Winter is coming; the year is quickly drawing to a close, and its time to a look back and see how accurate our content security crystal ball was for 2011.  Last year we predicted three trends; two were accurate and one was partially correct. Let's take a closer look.

1)  Content security spending will slow down - We were right. According to our latest survey data, the content security budget represented 6% of the total IT security budget; this is a 1% decrease from 2010. Content security remains one of the lowest budgeted technology areas in IT.

2)  Consolidation will continue to drive suite offerings - We were partially correct. In 2011, we didn't see any significant M&A activity in the content security space.  While we were wrong on the vendor consolidation prediction, we were correct on the prediction that market leaders would increase their data loss prevention and mobile capabilities to further solidify their market positions.

3)  Mobile filtering will enter mainstream IT - We were correct. Laptop filtering is mainstream, and mobile device filtering is gaining momentum and getting significant attention. Content security vendors are currently testing content filtering on mobile phones and tablets.

What about 2012?  To see what five trends we predict will impact your strategy next year, check out the full document: "Content Security: 2012 Budget And Planning Guide."  Here's a teaser, is your content security strategy ready for the extended enterprise?