Research Shows Many Organizations Fail to Meet Data Security and Governance Requirements and Struggle with Integration Complexity

Axway and Ovum today announced the results of a global study that examined data security, governance and integration challenges facing organizations. Conducted by Ovum, the study highlighted how the growing complexity of governance and compliance initiatives challenge IT integration and C-level executives, and how isolation between IT integration and corporate governance forms economic and reputational risks. Of the 450 respondents from North America, Asia Pacific and EMEA, 23 percent said their company failed a security audit in the last three years, while 17 percent either didn’t believe or didn’t know if they would pass a compliance audit today. The study also revealed that the average overall cost of a data breach was $3 million.

"As the volume and speed of business continues to grow, organizations face greater risk of exposing sensitive data. Moreover, stringent regulatory mandates call for transparent audit trails and a high level of visibility into and control over the flow of sensitive data. Therefore, enterprises can no longer afford to implement infrastructure and governance solutions in isolation,” said Saurabh Sharma, Senior Analyst, Ovum. "Traditional approaches to managing business interactions are not suitable for meeting these complex requirements and significantly increase the chance of a data breach and compliance failure.”

In examining the key priorities for chief information officers, chief information security officers and chief risk officers, the study identified business continuity and disaster recovery as the top priority (87 percent), followed by protecting against cyber threats (85 percent), managing insider threats (84 percent) and compliance monitoring (83 percent). To determine how well equipped organizations are to address this broad range of data security and governance priorities, the study looked at the current state of organizations’ integration infrastructure and file transfer technologies.

Alarmingly, the study found that:

• The majority of organizations (71 percent) have little synergy between integration strategy and data security, privacy and governance frameworks and policies.
• More than half of organizations reported a fragmented integration infrastructure: (56 percent) currently use discrete solutions for on-premise application integration, B2B integration and cloud integration.
• Forty-six percent expressed frustration with their existing Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) stating it offered less flexibility than expected and is difficult to maintain.
• More enterprise assets (applications, services and data) are going to be exposed to external sources (partners, customers, third-party developers, etc.) with 78 percent of organizations either having an API program in place or planning to implement one over the next two to three years.
• There are major concerns about existing file transfer solutions, with reliability (84 percent), compliance (77 percent), visibility and monitoring (75 percent), and integration (74 percent) ranking as the top issues.

Current infrastructure and governance silos, the need to manage an increasing number and type of integrations, and the problems with existing file transfer solutions have created data security and privacy concerns about file transfers. Respondents listed data/file encryption at rest (89 percent), defining and enforcing security policies (86 percent) and identity and access management (78 percent) as the most pressing issues. These concerns are particularly important as the study found organizations use file transfers for 32 percent or more of business critical processes, on average.

Despite the economic and reputational risks posed by current data security, governance and integration challenges, respondents identified the need for a 360-degree view of customer engagement and relationship (80 percent) and the need to reduce the cost of integration (80 percent) as the top factors driving a rethink of integration strategies.

"Ovum’s findings shine a light on the challenges most organizations have in meeting today’s increasing data security and compliance requirements, as well as the risks of failing to instill effective data flow governance,” said Dean Hidalgo, executive vice president, global marketing, Axway. "With proven MFT and API management technologies, either on-premise or in the cloud, and by designing a more unified and comprehensive integration strategy, organizations can govern the flow of data across internal and external sources.”

View the Whitepaper "The Imperative for Effective Data Flow Governance in Response to Data Security, Risk Mitigation, and Compliance Requirements”: http://www2.axway.com/PR-Ovum-report-en

Download the infographic "OVUM Risk Mitigation and Compliance Requirements”: http://www2.axway.com/PR-Ovum-infographic-en

Register for the Ovum & Axway Joint Webinar "How Governance, Security & Compliance Requirements are Driving Change in Integration Strategy”: http://w.on24.com/r.htm?e=849996&s=1&k=A57065E402B6F7C0CE223E7862467CF6

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About Axway

Axway (NYSE Euronext:AXW.PA), a market leader in governing the flow of data, is a global software company with more than 11,000 public- and private-sector customers in 100 countries. For more than a decade, Axway has empowered leading organizations around the world with proven solutions that help manage business-critical interactions through the exchange of data flowing across the enterprise, among B2B communities, cloud and mobile devices. Our award-winning solutions span business-to-business integration, managed file transfer, operational intelligence, API and identity management, and email security– offered on premise and in the Cloud with professional and managed services. Axway is registered in France with headquarters in the United States and offices in 19 countries. www.axway.com

About Axway 5 Suite

Axway 5 Suite offers control and optimization of the flow of data through integration, visibility, policy, security and reliability to govern business-to-business interactions, communities, systems and data types — within and beyond the enterprise edge.

About Ovum

Ovum is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. Through its 180 analysts worldwide it offers expert analysis and strategic insight across the IT, telecoms, and media industries. Founded in 1985, Ovum has one of the most experienced analyst teams in the industry and is a respected source of guidance for technology business leaders, CIOs, vendors, service providers, and regulators looking for comprehensive, accurate, and insightful market data, research, and consulting. With 23 offices across six continents, Ovum offers a truly global perspective on technology and media markets and provides thousands of clients with insight including workflow tools, forecasts, surveys, market assessments, technology audits, and opinion. In 2012, Ovum was jointly named Global Analyst Firm of the Year by the IIAR.

In addition, Ovum operates a large portfolio of technology conferences annually in Europe under the OvumLive events brand, presenting a more interactive opportunity to learn from its analysts. Its flagship event – Ovum Industry Congress – attracts over 300 end-user attendees every year.

Ovum is a division of Informa plc, one of the leading business and academic publishing and event organisers globally, headquartered in London. Informa is quoted on the London Stock Exchange.