MDM, DLP To Bite Into Major Chunk Of 2013 Security Budgets

TheInfoPro, a service of 451 Research, released its latest information security study, indicating strong budgets for security projects in 2013. Conducted during the second half of 2012, TheInfoPro study identifies key initiatives of senior information security managers and examines market factors and major players. This annual study is based on extensive live interviews with security professionals and primary decision-makers at large and midsize enterprises in North America and Europe.

Highlights from the TheInfoPro Information Security Study include:

Buoyed largely by budget increases at large North American enterprises, security budgets experienced a significant gain between 2011 and 2012 with 45 percent of respondents noting an increased budget for security projects and personnel.

Top projects looking to gain a share of increased budget allocations include mobile device management (MDM), endpoint and network data leakage prevention (DLP), and application-aware firewall implementations.

The combined effects of IT consumerisation and the Bring Your Own Device trends have driven Mobile Device Security to take over the top slot as the key pain point for security managers in 2012, going from 11 percent of responses in 2011 to 15 percent in 2012.

Application-aware firewalls continue to be one of the hottest technologies in the network security category – 8 percent of respondent implementation is planned for within six months, with another 14 percent having longer term plans penciled in.

Driven by a constant drumbeat of customer data breaches, Endpoint DLP continues to be a top project, with 10 percent of respondents reporting short term implementation plans.

“47 percent of security managers we interviewed noted a planned budget increase between 2012 and 2013 with only 8 percent constricting their spending,” said Daniel Kennedy, TheInfoPro’s Research Director for Information Security. “Securing employee owned mobile devices is the chief headache for security managers, and 2013 will be a key year for mobile device management implementations – 20 percent of enterprises report projects underway within the next six months, with another 9 percent planning implementations in the longer term.”