Demand in PH for network security professionals rising, says Cyberoam

Local demand for network security professionals continues to rise as local businesses shift to new data and network technologies, according to US-based Cyberoam.

“We believe that the Philippines, as an emerging market, has seen tremendous growth, particularly in the manufacturing and services sector. As businesses adapt to the latest in cloud, mobility, virtualization and big data, there is a growing demand for network security professionals who can deal with the challenges in the evolving tech-landscape,” Amar Mehta Sr., head of Cyberoam Asia Pacific (Apac), said in a statement.

“[However,] the present educational setups in most emerging economies like the Philippines are not ready to meet this demand and hence we have seen a high uptake of our training certifications here in the Philippines. In fact, in Asia Pacific, the Philippines has the second highest number of Cyberoam certified professionals,” Mehta added.

Cyberoam cited a 2015 Frost & Sullivan study, which showed 62 percent of the respondents stating that their organizations have “too few” information security professionals.

According to 14,000 respondents, an insufficient pool of suitable security candidates is causing this widening skills gap.

The report further estimated that the shortfall in the global information security workforce will reach 1.5 million in five years.

And this is where Cyberoam, through its programs, seek to help address that widening skills gap.

Currently, it has produced more than 15,000 Cyberoam certified network security professionals and engineers worldwide.

In the Philippines alone, the network security company has been offering Cyberoam Certified Network Security Professionals (CCNSP) and Cyberoam Certified Network Security Experts (CCNSE) programs since 2008.

These CCNSP and CCNSE programs, which included rigorous practical training modules and interactive sessions, were designed to meet current network security industry requirements.

Cyberoam, however, is eyeing to produce more network security skilled workers through a free short-course program under its training arm, the Cyberoam Academy, as it stressed that more network security programs are needed to supply the current demand for skilled professionals.

“Because the demand for network security skills in the Philippines is much higher than the supply, we want to close this gap through the Cyberoam Academy,” added Ajay Nawani, chief of Cyberoam Academy. Amy R. Remo