Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Article received from Stuart Cole,
Chairperson of Thought Leadership Panel
BUYING CONFIDENCE - HOW THE ECONOMICS OF SECURITY ARE CHANGING
From Keith Bird, VP EMEA for SonicWALL
When it comes to the economics of security, security tends to be seen as a cost centre rather than producing direct benefits for the organisation. Companies of all sizes know that they have to buy in security solutions, but this focus on cost ignores how a secure infrastructure can provide a return on investment or enable more efficient processes.
Creating a secure infrastructure supports the business but defining this value can be difficult, as it would take a problem being encountered for the security solution can prove its worth Having the right approach to measuring value and reporting back to the business can demonstrate how security can actually produce a return on investment, rather than just being an insurance policy. With the shift over to more online business and automation of business processes, the right security solution can make the business more efficient in how it uses its resources and support more productive staff.
In the past, threats such as viruses and worms were only understood by the IT team, but the level of knowledge around malware of all kinds has grown significantly. More importantly, there has also been a rise in understanding within businesses about how to train end-users on how they can protect themselves.
The cost of solutions is also coming down: point products that would only be affordable for multi-national enterprises only 18 months ago are now in the data centres of mid-market or small businesses; the move to hosted services for business continuity, email and applications means that other organisations are stepping out of the debate altogether.
In order to be classed as successful in future, security solutions have to provide a lot more value back to the business. While providing a cost-effective solution will remain important, it will be the ability to support business goals through technology that will make both current and potential customers sit up and take notice.
Having the right security infrastructure in place will help a business to be more efficient, but it will also take out a lot of the overheads that can be associated with security. Automating management and taking a simplified approach to security, either by using UTM appliances or through an integrated dashboard, can make the process much simpler, and consequently free up time to be spent on other activities.
This simplification of security can also make it easier to justify security investment back to the business. This includes demonstrating how a security solution is actively supporting business activities, or by creating reports on how the organisation is able to make its network run more efficiently. Putting the right infrastructure in place to remove spam or stop unauthorised web activity leads to a company’s overall infrastructure working more efficiently: an internet pipe will only be carrying valid traffic, while employees won’t have to deal with spam and can spend more time on legitimate email communications. In these examples, security becomes more than a method of protection, it enables the organisation to carry out its objectives faster and more efficiently.
Security used to be only concerned with the fear of the unknown threat: the virus that would destroy a system, the hacker that would attempt to steal data. However, while these risks will still exist for the foreseeable future, they can also be effectively mitigated against with a far lower level of investment, both in terms of capital cost and ongoing management.
Economically, this expansion of security is the difference between insuring the business against failure, and providing a stable platform for the organisation to achieve its ambitions. The next time you discuss security, the conversation should not be about fear, but how it can provide confidence for the future.