Security technologies and solutions will have the greatest impact on organizations in 2007, according to the results of a new web poll conducted by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA).

The poll of more than 1,100 technology professionals found that 24.3 percent of them believe security technologies will have the greatest impact on their organizations this year. Security ranked second in a similar CompTIA web poll in 2006.

"Information security considerations affect virtually everything an organization does, whether it is internal email communications, business-to-business data exchange or electronic commerce with consumers," said John Venator, president and chief executive officer, CompTIA. "The proliferation of devices that are now connected to networks, and the increasing mobility of customers and workers have pushed security to top of mind for everyone, from the technician monitoring the network to the business owners and operators whose livelihood can be at risk in the event of a security catastrophe."

Wireless data applications were the second most popular choice among respondents to the poll on technologies that will have the greatest impact this year, chosen by 13.1 percent of IT professionals.

Convergence solutions, such as voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony and unified messaging, placed third. In the 2006 poll, convergence was the top choice for the technology that would have the greatest impact. The fourth most popular choice for the technology that will have the greatest impact in 2007 was open source solutions, chosen by 8.5 percent of poll respondents. Virtualization technology placed fifth, at 7 percent.

Rounding out the top ten technologies that will have the greatest impact in 2007 were Web 2.0 (6.9 percent), radio frequency identification (6.5 percent), network access control (3.9 percent), business intelligence applications, and storage (3.2 percent each). The CompTIA web poll was conducted between March 29 and May 15 and closed with 1,124 responses.

CompTIA, the world's leading provider of vendor-neutral certifications for technology professionals, offers certification programs in several of the technologies identified as having a significant impact in 2007, including security, convergence, RFID, and networking. For more information on CompTIA certifications, visit http://certification.comptia.org.
http://www.comptia.org