From The Editor | June 25, 2009

Inside Gartner Information Security Summit - Day #2



Editor Gennifer Biggs is live from the Gartner Information Security Summit in Washington, D.C., Monday, June 29, through Wednesday, July 1.


Day #2: Security In The Cloud

Before leaving the Gartner Summit, I had the opportunity to chat with
Adam Swidler, product marketing manager for Google's Postini division. Long dedicated to the SaaS delivery model, Postini has recently simplified its pricing model and increased it efforts to educate the channel about the potential of SaaS products as it integrates with other cloud-based channel offerings, such as Google Apps.

Swidler chatted with me about the role of SaaS, a delivery model on which Postini has built its reputation. He expects the popularity of SaaS to continue, and even accelerate as the channel gets a better grasp on the best way to fold those offerings such as cloud email security and archiving, and applications delivered via a SaaS model into traditional line cards. While the sales cycle for SaaS to enterprise customers remains a bit longer than a traditional sale, SaaS is enjoying popularity with small to mid-sized businesses, perhaps because of the cost savings associate with that model. Swidler adds that the value proposition of solutions such as Postini hosted email and archiving solutions has been particularly popular as companies reduce costs in the wake of the economic slowdown.

Swidler also talked with me at length about the vendor’s newest spam report, which covers some of the volatility of the spam space in the first part of this year. In particular, the report covers the quick rebound of spam efforts by cyber criminals and a return to the tried and true methods of the past, such as “newletter” spoofs, image spam, and payload viruses.