McAfee Highlights Discrepancy Between Data Centre Security Perceptions and Reality
McAfee Highlights Discrepancy Between Data Centre Security Perceptions
and Reality
Report from Gabriel Consulting Group Reflects Need for Clear Security
Standards and Prioritization
Santa Clara, Calif. - Oct. 3, 2011 - McAfee today released the results
of a survey conducted by Gabriel Consulting Group (GCG), an independent
analyst firm, showing a serious disconnect between security perceptions
and reality among IT Enterprise security managers. The 2011 Data Center
Security Survey focused on security issues and solutions among 147
enterprise data centre mangers responsible for data centres of all
sizes. GCG found that the majority of respondents (60 per cent) reported
that management believes security is stronger than it actually is, while
only 22 per cent reported that management is aware of their company’s
true security preparedness.
“It’s astounding that almost two-thirds of our respondents say that
their management is in the dark about their true security status,”
said Dan Olds, principal analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group. “This is
something that should cause a lot of thought both in the executive suite
and in the data centre. Management needs to seek out the truth when it
comes to IT security, and data centre management needs to be frank and
honest when discussing the strengths and weaknesses of their security
mechanisms. Obviously, it’s far better to discuss potential security
issues before they’re exposed by a breach.”
The report also found that although nearly half of the respondents feel
that virtualization and private clouds pose a unique security challenge,
the majority of respondents are using the same tools to secure both
physical and virtualized systems. McAfee’s approach to data centre
security is backed by a belief that advancements with traditional
security models need to occur industry-wide in order to properly secure
data centres and cloud environments. Both private and public cloud
computing architectures rely on the virtualized data centre to deliver
increased business agility and scale. As organizations continue to adopt
virtualization and cloud computing, security technology is often
replicated from physical resources, which results in various obstacles,
such as inconsistent network policies and security loopholes.
Other key findings from the GCG report include:
● Nearly half of the respondents reported that they are constantly
finding new security holes
● More than 40 per cent of respondents feel that their
organization’s security pace isn’t keeping up with threats
● Approximately 70 per cent of respondents are skeptical of public
cloud security
● Forty per cent of respondents report that day-to-day security
does not conform to the standards required by their official polices
“The move to virtualized data centre requires organizations to
consider their approach to security early in the design cycle,” said
Greg Brown, vice president of Network Security at McAfee. “Using
network and system security solutions that are optimized for virtualized
environments ensures continuity of data centre operations, without
interfering with performance. McAfee's solutions provide seamless
security management across conventional and virtualized data centre
resources.”
McAfee continues to broaden an
d enhance its unified security portfolio
spanning network, servers, data, and storage, as well as controls across
physical, virtual and cloud infrastructures. Next-generation data centre
teams can optimize security for each function and efficiently manage and
monitor security across rapidly changing infrastructure. By working with
McAfee, IT can enable secure, elastic, on-demand services, without
compromising on compliance or jeopardizing availability.
For more information on Gabriel Consulting Group’s 2011 Data Center
Security Survey, please visit http://gabrielconsultinggroup.com/. For
more information on McAfee’s data centre security solutions, please
visit
http://www.mcafee.com/us/solutions/data-center-security/data-center-security.aspx.
About McAfee
McAfee, a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC),
is the world's largest dedicated security technology company. McAfee
delivers proactive and proven solutions and services that help secure
systems, networks, and mobile devices around the world, allowing users
to safely connect to the Internet, browse and shop the Web more
securely. Backed by its unrivaled Global Threat Intelligence, McAfee
creates innovative products that empower home users, businesses, the
public sector and service providers by enabling them to prove compliance
with regulations, protect data, prevent disruptions, identify
vulnerabilities, and continuously monitor and improve their security.
McAfee is relentlessly focused on constantly finding new ways to keep
our customers safe. http://www.mcafee.com
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