Network Security: More About Opportunity Than Cost?

Security was one of those topics that usually ended up at the end of most agendas and service provider conferences you’ve attended over the years.  Yet for being thought of last, security is actually one of the topics that elicits the greatest responses from subscribers.

Today, Cisco has released their midyear security report and some of the suggestions call for investment.  In the report you’ll find a variety of security findings and trends gathered from all corners of Cisco’s customer base and their own research.

Of course, security can be regarded as a fairly drop topic.  Some of the attempts to change this perception have ranged from cartoons to videos involving heavy metal and poultry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mhp2XThT48

While Cisco doesn’t mention chickens in their report, they do resort to using artichokes. You’ll have to read through to understand the reference lest you think this is culinary advice.

Two of the highlights from Cisco’s report are action items and calls to action that all service providers should consider:

1) Invest in tools to manage and monitor cloud activities — and as previously covered here at Telecompetitor ( ) the use of cloud based services is becoming increasingly viable as companies such as Cisco, VMware, EMC, and NetApp provide coordinated solutions.  Additionally, more service providers are realizing the value of NetFlow analysis to qualify and quantify the application mix of subscriber broadband use.

2) View security as a differentiator for your business — there is a real market for providing security solutions to your subscribers and the financial models to support an offering are increasingly service provider oriented.

Lastly, what are you doing to provide security to your subscribers today?  Are you using partners for your security solutions? Please let us know in the comments section below.  We promise not to mention chickens and artichokes.