What Security Companies Can Expect in 2012
Pat Clawson - December 5th, 2011
‘Tis the season for predictions….and here’s an obvious one. Security manufacturers definitely have their work cut out for them in 2012. (Also listen to the podcast with Paul Henry and Randy Franklin Smith.)
IT has big concerns about what the coming year will bring. In our newly-completed State of the Endpoint survey conducted by the Ponemon Institute, 66% of responding IT pros reported their networks were not more secure than the year before. And not surprisingly, virtualization and mobility are two of their biggest concerns – even outranking malware which is now forecasted to top 75 million samples in 2011.
To respond to customer concerns and beat the bad guys, security companies need to step up.
Virtualization
It’s difficult for enterprises to protect virtual environments because the traditional vendor approach used in the laptop-desktop-server physical world does not apply. You need a different set of policies and those policies must also run in parallel to what you have in your physical environment. Currently, this often means two different vendors because the vendors who safeguard the physical environment aren’t the same as those securing the virtual world. The bad guys understand this gap and enterprises are now also figuring this out. In 2012, I believe security manufacturers will be pushed by their customers to address this gap and address it quickly. And in their push for efficiency and cost-effectiveness, many customers will want to rely on their existing vendors for securing their virtual environment.
Mobility
At the risk of sounding cliché, enterprise reliance on personal mobile devices and the amount of corporate data that resides on them will continue to escalate. Providing enterprises with the ability to rein in those devices, manage and secure them will be the number one request made of many security manufacturers in 2012.
Cloud
In the coming year, enterprises will be forced to understand and securely manage the differences between their corporate cloud infrastructure and those individual cloud-based tools employees leverage from their corporate machines. There are of course security implications across both.
Cyber security
In addition to focused development work, security companies will also need to pay close attention to cyber security issues this election year. The Obama Administration has proposed a bill that outlines plans for protecting our nation’s critical infrastructure, a critically important need we all agree. Interestingly, an opposing bill from the House has also surfaced – encouraging government agencies and ISPs to voluntarily share information. I of course have my opinions on the better course of action which includes the necessity for non-government entities that represent critical infrastructure to share data with our government but my prediction for 2012 is less than optimistic. We will hear ramped up chatter but little action.
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Over 48% of IT Directors say that mobile devices represent the greatest network security threat.
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