Information security technology is undergoing a generational shift. Once thought of as a collection of point solutions, security technology is moving to the cloud, where a coordinated suite of real-time software tools are needed. It has also risen in importance to the CEO's office, where putting together a wide-ranging, cloud-based information technology (IT) security management strategy has become one of the most important business priorities.

These trends are going to fuel increased investment and focus on the security of corporate networks and data over the next five years.

It's easy to see why. There is rising anxiety about IT security as more than 300 million corporate and individual records have been compromised in just the last three years, including high-profile hacks of JPMorgan Chase, Home Depot, Target, Sony, and the US federal government. People have been hacked, and major corporate officers have lost their jobs.

At the same time that IT security is becoming a corporate priority, the technology is also shifting to the cloud. With threats becoming more sophisticated and global in nature -- and data being moved around the cloud -- it's important that cloud security technology be put in place to monitor valuable applications and data around the world, in real time. The expansion of virtualization technology and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is going to drive even more security to be put in the cloud, where it can be embedded in all applications and networks as software.

Here are some more points that show how important the security market is becoming:

• A financial analysis of the major public security IT companies shows recent CAGR (compound annual growth rate) for next-generation cloud security solutions of 24%, indicating the Fortune 500 companies are now playing “catch-up” with regard to security technology.
• A recent survey of 800 IT security decision-makers conducted by CyberEdge Group showed that 62% of the respondents expect to boost their security spending this year, vs. 48% at the same time last year, with a large amount being directed to next-generation solutions.
• According to Ernst & Young, security teams’ biggest increases in spending will revolve around mobile technology (46%), cloud and virtualization (43%), data leakage (41%), and identity and access management (39%).
• Growth in cloud-based security services is strong, with Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) representing a key growth area for many companies.
• A wave of hot cloud-security startups has raised more than $600 million in venture capital.

This is just the beginning. Right now, in corporate boardrooms across the world, top executives are plotting security technology strategies so that they don't become the next Sony or Target story. This will require a sophisticated implementation of many kinds of security tools and software, including cloud-based services.