Features - Enterprise Data Insights:

AFCOM SURVEY SHOWS DATA CENTERS BOOST INFO SECURITY MEASURES

Constant terror alerts, the war in Iraq and a host of cybersecurity threats have made information security a major priority for the nation's largest data centers, according to a new study by AFCOM's Data Center Institute (DCI). The survey conducted in earlier this year among 257 senior data center managers, shows interesting trends in security budgets, practices, and organizational structures.

Key findings:

• Cyberdefense issues remain extremely important for 71.2% of the surveyed organizations. Almost one-third of the surveyed organizations experienced a cyber-attack in the last year, and 7.3% of the respondents said it was successful. Although most organizations (68.9%) allocate 3%-8% of their IT budget to information security, a hefty 16.3% allocate 9%-20% and more for their security needs.
• Surprisingly, given the government's increased emphasis on homeland security measures, manufacturing organizations spend more on Information Security than government agencies. In the $1 million budget category Manufacturing organizations have a 21% share, followed by Transportation/Utilities (17%), Insurance/Real Estate and Financial/Accounting (13% each). Banking, Data Processing Services and Federal Government allocated 8% each.
• Security expenditures are increasing, despite economic uncertainties. Almost half of the surveyed organizations, or 47.9%, hiked their security budgets between 5% and 15%. Thirty-four percent of the respondents say the budgets stayed the same. Most respondents (63%) say their organizations are going to spend $100,000-250,000 on information security this year, while 36.9% plan to allocate between $250,000 and $1 million.
• Virus attacks and unauthorized access are the main security concerns. Over 98% of the respondents say their organizations deploy anti-virus solutions and firewall, while 89.1% have card-key access, 75.9% maintain Virtual Private Networks, 58.8% install intrusion detection devices, and 5.1% - biometrics solutions.

According to Jill Eckhaus, president of AFCOM, "The survey shows that data center managers have a definite focus on information security issues. We at AFCOM will make a special effort to help our members adopt the best practices aimed at protecting their organizations' IT infrastructure. The DCI, our think-tank, will continue to provide insights and information on key trends in this field."

The DCI was formed by AFCOM, the leading membership organization for enterprise data center managers, and is comprised of a select group of enterprise vendors and senior data center managers, including Allen Systems Group, BMC Software, Computer Associates, Cybermation, Sun Microsystems, Imation, and senior data center managers from Cooper Tools and Illinois Power. Detailed results of the survey and demographic information can be downloaded from www.afcom.com.