Survey Claims Small To Medium Businesses Allowing Unsafe Network Practices

By John Vinson
Expert Author
Article Date: 2009-11-09

Frost & Sullivan, a research company specializing in growth strategies, has released a startling survey concerning the IT practices of small/medium business enterprises. The survey evaluated the network risks that these businesses unknowingly, or sometimes knowingly have going on in operation.

Frost & Sullivan provides a detailed description of all of the factors pertaining to the survey, "ore specifically, the survey presents questions on user owned products/services on network, confidence and risk with network security products currently used, past and future product usage, purchasing channels, network security budgets and top ranked providers of information systems, products, and services."

The survey claims that many of these smaller enterprises have a lot of catching up to do when compared to larger corporations. Frost & Sullivan hypothesizes that these businesses are behind from relying on less tech-savvy professional IT vendors. Or sometimes trying to maintain network security on their own. Tonya Fowler of Frost & Sullivan explains, "Given that small and medium-size enterprise IT decision makers wear many hats, they are likely novices regarding network security"

A problem that is becoming a trend is overconfidence by the smaller companies in their security. Many believe that simply having anti-virus software is the answer. This lack of knowledge leads these companies to address problems as they surface, instead of preemptively addressing policy concerns.

The problem of establishing policies is of greater concern to the smaller market, more so than the medium range. Robert Ayoub, Frost & Sullivan Global Director of Network Security Practice elaborates, "These results clearly illustrate the bifurcation in the small and medium-size enterprise market. While medium-size enterprises are certainly ahead of their smaller counterparts, there are still significant percentages of respondents that do not have even basic policies in place"

This void in security represents a vast amount of potential for IT professionals. While larger corporations and businesses are being sought over by many vendors, there's a large untapped market out there. The problem is selling your services to a company wrought with overconfidence. Providing examples, or even allowing a demonstration to show the errors of the company's current security, could go a long way in establishing the needs of your services.

About the Author:
John is a staff writer for WebProNews.