Microsoft Getting Ready for Security as a Service - in the Cloud

As 2007 comes to an end, the focus moves on the coming year, with predictions aiming to anticipate the favors of 2008. Microsoft makes no exception to this rule, as the Forefront team, courtesy of David Burt, Product Manager, Communications, presented its forecast for 2008, from a security perspective. Burt has a list of no less than five predictions designed to anticipate the trends of the upcoming year. "It's almost 2008, so it's the time of year when people make predictions for the coming year. The security industry is rapidly evolving, so look for more changes in 2008", he revealed.

Microsoft's Top Security Industry Trends for 2008 have as the main item efforts to prevent and contain data loss. The Redmond company indicated in a recent survey that data loss is a top concern among IT professions, ahead of traditional threats such as malware, hackers and spam. According to Burt, Microsoft, as well as the rest of the security industry, will move to secure data and offer increasingly comprehensive protection.

"In 2007 a large retailer settled a massive data breech for $40 million. Security companies are responding with solutions to help secure data, and security and privacy will become more interconnected. IT departments consistently ask for security solutions that administer and report on more security functions. They will get it from security vendors", Burt explained.

At the same time, Microsoft will grow its security offerings to counter the new threats emerging targeting virtualized environments. With virtualization being rapidly adopted, despite being a young technology, the security environment will also evolve to counter attacks aimed at virtualized environments. In addition, the Redmond company expects security solutions presented as services in the cloud.

"More and more companies are putting their applications and data 'in the cloud', so security companies will continue the tricky task of protecting it. As organizations look to enhance security by gaining better control over their corporate infrastructure, organizations will want better integration of monitoring, configuration, deployment and backup functions", Burt added.