Stephanie Balaouras

Vice President, Research Director Serving Security & Risk Professionals

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Stephanie serves Security & Risk Professionals. She leads a team of analysts who provide research and advisory services on topics like IT security frameworks; governance, risk, and compliance (GRC); identity and access management (IAM); application security; data security; and IT infrastructure security. She also provides Forrester's coverage of specific risk topics including business continuity, IT continuity/disaster recovery, and backup and recovery.

Previous Work Experience

Stephanie has more than 12 years of experience in BC/DR, backup and recovery, and information storage industries. Prior to joining the Security & Risk team, Stephanie was a principal analyst on Forrester's Infrastructure & Operations team, where she was instrumental in the development of Forrester's research and offerings in continuity, availability, and information storage and protection.

Prior to joining Forrester, Stephanie was a senior analyst with Yankee Group, where she provided insight on technology trends to key system, storage, and information protection vendors and consultative advice on strategic and tactical initiatives. Before Yankee Group, Stephanie worked at EMC, first as a technical architect and then as a senior education and productivity consultant. As a technical architect, she articulated EMC's value to partners and customers and designed solutions to meet customer and new market opportunities. As an education and productivity consultant, she managed and supported complex technical training programs for business and practice managers in EMC's Technology Solutions Group. Prior to EMC, Stephanie worked at Accenture as a consultant, focusing on the implementation of business applications (SAP, PeopleSoft) for global businesses.

Education

Stephanie holds a bachelor's degree in business administration and finance and investments from Babson College.

Print Bio

Stephanie Balaouras

Vice President, Research Director Serving Security & Risk Professionals

Read Stephanie's blog posts

Previous Work Experience

Education

Stephanie holds a bachelor's degree in business administration and finance and investments from Babson College.

Research Coverage

Stephanie Balaouras's Research

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For Security & Risk Professionals

REPORT: Adapt To Climate Change Or Face Extinction

The Immediate Risks Require You To Evolve Your Business

October 5, 2018 Salvatore Schiano, Stephanie Balaouras

Climate change is one of the most important business issues of our time. Even as companies and countries around the world have committed to phasing out fossil fuels and stem global warming, the impacts of climate change are already here. In the coming years, businesses will need to adapt to a host of new physical, social, and political risks or face extinction. Many will also find ways to innovate and win market share. This report helps risk professionals navigate the evolving risks and opportunities posed by climate change.
For Security & Risk Professionals

REPORT: Five Steps To A Zero Trust Network

Road Map: The Security Architecture And Operations Playbook

October 1, 2018Stephanie Balaouras, Chase Cunningham, Peter Cerrato

A Zero Trust (ZT) architecture abolishes the idea of a trusted network inside a defined corporate perimeter. ZT mandates that enterprises create microperimeters of control around their sensitive data assets to gain visibility into how they use data across their ecosystem to win, serve, and retain customers. This report gives security and risk (S&R) leaders best practices and a five-step road map to realize the benefits of a Zero Trust strategy more quickly.
For CIO Professionals

REPORT: Proactively Protect Customers From Fraud, Cybercrime, And Privacy Abuses

Intermediate Level: Technology Practices For Cybersecurity And Privacy

September 25, 2018 Jeff Pollard, Stephanie Balaouras, Amy DeMartine

CIOs and technology leaders in the intermediate phase of the journey to cybersecurity and privacy maturity must ensure that security travels with the data and position data security and privacy as competitive differentiators. Firms in this phase must move to proactively protect customers from complex privacy abuses and cybercriminals. This report — the second of three in the technology competency of the cybersecurity and privacy playbook — helps CIOs meet the challenges of the intermediate phase.
For CIO Professionals

REPORT: Drive Growth With Customer Trust And Build Brand Resilience

Advanced Level: Technology Practices For Cybersecurity And Privacy

September 25, 2018 Amy DeMartine, Jeff Pollard, Stephanie Balaouras

When customers trust you, they want to do more business with you. They're also willing to share more personal data with you and, often, to pay a premium for your products and services. This report — the third of three in the technology competency of the cybersecurity and privacy playbook — outlines the technologies CIOs, CISOs, and other technology leaders should prioritize in the advanced phase to leave competitors behind.
For CIO Professionals

REPORT: Lay Your Security Tech Foundation

Beginner Level: Technology Practices For Cybersecurity And Privacy

September 25, 2018Stephanie Balaouras, Amy DeMartine, Jeff Pollard

This report — the first of three in the technology competency of the cybersecurity and privacy playbook — outlines the technologies that CIOs and other technology leaders should prioritize to move to a data-centric Zero Trust security strategy. This strategy establishes the foundation your firm needs to mature its cybersecurity and privacy efforts, focusing on four key areas: 1) data governance; 2) data security; 3) cloud governance; and 4) technology innovation.

For Security & Risk Professionals

REPORT: Protect Your Intellectual Property And Customer Data From Theft And Abuse

Executive Overview: The Data Security And Privacy Playbook

July 3, 2018Stephanie Balaouras

Data is the lifeblood of today's digital businesses. Sophisticated cybercriminals are determined to steal it, and employees can abuse it. Forrester's data security and privacy playbook shows security & risk (S&R) pros how to navigate the complex market for data security and privacy solutions. It guides you through major changes to processes for data policy development, inventory, classification, and protection, and identifies the technologies and services that will help you design and implement effective data security while enforcing privacy policy. This is an update of a previously published report; Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy. We revised this edition to factor in new events and data.
For Security & Risk Professionals

REPORT: Defend Your Digital Business From Cyberattacks Using Forrester's Zero Trust Model

Executive Overview: The Security Architecture And Operations Playbook

September 12, 2018Stephanie Balaouras, Heidi Shey

In today's threat landscape, skilled, organized, well-funded cybercriminals are working to steal your data — the lifeblood of your digital business — in pursuit of economic, political, or military gain. To combat this, security leaders need Forrester's Zero Trust Model of information security. With Zero Trust, you can develop robust detection and incident response capabilities to protect your company's vital digital business ecosystem. Our security architecture and operations playbook shows you how to use the Zero Trust Model to defend your customers.
For Security & Risk Professionals

REPORT: Five Steps To A Zero Trust Network

Road Map: The Security Architecture And Operations Playbook

October 1, 2018Stephanie Balaouras, Chase Cunningham, Peter Cerrato

A Zero Trust (ZT) architecture abolishes the idea of a trusted network inside a defined corporate perimeter. ZT mandates that enterprises create microperimeters of control around their sensitive data assets to gain visibility into how they use data across their ecosystem to win, serve, and retain customers. This report gives security and risk (S&R) leaders best practices and a five-step road map to realize the benefits of a Zero Trust strategy more quickly.
For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

REPORT: Justifying The Business Case For Business Technology Resiliency

June 11, 2012Rachel A. Dines, Stephanie Balaouras

This report outlines Forrester's guidance for a business technology resiliency (BTR) business case. This is a critical step when securing funding because management is often reluctant to fund investments in BTR — including backup, high availability, and disaster recovery — because they represent cost avoidance, rather than a return on investment. But in today's age of 24x7x365 global operations and unrelenting customer demand, downtime can threaten your competitive advantage and erode market share. To help infrastructure and operations (I&O) professionals overcome dangerous and outdated thinking, this report builds the business case for BTR and outlines seven steps that I&O professionals must take to successfully secure funding for BTR initiatives.
For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

REPORT: 2008 Trends In Backup And Data Protection

April 2, 2008Stephanie Balaouras

Backup remains as problematic as ever, but there are several emerging trends in technology and functional convergence that should address some of the biggest challenges: increasing capacities, shrinking backup windows, increasing recovery point requirements, and limited budgets. This report takes a look at the trends that are changing traditional backup and that will affect purchasing decisions over the next 12 months.