Fran Howarth is a Senior Analyst at Bloor Research. Fran specialises in the field of security, primarily information security, but with a keen interest in physical security and how the two are converging. Fran’s other main areas of interest are new delivery models, such as cloud computing, information governance, Web, network and application security, identity and access management, and encryption. Fran focuses on the business needs for security technologies, looking at the benefits they gain from their use and how organisations can defend themselves against the threats that they face in an ever-changing landscape. For more than 20 years, Fran has worked in an advisory capacity as an analyst, consultant and writer. She writes regularly for a number of publications, including Silicon, Computer Weekly, Computer Reseller News, IT-Analysis and Computing Magazine. Fran is also a regular contributor to Security Management Practices of the Faulkner Information Services division of InfoToday.