Better together: Why it’s time for ops and security to converge
Current approaches to managing operations and security made sense at the time they were established, pre-cloud and pre-digital transformation. Now, with networked multicloud environments, both digital operations and security are far more complex. And even in the digital world, people and teams want to protect their turf. According to IBM’s most recent cyber-resilience report, the top three reasons why cyber resiliency has not improved are:
- Inability to reduce silo and turf issues
- Fragmented IT and security infrastructure
- Lack of visibility into applications and data assets
These are all operational issues.
Operations has been fragmented, with responsibilities scattered across lines of business, including IT, finance, sales and marketing, DevOps, and SecOps. Chief information officers (CIOs) scramble to make sure information is available to those who need it while trying to stay compliant with business and data policies. Meanwhile, chief information security officers (CISOs) focus on protecting assets and data from loss and threats across the entire business. All organizations face a daily flood of data across the multitude of tools and systems they rely on to run their businesses — and yet that data is siloed too.
At the same time, threat actors are increasingly sophisticated and determined. Ransomware is practically a legitimate business — perpetrators have “customer” help desks and arrange payment terms for their victims. Adding tools and people to address security doesn’t scale and can no longer solve operational and security issues effectively. The status quo of siloed operations is just not sustainable.
According to IBM’s research, the average midsize enterprise runs more than 45 security tools — and that’s not to mention those for monitoring applications, the network, and cloud operations. Most are designed for a unique function, which they may do exceedingly well. But together, they can become a management nightmare or be ignored, which is a shame, since their data is valuable. It doesn’t make sense to have so many tools yet limit data you ingest — and you also need that data over time to discover potential issues before damage occurs.
Security and Operations Must Join Forces
It’s time to think differently about approaching both operational integrity and security. Start by considering what ops and security organizations have in common:
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