Mobility, APIs and business enablement spark new attitudes towards security and drive an increase in investment

“We need to live in a security-first world – light-years from when security was an afterthought and bolted on after a service or application was deployed,” says Paul Briault, Director, Security at CA Technologies. “With the application economy going full-throttle in the hyper-connected world of people, devices and expanding ambient data, UK businesses realise that security goes beyond protection. The same tools that govern who and what can access our data, also can deliver a frictionless and positive customer experience and contribute to business growth in a variety of ways.”

Key findings from the study show:

· Mobility matters to UK companies: Improving the mobile customer experience was cited as a top security priority (44%), second only to protecting against data breach (58%). In addition, 45% of respondents say mobility has a big or significant impact on security practices and policies with respect to customers. We expect this number to expand as mobility, BYOD and the Internet of Things drive an increasingly “unwired enterprise” where perpetual connectivity adds a complexity and security risk that must be addressed for employees, customers and partners.

· The desire to innovate quickly: Success in the application economy requires UK businesses to innovate and release applications more quickly, and API-assembled apps will lead the way. To facilitate this, 82% of respondents are opening their data as APIs to accelerate mobile and web application delivery, improve customer engagements and open new revenue channels and opportunities (the highest figure anywhere in the world). This adds new considerations to the protection factor of security.

· New attitudes adopted: Some 86% of UK respondents have seen or expect to see increased revenue from new services enabled by improved security. Meanwhile, 94% have already seen, or anticipate seeing, improved customer satisfaction and trust in their products and services.

· Increase in security investment: A new view toward security and the protection and enablement it offers has sparked an increase in security investment. According to UK respondents, 24% of all IT spending will be devoted to security in the next three years, up from 17% today.

Paul Briault adds, “The application economy is forcing businesses to re-invent their approach to IT security. It must evolve from a foundation of protection to one of user enablement. Security needs to enable access not only for internal end users, but also external customers and partners. The focus shifts from limited access and extensive restrictions, to a strategy that uses enabling technologies – such as APIs, two-factor authentication and bring-your-own-identity – to support innovation.”