Johannesburg, 14 Jun 2016
2016 McAfee Labs Threat Report, August 2015
IDG QuickPulse recently surveyed enterprise CIOs on their company's use of security solutions, finding a trend towards network-based, always-available security services that provide flexibility and negates the risk of investing heavily in products that are, perhaps, not quite needed or useful across the enterprise.
It is increasingly challenging to defend your company network against the deluge of cybersecurity threats based on traditional tools and methodologies.
Today, a greater reliance on the integrity of the network means that data loss, service disruption or malware infection poses a greater risk to business than ever before.
IT needs flexible security solutions
The move towards digitisation has accelerated the pace at which companies grow and change, and is accompanied by a rapid increase in the types of devices that are accessing the corporate network.
The challenge for business is securing the complex infrastructure without burdening your organisation with additional operational overhead.
With a myriad of security vendors available there is a real possibility of IT procuring a product that may not meet the requirements of your ever-evolving enterprise.
What is needed is a multi-layered suite of products and solutions that can be turned on, scaled up, changed around and adjusted in real-time, as and when deemed necessary to protect the whole, or parts of, your organisation.
On-demand Security provides IT with this flexibility.
Three trends that are driving the change
According to the *IDG survey, over 60% of respondents confirmed that one (or more) on-demand solutions had already been adopted by their companies, while another 20% are currently piloting solutions.
The report highlights three main trends, driving the adoption of on-demand security solutions:
1. The move to cloud computing
2. Increasing reliance on mobility
3. Increased cybersecurity threats and the need for advanced security capabilities
These trends have introduced increased risk and variables over which IT has little or no control, be it an employee-owned smartphone or a cloud storage service used to store corporate documents."
What IT wants from an on-demand security solution
While flexibility, speed, simplified management and ease of implementation were all popular features highlighted in the survey, it is increased visibility and control that ranked #1 for 64% of respondents.
Another attractive feature was access to expertise and, of course, the positive financial implications associated with an on-demand solution.
In addition, the rapidly changing business and cybersecurity landscape presents IT with another challenge - employing sufficient resource to remain on top of the available technologies while taking care of enterprise-wide deployment, operational implementation, maintenance and upgrades.
On-demand security solutions can help eliminate these challenges.
Not quite the silver bullet, but...
This research paper lends credence to Borwood's position that enterprise IT can benefit greatly from partnering with credible, on-demand, solutions providers.
By doing so IT gains access to new technologies (evaluated and certified by the provider) while doing away with operational burdens and ongoing support requirements . . . not to mention the host of (region-specific) legislative demands that govern data security.
On-demand security solutions deliver advanced capabilities, flexibility, control and the visibility IT needs to answer today's business demands.
It's maybe not quite the silver bullet to all security concerns - nothing ever will be - but it's close.
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