Is Your IT Infrastructure Compliance-Ready?

Regulatory compliance has emerged as a major force shaping IT infrastructures. However, the majority of new rules and regulations aren't directed specifically at technology but rather at business processes such as records retention and retrieval, privacy, security, and the accuracy of data. Because most business information is managed electronically to comply with regulatory mandates, compliance will require many enterprises to rework their IT systems. How do you know how your IT infrastructure will be affected? Use the following two checklists to become familiar with the most significant sets of regulations and the core business processes that figure most prominently in compliance. The sidebar "Compliance Technology" offers an at-a-glance take on solutions that help businesses comply with regulatory requirements.

NEW YORK, May 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --

At a Compliance Event held today at the Mandarin Hotel in New York City, Colin Spence, vice president strategic marketing, BT Americas, urged enterprise businesses to diligently focus on the security surrounding their critical information technology business applications.

"Security is not just an IT issue but is a critical business issue for all companies in all sectors. "Companies must be prepared and make smart security and compliance decisions so they can best protect their investments -- or they risk a negative impact to their bottom line and reputation."

Security isn't simply about protecting an enterprise network from attacks; companies need to establish a security governance process that takes into account network security, applications security and a host of regulatory compliance issues.