McAfee did a survey on the impact of Security on the adoption of web2.0 in the enterprise. Here are some findings:
Those businesses agree that Web 2.0 technologies — such as social media, microblogging services such as Twitter, collaborative platforms, web mail, and content sharing tools — can drive revenue. But more than 60 percent of corporations said they suffered losses averaging $2 million due to security problems. Some 60 percent also said they were concerned about damage to their reputation as a result of Web 2.0 misuse.
Brazil, Spain and India led in adoption of Web 2.0 technology for business, while adoption was lowest in Canada, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom.
“Web 2.0 technologies are impacting all aspects of the way businesses work,” said George Kurtz, chief technology officer for McAfee. “As Web 2.0 technologies gain popularity, organizations are faced with a choice – they can allow them to propagate unchecked, they can block them, or they can embrace them and the benefits they provide while managing them in a secure way.”
About 75 percent of the companies said that adoption of Web 2.0 technologies led to new revenue streams, while 40 percent said the tools have boosted productivity and enhanced marketing effectiveness.
The top perceived threats of Web 2.0 usage by employees are malicious software (35 percent were concerned about it), viruses (15 percent), overexposure of information (11 percent) and spyware (10 percent). About 14 percent reported litigation or legal threats caused by employees disclosing confidential or sensitive information.
About 13 percent of businesses block all Web 2.0 activity, while 81 percent restrict its use because of security concerns. About one third say they do not have a social media policy in place. Just 25 percent monitor social media usage by staff.
McAfee is not exactly a neutral party, but the the survey has some interesting data. Enterprise is the next frontier for web2.0 technologies and social media. Think social networking (facebook), micro blogging (twitter), Q&A (quora), LBS (foursquare) etc for the enterprise. There are some really interesting start ups working in this area such as yammer, opzi, asana etc. Enterprise software vendors are also doing some interesting things in this space. Expect to see a lot of innovation in this space over the next couple of years,