McAfee Research Report Sample

As part of an ongoing market research effort, Secure Computing commissioned Forrester Consulting in November 2008 to conduct a study of Web filtering requirements and trends across small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) and enterprises. Also in November 2008, McAfee acquired Secure Computing.1 This study is an update of a similar commissioned study Forrester Consulting conducted on behalf of Secure Computing in October 2007. The purpose of this study is to understand how various factors and trends — including Web 2.0 usage, changing business requirements on the Web, and the prevalence of remote workers — impact users’ views on and requirements of Web filtering technologies.

We found that Web 2.0 usage remains prevalent in organizations of all sizes, including those that have less than 1,000 Internet users. Many also anticipate their Web 2.0 usage to increase for the foreseeable future. We also found that the role of Web filtering is changing from a security-centric function to more of a business function. More and more organizations are using Web filtering beyond defending against Web threats. Rather, they are incorporating functions such as productivity management, traffic quality of service (QoS) management, and even single sign-on (SSO). As organizations’ worker populations becomes more mobile and distributed, many indicated that mobile filtering is an increasingly important new requirement for Web filtering solutions.