New Research from Wisegate Exposes Increasing Risk in Making Critical IT and Information Security Decisions

Austin, NV, October 20, 2011 --(PR.com)-- Austin-based start-up Wisegate, the social knowledge network, released research that reveals senior IT professionals are experiencing an information void that is leading to increased risk in critical decision making. Amid the growing volume of vendor sales hype and social networking noise, Wisegate’s study shows that access to the most trusted sources of information – peers who work in the same industry with similar experience – is declining. As a result, IT management is less likely to have the information they need to make the best data security and information technology decisions for their companies.

At a time when technologies and corporate IT environments are rapidly growing in complexity, resource-strapped IT professionals are called upon to make more high-impact decisions in less time. In this high-pressure atmosphere, many senior IT leaders report that they don't have sufficient time or adequate resources to gather all the facts they need to confidently and quickly make IT decisions.

In hundreds of hours of interviews with senior IT professionals Wisegate found that:

· 81% said they want more practical IT project and technology information
· 89% rated peers as their preferred source of most trusted IT information
· 81 % said trusted feedback from senior IT peers would help reduce risk in IT
decisions

Wisegate’s research found that IT decision makers commonly expressed a higher level of trust in their peers because they are not influenced by vendors, they have practical knowledge through experience and are usually able to provide a superior level of detailed IT information that includes the full story – both good and bad – about their experiences. The research also found, however, that despite the preference for peer feedback, meaningful peer relationships are on the decline.

Wisegate is an invitation-only community where senior IT professionals meet in a private environment to exchange knowledge and solve problems with their peers. By enforcing strict membership guidelines, which exclude vendors from joining, Wisegate is able to provide members with unmatched access to senior-level IT professionals and quality content.

For example, Kristin Knight, senior privacy director for Phillips Electronics North America, says the big-picture advice she got from Wisegate peers on data loss prevention equipment helped her to shape a successful Data Leakage Prevention (DLP) program. Although she was asking about a specific technology, the advice she got from other members brought up some red flags in her overall approach and steered her in a different direction.

To request a copy of Wisegate’s report titled “Reducing Risk in IT Decisions,” please visit http://gurl.im/722e20f.

About Wisegate
Wisegate (wisegateit.com) is a new social knowledge network for senior professionals. By enforcing strict membership guidelines and barring vendor ads and sales hype, Wisegate is the first and only private professional online community to foster high-value collaboration, conversation and content-sharing by a network of one’s true peers. Wisegate’s first community is for senior Information Technology (IT) professionals, with others to roll out according to market demand. Wisegate Inc., a privately funded company with headquarters in Austin, Texas, was founded in 2010 by Sara Gates, a respected industry veteran of several start-ups and large enterprise IT companies.

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Contact:
Lorraine Kauffman-Hall
PR for Wisegate
704-882-0443
lhall@attainmarketing.com