Integrating Network and Security Infrastructures

Increasingly frequent merger and acquisition activity often results in the integration of two or more computing, communications, and security infrastructures. Corporations within any given industry or service sector implement systems and services using differing application architectures, security policies, operations imperatives, and production infrastructure vendor allegiances. This variety can result in a unique set of integration issues -- not generally confronted by IT shops during 'normal' corporate infrastructure growth. This article captures challenges experienced in the course of working through a number of merger/acquisition-generated infrastructure integration in North America. The article steps through specific recommendations the authors believe will be useful in most security and network infrastructure integration projects. They highlight specific challenges security integration projects may experience and possible recommendations and solutions.