Frost & Sullivan: Consumerisation of smart phones and Bring Your Own Device are the biggest trends driving the network

According to Frost & Sullivan, consumerisation of smart phones and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) are the biggest trends driving network security issues in the Middle East today.

With an increase in the number of Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), information security risks are becoming a major concern for organisations globally.

Enterprises are swiftly adopting and deploying applications and new services to combat the same.

In their quest to obtain high levels of security assurance and develop advanced intelligence technologies, organisations in the Middle East are increasingly adopting methods such as
virtualisation and cloud computing.

Over the past few years, this has led to increased Government investment in information and communication technology (ICT)-related projects in the Middle East and this is expected to proliferate further in future.

The network security market is in a high-growth stage. Frost & Sullivan anticipates that technology convergence, regulatory compliance, and continuous growth of network infrastructure will continue to drive up sales for security suppliers in the Middle East during the period 2012-2018.

Frost & Sullivan's Middle East Enterprise Security Summit 2012 Summit began with an inaugural address by Andy Baul-Lewis, Director, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan, describing the prevalent enterprise security landscape in the Middle East.

"Building security for electronic assets is one of the most critical tasks facing organisations today. In a converged world, where the threats of each system are multiplied; getting advice, sharing best practice, and talking to partners is a vital part of the construction process. This is what Frost & Sullivan endeavours to provide through this interactive Summit," stated Mr Baul-Lewis at the Summit.

The Summit included in-depth discussions and case studies on enterprise security management. The first of these was, 'The Evolving Role of a Chief Information Security Officer' by Roshan Daluwakgoda, Senior Director - Security Strategy Planning Risk Assessment and DR at Emirates Integrated Telecommunication Company, du, Dubai, the U.A.E.

This was followed by a thoughtprovoking presentation on 'Information Security Management - When the Going Gets Tough,' by Kamran Ahsan, Head of Information Security, Injazat Data Systems, the U.A.E. Bashar Bashaireh, Regional Director, the Middle East, Fortinet, gave a presentation 'How to Make your Security Aware in a BYOD World'. Thameem Rizvon, IT Director, Kamal Osman Jamjoom Group LLC (KOJ) presented, 'Learn from your Peers: Security Implementation in a Retail Environment'.

The session on Secure the Cloud,' by Joe So, VP Business Sales, Huawei; was followed by a panel discussion on 'Security Convergence and its Impact on Business.'