IT Managers Sweat Security

Security is leading data center concerns, according to several new reports, and that's putting unprecedented stress on IT managers.

In a survey of 354 IT decision makers in the U.S. conducted by research firm Websense Inc. (Nasdaq: WBSN), a quarter of respondents said protecting their company against security threats, such as viruses and spyware, is more stressful then a minor car accident.

Where once IT managers had to resort to scare tactics in order to get management to take security issues seriously, it seems high-profile breaches at ChoicePoint, LexisNexis, and elsewhere are forcing IT into the hot seat (see Harum Scarum! and Don't Be a Data Privacy Dunce).

Now, instead of worrying about convincing the board to use tighter security, ITers are facing job threats. Nearly half of Websense respondents said that losing intellectual property following a security breach could put their jobs on the line (see Websense Reports on Security Stress). They reported the main security threats to their job stability as the following:

Among specific threats identified by the IT managers was spyware. Some 65 percent of those surveyed confirmed that spyware has caused problems for their company in the past year.Spyware, which embeds itself into a host computer and drags down performance of both the computer and the network, has become a growing cause for concern in enterprise IT departments. This is due, in no small part, to the fact that spyware can be difficult to detect (see Spyware Blitz Spawns New Market and Spyware Spending Spree).

Against this backdrop of IT uncertainty, vendors of specialized security products are rubbing their hands in glee. A study also released today by Synergy Research Group Inc. revealed that the total U.S. network security market grew 7 percent sequentially in the first quarter of 2005 and 19 percent over the same period last year (see SRG: Security Market Up 19%).

The biggest growth area is currently the SSL VPN space, with sales up 58 percent year-over-year. The market share leader in this space, according to Synergy, is Juniper Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: JNPR), which experienced 11 percent sequential growth between the last quarter of 2004 and the first quarter of 2005.

SSL VPN technology forms a key part of Junipers recently launched Enterprise Infranet initiative, which is a direct competitor to Cisco Systems Inc.’s (Nasdaq: CSCO) Network Admission Control (NAC) program (see Juniper Infranets the Enterprise).

Another study, released yesterday by Infonetics Research Inc., says worldwide network security appliance and software revenue was up 5 percent between the last quarter of 2004 and the first quarter of 2005, and the firm forecasts it to grow 27 percent to $1.3 billion in the first quarter of 2006. Total annual revenue is expected to grow to $6.5 billion by 2008, according to Infonetics.— James Rogers, Site Editor, Next-Gen Data Center Forum