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Gone are the days when an organization could bank merely on an anti-virus
implemented on its desktops or servers. Having a gateway anti-virus or anti-spam
solutions by no means imply that an organization's data is protected. Since IT
has become centric and there is more information lying on the PCs and servers
than on paper, an enterprise today is looking to have a complete package of
security solutions that is easily scalable and manageable, and offers more
proactive protection rather than just concentrating on individual products.
Again, since all the information is lying in the electronic format, the
vulnerability around it has also increased and consequently, the industry has
witnessed a massive change in the threat landscape. Today, anyone within or
outside an organization can extract the valuable information and use it for
financial gain. In the earlier days, when technology was making a penetration,
hacking was done for fame but today hackers look at making more money by
cracking into the systems. So while credit cards can be bought at a price as low
as 50 cents to $100, bank passwords and new data are valued at between $20 to
100. Thus, security landscape is no longer about fame but an organized crime.
Since one cannot stop people from using technology as it brings about efficiency
in business processes and gives us competitive advantage, hence the need of the
hour is to deploy smart technology.
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Ajay Verma Director-Channel
& Alliances, Symantec |
Business needs
Data is as critical for a small organization as it is for a larger one and
hence it needs to be protected. Five years back, the challenges were more around
infrastructure but today, the game has changed and it is all about securing
information.
Data loss could be due to people working in the organization walking away
with the data, system failure, or error of omission (intentional or accidental).
If we look at the impact that data loss would have, in comparison to the
company's turnover, it would be proportionate.
It is at the end-point that an enterprise needs to protect itself against an
anti-virus, spam, malware, bots, spywares, root kits etc. According to a
research, 18 percent of computers in India are bot infected and since the kind
of threats are diverse, an organization cannot be content with an anti-virus or
end-point protection and will have to go a step further.
Hence, it is the management of the end-point that has gained prominence, and
the emerging technologies will no longer focus on doing patch work and providing
point product but will essentially look at solutions that will help customers
manage and secure their information, endpoint, data center and compliance need.
With IT taking centerstage, an IT manager today is being asked to look at
business needs of an organization and therefore they are thinking of ways to
spend lesser time on worrying about the infrastructure and concentrate more on
business.
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Market overview |
| The security solutions'
ecosystem has become much more complex, and the competitive landscape is
broader and more diversified. IDC also finds a continuing need for IT
vendors to educate customers and prospects on the merits of proactive
approaches to security. According to an
IDC report, the five countries to top the APEJ IT security solutions market
in terms of vendor revenues in 2011 are expected to be China, Australia,
Korea, India and New Zealand. By 2011, IDC expects the APEJ IT security
solutions market to reach $5.9 billion.
IDC observed that the security solutions
ecosystem has become a lot more complex compared to past few years. The
competitive landscape is now broader and includes players ranging from niche
local security solutions specialists to large global security vendors, as
well as infrastructure players with a significant security solutions play.
Local players are looking to expand regionally or even globally, while
global players are looking for channel partners to help them gain better
local traction. |
Another trend that the industry will witness soon is providing solutions to
ensure that the interactions are protected and safe. For example, a travel agent
needs to do a lot of online bookings and make credit card payments. His business
can be inflicted by phishing and there is also high risk of data loss. Keeping
this in mind, the security solutions will be designed in a manner so that the
customers can keep a track of their data while at in use, rest or under transit.
Thus data loss prevention and data leakage are the emerging markets that the
solution providers (SPs) and system integrators (SIs) can look at.
Online data
Securing data online is another area of concern for an enterprise
irrespective of its size and holds opportunities for everyone involved in the
business to reinvent themselves. In the first place, the market needs to be
educated about these new attacks, trends and the vulnerability surrounding the
same. Since customers are looking at different problems today, the SPs will have
to start looking at ways to solve the problem. The landscape of threat is
different and thus, while offering a solution, the SPs in the first place need
to stop taking the product-centric approach. For this, they will have to be in a
dialogue with the customers on a constant basis.
Every organization is aware of the kind of threats it is exposed to but
again, there is a market that is content with the pirated version of software
they are using and thus needs to be educated. Here again, there is an immense
scope for business.
Five non-metro cities that Symantec is looking forward to: Kolkata, Gujarat,
Ahmadabad, Kerala and Chandigarh
Pooja Sharma
poojas@cybermedia.co.in Page(s) 1
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