Zscaler has revealed the findings of The Necessity Of Cloud-Delivered Integrated Security Platforms, a 2015 commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting, which uncovered that security experts overwhelmingly believe that security should be delivered as a platform, and that cloud-delivered security offers better protection at a lower cost than traditional on-premise security appliances.
Overwhelmingly, 98 percent of security professionals who participated in the study said that integrated security platforms would be effective to both improve their security posture and to reduce overall costs. 82 percent indicated that they are seeking advanced security capabilities they can launch within the year. They also indicated strong preferences for crowd-sourcing and machine learning, which require the big data captured by cloud-based security platforms to be effective.
“As organisations focus on required processes and technologies to secure confidential information, they often express dismay with the multitude of point solutions and the number of appliances in their security portfolio,” noted the study. “The resulting needs of security professionals are loud and clear: simple and powerful ways to protect data without the proliferation of appliances. These are the hallmarks of integrated, cloud-delivered security.”
With a rise in scrutiny from customers amid a recent swell of cyber attacks, CISOs have become protectors of both sensitive data and their company’s brand. This has proven to be a difficult task in a time of fast-paced technological advances that have left traditional appliance-based safeguards behind.
“I believe that the new study results overwhelmingly indicate that the traditional security industry is out of touch with the needs of today’s security professionals,” said Jay Chaudhry, CEO at Zscaler. “98 percent say they want security as a platform, but security vendors continue to deliver point solutions. They recognise that cloud-delivered security both reduces costs and provides better protection, but the vendors are still cranking out appliances. It’s like a case study for the Innovator’s dilemma – and makes it easy to understand why Zscaler’s cloud-delivered Internet security platform is gaining such rapid adoption.”
As part of the study, which was conducted on behalf of Zscaler, Forrester conducted an in-depth survey of 130 US IT security or strategy decision-makers at firms with at least $250 million in annual revenue. Key findings include:
