Forrester: SIM market set to flourish

Network/Systems Management This newsletter is sponsored by Sterling Commerce SOA and the Business of Change Changes such as mergers, acquisitions and dealing with a competitive landscape are the ever fluid business and technical environment we all exist in today. With best IT practices and SOA strategy you can prepare for success through IT/business alignment, proper organizational change management and critical skills training. Download this webcast and listen to an IDC analyst take you through this critical subject. Network World's Network/Systems Management Newsletter, 08/29/07 Forrester: SIM market set to flourish By Denise Dubie Security information management (SIM) products began to emerge earlier this decade as an alternative to manually dealing with the volume of security alerts generated across various network and security devices. Sometimes called security event management, SIM products started to pop up from start-ups and some existing management and security vendors. A flurry of start-ups emerged -- such as netForensics, GuardedNet, e-Security and Intellitactics to name just a few -- with technology designed to marry the data collection, normalization and correlation capabilities of management software with the intelligence of security tools. SIM technology is designed to automate the collection of event log data from security devices and help users make sense of it through a common management console. SIM products use data aggregation and event correlation features similar to those of network-management software and applies them to event logs generated from security devices such as firewalls, proxy servers, intrusion-detection systems and antivirus software. What's more, SIM products can normalize data -- that is, they can translate Cisco and Check Point Software alerts, for example, into a common format so the data can be correlated. New Executive Guide Network World has recently published an executive guide entitled "Virtualization Meets Reality". Find out the 8 key challenges of virtualizing your data center. Download it now! Bigger vendors picked up on the potential of this technology and started shopping. For instance, Novell acquired e-Security; Micromuse acquired GuardedNet; and IBM later acquired Micromuse. And those vendors were on to something even a few years ago. According to Forrester Research, the market for SIM technology is growing at a rate of about 50% and will continue to grow like that until 2009 -- reaching close to $1.2 billion by 2011. Due to pressures around meeting regulatory standards, more companies need to perform log management and demonstrate the integrity of their business processes -- "which means they are monitoring applications and the underlying infrastructure for improper behavior," a recent Forrester report states. Another factor that will drive the growth, Forrester says, is small to midsize businesses taking a look at SIM. As the products become easier to use and more affordable, SMBs will start to invest in the technology. Right now, Forrester estimates, companies with fewer than 1,000 employees account for about 1% of the market, but by 2011 they could make up about 30%. And SIM technology could become a bridge between IT and business operations, the research firm speculates, saying it will foster more collaboration as it flourishes in companies of all sizes. "SIM will be the primary tool for enabling operations teams and security teams to collaborate on: turning business policy into specific configurations and requirements; assessing the risk of ongoing security issues; and coordinating the response to security incidents," the report reads.   What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

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Contact the author: Senior Editor Denise Dubie covers the technologies, products and services that address network, systems, application and IT service management for Network World. E-mail Denise. This newsletter is sponsored by Sterling Commerce SOA and the Business of Change Changes such as mergers, acquisitions and dealing with a competitive landscape are the ever fluid business and technical environment we all exist in today. With best IT practices and SOA strategy you can prepare for success through IT/business alignment, proper organizational change management and critical skills training. Download this webcast and listen to an IDC analyst take you through this critical subject. ARCHIVE Archive of the Network/Systems Management Newsletter. BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: networking.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007