Lock that information

In today's dynamically changing business scenario with rapid

growth and competition, enterprises need faster adaptability and response to

market situations. This is pushing enterprises for high availability of both

intra and inter-organizational information to enable better and faster

decision-making. Enterprises are also opening up and integrating with a larger

ecosystem of partner in the supply chain and networking with both their

downstream and upstream partners in the ecosystem, so as to streamline and

optimize their value chain.

Security Transition


This transition from a bounded environment prior to supply chain

integration, to the unbounded environment resulting from connectivity has thrown

a number of security issues for the enterprises. The working environment has

also changed considerably with employees mobility increasing. Anticipated

uncontrolled deployment of PDAs, smart phones and other futuristic devices

coupled with higher mobility of employees having connectivity on the move will

lead to security issues that need to be tackled head on.

If we look at the security evolution in the above scenario,

security was never viewed from an enterprise-wide business approach and had

traditionally always taken a discrete isolated approach. The reasons for this

were simple; organizations wanted to protect their assets, so perimeter security

was deployed. Security was not linked to business processes tightly and

organizations were not much worried about information security as the adoption

of networking and mobility was limited.

Security will move from perimeter security to next level with

the need for higher availability coupled with compliance to regulations putting

Identity & Access Management (IAM) solutions in the mainstream. So...

Driving a Boom


Enterprises will need to design a centralized security policy, which takes

into consideration the needs of employees and partners alike. IAM solutions will

also help enterprises realize the dual benefits of simplified compliance

management and centralized security management for a diverse set of

applications.

According to IDC, in 2005 the overall security software market

in India stood at $66.6 million, while the security appliances market was

estimated to be


$31.5 million. While many security appliances were launched in the 2005/2006

timeframe, these have been deployed mostly by small and medium business (SMB)

enterprises. UTM (Unified Threat Management) appliances will provide greater

flexibility to enterprise as they are deploying UTM in branches within the

larger perimeter defense. SMBs find security appliances a good option as they

get good functionality and easier manageability at a relatively lower cost.

Managed security services are on the rise and enterprises are

looking towards outsourcing security management to third party service

providers. Market adoption of security solutions in 2005/2006 was concentrat-ed

mainly amongst large and mid-size enterprises in the country. Vendors in the

security software market were seen to be targeting verticals such as BFSI,

telecommunications, government and the services sector during 2005/2006.

Enterprises in these verticals have huge repositories of critical data and

therefore their security solutions requirements come with the increased

complexity of geographical spread. Not to mention that manufacturing sector has

also started investing in enterprise-wide security solutions in 2006.

Praveen Sengar





maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in


(The author is assistant manager, Software & Services Research, IDC

India)