A recent article in Processor Magazine, Planning the Security Budget, by Elizabeth Millard, got me thinking about the fact that as budgets continue to be viewed under a microscope and security measures evaluated, will we start to see a decline in standalone point solutions? The article highlighted the need for enterprises to focus on scalable and flexible solutions and to avoid point solutions when planning ahead for future security budgets. With the advances in cloud and add-on application services, point solutions will increasingly become ineffective and cost heavy.
With the continued growth of security threats and the associated rise in regulations, as we move into 2011 enterprises will require scalable and flexible platforms to adapt to ever-changing requirements. As scalability becomes more than a buzz word, single point solutions will prove to be insufficient in adapting to the specific needs of the enterprise. Coupled with efforts to reduce security costs, advances of add-on applications and cloud solutions will begin to have a greater effect on IT business decisions moving forward. This means less single-purpose point products and more customizable solutions that can easily scale as requirements change.
In the past, when the need for a solution was required of an enterprise, separate point products would have to be evaluated within the existing infrastructure to ensure what was chosen was compatible with the current system or change existing components to accommodate the new point solution. Of course, that created a limited, non-scalable option for every existing need.
Today, solutions much like the Sendmail App Store, where companies choose customized apps that act in replacement of a separate point product, allow for an increase in scalability and flexibility while also reducing costs compared to purchasing multiple point products.
What are your thoughts on standalone point solutions? Open to comments below.