Businesses told to improve efficiency
Analyst report claims that firms need more security processes, not just more security
High levels of IT efficiency could help to reduce the IT security spending of businesses by up to four per cent by the end of 2008, according to the latest Gartner research.
The analyst defined businesses with high-level IT efficiency as those that have achieved IT security practice maturity, such as creating policies. However, Gartner also found that businesses with relatively low levels of IT efficiency, or those which under invest in defining security policies, could spend upwards of eight per cent of their IT budget on security.
Rich Mogull, research vice-president at Gartner, said in the research study: “The message to be conveyed is not that we need more security, but rather we need more security process. Security now has executive attention and we need to treat it like a business issue, not just a technology problem.”
Gartner said that the technology now exists to solve most business information security problems. However, he claimed that an effective and efficient implementation of the technology was crucial to enable resources to be focused on new security threats.
“Compliance with government and industry regulations is now playing a significant role in security spending decisions,” Mogull added.
Darren Lewitt, divisional director at distributor Midwich, told CRN that businesses should be spending more on IT security. But he stressed that security software should not be the only element of an IT security strategy.
“Security of IT hardware is also an important part of businesses’ overall IT security strategy,” he said. “Businesses should think of this alongside their security software.”
Last week, Gartner also released a document designed to provide business executives with support on how to allocate their security budgets.