IDC: Channel key to success for security vendors in A/NZ

Gartner argued the client computing world is increasingly in conflict, as individuals empowered by technology in their personal lives are increasingly pitted against struggling IT departments concerned about security and compliance. The analyst firm claimed that the boundary between personal and enterprise computing is becoming blurred and organisations should treat all network access as potentially hostile and apply appropriate security technologies and policies.

Robin Simpson, research director and co-chair of the Gartner IT Security Summit for Gartner said new rules are needed to allow enterprise IT assets and functions to coexist with employees’ personal digital assets.

“The traditional response from the IT department was to say ‘no’, but ... you can’t hold back the changes being driven by your user population by force, or they will simply conspire against you. But you can’t just relax control. You need to find a way to delineate between the business and personal computing worlds so they can work side-by-side and the boundary can be secured,” said Simpson.