Words like “integrated” and “centralized” have been used to describe application software solutions for some years now, often because of marketing messaging that implies more interoperability than the given technology can actually provide to the business customer. The terms are broad enough to be almost meaningless in some instances. In the field of IT security, the sheer range of tools and techniques in the hacker or virus writer’s armory that one must guard against has driven up the number of solutions required to prevent attacks.
The Final Buying Decision:
Integrated Vs. Compatible
A McAfee White Paper November 26, 2006
CopiaTECH 18352 Dallas Parkway Suite 136 Dallas, Texas 75287 www.copiatech.com Phone: 866-393-1602
Table of Contents Executive Summary 2
More For Less 2
Real Cost of Ownership 3
Compatible vs. Integrated: The Spectrum 4
Conclusion 8
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Executive Summary Words like "integrated" and "centralized" have been used to describe application software solutions for some years now, often because of marketing messaging that implies more interoperability than the given technology can actually provide to the business customer. The terms are broad enough to be almost meaningless in some instances. In the field of IT security, the sheer range of tools and techniques in the hacker or virus writer's armory that one must guard against has driven up the number of solutions required to prevent attacks. This has increased the cost of managing these solutions, to where the cost of management typically makes up over half the total cost of ownership (TCO). Reducing this significant cost is achievable, as this paper details. This makes financial sense and, just as importantly, allows a superior level of security even when using multiple vendors. Solutions that truly are integrated and centralized can bring clear benefits if applied correctly. More For Less In today's competitive security market, vendors are driven to provide more for less. Bundles and suites are a common practice that became popular following the introduction of the Microsoft® Office suite in the 1990s. The aim is to provide exponential discounts as you buy more components from the same vendor, therefore reducing the overall costs for the software. (The diagram below highlights the approximate discount level for some of the key McAfee suites.) Although the purchaser may not use every product included in the bundle, it is still more cost-effective to buy the suite instead of the individual components.
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To encourage the use of unused suite components, Microsoft started to integrate features and build common interfaces among the component parts of the Office suite. This paper will look at how and why the security industry is doing the same. Real Cost of Ownership The traditional reason for purchasing a security suite-as opposed to purchasing each security component-was to save money. However, purchasing the license(s) for the security software only accounts for about 5 to 15 percent of the real cost of implementing and maintaining that solution (i.e., the TCO) when amortized over three years, as is common practice for a software purchase. This means that real-world savings, which depend on the number of suite components you use, would always be a small percentage of the total cost of using that solution. With every company needing to reduce costs, how do you improve efficiency and get more from security investments? To answer this, we need to understand what makes up the real cost of implementing security solutions. The largest cost is in manpower, which can make up between 50 to 70 percent of that TCO. This can include cost of training, implementation, 1 management, maintenance, and support.
1 "In most cases, the price of software proved to be less than 10 percent of the total cost of ownership. Where costs do become significant for all types of software is in the level of staffing needed. By staffi ng, I mean the training, maintenance, support, administration and other personnel costs necessary to run the software package effi ciently. These costs can add up to as much as 50 percent to 70 percent of a software system's TCO over its useful life."-"The True Costs of Software" by Alan MacCormack, assistant professor of business administration at Harvard Business School (ComputerWorld, May 2003), http://www. computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/windows/story/0,10801,81590,00.html?f=x13
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In the 2006 report Benchmark of IT Spending 2006, The Annual Review of IT Spending in the UK, the National Computer Centre (NCC) validates these figures. (See pie chart entitled "The Breakdown of Total IT Spending" above and the chart in the next column, "O... [download for more]
