HIS says data center and cloud operators are making investment in deploying security infrastructure in the data centers in order to make additional revenue.
The IT survey is based on interview with data center and cloud operators.
“Many of the data center operators are looking to turn their security infrastructure into a revenue-generation tool, providing off-premises security services to customers,” said Jeff Wilson, senior research director for cybersecurity technology at IHS.
“As virtualization and SDN (software-defined networking) deployment increases, it becomes easier and easier for service providers to provide protection for their virtualized infrastructure and deliver customized for-revenue security services to customers,” Wilson said.
When asked about basic strategies for deploying security in the data center, survey respondents favor a multi-layered approach, with most already deploying a mix of hardware appliances, virtual appliances and per-VM software.
Respondents’ highest-rated drivers for deploying virtual appliances for security are diverse: adding cloud-based services for security, deploying SDN and improving agility when deploying new security services
Operators surveyed have deployed or are evaluating security products from a massive list of vendors, and there is no clear leader, according to 2015 IHS Infonetics Cloud and Data Center Security Strategies and Vendor Leadership: Global Service Provider Survey.