Not sure if you’re paying attention to the big RSA security conference held this week in San Francisco. I can tell you firsthand that the halls are buzzing with people looking to deploy more robust security solutions at organizations of all shapes and sizes. There’s lots of interest in trying to identify new encryption, Managed File Transfer, and identity solutions that will help enable the safe handling of company data and help businesses comply with various requirements.

All that being said, it will be interesting to see how today’s economic conditions will affect how organizations spend their scarce IT budget over the next year or so. Yes, everyone agrees that “security” is important. And yes, many companies are required to provide secure mechanism as part of corporate governance and compliance requirements. But the proof is in the pudding…. Will they spend the bucks to actually deliver improved secure solutions?

Here’s a real interesting article that talks about how technology vendors and the subset of security vendors are faring in today’s economy. The bad news is that global software spending is down 5% in 2009…. But security vendors are down much less. That’s a good indication that organizations are opting to focus and channel their scarce budget on providing secure and compliance solutions. That is encouraging news.