That's according to a CA Technologies survey which showed that more budget dollars were being devoted to security in the application economy.
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Today, 40 per cent of Australian organisations are spending between 20 to 40 per cent of their entire IT budget on security and on average, the percentage spent on security will increase 31 per cent in three years.
The survey of 1,425 senior IT decision-makers worldwide (including 100 in Australia) was conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of CA Technologies to get a better understanding of the way Australian businesses were approaching IT security. Furthermore, the research found that new priorities are also coming to the forefront when it comes to security including data breach protection (44 per cent), improving compliance and audit (40 per cent) and protecting Cloud applications and data (34 per cent). CA Technolgies A/NZ director, pre-sales, Jason Pope, said as more Australian organisations understood the impact of the application economy in the increasingly connected business landscape, they were considering how mobility -- from applications to devices -- was impacting their security practices and policies.
"Data shows that between 33 and 47 per cent of respondents report seeing a big or significant impact from mobility on their security policies and practices for both employees and customers.
"With this in mind, security must evolve to meet the growing and changing demands of the application economy." While security concerns are evident, the research finds that Australian organisations are also anticipating benefits from improved security measures.
The benefits seen or anticipated with the most significant results are related to fewer security breaches (97 per cent), followed by more accountability and control (91 per cent), improved customer satisfaction and trust in products and services (79 per cent) and increased number of customers using applications and services (75 per cent). According to the survey, success in the application economy also requires businesses to innovate and release more applications quickly, and APIs will lead the way.
Seventy four per cent of the survey respondents indicated that they were opening access to their APIs to suppliers, customers or partners.
While APIs have numerous benefits, the report cited it can also pose a serious risk if they are not properly secured.