Recession Be Damned! IT Security Spending Up For Some

The economy may be in tatters, along with legions of IT security budgets. But a new report from Forrester Research suggests security spending is actually on the rise in some enterprises.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based research firm interviewed nearly 1,000 firms for its State Of Enterprise IT Security: 2008-2009 report and found, among other things, that the security portion of IT budgets is expected to rise 12.6 percent in 2009, up from 7.2 percent in 2007 and 11.7 percent in 2008.

"Even during challenging economic conditions, IT security remains an integral part of business operations as firms look to maintain their current environment as well as plans for the implementation of new initiatives," wrote Forrester analyst Jonathan Penn, the report's chief author. In a follow-up interview, he told CSOonline that companies still aren't looking at security as a business enabler. But they now understand that it's at least better to take steps to prevent attacks than to do nothing.

"Security is getting a bigger slice of the IT pie, with the focus less on reactive vulnerability defenses and more on looking at what's necessary to protect the business," Penn said. "More often than not, the focus is on protecting the data itself."

Spending not up for all CSOonline conducted its own poll on the subject and found, not surprisingly, security professionals who see a different picture in their own environments.

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