GDPR – Market Opportunities
With the deadline for GDPR fast approaching, organisations are hastily seeking new technologies to enable compliance, and consequently, this new legislation is already becoming a substantial driver of growth in both security and storage markets in Europe.
At a recent IT Security Strategy Insights meeting, we spoke to over 120 IT Security Directors from large enterprise, discussing and analysing their future requirements. This confirmed the extent to which privacy and security professional’s budgets are on the rise and they will increasingly be looking for support in areas such as:
- Identity and access management
- Deploying next-generation firewalls
- Increasing data visibility
- Facilitating secure mobile access
- Encryption
- Employee education and awareness
- Automating audit trails
We will also see considerable growth in demand for technologies with capabilities of data loss prevention and data classification.
The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a new piece of legislation which will be coming into effect on 25 May 2018, the implementation of which is set to dramatically change the data protection landscape not only across the EU, but globally. Although the GDPR harmonises legislation across the EU, removing the complexities that organisations currently face when complying with differing local regulations, the challenges of compliance presented by the sheer scope of the GDPR are undeniably immense, and the degree of change seen in certain aspects of the regulation means that many organisations are delving into unknown territory.
Though the outlook may first appear bleak, for every compliance challenge presented there is also an equal opportunity, for those who are willing to form part of the solution. The maximum fine for non-compliance is 4% of global revenue and combined with the introduction of mandatory breach notifications, organisations have to dramatically enhance their data protection practices.
The timescale for compliance is tight, as such the rapid speed of implementation is driving substantial services revenue. Organisations are seeking help in prioritising risks, achieving compliance and ensuring they are in a defensible position when the day finally arrives, and there is a golden opportunity available for solution providers to help them to make privacy a major competitive differentiator.