently played a central role in a complex NHS hospital deployment involving Check Point Maestro Hyperscale Firewall. Following a network anomaly, engineers from both SEP2 and Check Point, including direct support from Check Point R&D, worked on-site to resolve the issue. The engagement concluded with the NHS organisation signing a new five-year platform agreement.
“Organisations are trying to balance security effectiveness with operational simplicity,” said Mark Weir, Regional Director for UK & Ireland at Check Point Software. “Many are moving away from fragmented security models towards integrated, prevention-first platforms that deliver consistent protection across hybrid environments. Specialist MSSPs are becoming increasingly important because they combine deep operational expertise with architectures that can scale across complex hybrid environments.”
SEP2 says its technical teams resolve approximately 98% of support tickets internally without escalation, a figure it attributes to the depth of its certification programme and investment in dedicated lab environments for testing live Check Point technologies.
As AI adoption and hybrid infrastructure complexity continue to grow, Check Point expects demand for this type of specialist partnership to accelerate, particularly in healthcare, financial services, and critical national infrastructure.
To find out more, read the full case study here: https://www.checkpoint.com/downloads/customer-stories/sep2-case-study.pdf
