CIO priorities haven't 'changed dramatically' since the GFC: NetIQ

PCI compliance, security still top of mind for IT leaders

Awareness of the intricacies of PCI compliance regulations is crucial for CIOs, NetIQ’s business unit general manager has warned.

Jay Gardner, who was BMC's former CIO, spoke to CIO Australia about the security challenges facing the IT industry, saying that not much has changed since the global financial crisis.

“I’ve been a CIO before and we were very focused on costs and efficiencies, and I don’t know if it’s changed dramatically even today,” he said.

“When I meet with CIOs, they tend to be very interested in the same kinds of things around ‘How do I cut costs?’, ‘How do I get more automation?’”

PCI compliance regulations are another area of interest to CIOs, according to Gardner, who said retail firms are overwhelmingly aware of their responsibilities to comply with industry standards.

“PCI compliance is a huge global interest area, and there’s a lot of attention to provide secure and compliant computing practices,” he said.

“I recently met with a CIO of a major retailing firm in the US and we talked about PCI compliance…he was very concise and very aware of all of the line items in the PCI guidelines and really intent on complying and being able to be successful there.”

As well as being aware of line items in PCI compliance regulations, Gardner said CIOs have become more attentive to sensitive data stored in the cloud.

“The challenge for companies today…is that there’s so much exposure to companies’ data and applications that being attentive to things from a systems and processing standpoint is a very big piece of the attention span of a CIO,” he said.

“It’s not just managing the data and the applications inside the walls of your company, but its managing those throughout the internet.”

Gardner's insights come as recent reports found that the post-recession enterprise IT environment is only going to get more chaotic in 2011.

Follow Lisa Banks on Twitter: @CapricaStar

Follow CIO Australia on Twitter: @CIO_Australia

Tags PCINetIQcloud. cloud securityPCI compliance regulation

Show Comments