The title may come across a little more literary than a normal technology or security blog, but this is what I want to discuss: the way forward in security software. Cybersecurity is a market in flux. And, from where I sit, the way forward is simple and hinges on three things.

Mobile a key market force

This is obvious, but the way to address mobile isn’t. It is the No. 1 topic I discuss when I am with customers and prospects. Everyone knows they need to address the juggernaut, but they aren’t sure of the best way. Industry analysts and vendors don’t have a single or congruent view of the market but do have, what I consider, “a thousand points of light.” Whether you consider mobile part of a nexus of forces, the greatest threat to enterprises or prefer to sit back and wait for the dust to settle, one truth remains: it is here and you cannot ignore it.

Actually, it may be one of the few instances when the industry can leverage a market force that will drive greater user experience and increase security. I saw it at AT&T and Nortel; game-changers can disrupt the market for good and bad. It all depends on how you approach it.

I view mobile as an opportunity to innovate and expand the reach of Entrust. We have ways of helping customer secure AND leverage mobile devices to increase security and user experience, provide value-added services to organizations and streamline business processes to increase efficiencies and productivity.

Cloud changes how we consume data

Cloud isn’t a new concept, but the access to it by a broader audience is. Almost every traditional computing hardware vendor has a stake in the cloud market and new software vendors are changing how end-users leverage the cloud.

A result of the cloud is the vast distribution and dramatic increase in the number of digital identities. In addition, we are seeing more cloud-based services that help organizations outsource infrastructure, reduce costs and defer to the expertise of security vendors. This is giving companies like Entrust the chance to make the management and provisioning of identities simpler than ever before.

Point solutions can’t solve present and future security needs

No longer will standing up point solutions to solve a single need suffice. As companies look to cut costs and simplify their infrastructures across diverse ecosystems, a solution is required that can adapt with the company and be flexibly implemented. The approach we have taken is to build an extensible platform that can meet a variety of needs from a single management console.

How this differs from point solutions is simple. They solve one problem (despite creating others) and our platform solves multiple problems at once. In fact, when I look at our growth in comparison to some major competitors, our authentication platform grew 30 percent in the quarter versus single-digit growth. The platform is a way companies can future-proof their security investment.

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