Survey says: Security the top challenge for IT pros

From the Microsoft Forefront blog:

Today Microsoft released findings from a survey of 1200+ IT professionals in the US, UK, Germany and Japan. Some of the top findings about their opinions on IT in a recession, priorities and where they are investing are here. Among the most interesting results are related to security, such as:

· IT pros cite security as the number one challenge in managing infrastructure (above some other big challenges, such as uptime, resource utilization, systems management, end-user support, sprawling datacenters and interoperability.)

· Protection of customer and company data is the top security priority, above other activities including security systems management (#2), compliance and governance, identity management and adopting hosted security services.

· A majority of IT pros view security as an enabler of business. More than half think that IT security responsibilities include advancing overall business goals (52%) and increasing end-user productivity (51%)