IT Service Providers See Increased Interest In Security

In the wake of warnings about how terrorists might take aim at the nation's IT infrastructure, it should come as no surprise that large IT service providers see increased interest from customers and prospective clients in tightening IT systems' security and ensuring redundancy of data and applications.

Defining IT security policies and parameters is rising to the top of Computer Sciences Corp.'s clients' requests. "It used to be more difficult to organize a session to set the standards and metrics, because it's a dry topic that doesn't always translate to a business requirement," says Ron Knode, CSC's global director of managed security services. Now, "clients are coming to us to discuss these things." Mundane tasks-such as notifying systems administrators of falling service levels-now seem much more important because they ultimately help protect their systems from vulnerabilities, for example.

IBM Global Services also sees increased interest in security issues. "A likely outcome of the terrorist attacks and the fear of further attacks is that companies will be more careful about who knows what about their IT plans," says Bob Zapfel, general manager of strategic outsourcing and integrated technology services. They're looking for ways to ensure that key pieces of data will be visible only to certain personnel, he says.

Zapfel says companies also look for IT partners with a widespread geographic presence, because of concern about terrorist attacks' devastating a single area. Tax Technology Inc. is moving forward with plans to establish a fully redundant facility to back up customer data and applications that are hosted by IBM Global Services. It hasn't decided who will handle the job, says Jeff Wenger, VP and chief technology officer for the Haworth, N.J., provider of tax-compliance software-but it's certain that its business can't be concentrated in one area. "That's just good business sense," Wenger says.

CSC and EDS say their customers are starting to take advantage of contracts written to take economic uncertainty into account. EDS's clients in the airline sector, including American Air-lines, US Airways, and Continental, have been hard hit by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But, says Doug Frederick, president of EDS's information solutions division, their deal with EDS means that software-licensing costs are reduced when falling reservations levels hurt business.