Survey ranks virtualization as the most significant technology-related priority this year

A newly released IT survey has ranked virtualization – the creation of a remote and often shared (rather than local and owned) technology resource, such as a server, data storage, platform or application – as the most significant technology-related priority for 2015.

Global consulting firm Protiviti’s 2015 IT Priorities Survey, titled Today’s Enterprise – Cyberthreats Lurk Amid Major Transformation, found that virtualization was ranked by respondents as this year’s most “significant” priority (86%), followed by virus/malware advanced threat detection/eradication at 83%. Other issues of significant importance included monitoring security events (84%), data breach and privacy laws (various U.S. states) at 83% and incident response reaction time at 83%.

IT priorities were indexed on a point scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest. Any issue with an index of 6.0 or higher was considered a “significant priority” and percentages were calculated for the “significant priority” category (between 6-10 points on the scale). [click image below to enlarge]

The survey involved more than 1,000 respondents, mostly from North America, including chief information officers, IT vice presidents and IT directors.

“Gone are the days where information security and data privacy vulnerabilities are viewed as just technical issues,” said Kurt Underwood, managing director with Protiviti and global leaders of the firm’s IT consulting practice, in a statement. “Today, these challenges include critical business policy, governance, compliance and communications that must be addressed across the enterprise, placing even more responsibilities on the shoulders of executive management.”

Underwood added that that survey findings “show that organizations going through major transformations see the need to elevate more of their attention and budgets toward mitigating and combating security risks as they seek to enhance and protect the value of their businesses with technology.”

Related: Cybersecurity awareness top of mind for internal auditors: Protiviti

At the same time as companies are challenged with cybersecurity risks, they’re also focused on implementing and managing transformation in their organizations, the statement said. Over half of the organizations surveyed (60%) are undergoing a major IT transformation. Most of these initiatives will last a year or longer, intensifying demands on IT departments to manage these changes successfully while addressing other critical business needs, such as cybersecurity.

“Outwitting the wolves at your organization’s ‘cyber door’ and managing changes in the enterprise with confidence requires IT departments to deploy an impressive and innovative array of information security approaches, processes, tools, skills/personnel, and collaborations,” the survey noted.