Enterprises are putting identity management and compliance management on their calendars for the coming year, according to a new study that will be published later this week by the Computer Security Institute.

In a study of more than 300 security professionals, CSI asked which technologies enterprises plan to deploy in the coming year. Identity management was the top response, with almost 21 percent of respondents saying they are planning a new deployment in the next 12 months.

"Not surprising in the least was the strong turnout for identity management, a category that offers some radical possibilities for changing the game in security," says Robert Richardson, director of CSI. "Sixteen percent are piloting it, 21 percent plan to do so within the next year, and a full 40 percent have it fully deployed."

Compliance management was cited by 20 percent of those surveyed, while security event management (19.2 percent) and database security (18.9 percent) followed.

"It was fascinating to see a surprisingly high turnout for log management, with 46 percent saying they’d fully deployed it," Richardson says. "Some people talk about it as a minor element of security, but it’s clearly one that’s got a lot of real-world traction. It’s also clear that database security has come into its own, with 51 percent saying they’d deployed it."

While survey respondents indicated that compliance management is the second-most important technology they are planning to implement in the coming year, 50 percent indicated that they were not familiar with any of the vendors listed. “Such a high lack of awareness would appear to indicate significant opportunity for vendors within the category,” suggests Richardson.

While most of the tools and technologies discussed in the survey garnered at least some interest from most respondents, third-party services did not fare so well. Some 40 percent of respondents said they have "no plans" to deploy managed security services in the near future, and 42 percent said they have no plans to deploy management consulting or professional services.

The survey results will be available later this week.

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