Secure Content Management Vendors to Shift from Single Protection to Integrated Security Solutions

IDC: The complexity of managing security technologies is the third-highest challenge organizations will face over the next year. IDC believes this need for more integrated solutions will force secure content management (SCM) vendors to shift from a single type of protection toward a focus on broad protection from a wide range of emerging threats to enterprise security.

The secure content management (SCM) market is quickly evolving from standalone products to one featuring more comprehensive security solutions. SCM vendors are moving away from a focus on a single type of protection, such as antivirus, toward a focus on brand protection from a wide range of emerging threats to enterprise security.

IDC believes the SCM market is rapidly converging with the threat management (TM) market across all layers of network security. This convergence is currently in various stages throughout the corporate network:

• At the messaging layer, organizations are now buying comprehensive messaging security solutions that address multiple threats and deliver integrated antivirus, antispam, and content filtering in a single solution.

• At the gateway layer, unified threat management (UTM) appliances are another area where SCM products, such as antivirus, are quickly becoming a feature. Organizations are deploying UTM appliances to combine network firewalling, network intrusion detection and prevention, and gateway antivirus in a single solution.

• At the endpoint, the problem of coordinating and managing multiple client security technologies across the enterprise is driving the convergence of antivirus, antispyware, personal firewall, and host intrusion prevention into a comprehensive endpoint security solution.

IDC believes organizations will increasingly look for security solutions that integrate antivirus, antispyware, intrusion prevention, and firewall into a single solution that offers centrally managed consoles for alerts and updates, aggregated logs, and common policy engines. IDC expects this trend to continue through 2010.

worldwide Secure Content Management 2006-1010 Forecast: The Rise and Fall of SMC

Publ 20060418