Inquiry Insights: Client Security, Q3 2008

Client security has always been a hot topic for IT infrastructure and operations professionals — and this year was no different. Between January 2007 and April 2008 Forrester's IT infrastructure and operations team fielded 3,246 inquiries on myriad topics — 111 of them were on client security from end user IT professionals, making up approximately 30% of all desktop operations and architecture inquiries. The most common subjects of client security inquiries focused on the individual technologies an enterprise would deploy to protect its PCs against the latest threats and the type of tools (point products or security suites) IT ops should deploy to protect its PCs. While these inquiries highlight what's currently top of mind for IT staffers, they also show a shift in mindset of IT organizations. No longer do IT professionals care only about malicious code and hackers — they're now showing a keen interest in data security and other advanced security technologies. Furthermore, these folks recognize that managing all of the security tools necessary for PC protection can't happen on a one-off basis — consolidated suites are the only option to their management woes.