Supporting services

zoom

Everybody talks about it, but very few actually have very strong best practices when it comes to security. -Anthony Harrison, technical account manager, Symantec MENA.

Symantec's Anthony Harrison and Omar Dajani underline the importance of unwavering vigilance and evolution in IT security, a need they believe calls for consideration of the vendor's managed services.

There are many market sceptics when it comes to the adoption of managed security services in the Middle East region. Taking a look at enterprises, it is likely these views are well placed as the larger firms will have the manpower and expertise to meet their IT security needs in-house and, on the whole, they might be wary of looking to outside assistance to oversee security, particularly in sectors such as oil and gas or financial where information is particularly sensitive.

Having said that, we are enduring the depths of a recession and there is a case to be made that businesses, particularly SMBs, might, knowing that they cannot allow safeguard standards to slip, look to managed services from a third party company as a way to maintain the integrity of their networks.

This is the position that Symantec Middle East seems to uphold. Recently the firm released here its Managed End-point protection services which it says provide management and monitoring of end-point protection technologies to defend users against malware and other attacks, such as rootkits, zero-day attacks, and spyware. In signing up for the service end-users will also be able to take advantage of the vendor's security experts and its Global Intelligence Network to help secure customer and corporate data. Symantec is confident that companies in the Middle East region have and will continue to see the value in its managed service proposition.

"Yes, we do have customers here in the region who have signed up for  [managed end-point security]," claimed Anthony Harrison, server and storage management expert at Symantec MENA.

 "They have recognised that when it comes to security it is a tough subject and it is difficult in many countries and particularly in the Middle East to get the right expertise," he added.

Harrison goes further to explain that although graduates in the Middle East have the requisite skills to fulfill IT security roles, on the whole, the region's resources are lacking the experience to meet demands. He also underlines the point that the financial crisis has likely added to the willingness of CIO and IT managers to consider managed services in security due to massive budgetary constraints.

From Symantec's point of view it is significant that this particular managed service is aimed at the end-point because, in line with most vendors in the market, it is keen to mention that the data perimeter is constantly expanding  and changeable. That is to say that security is no longer about physical security at the gateway and is a much more complicated affair which must take into consideration the threats presented by easy access of USB devices and emails, both inwards and outwards.

This complication or complexity of modern IT security, which is likely compounded by the tightening of IT expenditure, might work in Symantec's favour as it looks to evangelise the worth of its managed services.

"The amount of data that we have seems to grow and loose data seems to reside in more and  more places and administrators are playing catch up right now on data and making sure that the data is secure," said Omar Dajani, director of systems engineering, Africa, Russia, CIS, Middle East and Southern Mediterranean. "Basically what is happening now is it is trying to catch up. It is no longer about pro-activity and it is more about being reactive."

Despite the fact that many companies are still very sceptical about allowing a third party to take on the responsibility of the security of their network, when backed up with an SLA to underline the commitment, it should, seemingly allow the end-users security provisions to become more proactive.

"[End-users] are really looking for someone that can take on that responsibility and give them the guaranteed SLA with the right clauses in it in terms of operational guarantees appropriate to that environment," said Harrison about Symantec's managed services.

 "They will get the latest version of the technology and they are plugged into all of our expertise of our latest technology around the world in terms of the available network and innovation, our security research teams, and the latest information. It is not just a case of, here is the file and here you go, it is a case of making sure that you tactically deploy it because we are seeing a big growth in things like zero-day exploits," he added.

Whether or not Symantec is accurate about the uptake of security managed services in this region, they are correct in their observation that security has been getting much more complicated over the past few years and, economic down turn or not, enterprises are going to have to continue down a road of evolution when it comes to security if they are to maintain the effectiveness of their networks and the safety of their data.

Print | Email | Discuss this article

| Share |

READERS' COMMENTS

Click here to post a comment

Add your Comment All posts are sent to the administrator for review and are published only after approval. ArabianBusiness.com reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Arabian Business would like to point out that only comments relevant to the story will be published. Any containing personal insults or inappropriate language will not be approved.
Name *
Remember me on this computer
Email *	(Your email address will not be published)
City
Country
Subject *
Comment *
Notify me of further comments
Enter the words above *
Please click post only once - your comment will not be published immediately.

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM