Every year, Windows IT Pro conducts an independent survey of our readers to gauge how well we’re covering the topics that matter most to them. This year’s results are just in, and they show some interesting information. According to the survey, about 31% of our readers are IT managers, and another 31% are IT administrators. The remainder consist of IT staff (13.5%), developers (7.5%), users (3.5%), and “other” (13.5%).
Security
Approximately 30% of the readers who responded to the survey said they’re involved in making purchasing decisions about security products and services for their organization, with annual security budgets ranging from zero to over a million dollars (but the majority operating on security budgets of less than $25,000/year).
Regarding the types of security products and services readers use, the following tables show current use (Table 1) and deployment plans for the next year (Table 2).
Table 1: Percentage of Windows IT Pro Readers Who Currently Use the Following Security/Access Control Products
|
Antivirus |
95% |
|
Firewalls |
90% |
|
Email Spam Filters |
75% |
|
Virtual Private Networks |
63% |
|
Encryption |
48.5% |
|
Authentication |
48.5% |
|
Patch Management |
45% |
|
Intrusion Detection |
43% |
|
NAP (Network Access Protection) |
20% |
|
Identity Management Products |
16% |
|
Biometrics |
11% |
Table 2: Percentage of Windows IT Pro Readers Who Plan to Deploy the Following Security/Access Control Products in the Next Year
|
Antivirus |
24.5% |
|
Firewalls |
23% |
|
Virtual Private Networks |
21% |
|
Email Spam Filters |
19.5% |
|
Encryption |
18% |
|
Intrusion Detection |
17% |
|
Patch Management |
15% |
|
Authentication |
14.5% |
|
NAP (Network Access Protection) |
12.5% |
|
Identity Management Products |
8% |
|
Biometrics |
6.5% |
Future Trends
Last week, Windows IT Pro editors, authors, managers, marketers, and even a handful of readers engaged in week-long strategy planning to help guide our publications in the coming year. The two biggest trends that surfaced in those meetings were cloud computing and mobile computing. Mirroring this movement, almost half of our survey respondents indicated that they’re involved in making purchasing decisions about mobile devices, and approximately 30% of readers currently use some type of cloud services—with about 15% planning to deploy cloud technologies in the coming year.
With so much data and services moving to mobile and the cloud, security will become even more crucial for IT pros to focus on. I wonder if next year’s survey results will show 100% of readers involved in security decision making….
