IBM plans to increase its investments in its two software laboratories in Pune and Bangalore as part of its $1.5 billion security initiative in 2008, announced on November 1.

Fuelled by recent security business acquisitions (including Internet Security Systems  now IBM-ISS), and more than 18 months in development, the IBM security initiative is the largest-ever undertaken in the IT industry.

It plans to offer a 'holistic' solution with its 200-odd security products and thousands of security consultants (many of them in India too) to enable what it calls 'An Enterprise Free of Fear.'

The Bangalore (largest outside the US) and Pune labs develop, enhance and support key IBM software products and technologies in collaboration with other IBM labs worldwide.

"We plan to further invest in our labs in India, Tokyo and Zurich. In India, we want to do more research to further analyse 'risk modelling'," Pierre Noel, Worldwide Evangelist for Security, IBM Corporation, told this paper in a telephonic interview from Brazil.

"We will now address security from a business perspective. This approach will be extremely useful in countries like India, Brazil, Russia and China which are leap-frogging. Companies that are trying to globalise  and are looking out for security best practises  need not jump from vendor to vendor," added Noel.