Overview: 

It’s been a long time coming, but the indications are that security and information protection are finally within spitting distance of getting the mindshare they merit, based on the only metric that really matters: Cash on the barrelhead.

In volume 1 of our ground-breaking benchmark, "Security and Information Protection: Trends and Organizational Issues", we highlight the acceleration in spending on security and information protection, discuss critical drivers, and drill down into the organizational and operational impacts. Security budgets have grown another 20% since our last benchmark (in 2005), and indications are that double-digit growth will continue through 2008 and beyond. Moreover, that growth is increasingly shifting away from consultants and staff and toward products and services—good news for vendors and providers. Security organizations are evolving as well, with the most significant trend being the shift in focus from “chief security officer” to “chief risk mitigation officer,” mirroring the overall organizational shift in focus from security to risk mitigation. In line with this shift, security teams are picking up responsibility for areas they don’t historically support (such as business continuance and facilities) but which, if not well managed, can increase an organization’s risk. And security remains a great career path: along with this increased responsibility comes a welcome (and sustained) increase in salary.

In our upcoming volumes, we drill down into the specifics. In Volume 2, “Security and Information Protection: Vendors and Technologies,” we discuss key shifts in technology, and provide ratings for vendors of security products and services.

In Volume 3, “Security and Information Protection: Data and Systems Security,” we discuss critical technologies including network access control (NAC), data and storage security best practices, and trends and directions in compliance, patching and security event management. We also assess how emerging technologies like virtualization are affecting, and being affected by, next-generation security architectures.

Finally, in Volume 4, “Security and Information Protection: Network and Communications Security,” we address emerging security issues including mobility, intrusion protection/detection, WAN security and service-oriented architecture (SOA)/Web services security.

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