Global software giant Symantec has introduced its Digital Information Index (DII) into the Nigerian market, to protect business information data.
According to the company, it is needed considering the growth of cloud computing, where more than 50 percent of a company’s data is stored outside the firewall.
Sheldon Hand, Symantec’s Country Manager for Indian Oceans, West and Central Africa, said: “Businesses are undergoing a transformation unlike anything we have seen before. With mobile devices and cloud giving employees access to information from nearly anywhere, we are also seeing more sensitive information living beyond the traditional Information Technology (IT) boundaries, and this is creating concern about how to best protect information.”
The company has also published the 2012 State of Information Report which revealed the advantages and challenges of “information sprawl”.
Concerning information sprawl, Hand said: “Modern technologies and information sprawl clearly has benefits, but over a quarter of businesses surveyed have experienced challenges as a result. More than one-third of businesses had experienced the exposure of confidential information as a result of lost or stolen mobile devices.
“Other issues arise from being unable to find what they need, with a large proportion of their information being unorganised or difficult to find. And even within the firewall, their storage utilisation is at just 31 percent, dipping even lower outside the data centre.”
This is further complicated by the contributions of mobile information sprawl. He said smartphones and tablets store 14 percent of business information globally.
