Arun ShankarThe rapid and exponential growth of the cybersecurity industry has resulted in a crowded playing field. Today, every vendor claims to have the latest and greatest solution and there’s plenty of overlap between what different technology providers offer.
This has the potential to overwhelm CISOs and IT decision makers, resulting in long drawn sales cycles and ultimately resulting in investments being made into domains that do not necessarily address the most critical threats businesses actually face.
While from a technology standpoint, undertaking digital transformation is not necessarily challenging, complexity and risk are introduced when cybersecurity is overlooked. The same solutions and processes that facilitate digital transformation can be the root cause of business disruption. There are countless examples of this, with the most recent ones being Capital One, Marriott, and Equifax.
Historically, CISOs have adopted a rigid approach to keeping their organisations and users protected. This has often resulted in cybersecurity technologies and processes becoming a hindrance or burden to businesses.
Today, with tech-savvy employees and customers, this mindset simply does not work. Restrictions will be circumvented as is evident from the ever-present challenge of shadow IT. CISOs must therefore cultivate the ability to really understand the business requirements of the users they serve and then identify how they can facilitate the necessary workflows without impacting security. Ultimately, CISOs must ensure that cybersecurity becomes an enabler, rather than an inhibitor of business.
Vendors that we consider to be leaders are not just those that are identified as such by industry research firms. Rather they are the providers that demonstrate a clear understanding of the market needs and address these with technology roadmaps that also serve to future-proof investments.
In recent years, there has been far greater awareness around cybersecurity. This stems from the fact that vast numbers of businesses as well as individuals have been directly impacted by security issues. While this has certainly positively impacted the market, a bigger driver is the fact today, more than ever, IT is a fundamental enabler of business.
From banks and retailers, to government organisations and airlines, across the broadest spectrum of industry, businesses depend on IT systems for their day-to-day operations. Combined with the elevated awareness, this has led to an environment wherein businesses understand the risks inherent to operating insecure IT infrastructures, and are therefore ready to invest in technologies that can mitigate the threats.
Competitive differentiation in business today is inextricably linked to innovation. For this reason, we see plenty of organisations moving away from legacy models and adopting a digital approach to running their businesses and engaging with their customers. As technology becomes more and more important to deliver the best service, enterprises are slowly moving away from being businesses that operate technology, to technology companies operating businesses.
In short, the decisions you make regarding your IT investments today, will determine whether your business remains successful or not. Unless you work to establish the right technology platforms, you will not be able to rapidly adapt to ever changing customer demands, which will result in them moving away to competitors that have primed themselves for change.
Key takeaways
- Rapid growth of the cybersecurity industry has resulted in a crowded playing field.
- Every vendor claims to have the greatest solution and there is overlap between what technology providers offer.
- The decisions you make regarding IT investments today, will determine whether your business remains successful or not.
- Unless you work to establish the right technology platforms, you will not be able to rapidly adapt to customer demands.
- From a technology standpoint, undertaking digital transformation is not necessarily challenging.
- Complexity and risk are introduced into digital transformation when cybersecurity is overlooked.
- The same solutions that facilitate digital transformation can be the root cause of business disruption.
Delayed integration of cyber security strategy and vendor clutter are adding to CISO’s transformation challenges.
