‘In the cloud’ services top hype cycle

Service based on the cloud top Gartner’s hype cycle

Security services provided ‘in the cloud’ have the potential to provide cost savings and faster deployment compared with equivalent-capacity, premises-based equipment, but providers are yet to deliver on customer expectations, according to Gartner.

Defined by Gartner as internet-fabric-based managed security services, ‘in the cloud’ security services appear at the ‘peak of inflated expectations’ on Gartner’s 2009 Hype Cycle for Infrastructure Protection. Services provided may include managed firewalls, intrusion detection systems, intrusion prevention systems, antivirus services, distributed denial-of-service protection services, messaging security and Web gateway.

“Technologies at the ‘peak of inflated expectations’ on a Gartner Hype Cycle are there due to over-enthusiasm and unrealistic expectations, and limited successful implementations, as the technology is pushed to its limits,” said Mr. Wagner. “Cloud security providers must deliver on customer expectations for the effectiveness, scalability and cost savings of performing security filtering in the cloud or as a service. The small or midsize business is an appealing initial market for these delivery models at lower price points, and we expect that the technology will become mainstream within two to five years.”

According to Gartner, most early adopters of NAC (network access control) have taken a different approach to NAC policies and have found worthwhile usage cases for NAC technologies. Instead of blocking users from the network (and from doing their jobs) because their PCs are missing a patch, most organizations that have deployed NAC are using it to implement guest network services.

“NAC functionality is increasingly being embedded in infrastructure and in core security products such as firewalls and endpoint protection platforms, which will help make NAC more affordable and easier to implement and manage,” said Mr. Orans. “We currently rate the technology as early mainstream and estimate that it will reach maturity within two to five years.”