** NEW RESEARCH** Predictions 2018 – Security, Networking and Cloud

The traditional boundaries between enterprise security, networks and the cloud are steadily disintegrating as IT departments combine fundamental infrastructure elements into unified platforms and services which are quick to provision and easy to manage.

Emerging technology is critical to breaking out of those siloes whilst the carrot of establishing strong security defences will be outweighed by the stick in 2018 as data protection regulation forces assessment and changes to existing policies.

We see the major trends in the security, networking and cloud markets next year as:

Data protection regulation looms large. The May 2018 deadline for compliance with the European Union’s Generation Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is looming, and we think the majority of UK organisations still have much to do.

Data hosting shake up. A broader shake-up of UK information hosting and processing arrangements will cause some turbulence in the cloud services market as public and private sector organisations decide the best architectural and geographical location for their data.

Cyber threats morph and intensify. the specific nature of the threat will change but on a macro level the fight to secure networks, applications and systems against individuals and groups looking to steal data or cause maximum disruption for their own gain will be ongoing and unrelenting in 2018.

SDN/NFV moves into virtual security domain. The spread of SDN/NFV will herald be the emergence of more virtualised security services, including firewalls, IDS/IDP systems and denial of service (DoS) protection tools.

Passwords edged out by biometrics. Increased use of two factor authentication for secure access to enterprise networks, systems, devices and applications will open up new opportunities for infrastructure and security product and service suppliers in 2018.

Brexit - IoT opportunity waiting to happen. The Internet of Things (IoT) can play a pivotal role in Brexit, with connected people and devices helping everything from the Irish border checks to frictionless trade/custom controls in UK to EU logistics, distribution and retail operations.

Subscribers can read more in our Security, Networking and Cloud Predictions report here, or contact Deb Seth for further information.

Posted by Martin Courtney at '07:55' - Tagged: cloud   predictions   infrastructure