Telecom Operator launches the most secure and technically advanced data center in the region and one of very few globally

 Zain, the foremost telecom company in Jordan, has announced the launch of ‘The Bunker’ – a TIER III UPTIME, with 99.982% availability, state-of-the-art, military grade design and development, highly modernized, fully redundant power, cooling and communications network data center, situated at the King Hussein Business Park in Amman Jordan. The Bunker, which is the first of its kind in the region and one of very few worldwide, gives local, regional and international organizations the opportunity to host their IT infrastructure, disaster recovery (DR) offices and enhance their ICT business processes. 

The Bunker is another initiative that exemplifies Zain Jordan’s efforts to spearhead digital transformation in the country. The company revolutionized telecommunications in Jordan by introducing GSM mobile services in the country and introduced Fourth Generation services “LTE” for the first time in the kingdom.

Companies that have very crucial computational functions and important data to store can really value such a facility that provides the highest levels of security and sustainability. When a company uses The Bunker as their main data center or their disaster recovery (backup) location, it is safer than any other conventional building. Its area measures approximately 4300 sq. mts., located 12 mts. below ground level. Built with the same specifications as a military-grade underground facility, The Bunker is constructed to the highest standards of security and redundancy requirements. It has dedicated rooms protected by high security 2-ton iron doors and 2 metres thick reinforced concrete walls, giving it the capability to withstand natural disasters, missiles and fires. Furthermore, when a disaster strikes, the cooling, power and connectivity systems are redundant and can be sustained for long periods without any outage. The facility has 24/7 onsite security personnel and advanced surveillance cameras security systems (CCTVs). 

Mr. Fahad AlJasim, Chief Executive Officer at Zain Jordan says, “We see this as a turning point and a milestone in Zain’s journey to be the most advanced telecom operator, to meet the long-term aspirations of our partners, and to help them with a range of services that are at the core of their business, contributing to their aspirations for further success in their organization.”

The technological advancements of IoT, Big Data Analytics and Cloud Services, require substantial computing power, resilient networks and, most importantly, security. Nevertheless, conventional data centers are not disaster proof and provide a mediocre security level. The value proposition of The Bunker is that it provides a colocation space as well as a designed cloud, heavily protected underground and powered by Zain’s resilient network. Companies can avoid large TCOs of building data centers and alternatively adopt an OPEX model through yearly payments. The facility’s location in the heart of Amman is very convenient to IT staff of any company to reach The Bunker where their servers are hosted. 

The Bunker is not just a data center. Other than its variety of colocation options, it consists of various DR offices. Customers can rent dedicated or shared offices as well as ‘hot seats’ which can serve as business continuity units in cases of disasters or day to day activities related to their data center. These spaces span from 20 sq. mts. to 100 sq. mts. and can cater to various customer needs. 

The Bunker hosts a NOC (Network Operation Center) to monitor and protect data center related infrastructure (UPS, generators, firewalls, switches, chillers, etc). It also hosts a SOC (Security Operations Center) to monitor and protect colocation customers and our existing cloud infrastructure, cyber security threats and other preventive operations. 

The facility is Uptime Tier III certified. This certification is only given to data centers that are secure and provide cooling, power and connection redundancy to the users of the facility to ensure continuity of service. 

Zaid Jordan’s Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Yousef Abu Mutawe concludes, “Zain has transformed from providing services to individuals to becoming a leader in providing services to the business sector. We are extremely proud to introduce the Zain Regional Center for Data Storage, Information and Disaster Recovery (The Bunker) which is the first of its kind in the Arab world. We will continue to expand and enhance our ICT portfolio and introduce innovation to the market.”

By: Paulo Pereira, Director, Systems Engineering – Emerging Markets and Eastern Europe at Nutanix

Companies of all sizes are turning to desktop as a service (DaaS) solutions to satisfy their digital workspace needs. Traditional desktops and laptops are costly and difficult to manage, and they pose significant security challenges. Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) replaces traditional systems with virtual ones powered from your datacenter. Many enterprises have successful VDI deployments, but are looking for options that extend their organization into cloud and reduce management overhead. DaaS overcomes the challenges of traditional desktop and laptop systems and can serve as a platform to deliver VDI from clouds. 

For companies undergoing digital transformation, DaaS is a great way to empower both your end users and your IT teams. End users benefit because they have greater flexibility to work from anywhere, on any device, and collaborate more easily with co-workers, partners, and suppliers. IT teams benefit because DaaS can simplify VDI integration and delivery while making it easy to add new services to an Enterprise’s digital workspace whenever and wherever you need them at the speed of the business.

Top Ten Reasons to Choose DaaS

Reason 1: Eliminate Desktop and Laptop Challenges

Managing and supporting a large number of desktop and laptop workstations with locally installed software is a challenge for companies of all sizes. Employees come and go regularly, and appropriate devices have to be supplied and retrieved. Keeping close tabs on desktops and laptops, often across numerous physical locations, is difficult, time consuming, and expensive. An even bigger concern for most companies is security risks created by physical computing devices with data stored locally.

DaaS addresses these challenges by moving all the heavy lifting into an enterprise or cloud datacentre:

• User applications no longer need to be installed or run locally on each device.
• Company data remains in your datacenter or the cloud where it is more secure. 
• If a physical device fails, the user can simply switch to a different device and pick up where they left off.

Reason 2: Remove the Expertise Barrier

For many companies, running VDI in-house is subject to operational, performance, and scaling constraints due to a lack of expertise and experience. Smart companies increasingly view DaaS as an elastic complement to existing VDI deployments or an opportunity for continued growth in VDI in hybrid cloud. DaaS reduces or eliminates VDI management challenges, enabling IT teams to focus on delivering services to businesses and end-users — and satisfying digital transformation goals.

Reason 3: Focus on Strategy Not Tactics

DaaS is an important part of your digital transformation strategy, significantly reducing the IT effort required to support end users and freeing your team to focus on business outcomes rather than IT outcomes. DaaS makes it possible to continuously integrate and continuously deliver emerging technologies. DaaS also allows you to quickly support projects that require a fast ramp up, without exposing your company’s network and intellectual property. In many industries, mergers and acquisitions are a fact of life. DaaS can help you accelerate onboarding of new employees during acquisitions and grant them immediate access to company applications, data, and services. 

Reason 4: Overcome Geographic Limitations

DaaS offers a great solution to address digital workspace needs across disparate geographies. With the right DaaS solution, employees can work from almost anywhere that has an internet connection and receive good performance. If users in different locations need to collaborate electronically, DaaS solutions can facilitate collaboration.

Reason 5: Enable Bring-YourOwn-Device

Adopting a BYOD policy, as many companies are doing, makes device management even more intractable. With DaaS, your company’s important applications run in your provider’s infrastructure services, safely isolated from other activity on user devices. Users gain access to applications and data only after proper authentication. And because no data is stored locally on the device, there’s no risk of compromise if the device is lost.

Reason 6: Soar into the Cloud

DaaS provides an platform for Enterprises to understand and consume cloud services without having to learn new technology terminologies. DaaS also accelerates the cloud learning maturity in an organization because they can focus on application service integration and delivery without worrying about tech debt and tech inertia.

Reason 7: Pay Only What You Use

The ability to pay as you go—and pay only for what you use—is a hallmark of IT success in the digital age. DaaS simplifies your operations, reduces your per user costs, and makes perfect sense for organizations in the midst of digital transformation. DaaS reinforces a subscription based consumption model that meters on actual usage.

Reason 8: Simplify Scaling

The worst thing that can happen to new employees is to have them sit idle waiting for the computing resources they need to do their jobs. But planning for resource needs and scaling infrastructure—whether physical systems or VDI—to keep up with the needs of a dynamic enterprise is hard. DaaS provides immediate scalability to simplify the planning process and address unforeseen needs. You can provision new desktops as needed and release them just as quickly.

Reason 9: Maintain Full Control

A common concern that many enterprises have when it comes to DaaS is loss of control, but DaaS and BYOD don’t necessarily mean that you lose control over your environment. In fact, you may even increase control. DaaS gives you both greater visibility and increased cost control. Depending on your DaaS provider, you can quickly and easily grant (or remove) access to applications and data at a granular level. You can control access to data and prevent employees from making local data copies or writing data to insecure devices. Employees can also access specialized resources like GPUs on an as-needed basis.

Reason 10: Step Up Security

DaaS eliminates the risks that result from sensitive data stored on user devices. Data remains secure in a datacenter, subject to your full control and established governance. DaaS providers take security seriously and offer a variety of advanced authentication and other security capabilities.

Company will also highlight FVC Services, Audio-Video and ITIS portfolio

FVC, a leading value-added-distributor (VAD) in the Middle East and Africa, has announced its participation at Gitex 2019.  With a focus on enabling organizations’ digital transformation journey, FVC will demonstrate the strength of its comprehensive enterprise collaboration vendor portfolio, in addition to highlighting its Audio-Video, IT Infrastructure and IT Security portfolio. 

“Theuptake of enterprise collaboration solutions has significantly increased owing to a rise in digital transformation initiatives across the region. Businesses of all sizes and industries are investing in ‘Smart Meeting Rooms; and ‘Huddle Spaces’ in a bid to enhance employee productivity, reduce costs and achieve better outcomes,” said K.S. Parag, Managing Director, FVC. “Although collaboration tools have been around for more than two decades, active adoption has increased over the last few years as organizations have realised the benefits of modernizing their infrastructure to realise the benefits of connecting a distributed workforce. The popularity of co-working spaces and business hubs is also driving demand for state-of-the-art collaboration solutions to offer mobile professionals a rich communication experience. The outlook for enterprise collaboration looks promising as businesses focus on enriching their employees’ workplace experience to boost productivity.”

At GITEX, FVC will demonstrate the synergy between its collaboration and AV portfolio to deliver a truly seamless and rich communications experience. FVC will also showcase its IT infrastructure and Security portfolio which consists of network monitoring solutions, switching, WAN Optimization and SD-WAN solutions, end-point security, Privileged Access Management, real-time breach detection and prevention solutions. 

“GITEX will be our platform to demonstrate our strength in helping partners and customers with solutions that will power their DX initiatives and improve their business processes. We also look forward to meet with new and existing partners as well as end-users to understand their businesses and IT challenges and help develop a synergy with our partner community,” added Parag.

FVC will also showcase FVC Services, its tailor-made offering specifically for partners to be able to offer the same high levels of service to their customers. Through FVC services, the company brings across its domain expertise including cloud migration and managed service offering to end-customers through the FVC partner community. 

Located in the Sheikh Rashid Hall on stand SR-B2, FVC will be showcasing its key vendors including Poly, Barco, SMART, Ribbon Communications, Yamaha, and Vaddio, amongst others. 

Author: Dave Russell, VP of Enterprise Strategy, Veeam

In today’s rapidly changing digital landscape, organizations are increasingly facing the need to implement strategies to manage and protect their data, especially when the data growth rate is not slowing down. IDC reported that companies will have 175 ZB of data by 2025, which combined with a highly competitive environment can be the recipe for a business disaster.

Building strong digital foundations that focus on data availability will be vital to the future of every organization. They must implement effective intelligent data management strategies that help them being able to access the right data at the right time and recover it when it’s lost or damaged.

Building A More Intelligent Business

Veeam’s2019 Cloud Data Management report, found that most organizations (73%) are unable to meet users’ demands for uninterrupted access to applications and data, but almost half of reported individuals (44%) see data management as critical to their businesses’ success in the next two years.

For data management strategies to be successful, enterprises need to follow four core components that not only encompass the technology but the people and the data-culture of the organization.

Component 1: The rise of the cloud

Cloud Data Management, an intrinsic part of Intelligent Data Management, enables data availability across the business. Whether it is a hybrid, a cloud or a multicloud approach, leaders recognize the advantages, from reliability and flexibility to competitive costs and data security, the cloud allows them to manage and locate data where it will deliver the most value. 

An organization can aggregate large amounts of data but if it doesn’t have an efficient way to store it and make it accessible to business users, it will turn against them. Having data that is stored through a reliable and manageable process directly correlates to corporate stability and improves the ability to forecast and make better informed decisions.

Component 2: Your capabilities matter

Business leaders reported that they will spend an average of $41 million on deploying technologies to help transform their operations within the next 12 months. However, for technologies such as backup, disaster recovery and data protection to have the expected business impact, organizations need to invest in their talent, giving them the tools and training to nurture their skills to successfully manage new programs. 

The digital journey’s outcome is intrinsically related to the level of technological capabilities of its userbase. Upskilling employee’s digital skills will be vital to the success of the company and should not be overlooked when allocating company resources. After all, it is the people who make a company successful.

Component 3: Make it a data-driven culture

A corporate culture should be welcoming to innovation, support the introduction of new technologies and speed the process of digital transformation. 

As companies move through this transformation, their culture needs to become more data-driven. Businesses already produce huge amounts of data, but it is not about just gathering data anymore, it has to be managed, analyzed and used to inform faster and make more effective decisions. And it is in the hands of the C-level to convey this way of thinking, from top to bottom leadership should demonstrate the business relation and how technology supports the organization to uncover insights for better services and products. 

Component 4: Confidence is key

The level of confidence in an organization’s capability to meet digital challenges naturally increases as the businesses progress on their digital transformation. However, the potential risks increase as well. 

Addressing the first three components not only gives piece of mind internally but to customers and partners. Investing in robust, scalable and flexible solutions to address mission-critical issues, while allocating resources to improve internal skills will lay that much needed strong digital foundation. 

Maximizing the value of data, has never been as important as today, and as organizations take a leap onto their digital journey and work to become more intelligent businesses, they need to rely and trust their data will be available whenever is needed. Technology, people, new capabilities and a data-driven mentality will help take the steps towards enabling the next-generation of industry disruptors and innovators. 

By: Saadi Kawkji, Presales Director, MEMA at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

As students and teachers begin preparations for a new school year, many will expect to find changes to classrooms, such as new furniture or upgraded whiteboard displays. However, what will most likely go unnoticed is the hard work conducted by IT teams over the summer holidays to upgrade the school or campus network and the integration of new technologies in order to build the foundations for a fully-realized digital classroom experience.

School IT teams will be looking to future-proof their networks in preparation for an influx of new technologies. But with cutbacks in IT spending and a limited amount of time to actually make foundational changes to networks, what should school IT teams prioritize in order to prepare themselves for a digital future?

Getting the basics right

Internet access is now a necessity for the education sector. Both teachers and students rely on it on a daily basis to complete homework as well as in-class tasks. Most learning materials are housed online so that students can access it no matter where they are, and teachers’ lesson plans are increasingly being stored in the cloud as well, so having consistent Wi-Fi access is essential. 

However, implementing a site-wide Wi-Fi network that’s consistent, no matter if you are in a building or on the playing fields at the edge of the school grounds, is a far harder challenge for school IT teams than it would appear. The problem lies in legacy networks that many institutions are still using that were built to look after centralised IT suites, whereas now they are being asked to handle multiple IoT devices accessing the network at any one time. Whether educators like or loathe the use of mobile devices during school hours, they are increasing becoming part of the educational toolset. With this fundamental change to teaching, it must be a priority for IT teams to integrate enterprise-level Wi-Fi in order to handle this influx of devices, and manage their bandwidth efficiently, wherever they are on-site, in order to keep up with the expectations of staff and students.

By getting the basics right and untethering classes from having to be stuck with wired devices in classrooms, you open the door for teachers to think differently about how their curriculum works and try new ideas. With more and more digitally-savvy teachers and students who have grown up with mobile devices, we are seeing a greater drive internally to transform the classroom with new digital ways to engage classes. 

Build the foundations for the future 

There has never been a greater need to connect students, classrooms, and buildings. Student enrolment (who are always more tech savvy and more expectant than the year that preceded them) continues to rise, and the benefits of technology – better grades and greater staff well-being – are necessary if schools are to maintain high levels of performance during the challenging time of digital transformation.

According to IDC,more than 150 billion devices across the globe will be connected by 2025, and nearly half of those will be IoT devices. This development, which will impact educational institutions as these types of devices become a greater part of the curriculum, means greater stress on IT departments and will require proactive planning to manage. To ensure wireless coverage everywhere, schools need to start reviewing and testing Wi-Fi 6, the next generation of networking, which is designed for more demanding environments, like universities and campuses. 

With a fit-for-purpose wireless network in place, schools unlock the opportunity to digitally transform their workplace. Staff will be freed up from manual tasks, such as data input, to make faster decisions and engage students whose learning styles vary. For instance, Bryanston School in the UK has been trialling new technologies like ‘eLockers’, using them as a drop folder where teachers and pupils can upload resources and assignments, such as PowerPoint presentations and homework. With the greater level of network access, teachers at the school can use a Bryanston-built app called ‘eChart’ to mark pupils’ work, providing a more immediate and engaging feedback loop than by traditional methods

In a recent book, ‘Opportunities at the Edge’, from Fast Future, in collaboration with Aruba, it highlighted the possibilities of a boundaryless classroom when edge networking is integrated into the education sector.Edge computing, defined by Gartner as products that facilitate data processing at or near the source of data generation, delivers far speedier results than traditional architectures. For instance, students and teachers may be able to utilise mobile and devices and headsets to join a virtual classroom, no matter where they may be. Alternatively, by integrating AI into the classroom it could curate personalised lesson plans for each student and monitor whether may be struggling with a topic. The system could then provide additional explanation and guidance in the classroom, offering to replay video of critical parts of lessons and lectures during self-study outside the classroom.

Make sure security and safeguarding are key

The biggest challenge for institutions will be balancing technological innovation with the threat of security breaches. Schools, colleges and universities all want to prioritise providing the best possible education to students whose expectations around technology are growing exponentially. To connect with them in a meaningful way requires reliable, optimised, and personalised learning experiences. But with an influx of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, from phones and tablets, to smart speakers and VR, and a cohort that aren’t all trained in security best practices, the network could easily become at risk of intrusion. This not only could cause a data breach, but more seriously, puts young people at risk of communication from people who may wish to abuse, exploit or bully them. 

A worrying set of statistics from our ‘Digital Workplace’report from last year, highlighted that education employees don’t think their security practices are up to scratch. Just under half (49%) of teachers admit they rarely (if ever) think about cybersecurity, despite 91% acknowledging its importance. In addition, more than three-quarters (76%) believe there is room for improvement in the way connected tech is managed. 

In order to tackle this issue schools must implement new tools that go beyond traditional cybersecurity measures, such as User and Entity Behaviour Analytics (UEBA),which identify patterns in typical user behaviour and flag any anomalies. These kinds of solutions don’t hinder employee creativity, collaboration, or speed as many clunky security systems do. Instead, they provide real-time protection and enable quick responses should a network breach occur.

While I’m sure these priorities may feel overwhelming for schools to think about, particularly as we get closer and closer to the start of term, but by implementing a wireless network which can handle multiple devices securely and has the flexibility to adapt and evolve as new technology is added, they will be in a great position for the future.

With the right technology and a security strategy in place that allows educators to innovate without fear of cyber threats, there is huge potential for educational institutions to become efficient, productive and inspiring digital workplaces. 

Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT), a global leader in broad, integrated, and automated cybersecurity solutions, will highlight the importance of securing edge networks and showcase its Secure SD-WAN, SD-Branch, OT and Cloud Security solutions at GITEX 2019.

“The network perimeter is being replaced with new edge networks. As data moves between multi-cloud, IoT, SD-WAN and next-gen branch offices, and mobile devices, the challenge is ensuring security and consistency between these environments,” said Alain Penel, Regional Vice President- Middle East, Fortinet. “At Gitex we will further emphazise how the Fortinet Security Fabric delivers broad, integrated, and automated protection across an organization’s entire digital attack surface from IoT to the edge, network core and multi-clouds.”

Fortinet will be present in the Enterprise Networking and Security section in the Sheikh Rashid Hall Stand SR- C10, where it hold live demo sessions, where visitors can also hear from its product experts about how Fortinet solutions protect the entire end-to-end infrastructure without compromising network performance.

Fortinet’s key solutions at the show include:

• Secure SD-WAN: Best-of-breed next-generation firewall (NGFW) security, SD-WAN, advanced routing, and WAN optimization capabilities, delivering a security-driven networking WAN edge transformation in a unified offering.
• Security solutions for ICS and SCADA: application- and user-identity awareness, content security with integrated intrusion prevention, antivirus, web filtering, SSL encryption/decryption and advanced threat protection and remeditation.
• Multi-Cloud security: necessary visibility and control across cloud infrastructures, enabling secure applications and connectivity from data center to cloud.

Riding a wave of increased spending by the military and defence sector, and bolstered by the pressing need for Oil & Gas and broadcast organizations to streamline operations and optimize operational costs through the use of advanced technologies, VITEC, a global leader in end-to-end video streaming solutions, has doubled down on its investment in the Middle East. Earlier this year, the company established its presence in the region with the inauguration of an office in Dubai and has since expanded its workforce and customer base at an accelerated pace.

Outlining his organization’s rapid expansion in the region, Nicolas Pons, VP Business Development Middle East at VITEC said, “Given the space that VITEC operates in, the prevailing socio-economic conditions in the region have proven favourable, fuelling our growth. Across industry verticals, our expertise and future-proof, market-leading solutions are helping customers achieve their ambitious objectives with confidence in the quality and security of their investments. We have firmly committed to the region and will continue to invest in our presence here as we deepen our ties with customers, strengthen our channel, and help drive the maturity of the digital video delivery sector.”

Pons outlined two key technology focus areas for VITEC in the Middle East:

• Point-to-Point Broadcasting:Given the need for live reporting from the field to cover the near-constant stream of breaking news and events in the region, VITEC see this as an essential solution for broadcasters. VITEC takes the benefits of HEVC encoding out of the server room and into the field by integrating a high-quality, low-delay hardware codec into a professional appliance, reducing operating expenses and extending the reach of video services to remote destinations with bandwidth constraints. The company’s Point-to-Point broadcasting contribution solution is the industry’s only portable IP streaming solution for HEVC (H.265) MGW Ace Encoder, D265 Decoder, and EZ TV IPTV.
• IPTV & Digital Signage:Through its engagement with regional customers, VITEC has uncovered that being able to find secure, scalable cost-effective ways to distribute video is a key priority across a myriad of sectors, including enterprises, sports and entertainment, healthcare and government. VITEC’s award winning EZ TV platform offers the most advanced IPTV experience with live streaming, on-demand video, digital recording, mosaic player, time-shifted TV and customizable look-and-feel. EZ TV content security and user-access controls are certified by military units and broadcasters for local and multi-site applications. Furthermore, the platform’s Digital Signage module uses powerful hardware-based endpoints to deliver eye-catching digital content with dynamic data and full HD IPTV content.

Over the next year, the company intends to continue the expansion of its workforce, extend is channel partner ecosystem, and deepen penetration into key customer accounts across the Oil & Gas, Broadcast, and Military & Defence sectors, particularly in the UAE, Jordan and Turkey.

“2019 has been a remarkable year for VITEC and we intend to build on our business momentum. We have a clear strategy for the region and are eager to establish our brand as the partner of choice for all the digital video delivery needs of Middle East organizations,” concluded Pons.

Survey reveals how CISOs are shifting priotities and security strategies to manage increasingly advanced threats with limited resources 

Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT), a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions, today announced a new report by Forbes Insights it commissioned titled “Making Tough Choices: How CISOs Manage Escalating Threats and Limited Resources.” The global survey polled CISOs across various industries about the biggest challenges they’re facing and strategies they’re putting in place to address these obstacles. 

The survey found that 84 percent of CISOs believe the risks of cyber attacks will increase and almost a quarter believe the capabilities of attackers are outpacing their ability to defend their organization. This issue is compounded with limited resources, including lack of sufficient budget and skilled professionals as well as a threat attack surface that is quickly expanding and becoming more sophisticated. Because of this, security leaders understand it is critical to have the right strategies in place as they face an arms race between the capabilities of attackers and their own defense postures.   

“The Forbes Insights survey echoes the primary challenges we hear directly from Fortinet customers and prospects. Today’s CISOs are tasked with the challenge of allocating limited funds and resources to the highest-return cybersecurity projects which can range from breach detection to response. These C-level security leaders must maximize security with finite resources, all while balancing strategic leadership responsibilities and tactical issues. Through the Fortinet Security Fabric, Fortinet is providing end-to-end security so that CISOs can navigate a rapidly changing cyber threat landscape day in and day out,” said John Maddison, EVP of products at Fortinet. 

Other key takeaways from the Forbes Insights report include:

• CISOs are increasingly implementing AI technologies to cybersecurity. Forty-eight percent of security leaders are focused on seamlessly integrating security into their network operations and 45 percent are shifting and changing their cybersecurity strategy toward advanced analytics for greater visibility into their environments. AI, like machine learning, and analytics relieves IT teams time away from monotonous tasks, so they can focus on business-critial tasks such as identifying anomalous behavior in their networks and responding to threats quickly.

• CISOs would like to allocate more of their budget to detection and response.According to the survey, security leaders are currently allocating an average if 36 percent of their security budet on response. However, in an ideal world, they would shift their resources from prevention to bolster detection and response. The survey found they’d increase response to be 40 percent of their budget. 

• Cybersecurity training and education for employees is key. The Forbes Insights survey found that CISOs believe talent and training constraints have a significant impact on their organizations. As a result, CISOs are paying more attention to educating their own employees on best practices and building cybersecurity awareness in order to prevent and reduce internal threats. 

• CISO are constrained by the lack of an adequate budget.While threats are expanding, CISOs find that there resources, including budget, remain limited. A third of CISOs surveyed in the report felt that the lack of an adequate budget is having a significant impact on their cybersecurity program. 

• A top priority for CISOs is safeguarding customer data and intellectual property.More than a third of respondents said protecting their organization’s brand is top of mind. More than 36 percent of CISOs selected customer data as the highest priority for protection. A majority of respondants also shared they are focusing on protecting intellectual property as one of the most important assets in their care, which they believe is another core target of most malicious actors.