Strategic enterprise networking opportunities

Intrusion detection solutions (IDS)

After firewalls and anti-virus solutions, IDS is predicted to be "the next big technology" in the network security product market. As hack attacks increase, companies are looking to increasingly monitor their network traffic to spot attacks as they are carried out. The alerts can then be acted upon and the appropriate modifications to the firewall made to end the attack and limit the amount of damage done to the network.

Monitoring employee Internet access

Giving Internet access to employees has enabled them to harness the power of the Internet and makes them much more efficient and effective - essentially allowing them access to Internet-based applications and information sources. However, many companies have also begun to realize that the Internet can also be a major source of distraction. To counter this problem, many firms have begun looking to URL-filtering or conditional access solutions to prevent employees accessing sites that they deem to be offensive or non work-related.

40 per cent of European firms regularly monitor employee Internet usage