Symantec Reveals Top Security and Storage Predictions for 2011; Cloud, Virtualization, Mobile Security and Social Media Predicted To Take Center Stage in the New Year

Dubai, UAE. - Dec. 12, 2010- Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced its security and storage predictions for 2011 based on what its security and storage experts are observing in the information protection landscape.  Today's organizations 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 more timely. 

“Given today's stagnant and declining IT budgets, it's imperative that organizations achieve more value from their IT spending,” said Johnny Karam, Regional Director for Middle East and North Africa, Symantec. “By understanding challenges, risks and threats, organizations can plan and implement strategic technology initiatives such as virtualization, mobile security, encryption, backup and recovery, archiving and cloud computing to protect and manage their information more efficiently.”
Click to Tweet: Symantec predictions for 2011: Cloud, virtualization, mobile security and social media to take center stage http://bit.ly/ibGkcr 
New Technologies, New Challenges
As technologies become smarter and faster, the threats to these technological assets follow suit.  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 percent, 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.
Gap in Virtual Machine Protection
A similar challenge exists with the widespread adoption of virtualization.  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 standardization of virtual infrastructures will continue to expose gaps in the security, backup and high availability of virtual environments.  Although virtualization decreases server costs, organizations are realizing that virtualization is simultaneously increasing management and storage costs, and without a plan to protect these environments, they may not realize the full return on investment.
Taking Control of Information
The exponential level of data growth is impeding organizations' ability to effectively manage and recover data.  In 2011, storage administrators must regain control of information, lose their “pack-rat” mentality and categorize what information is most important for retention purposes.  Otherwise, storage costs will continue to skyrocket, and organizations 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 organization.  Although social media will continue to change the way we collaborate in 2011, IT organizations 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 centralized, regulators will start cracking down in 2011, which will drive organizations to increasingly implement encryption technologies, particularly for mobile devices.
The Next Generation Data Center of 2011
As organizations continue to manage with limited resources in 2011 while facing more intelligent and specific threats, IT will take a more strategic and innovative approach to solving problems.  While software will continue to drive innovation, 2011 will bring new delivery models in response to customers' need to ease IT operations.  Cloud computing, hosted services and appliances are examples of increasingly attractive delivery models that will change the landscape of today's data center by providing organizations with flexibility and ease of deployment.
Organizations will leverage public and private clouds as they become highly available in the coming year.  Tools will also emerge to manage this new, complex storage environment and to help IT administrators better understand and capture information about unstructured data that resides within it.  This will allow IT to fully utilize the benefits of the cloud and intelligently report to management.  While customers opt to take advantage of cloud messaging services, they are still finding that they can drive greater cost out of the discovery process by keeping their archives in-house.  This hybrid cloud archiving model allows organizations to use hosted messaging services while keeping their archives on-premise. This way they can combine email with other on-premise content sources like PSTs, IM and SharePoint that are relevant to the discovery process. 
Multimedia

• Video: 2011 Trend Predictions from Symantec
• Podcast: Internet Security Predictions

Resources

• Blog Post: Internet Security Predictions for 2011: The Shape of Things to Come
• SlideShare Presentation: Internet Security Predictions for 2011
• Survey: Symantec Internet Security Predictions for 2011
• 2010 Critical Infrastructure Protection Study
• 2010 Disaster Recovery Study
• 2010 Information Management Survey
• 2010 Ponemon Encryption Trends
• 2010 State of Enterprise Security Report
• 2010 State of the Data Center Report
• Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), Volume XV
• Trojan.Hydraq Overview
• Mocana's Mobile & Smart Device Security Survey 2010: Concern Grows as Vulnerable Devices Proliferate, Smartphones are the Tip of the Iceberg (PDF)
• Stuxnet Dossier (PDF)

Related

• Symantec Data Protection Solutions
• Symantec Disaster Recovery Solutions
• Symantec High Availability Solutions
• Symantec Secure Information
• Symantec Security Management
• Symantec Storage Management
• Symantec Virtualization Management Solutions
• Symantec Web Security

Connect with Symantec

• Follow Symantec on Twitter
• Join Symantec on Facebook
• Read Industry Trend Resources on Delicious
• Visit Symantec Connect Business Community

About Symantec
Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help consumers and organizations secure and manage their information-driven world.  Our software and services protect against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently, enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored. More information is available at www.symantec.com.

Juniper Networks Announces Acquisition of Altor Networks; Extends Juniper’s Leadership Position in Security to Virtualized Data Centers

Dubai, UAE., Dec. 9, 2010 – Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR) today announced it has acquired Altor Networks, a leading provider of virtualization security technology that enables organizations to secure the virtualized world.  This acquisition will allow Juniper to extend its market-leading security position by delivering an integrated, highly-scalable security architecture that protects physical and virtual systems. Under the terms of the agreement, Juniper acquired Altor for a cash purchase price of approximately $95 million, net of Altor shares already owned by Juniper.

The acquisition builds on Juniper’s existing technology partnership with Altor and will extend Juniper’s leadership in security for both the enterprise and service provider virtualization markets.  As organizations rely more on virtual servers for critical applications, concern around server security in the cloud has increased.  Altor has developed some of the industry’s most advanced capabilities to address this challenge, including a high-performance hypervisor-based firewall, on-board intrusion detection, complete network visibility and monitoring and comprehensive reporting for compliance.  Altor’s solution enables security visibility, compliance and control over the entire virtual machine infrastructure, giving security teams’ visibility to understand the applications, services and traffic being sent between virtual machines.

Virtualization technology enables multiple virtual machines to run on a single physical host, with each virtual machine sharing the resources of that hardware across multiple environments.  An increasing number of enterprises have virtualization technology deployed in some portion of their data center, with that number expected to increase, according to a recent study by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG).¹

“Juniper is excited to acquire one of the industry’s leading virtualization security vendors and the extremely talented team that built it,” said Mark Bauhaus, executive vice president and general manager, Service Layer Technologies at Juniper Networks.  “This acquisition will extend our leadership in data center and cloud security and will enable customers to deploy a consistent set of security services across their physical and virtual infrastructure, while delivering lowest total cost of ownership.”

“Altor has led the virtualization security market in innovation, defense-in-depth and performance,” said Amir Ben-Efraim, CEO and co-founder of Altor Networks. “Today, we join forces with Juniper, which shares a common vision for securing data centers and the cloud, and together we look forward to extending our leadership in the VM security market.  We are excited about the opportunity to leverage Juniper’s world-class organization and market-leading products to deliver tightly integrated, feature-rich security solutions to customers.”

Altor Networks was founded in 2007 by security and networking experts from some of the industry’s leading vendors.  In early 2010, Juniper Networks made a venture investment in the company.

The transaction closed on December 6, 2010.

§  Juniper Security portal — www.juniper.net/security

§  The Network Ahead blog — www.juniper.net/networkahead

§  Juniper.Net Community — www.juniper.net/community

1)       Enterprise Strategy Group, “The Evolution of Server Virtualization,” November 2010.

About Altor Networks

Altor Networks is the leading innovator and provider of security for virtual data centers and in the cloud. The company developed the world’s first purpose-built firewall for virtual networks and has continued to embed multiple layers of protections including on-board intrusion detection (IDS). Altor’s virtualization security solutions are currently protecting some of the world’s most demanding virtual environments, including federal, state and local governments, and well-known service providers, universities and retailers. Founded in 2007 by security and networking experts from some of the industry’s leading vendors, Altor Networks is headquartered in Redwood Shores, California. For more information, visit www.altornetworks.com.

About Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks is in the business of network innovation. From devices to data centers, from consumers to cloud providers, Juniper Networks delivers the software, silicon and systems that transform the experience and economics of networking. The company serves customers and partners worldwide, generating revenues exceeding $3 billion over the last year. Additional information can be found at Juniper Networks (www.juniper.net). 

Fujitsu Research Reveals One-size Data Privacy Rules Do Not Fit All; Respondents from 12 diverse countries indicate how governments and businesses must respond to local attitudes to achieve the benefits of cloud computing while minimizing its pitfalls

Dubai, UAE, December 8, 2010 – Fujitsu has released its global research report ‘Personal Data in the Cloud: The Importance of Trust.’ The report finds that trust will be the key to unlocking the personal data needed to realize the future benefits of cloud computing, but the degree to which governments and businesses are trusted to look after personal data varies greatly from country to country.

This variance was explained by two factors; the complex nature of trust (whether people will rely on something they don’t trust), and the different attitudes to cloud computing of ‘advocates’, ‘objectors’, and by far the largest group, ‘fence-sitters’.

Under its banner ‘Shaping tomorrow with You’, Fujitsu commissioned the research to help its public and private sector customers to navigate towards realizing the wider social and business benefits of cloud computing, while gaining citizen and consumer trust with regards to data privacy.

The research, polling 6,000 people in 12 countries across the globe [1], investigated the extent to which consumers do – or often don’t – trust governments and large corporations to protect their privacy. The resulting report is designed to help these data-privacy stakeholders to understand the roots of divergent, and sometimes mutually exclusive public attitudes about who they trust, and what data security role consumers expect stakeholders to take. These roles, ranging from ‘keep out!’ all the way up to ‘play a role in connecting data,’ for example in sharing data for social purposes, such as in controlling traffic flow, or promoting public health, are summarized in the chart: Recommended Stakeholder Roles in Ensuring Data Privacy (page 35).

The 46 percent of total respondents found to be fence-sitters may well hold the key to cloud computing adoption rates in the future. They are pulled in two directions: positive about the benefits of cloud computing, but concerned about data privacy.

Farid Al-Sabbagh, Managing Director – Middle East, Fujitsu Technology Solutions explains, “With such divergent attitudes to the benefits and risks of cloud computing, there is no one strategic approach to data privacy that will work for public and private sector organizations everywhere. This research helps stakeholders to take a reading in their markets today, and so develop an appropriate response. Successful data privacy strategies will focus on winning over the fence-sitters, converting them into advocates by communicating the benefits even more clearly and by allaying their fears.” ‘Personal Data in the Cloud: The Importance of Trust’ was released at the Fujitsu VISIT Forum Europe 2010 in Munich.

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The second in a series, this report delves deeper into the findings of the recently published ‘Personal Data in the Cloud: A Global Survey of Consumer Attitudes’ to better understand common global trends such as substantial consumer fears over data privacy, coupled with an unwillingness to take measures to protect their data or trust organizations and governments to look after it. Consumers also saw the potential benefits of sharing their data, but the degree to which they were willing to trade off the benefits and risks varied depending on age, gender and nationality. The next two reports in the series will be practical ‘navigation’ guides for the private sector and for governments.

Cloud computing and other trends such as off-the-rack software and Generation-Y attitudes towards social networking and social responsibility are changing the landscape for IT and business decisions.  Fujitsu has identified nine technological trends expected to have a lasting impact on the way companies do business. Please see Fujitsu’s Technology Perspectives website, launched today, for a continuing development on this theme at: http://www.technology-perspectives.com.

For further information, please see:

http://blog.ts.fujitsu.com/

http://www.twitter.com/Fujitsu_TS

http://www.facebook.com/face2fujitsu

[1]About the report: ‘Personal Data in the Cloud: The Importance of Trust’ The report was commissioned by Fujitsu Research Institute and produced by Fujitsu Global Business Group (part of Fujitsu Limited). It is based on data compiled as a result of a market research project undertaken by ORC International Limited on behalf of Fujitsu Global Business Group.

The research was conducted from June to September 2010 using online bulletin boards, focus groups and quantitative research. Participants from Australia, Germany, Japan, Singapore, the UK, the USA, Canada, India, China, Brazil, Finland and Switzerland were screened to ensure a broad sample in terms of age and gender. There were 500 respondents from each country for the online quantitative research – 6,000 in total.

This is the second in a series of reports. The first "Personal Data in the Cloud: A Global Research of Consumer Attitudes" was published on October 27, 2010.

About Fujitsu
Fujitsu is a leading provider of ICT-based business solutions for the global marketplace. With approximately 170,000 employees supporting customers in 70 countries, Fujitsu combines a worldwide corps of systems and services experts with highly reliable computing and communications products and advanced microelectronics to deliver added value to customers. Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.6 trillion yen (US$50 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2010. For more information, please see: www.fujitsu.com

About Fujitsu Technology Solutions

Fujitsu Technology Solutions is the leading European IT infrastructure provider with a presence in all key markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, plus India, serving large-, medium- and small-sized companies as well as consumers. With its Dynamic Infrastructures approach, the company offers a full portfolio of IT products, solutions and services, ranging from clients to datacenter solutions, Managed Infrastructure and Infrastructure-as-a-Service. Fujitsu Technology Solutions employs more than 13,000 people and is part of the global Fujitsu Group. For more information, please see: ts.fujitsu.com/aboutus.

Lack of Skills the Biggest Challenge facing GCC Organizations

Dubai, UAE – Sept. 20, 2010 – A new study has shown that a lack of skills is the biggest challenge CIOs in the GCC face, both internally as well as within their partner ecosystem, when it comes to increasing investment in IT security and storage.

Respondents in the Symantec-sponsored IDC Study revealed that skills were also rated the most important consideration when choosing a partner to work with. According to the results, lack of skills was not only an internal challenge, but was also seen as a problem with partners and other solution providers in the region. A common view held by CIOs was that generally vendors had sales offices in the Gulf and lacked suitably skilled staff to advise customers, implement solutions and support users.

The study also showed that spending on IT security by organizations in the GCC remained robust – the study highlighted a distinct increase in IT budgets compared to 2009. The findings also indicated that only critical projects requiring minimum expenditure with minimum risk would get the green light in 2010. The majority of respondents (excluding the government sector) said they had been severely affected by the recession and as such indicated reprioritized efforts, with new initiatives focusing squarely on business value and cost savings.

“The study has identified that  regulatory compliance is also a concern for GCC corporations,” said Ranjit Rajan, research director at IDC MEA. “Over 90% of CIOs have currently invested or are planning to invest in governance, risk and compliance solutions highlighting regulatory compliance as a major driver of security and storage investment.”

According to the study, cloud computing was being considered by 62% of respondents, however concerns around data ownership, security and regulatory compliance together with poor connectivity infrastructure would restrict its uptake over the medium term. “The research has shown that business applications less likely to move to a cloud environment as opposed to web applications that are most likely to be deployed on a public cloud environment,” added Johnny Karam, MENA regional director at Symantec.

The findings of the study, which focused on IT Security and Storage priorities and challenges in the GCC, was conducted by IDC  and sponsored by Symantec Corp. The results were disclosed by Ranjit Rajan, research director at IDC Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Johnny Karam, MENA regional director,at Symantec, at a press conference held today in Dubai.

For further details on this study, please contact rachel.watts@theportsmouthgroup.com or Ibrahim.asran@theportsmouthgroup.com or call +971 4 369 3575.