IT is all in the clouds

Latest figures from Gartner reveal that demand for cloud-based security services is set to triple in the next three years.

Demand for cloud-based computing services is set to triple in the security space, according to a report from Gartner.

The analyst claimed that cloud-based services currently account for 20 percent of messaging security control revenue in 2008, but by 2013 cloud-based services will account for 60 percent of revenue.

As time progresses, more mobile IT users will bypass the corporate network to access business data and services, increasing the need for enterprises to place security controls between mobile users and cloud-based services.

Kelly Kavanagh, principal analyst at Gartner, said: “The ability to provide massively scalable processing, storage and bandwidth inherent in cloud computing will require security controls and functions to be delivered to customers in new ways and by new service providers. It also will allow security technologies and techniques that are cost-effective to be used only with cloud-style computing.”

John Pescatore, vice president at Gartner said: “Although perimeter security controls will be required to protect the remaining data center functions and the large portions of enterprise populations that are not mobile, new approaches will be needed to secure cloud-based IT services."

"One answer will be cloud-enabled security 'proxies' whereby all access to approved cloud-based IT services will be required to flow through cloud-based security services that enforce authentication, data loss prevention, intrusion prevention, network access control, vulnerability management and so on."

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