Cloud will condense security afresh

MUMBAI, INDIA: Increased adoption of cloud-based computing is expected to impact the way security is consumed as well as how key government agencies will prioritize security of public cloud infrastructures, according to Gartner, Inc.

The growing importance of public clouds, along with the ever-persistent threat on private and public sectors' infrastructures, is expected to result in the U.S. government declaring them a critical national infrastructure.

"The popularity and increased adoption of cloud-based security services, albeit at different degrees, will influence the shape of future security marketplaces," said Ruggero Contu, research director at Gartner. "Deployments of virtualization, and its replacing of traditional physical hardware platforms, are expected to impact the deployment model of future network security capabilities, which are expected to be based increasingly on virtual security appliances."

Gartner has made three predictions about the security solutions industry for 2013 and beyond:

By 2016, public cloud infrastructure will include and be mandated to critical national infrastructure regulations by the U.S.

In lieu of poor economic and debt conditions globally, governments continue to seek ways to reduce their IT operating expenditures, eliminate duplication across their IT organizations and optimize their compute resources. Several key governments have created initiatives for the adoption of cloud-based services but have yet to experience significant negative impacts due to their cloud services adoption in the form of disruptions or attacks on cloud services providers. As the economy becomes heavily reliant on public cloud infrastructure for everyday computing activities, cloud services disruptions will pose greater risks to the overall economy and eventually become a threat to national security in the form of economic disruption.

By 2015, 10 per cent of overall IT security enterprise product capabilities will be delivered in the cloud.

Growth rates for cloud-based security services are set to overtake those of traditional on-premises security equipment over the next three years with operational cost reduction, flexibility of deployment across multiple IT environments, and fast implementation and product updates among major factors driving demand. A number of factors will inhibit higher adoption of cloud-based security services as not all businesses will be able to benefit from this delivery model in equal measure. Those organizations located in geographies where Internet connectivity is unreliable or that require high levels of product customization will be at a disadvantage in utilizing this form factor.