Symantec reveals top security and storage predictions for 2011

Symantec Corp. announces its security and storage predictions for 2011 based on what its security and storage experts are observing in the information protection landscape.  Today’s organisations are overloaded with information as data grows exponentially.  Almost daily, a new technology is either announced or brought to market with the promise of making the cost of doing business lower, more convenient and timelier.

 

“Given today’s stagnant and declining IT budgets, it’s imperative that organisations achieve more value from their IT spending,” said Steve Morton, vice president, enterprise product marketing, Symantec. “By understanding challenges, risks and threats, organisations can plan and implement strategic technology initiatives such as virtualisation, mobile security, encryption, backup and recovery, archiving and cloud computing to protect and manage their information more efficiently.”

 

As technologies become smarter and faster, the threats to these technological assets follow suit, says Symantec.  For example, the exponential consumer adoption of smart mobile devices will increasingly result in these devices making their way into enterprises through the back door, blurring the lines between business and personal use, and driving new IT security models to market in 2011.

 

Analyst firm IDC estimates that by year’s end new mobile device shipments will have increased by 55%, and Gartner projects that in the same timeframe, 1.2 billion people will be using mobile phones capable of rich Web connectivity.  Although cyber criminals have shown little interest in mobile devices in the past, as devices grow more sophisticated and as a handful of mobile platforms corner the market, it is inevitable that attackers will target mobile devices in 2011 and that mobile devices will continue to grow as a source of confidential data loss.

 

A similar challenge exists with the widespread adoption of virtualisation.  Although many companies believe the information and applications within their virtual infrastructure are protected, many IT administrators will face the harsh reality that they are not in 2011.  The rapid adoption, fragmented implementation and lack of standardisation of virtual infrastructures will continue to expose gaps in the security, backup and high availability of virtual environments.  Although virtualisation decreases server costs, organisations are realizing that virtualisation is simultaneously increasing management and storage costs, and without a plan to protect these environments, they may not realise the full return on investment.

 

The exponential level of data growth is impeding organisations’ ability to effectively manage and recover data.  In 2011, storage administrators must regain control of information, lose their “pack-rat” mentality and categorise what information is most important for retention purposes.  Otherwise, storage costs will continue to skyrocket, and organisations will face extensive recovery times and be unable to comply with regulatory compliance standards, including privacy laws, and e-Discovery.

 

Adding to the complexity is the use of social media to improve communication and productivity throughout an organisation.  Although social media will continue to change the way we collaborate in 2011, IT organisations will also need to understand how to protect and manage these non-standard applications for recovery and discovery of business information that is communicated in these channels.  Social media archiving will grow in importance as companies unleash the power of social business but maintain archiving as a form of control to reduce information risk.

 

Additionally, as data goes “mobile” and becomes less centralised, regulators will start cracking down in 2011, which will drive organisations to increasingly implement encryption technologies, particularly for mobile devices.