The Hindu Business Line : IBM investing $1.5 b in global security offerings

Hyderabad, Nov. 7 IT major IBM is investing $1.5 billion globally to strengthen its security offerings that complement its range of technology services, including IT infrastructure management.

These services would encompass hardware, software and cover new areas such as intrusion detection and prevention, all aimed at providing holistic enterprise-wide infrastructure risk management services.

The Country Executive, IT Services, IBM India, Mr Bhaskar Anand, said: “IBM has made a string of acquisitions in the security related space, including Internet Security Systems Inc, and these, along with the services capabilities, would now complement one another and enable us to offer end-to-end IT risk management.”

India investment

“As part of the recent announcement of $1.5 billion into security products and services, we see part of investments in India too, which would cover security services and customisation and localisation required for specific markets,” he explained.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Anand said IBM has taken a leadership role in providing IT infrastructure management services and continues to expand the offerings. During the year, some of the larger IBM deals include that of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Delhi International Airport Ltd, DLF Ltd and Idea Cellular and FINO (Financial Information Network and Operations Ltd).

The company is also engaged with Apollo Hospital Group to create a health data network.

Significantly, infrastructure management deals are going beyond the larger sized ones with a host of small and medium-sized enterprises looking to take these offerings.

This is because most of these enterprises are going global and have taken IT infrastructure and security management proactively, he said.

Traditionally, financial services, telecom and manufacturing are those which opted for integrated IT infrastructure management services. But lately, retail, real estate and infrastructure are taking to security pro-actively, be it through digital video surveillance or access management.

Quoting IDC data, Mr Anand said about 70 per cent of chief information officers (CIOs) hinted at increased spending on risk mitigation and that too to ensure that their echnology infrastructure is up and running all the time.

Therefore, security is not a one time mantra but an ongoing engagement which changes as business keeps transforming. This is both in the virtual world and real time requirements in large distributed infrastructure companies.

For instance, when a large enterprise opens up its SAP applications to its external agents and suppliers, the nature and scope of the engagement changes.

Even if the entire system is secure, look at the power of a pendrive that can potentially carry the most important enterprise data. It is here that the role of identity management has become central for corporations.

Apart from these sectors, IBM is engaged with IT and BPO services providers, managing their ever-growing data centres, all of which require integrated risk management solutions, Mr Anand explained.