Predictions 2017 – Security, Networking and Cloud

Public and private sector organisations face a multitude of data security challenges in 2017 and many will have to be smarter in how they marshal scarce resources to maintain effective defences and prove regulatory compliance.

Unlocking the intelligence embedded in new technology like cognitive computing and machine learning will help to alleviate the growing security management burden by automating data security processes and identifying vulnerabilities in current systems and policies.

Better and more timely sharing of threat intelligence between end user organisations and their peers, suppliers and crime fighting agencies will also help to predict where attacks are likely to occur before they happen, providing IT departments with vital clues on where to look for malware and hacking activity and neutralise its threat before it has a chance to strike.

The cloud will play an increasingly bigger role in hosting managed security services and providers will also utilise virtualised network infrastructure as a cost effective platform for on-premise data security application delivery.

This is what we expect in 2017:

• High profile data security incidents affecting government and enterprise systems will drive high levels of spending on security services, hardware and software. But IT departments will be more discerning in what they buy and more will look to outsource and automate security provision wherever possible.

• Suppliers will make data security tools available as cloud-native services to optimise scale, performance and cost efficiency. The cybersecurity skills gap will not be solved in the short term, and enterprises will rely on third party consultancies and professional services divisions to implement UK and EU data protection policies and compliance frameworks.

• Software defined wide area network (SD-WAN) services will drive network functions virtualisation (NFV) technology into the enterprise as organisations look to cut connectivity bills. Network service providers will use SD-WAN to build an initial platform for additional virtualised application and service delivery beyond on-demand bandwidth that cuts their own opex whilst providing a platform for future upselling.

• The Internet of Things (IoT) will expand to embrace a growing array of consumer devices, notably in the healthcare and automotive industries. Suppliers will have to work hard to wrest control of the IoT ecosystem (and the customer) away from manufacturers and mobile operators/telcos, but can utilise expertise around security, software development, support and maintenance, and hosting and analytics to wedge a foot firmly in the door.

• Continuing fear and uncertainty over data sovereignty rules and regulation will drive more disruption in the data centre hosting market as superscale US providers try to reassure nervous UK buyers that their data is safe with them. Partnerships will proliferate as smaller UK players add scale in return for local hosting facilities whilst customers will look for cast-iron SLAs guaranteeing sensitive data will not be transferred beyond the UK’s borders or accessed by federal authorities without their knowledge.

We’ll be publishing our regular Predictions Compendium report early next week, which will include extended versions of all of our analysts’ predictions. This report will be exclusively available to TechMarketView subscrption service clients.

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Posted by Martin Courtney at '09:38' - Tagged: cloud   predictions   security   networkservices