Access and Feeds

SaaS: On-Demand Security

By Dick Weisinger

Security is one of the biggest obstacles for companies in deciding whether or not to adopt SaaS. As many as 62 percent of companies are concerned that SaaS may potentially expose sensitive company data to eyes outside their firewalls (survey by Kelton Research).

So it’s a little bit of a surprise when Gartner predicts that in ten years that 85% of security intelligence, 70% of messaging security, and 65% of secure Web gateways will be driven by on-demand service providers. As SaaS vendors become more sophisticated, they’ll be able to provide better security services at better price points than what can be done in-house.

Rather than Security being a sore thumb in the adoption of SaaS, Security offered by SaaS vendors may ultimately be the better option. With on-demand security services, software can be configured by a vendor that specializes in security services, provide frequent software updates, and that offer lower up-front subscription pricing costs. More software updates usually means better security.

Smaller companies with smaller budgets for IT will be attracted to the on-demand benefits. They often don’t have the time or money to stay current with frequently updated software.

Jon Clay, SMB product marketing manager at Trend Micro told bMighty.com that “many of the larger businesses have sufficient resources, a full staff of skilled IT administrators, and infrastructure to focus and monitor their security solution to ensure they are updated and working properly. Small and medium businesses’ IT staff rarely have this luxury, and therefore moving to a SaaS security offering allows them to focus on other items and not worry about their security solution.”

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