According to Forrester Research, you should expect some major changes in how Chief Information Security Officers – and other IT risk and security professionals – will support their business users next year. Even with the economy showing some signs that it has stabilized, memories of the financial crisis have yet to fade.

IT departments around the world are developing and implementing capabilities to address new internal policies and are readying themselves for regulatory changes currently in the pipeline. Since regs lag the business environment, we have yet to experience this second act in the financial crisis saga.

Below are four ways IT risk and security are expected to change next year. Watch these trends, and contact enter:marketing to plan and execute client outreach programs on these themes.

1. Regulators and culture will become most important: these two factors are intertwined. Almost every compliance effort involves the “tone at the top” of a company. CISOs should be ready to contribute to a culture of information security, risk management and transparency.

2. Change will become the norm: the bar will move continually, and new compliance efforts will become an ongoing concern for the IT department.

3. IT departments will have to learn from each other: peer benchmarking will be crucial to the identification and adoption of best practices. In a rapidly changing IT and compliance environment, it will be an important approach for making sure a company doesn’t fall behind.

4. Risk frameworks will become roadmaps (unless you integrate them): your clients’ IT roadmaps will have to include risk and compliance frameworks. Otherwise, compliance will become a siloed activity, requiring complicated, costly and time-consuming integration efforts latter … or the management of disparate systems with duplicate data, larger datacenter footprints and higher maintenance costs.

IT manufacturers and resellers have an opportunity for proactive client outreach. Learn more about the compliance challenges they face, and open a dialogue on how you can help them reduce their IT costs without compromising the integrity of their compliance programs. Contact enter:marketing to develop new ways to initiate this conversation with your clients.

[Via Forrester Research]

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