IBM to spend $1.5bn on security products in ’08

BOSTON/NEW YORK: IBM is launching a major initiative to drive sales in the data security market, including $1.5 billion in spending next year on marketing and product development, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday in its online edition.Val Rahmani, a general manager in IBM’s services unit, told the newspaper that sum “is much more than we’ve ever spent”.

According to analyst Charles King of Pund-IT Research, $1.5 billion would be twice what IBM traditionally spends on security research and product development each year.The figure is separate from IBM’s spending on acquisitions that bring in new technology. In the past year IBM has bought several security companies, including Internet Security Systems for $1.3 billion and Watchfire for at least $100 million.

Now IBM says it is integrating technologies from its acquisitions with security software and services developed in house. It expects to offer broader security packages so customers can reduce the number of providers they hire to protect their data. “We believe there’s a crisis in the marketplace right now,” said Val Rahmani.

Even with this sharper focus, IBM will encounter tough competition from security specialists and other information-technology vendors such as Hewlett-Packard and EMC, which have also been spending heavily to bolster their offerings.