Two-thirds of financial services firms fear their analytics programs and infrastructures will not be able to handle increasing analytical complexity and data volume, according to a survey of financial services professionals. Completed in July 2010, the survey indicates that firms are hampered by a lack of scalability, inflexible architectures and inefficient use of existing computing capacity. Noteworthy differences exist in the challenges being faced by both buy- and sell-side firms, with sell-side institutions more likely to report a lack of a scalable environment, insufficient capacity to run complex analytics, and contention for computing resources as significant challenges.
According to the survey, data proliferation and the need to better manage it are at the root of many of the challenges being faced by financial institutions of all sizes. Two-thirds (66 percent) of buy-side firms and more than half (56 percent) of sell-side firms are grappling with siloed data sources. The silo problem is being exacerbated by organizational constraints, including policies prohibiting data sharing and access, network bandwidth issues and input/output (I/O) bottlenecks. Ever-increasing data growth is also cause for concern, with firms reporting that they are dealing with too much market data. Sixty-six percent of respondents were not confident that their analytics infrastructures would be able to keep pace with demand over time.
Both buy and sell side firms plan to increase their focus on liquidity and counterparty risk in the next twelve months. Counterparty risk management was ranked as the highest priority for the sell side (45 percent) with liquidity risk following at 43 percent. Liquidity risk and counterparty risk scored high for the buy side with 36 percent and 33 percent, respectively.
Comment from David M. Wallace, global financial services marketing manager at SAS: Siloed data sources have particularly impacted firms in the area of risk management as was evident during the recent financial crisis. The improved liquidity and counterparty risk management needed by both the buy and sell side, as reported in the survey, requires greater enterprise data integration across the firm.
Comment from Robert Iati, partner and global head of consulting at financial services research firm TABB Group: It's clear that organizations need more flexible infrastructures and platforms to enable them to manage the data issues that both buy- and sell-side firms have today, which includes managing an exponentially larger glut of data at compressed speeds.
Comment from Jeff Hong, head of financial services industry marketing at Platform Computing: We found that mid-sized firms are particularly affected by resource constrictions, where one in four respondents reported challenges around limited computing capacity, frequent contention for compute resources and the inability to complete calculations during peak demand periods.
To counter these challenges, financial institutions plan to turn to a combination of technologies including cloud computing and grid technologies. Within the next two years, 51 percent of all respondents are considering or likely to invest in cluster technology, 53 percent are considering or likely to buy grid technology, and 57 percent are considering or likely to purchase cloud technology.
About the survey: The survey was conducted by Wall Street & Technology in conjunction with Platform Computing, SAS and The TABB Group among 223 business technology decision makers, with approximately 45 percent of respondents from organizations with more than $50 billion in total assets or assets under management. Survey participants hold IT management positions, with approximately 23 percent holding C-level posts. The report ("The State of Business Analytics in Financial Services: Examining Current Preparedness for Future Demands") is freely available for download here.
Contact: Click here.
Contact Platform Computing: Click here.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Survey Reveals Data Virtualization Perceptions, Payoffs
Data virtualization is playing an increasingly important role in enterprise data integration strategies because of the business value that it brings, according to a survey. More than 47 percent of respondents have an interest in using data virtualization in their enterprise infrastructures.
Respondents identified three primary ways in which data virtualization adds value to enterprises: by improving data delivery and access, reducing infrastructure costs, and making data sources and infrastructure transparent to data consumers.
Additional value identified includes improving staff productivity, reducing risk of missing deadlines and improving the ability to meet demanding service level agreements (SLAs).
According to the survey, the best use cases for data virtualization include analytics/BI (64.1 percent), followed by real-time data sharing (49.6 percent), virtual data marts (39.3 percent), extending/augmenting existing data warehouses (38.5 percent), cloud computing (36.8 percent) and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) (23.9 percent).
Comment from Robert Eve, EVP of Marketing, Composite Software: Beyond quantifying data virtualization's growing enterprise adoption, this survey parallels the significant business value that we have seen in our installed base. Not only does data virtualization help reduce costs, which is an immediate boost in these current times of economic recovery, but it also provides long-term value by improving and speeding up access to business critical information.
The online survey was sponsored by Composite Software, Inc. The 143 respondents included developers, database administrators, software engineers and managers, business intelligence (BI) consultants, and CIOs.
Contact: Click here.
Respondents identified three primary ways in which data virtualization adds value to enterprises: by improving data delivery and access, reducing infrastructure costs, and making data sources and infrastructure transparent to data consumers.
Additional value identified includes improving staff productivity, reducing risk of missing deadlines and improving the ability to meet demanding service level agreements (SLAs).
According to the survey, the best use cases for data virtualization include analytics/BI (64.1 percent), followed by real-time data sharing (49.6 percent), virtual data marts (39.3 percent), extending/augmenting existing data warehouses (38.5 percent), cloud computing (36.8 percent) and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) (23.9 percent).
Comment from Robert Eve, EVP of Marketing, Composite Software: Beyond quantifying data virtualization's growing enterprise adoption, this survey parallels the significant business value that we have seen in our installed base. Not only does data virtualization help reduce costs, which is an immediate boost in these current times of economic recovery, but it also provides long-term value by improving and speeding up access to business critical information.
The online survey was sponsored by Composite Software, Inc. The 143 respondents included developers, database administrators, software engineers and managers, business intelligence (BI) consultants, and CIOs.
Contact: Click here.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Manufacturing Execs Continue To Invest In Cloud Computing
A survey of manufacturing and logistics executives found that cloud computing continues to be an area of investment. Six in ten decision-makers are currently implementing cloud solutions, with just over one third (36 percent) of respondents implementing two or more cloud solutions.
Order management, supply chain visibility and warehouse management are the most commonly used cloud solutions among manufacturers today.
The survey results were announced at the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) annual conference by Sterling Commerce, a unit of IBM. Overall, respondents were cautious about the economic environment and therefore focused on the risks associated with a loss of customer relationships. To minimize that risk, manufacturers indicated they plan to invest in "smart network" capabilities that include more collaborative risk sharing, supply chain synchronization, and secure, compliant B2B commercial interactions.
Contact: Click here.
Order management, supply chain visibility and warehouse management are the most commonly used cloud solutions among manufacturers today.
The survey results were announced at the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) annual conference by Sterling Commerce, a unit of IBM. Overall, respondents were cautious about the economic environment and therefore focused on the risks associated with a loss of customer relationships. To minimize that risk, manufacturers indicated they plan to invest in "smart network" capabilities that include more collaborative risk sharing, supply chain synchronization, and secure, compliant B2B commercial interactions.
Contact: Click here.
CIOs Are Ready To Embrace Enterprise Cloud Computing
CIOs and senior IT professionals in Global 2000 firms are ready to embrace private or enterprise Cloud Computing strategically.
Here are four key indicators of that trend:
-- Cloud Computing was selected as one of the highest priorities for spending within the next 6-18 months according to a survey conducted by CIOsynergy this month.
-- Gartner Cloud Services Report 2009-2014 says one of the biggest changes in the last year is CIOs interest in adopting Cloud Computing strategically.
-- The U.S. federal government's CIO office, led by Federal CIO Vivek Kundra, has established a new joint authorization board for Cloud Computing.
-- Next year promises to be a big one for private Cloud adoption, according to a 2010 IDC APEF client survey, where savvy CIOs will use the Cloud as an extension of their sourcing strategies and have a mix of public and private Clouds under the enterprise portfolio.
Comment by Gartner senior analyst Ben Pring: One notable change versus one year ago in the Cloud Services Report is that CIOs and progressive IT leaders are embracing Cloud strategically. The key next step is for companies to create an enterprise roadmap that outlines how they plan to leverage Cloud services.
Comment by Pete Malcolm, Abiquo CEO: We are clearly seeing an upswing in interest in private Cloud adoption. But CIOs still need a partner like Abiquo to help them successfully implement an integrated enterprise Cloud management solution that will work across their global enterprise, which is why we believe the CIOsynergy networking and learning forums are ideal next steps for any CIO who is ready to embrace enterprise Cloud Computing.
Contact: Click here.
Here are four key indicators of that trend:
-- Cloud Computing was selected as one of the highest priorities for spending within the next 6-18 months according to a survey conducted by CIOsynergy this month.
-- Gartner Cloud Services Report 2009-2014 says one of the biggest changes in the last year is CIOs interest in adopting Cloud Computing strategically.
-- The U.S. federal government's CIO office, led by Federal CIO Vivek Kundra, has established a new joint authorization board for Cloud Computing.
-- Next year promises to be a big one for private Cloud adoption, according to a 2010 IDC APEF client survey, where savvy CIOs will use the Cloud as an extension of their sourcing strategies and have a mix of public and private Clouds under the enterprise portfolio.
Comment by Gartner senior analyst Ben Pring: One notable change versus one year ago in the Cloud Services Report is that CIOs and progressive IT leaders are embracing Cloud strategically. The key next step is for companies to create an enterprise roadmap that outlines how they plan to leverage Cloud services.
Comment by Pete Malcolm, Abiquo CEO: We are clearly seeing an upswing in interest in private Cloud adoption. But CIOs still need a partner like Abiquo to help them successfully implement an integrated enterprise Cloud management solution that will work across their global enterprise, which is why we believe the CIOsynergy networking and learning forums are ideal next steps for any CIO who is ready to embrace enterprise Cloud Computing.
Contact: Click here.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Survey Finds Cloud Security Lacking
Interest in cloud computing is strong among IT professionals, but that interest is coupled with an equally strong fear about the security implications, according to a new survey.
Key findings in PhoneFactor's study include:
-- Security is a primary barrier to cloud computing adoption for nearly three-quarters of respondents (73 percent) followed by Compliance (54 percent) and Portability/Ownership of Data (48 percent).
-- 42 percent of respondents indicated that security concerns had held their company back from adopting cloud computing. 30 percent were unsure, and only 28 percent indicated it had not been a deterrent.
-- Leading cloud services were rated only moderately secure or worse: Google Apps, Amazon Web Services, and SalesForce/Force.com were all rated only moderately or less secure by more than 74 percent of respondents.
-- Preventing unauthorized access to data was the greatest cloud computing security concern. The overwhelming majority of respondents (93 percent) were at least moderately concerned about preventing unauthorized access to company data in the cloud; more than half (53 percent) were extremely concerned by it. Fear of the unknown ranked second highest with 89 percent of respondents indicating they were at least moderately concerned about the inability to evaluate the security of cloud-based systems.
-- What can be done to increase confidence in cloud computing? The top three security measures respondents thought were critical to securing the cloud included: Encryption (84 percent), Multi-Factor Authentication (81 percent), and Intrusion Prevention (80 percent).
-- Reduced cost (65 percent), Scalability (62 percent), and Rapid Implementation (50 percent) are seen as primary benefits to cloud computing. 87 percent of respondents indicated that they were planning to at least evaluate the use of cloud services.
Google's announcement earlier this week that they are adding two-step authentication to Google Apps validates the need for additional security for user access to cloud applications. The Google authentication solution, like that provided by PhoneFactor, leverages an everyday device -- the phone, which is ideal for cloud applications because it mirrors the scalability and cost savings touted as key benefits of cloud computing.
Comment from Steve Dispensa, PhoneFactor CTO and co-founder: Companies are eager to take advantage of the benefits of cloud computing. Demand for cloud computing systems clearly exists. However, survey results indicate that better security, like multi-factor authentication and encryption, are going to be required if cloud computing adoption is going to move forward.
About the survey: A global provider of phone-based multi-factor authentication, PhoneFactor's recent survey on the role of security in cloud computing adoption included more than 300 information technology professionals from a wide variety of industries and looked at their organizations' current and planned use of cloud computing, what perceived benefits are driving adoption, and conversely which factors are limiting adoption.
Contact: Click here.
Key findings in PhoneFactor's study include:
-- Security is a primary barrier to cloud computing adoption for nearly three-quarters of respondents (73 percent) followed by Compliance (54 percent) and Portability/Ownership of Data (48 percent).
-- 42 percent of respondents indicated that security concerns had held their company back from adopting cloud computing. 30 percent were unsure, and only 28 percent indicated it had not been a deterrent.
-- Leading cloud services were rated only moderately secure or worse: Google Apps, Amazon Web Services, and SalesForce/Force.com were all rated only moderately or less secure by more than 74 percent of respondents.
-- Preventing unauthorized access to data was the greatest cloud computing security concern. The overwhelming majority of respondents (93 percent) were at least moderately concerned about preventing unauthorized access to company data in the cloud; more than half (53 percent) were extremely concerned by it. Fear of the unknown ranked second highest with 89 percent of respondents indicating they were at least moderately concerned about the inability to evaluate the security of cloud-based systems.
-- What can be done to increase confidence in cloud computing? The top three security measures respondents thought were critical to securing the cloud included: Encryption (84 percent), Multi-Factor Authentication (81 percent), and Intrusion Prevention (80 percent).
-- Reduced cost (65 percent), Scalability (62 percent), and Rapid Implementation (50 percent) are seen as primary benefits to cloud computing. 87 percent of respondents indicated that they were planning to at least evaluate the use of cloud services.
Google's announcement earlier this week that they are adding two-step authentication to Google Apps validates the need for additional security for user access to cloud applications. The Google authentication solution, like that provided by PhoneFactor, leverages an everyday device -- the phone, which is ideal for cloud applications because it mirrors the scalability and cost savings touted as key benefits of cloud computing.
Comment from Steve Dispensa, PhoneFactor CTO and co-founder: Companies are eager to take advantage of the benefits of cloud computing. Demand for cloud computing systems clearly exists. However, survey results indicate that better security, like multi-factor authentication and encryption, are going to be required if cloud computing adoption is going to move forward.
About the survey: A global provider of phone-based multi-factor authentication, PhoneFactor's recent survey on the role of security in cloud computing adoption included more than 300 information technology professionals from a wide variety of industries and looked at their organizations' current and planned use of cloud computing, what perceived benefits are driving adoption, and conversely which factors are limiting adoption.
Contact: Click here.
New Finding: Telecom Service Providers Are Key SMB Cloud Players
As many traditional small and medium business (SMB) channel partners make the transition to the Cloud services model, telecommunication service providers (telecoms) are making a strong bid for the SMB Cloud share, beyond their traditional voice and data service offerings, an upcoming study says.
Facing the continuing prospect of declining average revenue per seat (ARPU) and increasing churn, telecoms see the SMB Cloud as an opportunity for sustained revenue growth and customer loyalty. At the same time, many SMBs are open to expanding their relationships with telecoms beyond traditional voice and data services. Thirty-eight percent of U.S. SMBs say they are willing to purchase IT products & services (including hardware and software) from telecommunications service providers.
A key driver behind SMB interest in purchasing IT products & services from telecoms is the rapid growth of mobile applications.
Leading players such as AT&T, Verizon and Qwest are increasing their Cloud service portfolio from hosted VoIP, hosted email, and conferencing services, to high-end business applications and managed services. Most SMBs already have an account with a communication service provider for communication services; adding cloud applications through the existing account significantly lowers the hurdle for SMBs to adopt new services than looking for a new service provider. Communication service providers may be the comprehensive ICT partners in the coming age of Cloud computing.
Comment from Yuki Uehara, Senior Cloud Analyst with AMI: SMBs with multiple branches and greater smartphone penetration are more likely to expand their relationship with telecoms. This growing interest suggests significant opportunities for communication service providers to be one-stop ICT partners, and to reshape the ecosystem of ICT products and services in the global SMB space. This poses a significant challenge to traditional SMB channel partners, as telecoms bring greater scale, resources and price flexibility. SMBs are attracted to telecoms' abilities to offer superior customer service, flexible billing, and "one neck to choke" for all IT and communications issues. This 'one-stop-shopping' model, coupled with attractive bundling, pricing and services options, will put pressure on traditional resellers to evolve their business models.
AMI's 2010 Worldwide SMB Cloud Service study: Examines the SMB Cloud opportunity in 30+ countries, including SMB preferences for Cloud-based application bundle, price sensitivity and purchase channel preferences. This study also provides comprehensive coverage of SMB adoption of Cloud-based applications, managed services, and supporting infrastructure, including platforms and devices. These studies will provide a roadmap for successful Cloud go-to-market strategies and tactics.
Contact: Click here.
Facing the continuing prospect of declining average revenue per seat (ARPU) and increasing churn, telecoms see the SMB Cloud as an opportunity for sustained revenue growth and customer loyalty. At the same time, many SMBs are open to expanding their relationships with telecoms beyond traditional voice and data services. Thirty-eight percent of U.S. SMBs say they are willing to purchase IT products & services (including hardware and software) from telecommunications service providers.
A key driver behind SMB interest in purchasing IT products & services from telecoms is the rapid growth of mobile applications.
Leading players such as AT&T, Verizon and Qwest are increasing their Cloud service portfolio from hosted VoIP, hosted email, and conferencing services, to high-end business applications and managed services. Most SMBs already have an account with a communication service provider for communication services; adding cloud applications through the existing account significantly lowers the hurdle for SMBs to adopt new services than looking for a new service provider. Communication service providers may be the comprehensive ICT partners in the coming age of Cloud computing.
Comment from Yuki Uehara, Senior Cloud Analyst with AMI: SMBs with multiple branches and greater smartphone penetration are more likely to expand their relationship with telecoms. This growing interest suggests significant opportunities for communication service providers to be one-stop ICT partners, and to reshape the ecosystem of ICT products and services in the global SMB space. This poses a significant challenge to traditional SMB channel partners, as telecoms bring greater scale, resources and price flexibility. SMBs are attracted to telecoms' abilities to offer superior customer service, flexible billing, and "one neck to choke" for all IT and communications issues. This 'one-stop-shopping' model, coupled with attractive bundling, pricing and services options, will put pressure on traditional resellers to evolve their business models.
AMI's 2010 Worldwide SMB Cloud Service study: Examines the SMB Cloud opportunity in 30+ countries, including SMB preferences for Cloud-based application bundle, price sensitivity and purchase channel preferences. This study also provides comprehensive coverage of SMB adoption of Cloud-based applications, managed services, and supporting infrastructure, including platforms and devices. These studies will provide a roadmap for successful Cloud go-to-market strategies and tactics.
Contact: Click here.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
SMBs Plan To Up IT Spending By 4% By End Of 2010
Planned IT spending by small and medium businesses (SMBs) is on the rise for the second half of the year, according to a new Spiceworks survey. Overall IT budgets are up an additional four percent from the first half of 2010.
Survey result highlights:
-- Budgets for the second half of 2010 increased 4 percent over figures reported in the first half of the year. This brings the average annual IT budget for small and medium businesses to $121,770, which is up from the $117,200 reported for the first half of 2010.
-- Virtualization investments continue to grow within the small and medium business sector with 68 percent of IT professionals planning to utilize some form of virtualization by the end of 2010. This is up from the 63 percent reported for the first half of 2010. Currently, 52 percent of SMB IT professionals utilize virtualization in their networks, which is up from the 44 percent who did so at the beginning of 2010.
-- In line with the first half of 2010, the majority of small and medium business IT professionals (65 percent) plan to keep their IT staff the same size between now and year-end. While 20 percent plan to add full-time IT staff before the end of 2010, companies with fewer than 20 employees are most confident in their plans with nearly one in four (23 percent) planning to add new staff. This is nearly double the 12 percent of companies with 20-99 employees and the 18 percent of companies with 100 or more employees that plan to do the same.
-- 42 percent of IT budgets for the remainder of the year are allocated to hardware purchases, which is down from the 47 percent reported for the first half of 2010. The majority of purchases are designated for replacing aging hardware systems.
-- 35 percent of IT budgets for the second half of 2010 are allocated to software purchases. Among SMB IT professionals, 34 percent plan to tackle server operating system upgrades before year-end. The most popular planned software purchase is antivirus/anti-spam software with 67 percent of respondents planning to buy new, upgrade or renew antivirus/anti-spam software.
-- Overall spending on hosted IT services is down for the second half of 2010. 48 percent of IT professionals plan to purchase new, upgrade or renew at least one IT service, which is down from the 56 percent reported for first half of 2010. However, hosted email purchase plans rose to 38 percent from the 23 percent reported for the first half of 2010. Nearly one in three of those planning hosted email purchases in the second half of 2010 will buy new services rather than upgrade or renew existing services.
Comment from Jay Hallberg, co-founder and vice president of marketing for Spiceworks: While the state of the economy is still a concern among small and mid-sized companies, they continue to increase their technology spending plans. Bright spots are clearly seen in strategic areas and in those that help businesses do more with existing resources. We'll continue to watch how these plans unfold over the next six months.
About the survey: Findings were uncovered in the second semi-annual "State of SMB IT" technology survey for 2010, which investigates current technology purchasing, usage and staffing trends among SMBs worldwide. The study of 3,011 IT professionals was conducted in July and August 2010 by the Spiceworks Voice of IT Market Research Program. The State of SMB IT survey for the second half of 2010 included 3,011 respondents from 117 countries around the world. Those surveyed work in organizations with fewer than 1,000 employees and were among the more than 1 million SMB IT professionals who use the free Spiceworks IT management software to manage their computer networks.
Contact: Click here.
Survey result highlights:
-- Budgets for the second half of 2010 increased 4 percent over figures reported in the first half of the year. This brings the average annual IT budget for small and medium businesses to $121,770, which is up from the $117,200 reported for the first half of 2010.
-- Virtualization investments continue to grow within the small and medium business sector with 68 percent of IT professionals planning to utilize some form of virtualization by the end of 2010. This is up from the 63 percent reported for the first half of 2010. Currently, 52 percent of SMB IT professionals utilize virtualization in their networks, which is up from the 44 percent who did so at the beginning of 2010.
-- In line with the first half of 2010, the majority of small and medium business IT professionals (65 percent) plan to keep their IT staff the same size between now and year-end. While 20 percent plan to add full-time IT staff before the end of 2010, companies with fewer than 20 employees are most confident in their plans with nearly one in four (23 percent) planning to add new staff. This is nearly double the 12 percent of companies with 20-99 employees and the 18 percent of companies with 100 or more employees that plan to do the same.
-- 42 percent of IT budgets for the remainder of the year are allocated to hardware purchases, which is down from the 47 percent reported for the first half of 2010. The majority of purchases are designated for replacing aging hardware systems.
-- 35 percent of IT budgets for the second half of 2010 are allocated to software purchases. Among SMB IT professionals, 34 percent plan to tackle server operating system upgrades before year-end. The most popular planned software purchase is antivirus/anti-spam software with 67 percent of respondents planning to buy new, upgrade or renew antivirus/anti-spam software.
-- Overall spending on hosted IT services is down for the second half of 2010. 48 percent of IT professionals plan to purchase new, upgrade or renew at least one IT service, which is down from the 56 percent reported for first half of 2010. However, hosted email purchase plans rose to 38 percent from the 23 percent reported for the first half of 2010. Nearly one in three of those planning hosted email purchases in the second half of 2010 will buy new services rather than upgrade or renew existing services.
Comment from Jay Hallberg, co-founder and vice president of marketing for Spiceworks: While the state of the economy is still a concern among small and mid-sized companies, they continue to increase their technology spending plans. Bright spots are clearly seen in strategic areas and in those that help businesses do more with existing resources. We'll continue to watch how these plans unfold over the next six months.
About the survey: Findings were uncovered in the second semi-annual "State of SMB IT" technology survey for 2010, which investigates current technology purchasing, usage and staffing trends among SMBs worldwide. The study of 3,011 IT professionals was conducted in July and August 2010 by the Spiceworks Voice of IT Market Research Program. The State of SMB IT survey for the second half of 2010 included 3,011 respondents from 117 countries around the world. Those surveyed work in organizations with fewer than 1,000 employees and were among the more than 1 million SMB IT professionals who use the free Spiceworks IT management software to manage their computer networks.
Contact: Click here.
Cloud/Web-Based Application Suppliers Face Greatest Scrutiny By CXOs
In the past six months alone there have been multiple new zero-day vulnerabilities reported in Microsoft Windows and widely covered uneasiness about the security of mobile apps, cloud service providers and SCADA systems that reinforce concerns about unknown weaknesses lurking in everyday software, according to a Veracode, Inc., report.
Overall quality of applications remains poor, with 57 percent failing to meet acceptable levels of security. Cloud/web-based applications are the most commonly scrutinized, and with good reason: 80 percent of web applications would not pass a PCI audit.
Key findings of the Veracode study:
-- More than half of all software failed to meet an acceptable level of security -- 57 percent of all applications were found to have unacceptable application security quality on first submission to Veracode's testing service, even when standards were lowered for those considered less business critical.
-- Third-party code is the culprit behind Operation Aurora, Siemens Stuxnet and others - Third-party code is an essential and rapidly growing part of an enterprise's software portfolio, making up nearly 30 percent of all applications submitted to Veracode for review, with third-party components comprising between 30-70 percent of internally developed applications. Of particular note, third-party suppliers failed to achieve acceptable security standards 81 percent of the time.
-- Cloud /web applications were the most requested third-party assessments -- Suppliers of cloud/web applications made up nearly 60 percent of all third-party assessments requested of Veracode. Similar to the results of testing other types of third-party software, cloud/web applications show low levels of acceptable security.
-- Eight out of 10 web applications would fail a PCI audit -- Based on automated analysis, Veracode found that eight out of 10 web applications failed to comply with the OWASP Top 10 industry standard for security quality, and therefore would not pass a PCI audit.
-- Security flaws are being repaired quicker than ever before -- Indicating the positive impact of greater developer education and training, more mature tools and increasing enterprise pressure, Veracode found that the time it took organizations to repair flaws to achieve acceptable levels of security decreased from between 36-82 days, to 16 days on average.
-- 56 percent of finance-related applications failed upon first submission to Veracode's testing service. Analysis shows that software quality of applications from banking, insurance and financial services industries is not commensurate with the security requirements expected for business critical applications, though the financial services industry performed better than banking and insurance overall.
-- Cross-site scripting remains prevalent, accounting for 51 percent of all vulnerabilities uncovered in the testing process; .NET applications exhibited abnormally high cross-site scripting vulnerabilities. Additionally, "potential backdoors" broke into the top 10 most common vulnerabilities.
Of interest to CIOs and CISOs is the rise of a new market sector for third-party risk assessments. Veracode noted a significant increase in the number of applications it has been asked to review at the request of a buyer of software or software development services since its last report. Third-party assessments (similar to having a pre-purchase home inspection) are among the fastest growing types of assessments requested of Veracode -- a sign that organizations are taking increased responsibility for managing risk within their software supply chain and the growing use of independent, cloud-based application risk management services.
Comment from Joseph Feiman, vice president and Gartner fellow, Gartner: The traditional disjointed approach to enterprise security needs to give way to a comprehensive approach that enables advanced security, improved analytics and optimal decision making. We are calling this new approach "ESI" [Enterprise Security Intelligence], and we believe that both technology providers and their enterprise customers must begin laying the groundwork for its development, adoption and implementation. The concept of "intelligence" is crucial, because it makes it clear that vulnerability scanning, monitoring and reporting are no longer adequate.
About the Veracode study: In compiling its report, Veracode, Inc. analyzed more than 2,900 applications to publish the "State of Software Security Report: Volume 2." The goal of the report is to create greater enterprise security intelligence among the C-suite, security managers and developers regarding their application portfolio. The data empowers informed decision-making around IT infrastructure choices including selecting the best mobile platform, policies about the use of Open Source software and how to best structure third-party software procurement contracts. Findings are based on analysis of Internally Developed, Open Source, Outsourced and Commercial applications that have been submitted to Veracode for testing using its cloud-based platform over the past 18 months. Veracode reports a nearly 200 percent increase in the number of applications submitted for review during the past six months, indicating greater industry awareness about software security. Unlike surveys or other industry reports that perform post-mortem analysis on reported breaches and disclosed vulnerabilities, Veracode's State of Software Security Report examines unknown vulnerabilities by analyzing the DNA of applications -- prior to a breach (and often prior to deployment) -- to identify what the applications are comprised of and where potential weaknesses exist.
Contact: Click here.
Overall quality of applications remains poor, with 57 percent failing to meet acceptable levels of security. Cloud/web-based applications are the most commonly scrutinized, and with good reason: 80 percent of web applications would not pass a PCI audit.
Key findings of the Veracode study:
-- More than half of all software failed to meet an acceptable level of security -- 57 percent of all applications were found to have unacceptable application security quality on first submission to Veracode's testing service, even when standards were lowered for those considered less business critical.
-- Third-party code is the culprit behind Operation Aurora, Siemens Stuxnet and others - Third-party code is an essential and rapidly growing part of an enterprise's software portfolio, making up nearly 30 percent of all applications submitted to Veracode for review, with third-party components comprising between 30-70 percent of internally developed applications. Of particular note, third-party suppliers failed to achieve acceptable security standards 81 percent of the time.
-- Cloud /web applications were the most requested third-party assessments -- Suppliers of cloud/web applications made up nearly 60 percent of all third-party assessments requested of Veracode. Similar to the results of testing other types of third-party software, cloud/web applications show low levels of acceptable security.
-- Eight out of 10 web applications would fail a PCI audit -- Based on automated analysis, Veracode found that eight out of 10 web applications failed to comply with the OWASP Top 10 industry standard for security quality, and therefore would not pass a PCI audit.
-- Security flaws are being repaired quicker than ever before -- Indicating the positive impact of greater developer education and training, more mature tools and increasing enterprise pressure, Veracode found that the time it took organizations to repair flaws to achieve acceptable levels of security decreased from between 36-82 days, to 16 days on average.
-- 56 percent of finance-related applications failed upon first submission to Veracode's testing service. Analysis shows that software quality of applications from banking, insurance and financial services industries is not commensurate with the security requirements expected for business critical applications, though the financial services industry performed better than banking and insurance overall.
-- Cross-site scripting remains prevalent, accounting for 51 percent of all vulnerabilities uncovered in the testing process; .NET applications exhibited abnormally high cross-site scripting vulnerabilities. Additionally, "potential backdoors" broke into the top 10 most common vulnerabilities.
Of interest to CIOs and CISOs is the rise of a new market sector for third-party risk assessments. Veracode noted a significant increase in the number of applications it has been asked to review at the request of a buyer of software or software development services since its last report. Third-party assessments (similar to having a pre-purchase home inspection) are among the fastest growing types of assessments requested of Veracode -- a sign that organizations are taking increased responsibility for managing risk within their software supply chain and the growing use of independent, cloud-based application risk management services.
Comment from Joseph Feiman, vice president and Gartner fellow, Gartner: The traditional disjointed approach to enterprise security needs to give way to a comprehensive approach that enables advanced security, improved analytics and optimal decision making. We are calling this new approach "ESI" [Enterprise Security Intelligence], and we believe that both technology providers and their enterprise customers must begin laying the groundwork for its development, adoption and implementation. The concept of "intelligence" is crucial, because it makes it clear that vulnerability scanning, monitoring and reporting are no longer adequate.
About the Veracode study: In compiling its report, Veracode, Inc. analyzed more than 2,900 applications to publish the "State of Software Security Report: Volume 2." The goal of the report is to create greater enterprise security intelligence among the C-suite, security managers and developers regarding their application portfolio. The data empowers informed decision-making around IT infrastructure choices including selecting the best mobile platform, policies about the use of Open Source software and how to best structure third-party software procurement contracts. Findings are based on analysis of Internally Developed, Open Source, Outsourced and Commercial applications that have been submitted to Veracode for testing using its cloud-based platform over the past 18 months. Veracode reports a nearly 200 percent increase in the number of applications submitted for review during the past six months, indicating greater industry awareness about software security. Unlike surveys or other industry reports that perform post-mortem analysis on reported breaches and disclosed vulnerabilities, Veracode's State of Software Security Report examines unknown vulnerabilities by analyzing the DNA of applications -- prior to a breach (and often prior to deployment) -- to identify what the applications are comprised of and where potential weaknesses exist.
Contact: Click here.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Users Find Flexibility And Cost Savings Of Virtualized Systems Are Compelling
Flexibility is the leading driver of virtualization and cloud computing adoption use, while security is the biggest worry, according to a new survey designed identify current trends in virtualization and cloud computing utilization and to collect input for addressing the IT management demands of those users.
VMware and Amazon EC2 have the largest market penetration in virtualization and cloud computing, respectively, the survey found, while there a large number of organizations are deploying applications on Xen, KVM, Rackspace Cloud and Google App Engine.
Additional findings in the 2010 Virtualization and Cloud Computing Survey include:
Zenoss Inc., a provider of dynamic service assurance products for public, private and hybrid clouds and corporate sponsor of Zenoss Core, sponsored the 2010 Virtualization and Cloud Computing Survey of more than 200 organizations.
Contact: Click here.
VMware and Amazon EC2 have the largest market penetration in virtualization and cloud computing, respectively, the survey found, while there a large number of organizations are deploying applications on Xen, KVM, Rackspace Cloud and Google App Engine.
Additional findings in the 2010 Virtualization and Cloud Computing Survey include:
- 40.7% indicated that they preferred to deploy servers virtually, 29.3% indicated they used virtualization whenever possible.
- 43.3% of participants indicated flexibility as the reason for using virtualization while 33.3% indicated hardware savings as a reason for using the technology.
- The number one stated goal with regards to virtual infrastructure was Cost Savings (64.7%) followed by Deployment Control specifically controlling virtual sprawl.
- 70.7% preferred tools that managed all infrastructure rather than point solutions that were virtualization specific.
- The vast number of virtualization users don't utilize automation. In managing virtual environments only 39.3% of virtualization automate the starting and stopping of virtual machines based on operational conditions.
- 73.3% have not made a decision on their virtualization management solution.
- 25.8% indicated they would be deploying hosted data services.
- 50.8% indicated they used no specific management tools for cloud computing and 33.3% indicated using tools provided by their hosting provider.
- Security was the number one concern for cloud computing followed by management and monitoring.
Zenoss Inc., a provider of dynamic service assurance products for public, private and hybrid clouds and corporate sponsor of Zenoss Core, sponsored the 2010 Virtualization and Cloud Computing Survey of more than 200 organizations.
Contact: Click here.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Fewer Than Half Of South African SMEs Use Cloud Applications And Simple CRM
Half as many South African small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) use Cloud CRM systems compared with the rest of the world, a survey has found.
Cloud CRM systems only account for 15 percent of the cloud applications used by South African SMEs.
From a sample of 272 respondents, primarily from small and medium-sized organizations with less than 250 employees, 53 percent reported increased confidence in Cloud applications in the last 12 months. This is mirrored by the 56 percent who agreed that Cloud applications have been made a more attractive proposition by the current state of the economy.
The survey questioned SME business owners, directors, sales, marketing and IT managers, on their views of Cloud Applications and the reliability of the products currently available in the market, and then compared the results with similar global surveys. Conducted by AdvanceNet Africa's leading simple CRM provider, the survey, coupled with findings from web-based CRM provider Really Simple Systems' previous global survey, have together shown a similarity in responses covering two main factors in relation to Cloud systems. Respondents from both surveys agreed that Cloud systems require less IT support and that almost all SMEs would be spending as much, if not more on IT in the coming 12 months.
In South Africa, Cloud-based systems are less trusted with 40 percent more SMEs believing they were unreliable and some 37 percent of respondents considering that their data was less secure with Cloud applications. Furthermore only 34 percent consider Cloud applications to be better value when compared to the 43 percent shown in the global survey.
Globally, Cloud CRM Systems have almost completely caught up with in-house CRM for SMEs, with 41 percent of respondents now using web-based CRM as opposed to 42 percent using in-house CRM. 58 percent of South Africans SMEs, however, are using in-house systems compared with just 15 percent using cloud-based applications.
The number of respondents not using any CRM system in South Africa stands at 30.7 percent, twice as high when compared with the rest of the world.
Lastly, 50 percent of those questioned planned to spend more on IT in the next 12 months than they had done over the last 12 months, compared with 37 percent in the rest of the world.
Comment from Phil Hemsley, managing director of AdvanceNet: Although this survey shows that African companies are more cautious about Cloud applications than their international counterparts, we believe that the same advantages of ease of use, rapid implementation and low cost will drive user adoption of simple CRM over the next year. Although there are still a lot of SMEs yet to realize the benefits of a simple CRM system, I do not think this should be of particular concern to SME vendors looking to operate in the South African Market. We have seen interest pick up markedly in the last couple of years and I look forward to seeing the results of this survey when we run it again in a year's time.
Comment from John Paterson, CEO of Really Simple Systems: It is encouraging to see that SMEs in South Africa see the value of investing in IT to move the company forward, despite the economic instability that has affected spend on business resources in the last few years.
Contact: http://www.advancenet.co.za
Contact: http://www.reallysimplesystems.com
Cloud CRM systems only account for 15 percent of the cloud applications used by South African SMEs.
From a sample of 272 respondents, primarily from small and medium-sized organizations with less than 250 employees, 53 percent reported increased confidence in Cloud applications in the last 12 months. This is mirrored by the 56 percent who agreed that Cloud applications have been made a more attractive proposition by the current state of the economy.
The survey questioned SME business owners, directors, sales, marketing and IT managers, on their views of Cloud Applications and the reliability of the products currently available in the market, and then compared the results with similar global surveys. Conducted by AdvanceNet Africa's leading simple CRM provider, the survey, coupled with findings from web-based CRM provider Really Simple Systems' previous global survey, have together shown a similarity in responses covering two main factors in relation to Cloud systems. Respondents from both surveys agreed that Cloud systems require less IT support and that almost all SMEs would be spending as much, if not more on IT in the coming 12 months.
In South Africa, Cloud-based systems are less trusted with 40 percent more SMEs believing they were unreliable and some 37 percent of respondents considering that their data was less secure with Cloud applications. Furthermore only 34 percent consider Cloud applications to be better value when compared to the 43 percent shown in the global survey.
Globally, Cloud CRM Systems have almost completely caught up with in-house CRM for SMEs, with 41 percent of respondents now using web-based CRM as opposed to 42 percent using in-house CRM. 58 percent of South Africans SMEs, however, are using in-house systems compared with just 15 percent using cloud-based applications.
The number of respondents not using any CRM system in South Africa stands at 30.7 percent, twice as high when compared with the rest of the world.
Lastly, 50 percent of those questioned planned to spend more on IT in the next 12 months than they had done over the last 12 months, compared with 37 percent in the rest of the world.
Comment from Phil Hemsley, managing director of AdvanceNet: Although this survey shows that African companies are more cautious about Cloud applications than their international counterparts, we believe that the same advantages of ease of use, rapid implementation and low cost will drive user adoption of simple CRM over the next year. Although there are still a lot of SMEs yet to realize the benefits of a simple CRM system, I do not think this should be of particular concern to SME vendors looking to operate in the South African Market. We have seen interest pick up markedly in the last couple of years and I look forward to seeing the results of this survey when we run it again in a year's time.
Comment from John Paterson, CEO of Really Simple Systems: It is encouraging to see that SMEs in South Africa see the value of investing in IT to move the company forward, despite the economic instability that has affected spend on business resources in the last few years.
Contact: http://www.advancenet.co.za
Contact: http://www.reallysimplesystems.com
Friday, September 17, 2010
Economics Of Cloud Computing Are Very Compelling To Small Companies
The economics of cloud computing are encouraging small- and mid-sized companies to adopt the new technologies quickly, while bigger companies are either waiting on the sidelines or adopting the technologies on a divisional or business unit level to "try them out," according to a new study.
The three most important inferences to be drawn from the Proformative survey results are:
-- Cloud Computing and SaaS will be critical to companies over the next few years, and CFOs feel like they are already "behind the curve" and need to be educated,
-- Cloud Computing and SaaS reduce IT CapEx and OPEX and create a direct link between IT consumption and cost, and
-- Cloud Computing and SaaS have delivered to many firms higher ROI, increased collaboration, and greater confidence in systems and their business value.
Comments from John Kogan, CEO of Proformative: The Proformative survey tells us that CFOs, controllers, treasurers, and others who hold many of the keys to a company's profit are moving forward with some sense of caution. But it's also clear that smart companies are paying close attention to what is essentially a new way of doing business. It's obvious that Cloud Computing and SaaS-based applications are transforming the way that many firms will consume IT services and applications over the coming years. We can't say the technology will be for every company, but we will say that every company needs to take the time do the investigation.
The survey was designed to elicit critical information on what could be the largest change in technology platforms since the emergence of the Internet. Proformative received 432 responses from executives and directors around the country, with responders representing companies of all sizes.
Contact: http://www.proformative.com
The three most important inferences to be drawn from the Proformative survey results are:
-- Cloud Computing and SaaS will be critical to companies over the next few years, and CFOs feel like they are already "behind the curve" and need to be educated,
-- Cloud Computing and SaaS reduce IT CapEx and OPEX and create a direct link between IT consumption and cost, and
-- Cloud Computing and SaaS have delivered to many firms higher ROI, increased collaboration, and greater confidence in systems and their business value.
Comments from John Kogan, CEO of Proformative: The Proformative survey tells us that CFOs, controllers, treasurers, and others who hold many of the keys to a company's profit are moving forward with some sense of caution. But it's also clear that smart companies are paying close attention to what is essentially a new way of doing business. It's obvious that Cloud Computing and SaaS-based applications are transforming the way that many firms will consume IT services and applications over the coming years. We can't say the technology will be for every company, but we will say that every company needs to take the time do the investigation.
The survey was designed to elicit critical information on what could be the largest change in technology platforms since the emergence of the Internet. Proformative received 432 responses from executives and directors around the country, with responders representing companies of all sizes.
Contact: http://www.proformative.com
Major Trend: Moving Business Apps To The Cloud
Forty percent of IT and business professionals said in a recent survey that they are looking to move their business applications to the cloud.
Comment from Laurie McCabe, partner at industry analyst firm SMB Group: Independent software vendors (ISVs) need to integrate solutions to provide mid-sized businesses with fully functional, on-demand capabilities in a streamlined way. Today's SaaS platforms simplify integration by delivering centralized management control and web-based interfaces that can help save customers money and avoid complexity.
Contact: http://www.acumatica.com
Comment from Laurie McCabe, partner at industry analyst firm SMB Group: Independent software vendors (ISVs) need to integrate solutions to provide mid-sized businesses with fully functional, on-demand capabilities in a streamlined way. Today's SaaS platforms simplify integration by delivering centralized management control and web-based interfaces that can help save customers money and avoid complexity.
Contact: http://www.acumatica.com
Cloud Apps Playing An Increasingly Important Role In IT
According to data from a soon-to-be-released survey of 150 cloud adopters, cloud applications will play an increasingly important role in enterprise IT.
Forty-five percent of cloud adopters say they plan to have the majority of their IT in the cloud within one year, and 68 percent say this will happen in three years. And while more than 70 percent of cloud adopters said reducing SaaS silos is a priority to increase value and impact of their cloud applications, only four percent had fully integrated them. Forty percent cite existing technology limitations as a reason.
Comment from Chris Barbin, CEO of Appirio: Information silos cost organizations millions of dollars in waste every year and our industry billions. Our experience with nearly 200 enterprises across more than 700 cloud projects has shown us and our customers that cloud applications are a giant step beyond traditional business applications. Yet silos still exist -- mainly because integration, until now, has been point-to-point and focused only on the data, not the user. We developed CloudWorks so enterprises can finally unlock the full potential of the cloud.
Appirio has just introduced CloudWorks, the first cloud broker technology to help enterprises unleash information from SaaS silos, solving a growing problem faced by enterprises who are moving multiple applications to the cloud.
Contact: http://www.appirio.com/products/CloudWorks.php
Forty-five percent of cloud adopters say they plan to have the majority of their IT in the cloud within one year, and 68 percent say this will happen in three years. And while more than 70 percent of cloud adopters said reducing SaaS silos is a priority to increase value and impact of their cloud applications, only four percent had fully integrated them. Forty percent cite existing technology limitations as a reason.
Comment from Chris Barbin, CEO of Appirio: Information silos cost organizations millions of dollars in waste every year and our industry billions. Our experience with nearly 200 enterprises across more than 700 cloud projects has shown us and our customers that cloud applications are a giant step beyond traditional business applications. Yet silos still exist -- mainly because integration, until now, has been point-to-point and focused only on the data, not the user. We developed CloudWorks so enterprises can finally unlock the full potential of the cloud.
Appirio has just introduced CloudWorks, the first cloud broker technology to help enterprises unleash information from SaaS silos, solving a growing problem faced by enterprises who are moving multiple applications to the cloud.
Contact: http://www.appirio.com/products/CloudWorks.php
U.K. Channel Partners Strive For Their Place In The Cloud Ecosystem
As U.K. small and medium businesses increasingly look to take advantage of the benefits of the cloud services model, channel partners are moving quickly to respond to demand. According to an upcoming study by AMI-Partners, one in every six U.K. small and medium businesses (SMBs) focused partners are now offering hosted applications and 2 out of 3 offer remote ICT monitoring and management services.
A major driver has been the lowering of barriers to entry to service provision with the availability of remote management software platforms, hosted infrastructure and the expansion of SaaS applications for sale through the channel. This has enabled many smaller players to enter the market. The channel is exploring the most effective business models to allow it to play in this fast emerging market, from hosting their own applications and services to straight resale of 3rd party hosted offerings. AMI expects the SMB cloud space to be keenly fought for.
Comment from Hugh Gibbs, VP of Research for AMI in EMEA: Cloud services have huge implications for the traditional ICT reseller channel. New market entrants including Telcos and ISPs, retailers and IT vendors bring economies of scale which small partners do not have, and they will constitute a potent competitive threat. Smart channel partners have been successfully positioning themselves and differentiating their services with a blend of cloud services and on-premise support. The window of opportunity is a short one for channel partners to discover how they will evolve to a cloud-centric business model. The time for CPs to act is now.
Local channel partners (CPs) have traditionally been the trusted advisors of SMBs and herein lies the opportunity for them with the Cloud. SMBs need advice and support in understanding how to take advantage of the cloud and in migration of workloads and integration of cloud applications with legacy, on-premise systems.
AMI's 2010 U.K. Channel Partners Report will highlight these and other major trends in the context of the global IT marketplace.
Contact: http://www.ami-partners.com
A major driver has been the lowering of barriers to entry to service provision with the availability of remote management software platforms, hosted infrastructure and the expansion of SaaS applications for sale through the channel. This has enabled many smaller players to enter the market. The channel is exploring the most effective business models to allow it to play in this fast emerging market, from hosting their own applications and services to straight resale of 3rd party hosted offerings. AMI expects the SMB cloud space to be keenly fought for.
Comment from Hugh Gibbs, VP of Research for AMI in EMEA: Cloud services have huge implications for the traditional ICT reseller channel. New market entrants including Telcos and ISPs, retailers and IT vendors bring economies of scale which small partners do not have, and they will constitute a potent competitive threat. Smart channel partners have been successfully positioning themselves and differentiating their services with a blend of cloud services and on-premise support. The window of opportunity is a short one for channel partners to discover how they will evolve to a cloud-centric business model. The time for CPs to act is now.
Local channel partners (CPs) have traditionally been the trusted advisors of SMBs and herein lies the opportunity for them with the Cloud. SMBs need advice and support in understanding how to take advantage of the cloud and in migration of workloads and integration of cloud applications with legacy, on-premise systems.
AMI's 2010 U.K. Channel Partners Report will highlight these and other major trends in the context of the global IT marketplace.
Contact: http://www.ami-partners.com
Advanced Security Technology Plus Time-Tested Methods Offers Best Data Protection
The most effective data security strategy involves a modern approach that uses technology to protect applications and databases alongside traditional approaches, according to a new survey.
For example, web application firewalls were among the top five rated technologies for reducing the number of data breach incidents. Others technologies included network data loss prevention, full drive encryption, server/endpoint hardening, and endpoint data loss prevention.
Survey participants said malicious intentions were behind 62 percent of data theft. Insider breaches comprised 33 percent of incidents while hackers comprised 29 percent. The remaining breaches were accidental.
Nearly two-thirds of organizations either didn't know if they suffered any data breach incidents, or stated that they didn't experience any. Of those that did, 46 percent saw a decline in breaches while 27 percent reported the same number of breaches from the previous year.
The survey also found that enterprise data security initiatives have accelerated data security as data theft and monetization become the ultimate goal for hackers and malicious insiders. Intense regulatory scrutiny continues to drive many data security initiatives. In fact, 88 percent of respondents noted that PCI-DSS was the primary driver for their information security program. Organizations are challenged with securing their data and maintaining regulatory compliance while controlling cost, complexity and risk.
The survey was sponsored by Imperva, a provider of data security solutions, and conducted by analyst firm Securosis among 1,100 U.S. and multinational IT security practitioners. Organizations across all major vertical markets and company sizes were surveyed. The survey focused on uncovering what technologies security practitioners find successful to mitigate breaches and comply with security mandates.
Comment from Amichai Shulman, Imperva's CTO: Data security is an emerging practice requiring practitioners to navigate numerous mandates, threats and technologies. This survey will help security teams identify what their peers find successful and hopefully help make improvements to their own strategy and operations.
Comment from Rich Mogull, CEO and analyst with Securosis: This survey illustrates that data security as a practice has transitioned past early adopters and significantly penetrated the early mainstream of the security industry. Given what's at stake, we are pleased to put numbers behind what we all hoped - that organizations are starting to take data security more seriously.
Contact: http://www.imperva.com
Contact: http://securosis.com/blog
For example, web application firewalls were among the top five rated technologies for reducing the number of data breach incidents. Others technologies included network data loss prevention, full drive encryption, server/endpoint hardening, and endpoint data loss prevention.
Survey participants said malicious intentions were behind 62 percent of data theft. Insider breaches comprised 33 percent of incidents while hackers comprised 29 percent. The remaining breaches were accidental.
Nearly two-thirds of organizations either didn't know if they suffered any data breach incidents, or stated that they didn't experience any. Of those that did, 46 percent saw a decline in breaches while 27 percent reported the same number of breaches from the previous year.
The survey also found that enterprise data security initiatives have accelerated data security as data theft and monetization become the ultimate goal for hackers and malicious insiders. Intense regulatory scrutiny continues to drive many data security initiatives. In fact, 88 percent of respondents noted that PCI-DSS was the primary driver for their information security program. Organizations are challenged with securing their data and maintaining regulatory compliance while controlling cost, complexity and risk.
The survey was sponsored by Imperva, a provider of data security solutions, and conducted by analyst firm Securosis among 1,100 U.S. and multinational IT security practitioners. Organizations across all major vertical markets and company sizes were surveyed. The survey focused on uncovering what technologies security practitioners find successful to mitigate breaches and comply with security mandates.
Comment from Amichai Shulman, Imperva's CTO: Data security is an emerging practice requiring practitioners to navigate numerous mandates, threats and technologies. This survey will help security teams identify what their peers find successful and hopefully help make improvements to their own strategy and operations.
Comment from Rich Mogull, CEO and analyst with Securosis: This survey illustrates that data security as a practice has transitioned past early adopters and significantly penetrated the early mainstream of the security industry. Given what's at stake, we are pleased to put numbers behind what we all hoped - that organizations are starting to take data security more seriously.
Contact: http://www.imperva.com
Contact: http://securosis.com/blog
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Virtualization, Cloud Computing Are Major Investment Areas For IT Executives In 2010
CIOs, CTOs and senior IT executives from 172 U.S. companies indicated in a new survey that virtualization and cloud computing are the major new application and technology investments for 2010, while the most important application/technology continues to be business intelligence.
Business productivity and cost reduction were cited as their top business concerns in the 2010 IT Industry Trend Survey, commissioned by the Society for Information Management (SIM).
This is the second consecutive year that business productivity and cost reduction has received such a wide margin of emphasis in the survey conducted annually by SIM, the premier network for IT leaders.
Many of the top 10 concerns remain on the list from previous years but shifted positions,including business agility and speed to market, which jumped from the No. 3 position to No. 2 in 2010. Globalization, a new priority this year, was ranked as the No. 10 concern on the survey, which annually provides important benchmark data in areas including spending, salaries, job scope of IT professionals and technical/business trends. The top four areas, including IT and business alignment -- a perennial concern of IT leaders -- received extremely high ratings.
The full top 10 list of concerns in SIM's annual survey is:
1. Business productivity and cost reduction
2. Business agility and speed to market
3. IT and business alignment
4. IT reliability and efficiency
5. Business process re-engineering
6. IT strategic planning
7. Revenue generating IT innovations
8. IT cost reduction
9. Security and privacy
10. Globalization
Comment from Jerry Luftman, former SIM Executive VP: The insights from the study confirm that the economic downturn is continuing to cause a significant shift in IT priorities. It is essential to recognize how organizations are leveraging IT during this prolonged economic conundrum, as well as preparing for when the economy will improve.
The top concerns and applications/technologies for IT executives are only a small part of the comprehensive SIM study. In-depth results for this year's survey will be presented at SIMposium 2010, The Charm of IT: Bringing People, Process & Technology Together, Oct. 3--5 in Atlanta. Visit www.simposiumconf.com for more information.
Contact: http://www.simnet.org
Business productivity and cost reduction were cited as their top business concerns in the 2010 IT Industry Trend Survey, commissioned by the Society for Information Management (SIM).
This is the second consecutive year that business productivity and cost reduction has received such a wide margin of emphasis in the survey conducted annually by SIM, the premier network for IT leaders.
Many of the top 10 concerns remain on the list from previous years but shifted positions,including business agility and speed to market, which jumped from the No. 3 position to No. 2 in 2010. Globalization, a new priority this year, was ranked as the No. 10 concern on the survey, which annually provides important benchmark data in areas including spending, salaries, job scope of IT professionals and technical/business trends. The top four areas, including IT and business alignment -- a perennial concern of IT leaders -- received extremely high ratings.
The full top 10 list of concerns in SIM's annual survey is:
1. Business productivity and cost reduction
2. Business agility and speed to market
3. IT and business alignment
4. IT reliability and efficiency
5. Business process re-engineering
6. IT strategic planning
7. Revenue generating IT innovations
8. IT cost reduction
9. Security and privacy
10. Globalization
Comment from Jerry Luftman, former SIM Executive VP: The insights from the study confirm that the economic downturn is continuing to cause a significant shift in IT priorities. It is essential to recognize how organizations are leveraging IT during this prolonged economic conundrum, as well as preparing for when the economy will improve.
The top concerns and applications/technologies for IT executives are only a small part of the comprehensive SIM study. In-depth results for this year's survey will be presented at SIMposium 2010, The Charm of IT: Bringing People, Process & Technology Together, Oct. 3--5 in Atlanta. Visit www.simposiumconf.com for more information.
Contact: http://www.simnet.org
Analyst Advisory Firm Launches Study Of Cloud Business Services
Horses for Sources (HfS), a Middletown, N.J., analyst advisory firm covering business process outsourcing (BPO) and information technology outsourcing (ITO), has launched a study to understand the dynamics and intentions of enterprises to adopt Cloud Computing models.
The Outsourcing Unit at the London School of Economics (LSE) will work with the HfS analyst team to interpret the data and produce a seminal industry report on the study findings that will discuss the impact of Cloud on the future of work.
HfS will collect adoption intentions and attitudes towards Cloud Business Services across both business and IT professionals.
Key dynamics being surveyed will include those aspects of Cloud that appeal to both business and IT professionals, inhibitors that are holding back adoption, current intentions and future plans, intended use of third party service providers and consultants, and determination of specific organization functions where Cloud will have the most impact.
Comment from CEO of HfS Research, Phil Fersht: There's been so much noise focused on the technology implications of Cloud, and not enough attention placed on how business executives intend to apply Cloud services within their own business environments. At the end of the day, some firms will succeed in driving down IT infrastructure costs using Cloud models, but the real momentum will come from the business processes that can be delivered to organizations that have all the associated application workflow and infrastructure already provisioned in the Cloud. This study will be the first in industry to draw out these dynamics to help us visualize the future of work.
Comment from Professor Leslie Willcocks, Professor of Technology Work and Globalisation at the LSE: In our 2002 book Netsourcing, we predicted a strong move towards renting applications, services and infrastructure over the Net. It seemed to peter out with the bursting of the e-business bubble but in fact we are now witnessing the ten year convergence of streams of technology and capability that pose the question: how do we leverage this strategically for business advantage? That is one thing we want to investigate. The other is the longer game -- is this going to be a dominant trend, the only game in town, or, if not, what sort of hybrid futures are likely?
Contact: http://www.horsesforsources.com
The Outsourcing Unit at the London School of Economics (LSE) will work with the HfS analyst team to interpret the data and produce a seminal industry report on the study findings that will discuss the impact of Cloud on the future of work.
HfS will collect adoption intentions and attitudes towards Cloud Business Services across both business and IT professionals.
Key dynamics being surveyed will include those aspects of Cloud that appeal to both business and IT professionals, inhibitors that are holding back adoption, current intentions and future plans, intended use of third party service providers and consultants, and determination of specific organization functions where Cloud will have the most impact.
Comment from CEO of HfS Research, Phil Fersht: There's been so much noise focused on the technology implications of Cloud, and not enough attention placed on how business executives intend to apply Cloud services within their own business environments. At the end of the day, some firms will succeed in driving down IT infrastructure costs using Cloud models, but the real momentum will come from the business processes that can be delivered to organizations that have all the associated application workflow and infrastructure already provisioned in the Cloud. This study will be the first in industry to draw out these dynamics to help us visualize the future of work.
Comment from Professor Leslie Willcocks, Professor of Technology Work and Globalisation at the LSE: In our 2002 book Netsourcing, we predicted a strong move towards renting applications, services and infrastructure over the Net. It seemed to peter out with the bursting of the e-business bubble but in fact we are now witnessing the ten year convergence of streams of technology and capability that pose the question: how do we leverage this strategically for business advantage? That is one thing we want to investigate. The other is the longer game -- is this going to be a dominant trend, the only game in town, or, if not, what sort of hybrid futures are likely?
Contact: http://www.horsesforsources.com
33% Of SMBs Have Been Harmed By Malware Infections From Social Networks
Thirty-three percent of small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) surveyed recently have experienced a malware or virus infection from social networks, with 23 percent citing employee privacy violations resulting in the loss of sensitive data.
In addition, thirty-five percent of survey respondents that were infected by malware from social networking sites suffered a financial loss, with more than a third of those companies reporting losses in excess of $5,000.
The survey was conducted by Panda Security among 315 U.S. SMBs with up to 1,000 employees.
According to the survey, SMB's top concerns with social media include privacy and data loss (74 percent), malware infection (69 percent), employee productivity loss (60 percent), reputation damage (50 percent), and network performance/utilization problems (29 percent). However, these concerns are not deterring SMBs from reaping the business benefits of social media as 78 percent of respondents reported that they use these tools to support research and competitive intelligence, improve customer service, drive public relations and marketing initiatives and directly generate revenue. Facebook is by far the most popular social media tool among SMBs: Sixty-nine percent of respondents reported that they have active accounts with this site, followed by Twitter (44 percent), YouTube (32 percent) and LinkedIn (23 percent).
Facebook was cited as the top culprit for companies that experienced malware infection (71.6 percent) and privacy violations (73.2 percent). YouTube took the second spot for malware infection (41.2 percent), while Twitter contributed to a significant amount of privacy violations (51 percent). For companies suffering financial losses from employee privacy violations, Facebook was again cited as the most common social media site where these losses occurred (62 percent), followed by Twitter (38 percent), YouTube (24 percent) and LinkedIn (11 percent).
To minimize the risks associated with social media, 57 percent of SMBs currently have a social media governance policy in place, with 81 percent of these companies employing personnel to actively enforce those policies. In addition, 64 percent of companies reported having formal training programs in place to educate employees on the risks and benefits of social media. The majority of respondents (62 percent) do not allow the personal use of social media at work. The most common disallowed social media activities include: Playing games (32 percent); publishing inappropriate content on social media sites (31 percent); and installing unapproved applications (25 percent). In addition, 25 percent of companies said that they actively block popular social media sites for employees, mainly via a gateway appliance (65 percent) and/or hosted Web security service (45 percent).
Comment from Sean-Paul Correll, threat researcher at Panda Security: Social media is now ubiquitous among SMBs because of its many obvious business benefits, yet these tools don't come without serious risks. In Panda's first annual Social Media Risk Index, we set out to uncover the top SMB concerns about social media and draw a correlation to actual incidence of malware infection, privacy violations and hard financial losses. While a relatively high number of SMBs have been infected by malware from social sites, we were pleased to see that the majority of companies already have formal governance and education programs in place. These types of policies combined with up to date network security solutions are required to minimize risk and ultimately prevent loss.
Survey respondents included individuals involved in setting and/or enforcing policies related to network activities at 315 SMBs within the United States.
Contact: A slideshow on the study's results is available at http://bit.ly/cD9wX4
Contact: http://www.pandasecurity.com/usa/
In addition, thirty-five percent of survey respondents that were infected by malware from social networking sites suffered a financial loss, with more than a third of those companies reporting losses in excess of $5,000.
The survey was conducted by Panda Security among 315 U.S. SMBs with up to 1,000 employees.
According to the survey, SMB's top concerns with social media include privacy and data loss (74 percent), malware infection (69 percent), employee productivity loss (60 percent), reputation damage (50 percent), and network performance/utilization problems (29 percent). However, these concerns are not deterring SMBs from reaping the business benefits of social media as 78 percent of respondents reported that they use these tools to support research and competitive intelligence, improve customer service, drive public relations and marketing initiatives and directly generate revenue. Facebook is by far the most popular social media tool among SMBs: Sixty-nine percent of respondents reported that they have active accounts with this site, followed by Twitter (44 percent), YouTube (32 percent) and LinkedIn (23 percent).
Facebook was cited as the top culprit for companies that experienced malware infection (71.6 percent) and privacy violations (73.2 percent). YouTube took the second spot for malware infection (41.2 percent), while Twitter contributed to a significant amount of privacy violations (51 percent). For companies suffering financial losses from employee privacy violations, Facebook was again cited as the most common social media site where these losses occurred (62 percent), followed by Twitter (38 percent), YouTube (24 percent) and LinkedIn (11 percent).
To minimize the risks associated with social media, 57 percent of SMBs currently have a social media governance policy in place, with 81 percent of these companies employing personnel to actively enforce those policies. In addition, 64 percent of companies reported having formal training programs in place to educate employees on the risks and benefits of social media. The majority of respondents (62 percent) do not allow the personal use of social media at work. The most common disallowed social media activities include: Playing games (32 percent); publishing inappropriate content on social media sites (31 percent); and installing unapproved applications (25 percent). In addition, 25 percent of companies said that they actively block popular social media sites for employees, mainly via a gateway appliance (65 percent) and/or hosted Web security service (45 percent).
Comment from Sean-Paul Correll, threat researcher at Panda Security: Social media is now ubiquitous among SMBs because of its many obvious business benefits, yet these tools don't come without serious risks. In Panda's first annual Social Media Risk Index, we set out to uncover the top SMB concerns about social media and draw a correlation to actual incidence of malware infection, privacy violations and hard financial losses. While a relatively high number of SMBs have been infected by malware from social sites, we were pleased to see that the majority of companies already have formal governance and education programs in place. These types of policies combined with up to date network security solutions are required to minimize risk and ultimately prevent loss.
Survey respondents included individuals involved in setting and/or enforcing policies related to network activities at 315 SMBs within the United States.
Contact: A slideshow on the study's results is available at http://bit.ly/cD9wX4
Contact: http://www.pandasecurity.com/usa/
Private Clouds On The Horizon For Virtualization Users
Eighty-nine percent of respondents to a recent survey of more than 200 IT professionals at large enterprises said that private clouds as the next logical stop for organizations already using virtualization.
And 93 percent feel private cloud platforms should offer a management framework that can span a heterogeneous infrastructure.
In addition, 91 percent of survey respondents note concern about the inherent security risks public clouds present.
The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive and sponsored by Novell, which recently unveiled Cloud Manager, a solution that enables customers to create and securely manage a cloud computing environment as a seamless extension of existing data center resources.
Comment from Fred Broussard, research director, PC, Device and IT Service Management Software at IDC: The phenomenal adoption of virtualization technologies within the data center has solved many IT problems, but has also made it easy for rapid proliferation of individual virtual machines that consume the finite available physical resources at a very rapid pace. What today's changing IT environments demand is a practical solution that will help deliver on the promise of utility computing and attain the ROI benefits of virtualization - products that create and manage cloud environments by provisioning whole IT services, comprised of one or more workloads, in a controlled, secure and compliant way.
Contact: http://www.novell.com/cloudmanager
And 93 percent feel private cloud platforms should offer a management framework that can span a heterogeneous infrastructure.
In addition, 91 percent of survey respondents note concern about the inherent security risks public clouds present.
The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive and sponsored by Novell, which recently unveiled Cloud Manager, a solution that enables customers to create and securely manage a cloud computing environment as a seamless extension of existing data center resources.
Comment from Fred Broussard, research director, PC, Device and IT Service Management Software at IDC: The phenomenal adoption of virtualization technologies within the data center has solved many IT problems, but has also made it easy for rapid proliferation of individual virtual machines that consume the finite available physical resources at a very rapid pace. What today's changing IT environments demand is a practical solution that will help deliver on the promise of utility computing and attain the ROI benefits of virtualization - products that create and manage cloud environments by provisioning whole IT services, comprised of one or more workloads, in a controlled, secure and compliant way.
Contact: http://www.novell.com/cloudmanager
Social Webcast Technology Offers More Opportunities For Interaction, Networking
Seventy-seven percent of participants in a recent webcasting beta program said that a social webcast is either better or far better than other webcasts at providing increased opportunities for interaction and networking, while 80 percent feel that social networking tools within a webcast are “somewhat to very” important in webcasting today.
The survey, conducted by ON24, a provider of webcasting and virtual event solutions, polled webcast participants on their webcasting preferences and on the value of new interactive elements.
The survey found a preference for interactive elements in a webcast for the following reasons:
– Nearly half (49 percent) prefer social webcasts because they allow the viewers to tailor their own experiences.
– In addition, nearly half (48 percent) said that they make the content more interesting.
– Over 40 percent (43 percent) prefer the greater control over how webcast content is used.
– Other advantages: added entertainment value (32 percent) and an ability to share content with others (26 percent)
The features that the respondents liked best are:
– User controlled layout of the webcast (62 percent)
– Toolbar with additional functionality (52 percent)
– Social networking features (32 percent)
The respondents were also asked to indicate the event functions they actually used during their own social webcast experience. Cited most often were:
– Maximized the slides (69 percent)
– Changed the layout of the event (40 percent)
– Opened the Twitter feed (27 percent)
– Viewed the presenter's bio (25 percent)
Comments from ON24 CMO Denise Persson: The extensible, next-generation webcasting platform provides a new tool in the marketing cloud arsenal. This open platform offers the enhanced interactivity and custom options that we envisioned when developing social webcasting. We believed that these options would enhance engagement, and our customers and many industry analysts agreed with that assessment. Our primary objective with the beta program study was to confirm that belief – that attendees prefer a webcast that offers many widget-based choices for a more customized experience. The survey results have confirmed that loud and clear. A full 80 percent of the beta users said having social networking tools within a webcast to allow you to share and comment on the experience is important. Customers want increased interaction and social networking integration to make webcasts more engaging without distracting the attendee. The research shows that the so-called “distraction factor” is not an issue, as 86 percent of the respondents think that adding interactive elements to webcasts makes them more useful and interesting. This new cloud solution enables social webcasts today but will in the future enable a wide variety of third-party applications. The result will be even more applications for which webcasting can be used.
ON24's new webcasting platform is now available from ON24 direct sales and channel partners throughout the world.
Contact: http://www.ON24.com
The survey, conducted by ON24, a provider of webcasting and virtual event solutions, polled webcast participants on their webcasting preferences and on the value of new interactive elements.
The survey found a preference for interactive elements in a webcast for the following reasons:
– Nearly half (49 percent) prefer social webcasts because they allow the viewers to tailor their own experiences.
– In addition, nearly half (48 percent) said that they make the content more interesting.
– Over 40 percent (43 percent) prefer the greater control over how webcast content is used.
– Other advantages: added entertainment value (32 percent) and an ability to share content with others (26 percent)
The features that the respondents liked best are:
– User controlled layout of the webcast (62 percent)
– Toolbar with additional functionality (52 percent)
– Social networking features (32 percent)
The respondents were also asked to indicate the event functions they actually used during their own social webcast experience. Cited most often were:
– Maximized the slides (69 percent)
– Changed the layout of the event (40 percent)
– Opened the Twitter feed (27 percent)
– Viewed the presenter's bio (25 percent)
Comments from ON24 CMO Denise Persson: The extensible, next-generation webcasting platform provides a new tool in the marketing cloud arsenal. This open platform offers the enhanced interactivity and custom options that we envisioned when developing social webcasting. We believed that these options would enhance engagement, and our customers and many industry analysts agreed with that assessment. Our primary objective with the beta program study was to confirm that belief – that attendees prefer a webcast that offers many widget-based choices for a more customized experience. The survey results have confirmed that loud and clear. A full 80 percent of the beta users said having social networking tools within a webcast to allow you to share and comment on the experience is important. Customers want increased interaction and social networking integration to make webcasts more engaging without distracting the attendee. The research shows that the so-called “distraction factor” is not an issue, as 86 percent of the respondents think that adding interactive elements to webcasts makes them more useful and interesting. This new cloud solution enables social webcasts today but will in the future enable a wide variety of third-party applications. The result will be even more applications for which webcasting can be used.
ON24's new webcasting platform is now available from ON24 direct sales and channel partners throughout the world.
Contact: http://www.ON24.com
Failure To Protect Business-Critical Systems Costs European Organizations $22.3 Billion A Year
European organizations are collectively losing nearly $23 billion (EUR17 billion) in revenue each year from the time taken to recover from IT downtime, according to a report from CA Technologies.
That's the equivalent of 13.5 percent of the proposed EU budget for 2011. CA Technologies believes much of this considerable cost to business and the economy can be avoided through better data protection strategies that focus on the speed of data recovery.
The report illustrates that the financial losses associated with IT outages quickly escalate the longer organizations take to fix them.
The survey of 1,808 organizations across 11 European countries reveals that each suffers an average of 14 hours of IT downtime a year, which equates to almost 1 million hours across Europe.
Comment from Chris Ross, Vice President EMEA and Asia-Pacific, Recovery Management and Data Modeling Customer Solutions Unit, CA Technologies: The smooth running of IT is critical for many organizations in today's fragile economic climate and any degradation in service not only affects employee productivity, but also can be very visible to customers. With companies increasingly dependent on online services to generate revenue or provide an essential channel of customer communication, the financial impact of outages is becoming a critical issue. Fortunately, much of this cost is avoidable - organizations can tackle it through a re-evaluation of their disaster recovery strategy. Doing so could have a direct impact on their financial position and help them manage their emergence from the recession.
Contact: http://www.ca.com
Contact: For country variations in the report, see http://www.arcserve.com/emea/acd
That's the equivalent of 13.5 percent of the proposed EU budget for 2011. CA Technologies believes much of this considerable cost to business and the economy can be avoided through better data protection strategies that focus on the speed of data recovery.
The report illustrates that the financial losses associated with IT outages quickly escalate the longer organizations take to fix them.
The survey of 1,808 organizations across 11 European countries reveals that each suffers an average of 14 hours of IT downtime a year, which equates to almost 1 million hours across Europe.
Comment from Chris Ross, Vice President EMEA and Asia-Pacific, Recovery Management and Data Modeling Customer Solutions Unit, CA Technologies: The smooth running of IT is critical for many organizations in today's fragile economic climate and any degradation in service not only affects employee productivity, but also can be very visible to customers. With companies increasingly dependent on online services to generate revenue or provide an essential channel of customer communication, the financial impact of outages is becoming a critical issue. Fortunately, much of this cost is avoidable - organizations can tackle it through a re-evaluation of their disaster recovery strategy. Doing so could have a direct impact on their financial position and help them manage their emergence from the recession.
Contact: http://www.ca.com
Contact: For country variations in the report, see http://www.arcserve.com/emea/acd
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Comm Service Providers Face Major Obstacles To Realizing Telecom Potential
Communications service providers (CSPs) know there are a ton of opportunities for market growth and operating efficiencies, through better customer service delivery, network optimization and process automation, but they are less optimistic about being able to take advantage of them, according to new research.
The research surveyed executive and senior management from a range of CSPs from diverse geographies and across multiple service sectors including wireless, consumer broadband, and enterprise and wholesale.
While many were positive about the potential of new technologies and services to attract and retain customers, they were less confident about their ability to deal with increasing complexity.
Particular concerns included: how to manage services that span multiple providers' networks; intelligent mechanisms to offload booming wireless broadband traffic to fixed networks; and the limitations of CRM for understanding complex service/device/network information.
The research surveyed executive and senior management from a range of CSPs from diverse geographies and across multiple service sectors including wireless, consumer broadband, and enterprise and wholesale.
While many were positive about the potential of new technologies and services to attract and retain customers, they were less confident about their ability to deal with increasing complexity.
Particular concerns included: how to manage services that span multiple providers' networks; intelligent mechanisms to offload booming wireless broadband traffic to fixed networks; and the limitations of CRM for understanding complex service/device/network information.
Digital Marketers Adopt SaaS Almost Universally
Digital marketers are quickly adopting Software as a Service (SaaS) tools to rapidly manage and optimize their efforts, according to a new study.
In fact, 100 percent of those surveyed were using at least one Software-as-a-Service-based software tool as part of their day to day operations.
Some of the other key findings included:
– The top priorities for SaaS tools for digital marketers in 2011 are Web Content Management and Content Testing & Targeting: When asked which tools were being considered as an addition to their suite, 57 percent of marketers responded that Content Testing & Targeting was a top priority. Web Content Management placed second, with 43 percent saying it was a priority.
– Of all of the tools listed, Web Analytics had the highest percentage of penetration – with more than 90 percent of the respondents saying that their Web Analytics tool was delivered via a SaaS based model.
– Web Analytics and Web Content Management have the biggest impact on digital marketers' ability to manage their campaigns. 67 percent and 57 percent (respectively) of the respondents said that Web Analytics and WebContent Management were two SaaS based tools that had big impact on their ability to optimize their digital marketing strategy.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Cloud Services Move From On-Premise To On-Demand
Roughly 750,000 (12 percent) small businesses and 20,000 (24 percent) medium businesses are already using software as a service (SaaS). However, of today's SaaS users, 78 percent of SBs and 31 percent of MBs are leveraging a SaaS plus on-premise mix (or hybrid model), while approximately only a third of SaaS users are using an actual pure-SaaS product.
With an anticipated growth of up to $95 billion in global SMB cloud-related spending by 2014, it isn't a surprise to see over half of U.S. SMBs looking into SaaS as a potential solution.
Approximately one in five U.S. SMBs plan to use SaaS. However, AMI believes that SMBs are easing into the concept of local plus cloud-based computing rather than leapfrogging into a pure-play platform.
Almost two years since the downturn began, 77 percent of U.S. small businesses (1-99 employees) and 84 percent of U.S. medium businesses (100+ employees) very concerned with current market conditions. This marks a 31 percent and 81 percent year-over-year increase, respectively.
The data comes from AMI's latest worldwide SMB Cloud Services Practice.
Enterprises Need Help With Virtual Infrastructure Management
Managing the ever-growing virtual infrastructure has become a key concern as organizations virtualize an increasing percentage of their production environment. Issues such as capacity planning, performance and troubleshooting are consuming significant resources as enterprises continue to further leverage virtualization.
These are among the key findings of a survey conducted at VMWorld.
Fifty-three percent of respondents noted that at least half of their business critical applications will be virtualized by the end of this year. This translates into a 17 percent increase from current utilization, showing the rapid rate of virtualization adoption by the enterprise. Beyond adoption of just the virtual infrastructure (hypervisors), respondents listed their top two areas of investment over the next six months as 'virtual storage' and 'virtual management tools.' They further cited performance, security and auditing/reporting as the major reasons for looking for virtual management tools, in addition to those tools provided by the hypervisor vendors.
The survey of 300 enterprise IT managers was conducted by Reflex Systems, a provider of virtualization systems management solutions that integrate security, compliance, audit and management of the virtual environment.
Only 14% Of Companies Have Virtualized Mission-Critical Applications
There is a significant gap in the pace of adoption of virtualization for non-critical systems versus mission-critical systems, according to a poll of company executives.
In particular, the results show that the majority of companies have yet to move Tier 1, mission-critical applications to virtual environments. Despite widely acknowledging the benefits of virtualization, most companies noted that they need more evidence that mission-critical applications will succeed in virtual environments.
While 83 percent report they have virtualized their non-critical applications and systems, in stark contrast, only 14 percent of respondents reported that they have fully virtualized "Tier 1" applications. With regard to those mission-critical applications, respondents said they were 50 percent more likely to virtualize applications used by employees than to virtualize the applications that directly interact with customers.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Security Is Numero Uno Business Objective Among VM Firms
You’d better pay attention to this, cloud cowboys!
Seventy-seven percent of VM firms have security intensive environments with more than 90 percent of workloads requiring protection, Altor Networks found in a survey.
Despite moving forward with virtualization, survey participants acknowledged they are mixing workloads of varying importance on the same virtual machine hosts and that their efforts to secure them would benefit greatly from solutions that bridge the gap between physical and virtual security.
More than 70 percent are mixing workloads on the same hosts and well over a third believe that the best way to secure them is with solutions that unify physical and virtual network management constructs into a single view.
The survey was conducted among 200 companies at VMWorld by Altor Networks, a provider of security for virtualized data centers and clouds, with Juniper Networks.
Cloud Computing Will Replace Social Networks As # 2 Cyberthreat In 2 Years
Hey folks, this is serious!
C-level executives and security practitioners believe that the top three computing sources that present the greatest threat to information security today are mobile computing (69%), social networks (68%) and cloud computing platforms (35%), according to a new survey.
While 65 percent of respondents believe mobile computing will remain the top threat for the next two years, 62 percent believe that over this same two-year period cloud computing will replace social networks as the second riskiest computing environment. Furthermore, the survey revealed that respondents plan to buy more firewalls than any other primary IT security solution by the end of 2010.
The survey by FishNet Security polled IT employees from over 450 Fortune 1000 enterprises via an independent online service.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)