Systems and Security Management: A Survey of Mid-market Organizational Readiness
Introduction
The complexity of managing end-node (desktop and laptop) computers has skyrocketed, security breaches pose ever greater threats to businesses, and IT organizations are continually under pressure to keep costs down and service levels up. There are a plethora of tools available that claim to help IT departments with these challenges, so much so that learning and using these tools effectively has become a major challenge for IT organizations – particularly those in mid-sized companies with limited staffing resources.
The following report is based on a survey of IT professionals conducted in February 2007. The goal of the survey was to gather data on their approach to unifying systems and security management including the perceived need for integrated end-node systems and security management, types of management tools in use, the current state of security readiness, and the personal consequences of security issues.
Summary of Findings
The majority of mid-market IT professionals, 73%, are concerned that they may lose their job in the event of a major security breach.
62% of participants who are personally responsible for IT security report that responsibility for affects them in a personal way by causing them to worry about security issues outside working hours, giving up personal time to deal with security issues, or both.
Systems management activities are applied inconsistently in the security strategies of most mid-market companies. Only 35% of participants included end-node vulnerability scanning, although 81% included patch management as part of their security strategy.
Most IT organizations, 87%, are confident in their ability to deal with viruses, spam, spyware and malware, but very few, 35%, feel they are equipped to deal with lost corporate or personal data.
Mid-market IT organizations report a large number of disparate user-interfaces (six on average) in use for systems and security management which creates challenges in learning and using the tools effectively.
Use of an integrated end-node systems and security management tool is perceived as useful by mid-market IT teams, with 69% of participants citing increased efficiency as the most important benefit.
