Survey Results Demonstrate Need for Integrated Approach to Network Security; Point Products Fall Short

Brocade^® (Nasdaq: BRCD) today announced the results from its man-on-the-street survey conducted at the RSA Conference 2010 in San Francisco, California. Of 144 IT security practitioners surveyed, 47 percent revealed that their network security solutions are less than 25 percent effective in thwarting security threats. The potential ramifications of these breaches are widespread, considering that more than 1.2 million consumers’ personal and confidential information has been exposed due to network security breaches since the beginning of 2009.* While these statistics are startling, they are not surprising. According to Charles Kolodgy, research vice president, IDC Security Products, surveys show that over 90 percent of enterprises plan to either increase or maintain their spending in IT security in 2010.

Mr. Kolodgy continues that, "Data is currency in the information age and protecting those assets is of utmost concern to security professionals, especially in an environment where technical threats continue to evolve and cyber criminals become increasingly sophisticated. Security solutions have to improve to meet these challenges. Enterprises can no longer rely on point security solutions to prevent data loss; instead, they must incorporate security into the network infrastructure for comprehensive coverage on multiple fronts."

In terms of a threat or data leakage perspective, 80 percent of those surveyed stated that security policies to address these issues are only being "somewhat enforced.” In fact, only 18 percent stated that their security policies are being completely enforced, indicating a disconnect between policy and practice that can lead to security vulnerabilities, non-compliance and increased risk.

While cyber-criminal activity was a topic of discussion in numerous keynote sessions at the conference, 48 percent of those surveyed cited "individuals within their organization providing or selling sensitive information to competitive companies” as their most serious security concern. Foreign governments ranked a distant second at 15 percent and cyber-criminals ranked third at 10 percent.

Unfortunately, only 56 percent felt background checks were effective in determining whether an employee is a potential spy. Unsolicited comments ranged from "a background check is better than nothing” to "it’s only part of a complete picture needed.”

To address this burgeoning customer need, Brocade announced a strategic partnership with McAfee, the world’s largest dedicated security company, to bring tightly integrated network security solutions to market earlier this year. The two companies will collaborate on the development of end-to-end, open standards-based network security solutions spanning the entire security spectrum, from firewall and intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS/IPS) to network access control (NAC).

McAfee’s network solutions, now integrated with Brocade networking products, help customers directly address security challenges. McAfee provides an integrated security portfolio - from the endpoint to the network - all controlled by a single policy management platform. McAfee helps eliminate point products by integrating its own multiple, best-of-breed technologies onto a single platform. McAfee’s Global Threat Intelligence enables sharing and correlating of threat information between solutions in real time to optimize security and compliance workflows, resulting in a dramatically lower total cost of ownership.

The survey polled 144 RSA Conference 2010 attendees who are involved in the IT security decision-making process within a wide variety of industries, including manufacturing, education, software, healthcare, telecommunications, government and finance.

*According to www.privacyrights.org

More Information

To learn more about Brocade and McAfee joint technology solutions, visit www.brocade.com/mcafee and for more information about Brocade enterprise network security solutions, visit www.brocade.com/networksecurity.

Additional Resources

• Press Release: Brocade and McAfee Enter Strategic Partnership to Deliver Comprehensive Network Security Solutions (http://newsroom.brocade.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=1188)
• Video: Brocade CEO Mike Klayko and McAfee CEO David DeWalt on the Brocade/McAfee strategic partnership announcement (http://bit.ly/bP5Ktj)
• Video: McAfee’s Manish Gupta on the technical benefits of the strategic partnership (http://bit.ly/cbWOCx)
• Video: McAfee as a network security customer (http://bit.ly/cn5cuf)

About Brocade

Brocade (Nasdaq: BRCD) develops extraordinary networking solutions that enable today’s complex, data-intensive businesses to optimize information connectivity and maximize the business value of their data. For more information, visit www.brocade.com.

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