Broken down by country, the Fortinet study into network security consolidation conducted among 600 senior IT decision makers with an equal spread across the UK, France and Germany in enterprises with between 250 and 1000 employees, found that 99% of French respondents said they were likely to undertake network security consolidation, followed by 96.5% in Germany and 73.5% in the UK.
Two-thirds of those likely to undertake network security consolidation were driven by the benefits of simplified management (34%) and reduced operating costs (33%). However, only 6% said they were considering network security consolidation because they believed it to be enterprise-ready.
Overall, the study found that while respondents of all countries were positive toward network security consolidation and virtualisation, French and German companies are far more embracing of change than their UK colleagues.
Patrice Perche, vice president EMEA at Fortinet, said: “Mid and large scale organisations are being more progressive in their security strategies, and looking at mature, enterprise-ready integrated security solutions to heighten performance, reduce cost and tighten security through consolidation.”
The majority (81%) said they were currently considering virtualising any of their individual IT security functions. Broken down by geography, the outcome was 94.5% in France, 88.5% in Germany and 59.5% in the UK. The financial sector was the most positive sector with 87% saying they had or are considering virtualisation of security functions.
Looking at lessons learnt from the recession, the study saw that 44% cited wariness of expensive and rigid licensing models as the main lesson, followed by a quarter believing they could get more for less from future procurement decision. The manufacturing businesses were the most wary of rigid licensing models with 52% saying it was the most important lesson learned.
Few surprises
Romaine Foucherou, industry analyst at global market intelligence firm IDC, told Infosecurity he was surprised at the relatively low number of positive responses to network security consolidation in the UK compare to France and Germany.
“I was actually a bit surprise at that result. What I think may be happening is that there are a lot of local players in France and Germany… Perhaps there is more education that has been done in this area and maybe the UK has the mentality that one server equals one security solution”, Foucherou said.
He believes perhaps the UK market needs further education, despite the UK being one of the largest countries for unified threat management (UTM) in Europe.
Another finding that came as a surprised Foucherou, was that only 6% of survey participants said they were pursuing network consolidation projects because they believe network security consolidation to be enterprise-ready: “I think this [6% result] is a bit of surprise, because consolidated solutions are now within the enterprise”, he said.
Otherwise, he told Infosecurity, the survey results are in line with what has been found in previous years. Going forward, he believes UTM and network security consolidation is a good option in the economic downturn as it offers the best value for money. Foucherou also said he believes more solutions will be added to consolidated appliances.
Fortinet’s take on security consolidation
Paul Judd, regional manager at Fortinet, told Infosecurity: “Consolidation to me means that instead of having five or six different inspection engines all looking at the same data, but looking for something slightly different. From Fortinet’s perspective, we’ve set about developing an inspection engine that can look for a myriad of different things. So our technology enables to inspect in effect all of the traffic that comes through the data centre and therefore, whatever the threat is in the future, once we’ve identified what it is, we can do something about it.”
He believes cost and simplicity is a major driver for network security consolidation: “So instead of having four-five appliances from four-five different manufacturers, different training courses to go on, Fortinet provides a single appliance that can address multiple threats, so you only have one capital expenditure, you have got reduced operational costs and probably more important for most people, you’ve got a greatly improved operational efficiency.”
Commenting on the survey results, Judd also brought out the relatively low figure of UK enterprises considering network security consolidation, but said the figure could be interpreted in two ways.
“I think we [the UK] are lagging behind – the alternative view is: We’ve already done most of it, so fewer people want to do it. But I think the UK market in my experience, and I’ve covered most of Europe over the years, is somewhat more conservative in adopting new technology. … The UK generally wants to just look at it a little bit longer and adopt it a little bit behind the curve.”
Judd also believes the financial sector is now waking up to the benefits of network security consolidation, something which was reflected in the survey results. With the current economic climate, the financial sector is being forced to look at costs, whereas two years ago the “budgets were big, headcounts were high and profits were easy. I think you’ll find that the financial sector does tend to lag behind because it could afford to”, Judd said, before adding: “In the last 12 months, we at Fortinet have seen a substantial uptake in interest from the financial sector.”