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Introduction

Security is one of the hottest issues facing enterprises. Advances in information technology present opportunities for enterprises to expand their addressable markets and realize efficiencies by connecting electronically with trading partners.
This increasingly distributed environment requires organizations to have always-on connectivity and requires an IT infrastructure that is available, secure, protected and reliable. Enterprises security perimeters are also becoming increasingly fluid, as they continue to connect electronically to more partners, who may have varying levels of IT security sophistication.

In addition to the risks from malware, CIOs have to deal with the increase in criminal activities and terrorism on the web; privacy violations, identity thefts, industrial theft and espionage. Enterprises also have to deal with regulatory compliance requirements, as more countries implement privacy and data protection rules. A great number of such incidents stem from manipulation of employees - often without their knowledge -resulting in data theft. In India over 90 percent of all enterprises are vulnerable - either because of inadequate security measures or non-availability of enterprise-wide security policies.

India is expected to be a major market spurring growth of the network security, says a recent Frost & Sullivan study. With security audit increasing in Indian businesses, complying with rules and regulations is another driving factor. While there is a consistent demand from the IT and ITeS sectors, BFSI (Banking, Finance and Insurance) sector was the second highest spender on security solutions followed by manufacturing, government, healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry.

Enterprise Security is evolving from being a reactive technology to more proactive technology. Favorable changes were witnessed in the year 2004-2005 when Indian security market registered a healthy growth of 50% over previous year and was pegged at Rs 360 Cr.

The security software market in India during 2004 got heightened attention, as companies realized the importance of having established security systems. The leading players in this market were Trend Micro, Symantec, McAfee, RSA, Verisign, CheckPoint.