The Answer to Optimizing Your Security Infrastructure? Consolidation – Source: securityboulevard.com

As the old saying goes, “Sometimes less is more”— an approach that rings true for security, too. But heightened concerns around security often lead businesses to overcomplicate and invest in too many solutions. With an overload of technology, it can be staggering for IT departments to manage. According to Gartner, the 2022 goal for 75% of organizations was vendor consolidation. Sometimes the road to stronger security is paved with fewer tools; here is why.

The current reality is that most businesses have anywhere from 50 to 100 security solutions in their business environment. An overwhelming amount of data to control and manage inherently creates dashboard fatigue, exhausting security teams. Furthermore, these teams are often minimal to begin with due to a skills gap in the security workspace. Not everyone is equipped to handle this workload or has the expertise to manage this immense amount of data.

Security Consolidation

Most of these security solutions are siloed and require individual maintenance and oversight, which most businesses don’t have the bandwidth or time to process. This leads to many false positives—45% of alerts, to be exact—where there is actually no risk at all. It can be overwhelming, to say the least, which is there’s a call to action for security vendor consolidation.

The industry has started to notice, especially in the cloud security space. We’ve seen corporations like Dell move to simpler and more consolidated approaches with multi-cloud platforms, as well as startups like Wiz who raised $300 million (at a $10 billion valuation) to further consolidate cloud security. These signals from the market coupled with shrinking IT budgets will inadvertently lead to consolidation. The economy has been on a downward trend since the pandemic, making businesses reevaluate where their money is being spent. This forces companies to determine which products are best-suited for their business to be successful and stay secure.

How to Approach Consolidation

So how does a business approach consolidation? It can be daunting because of the time investment and the sheer volume of data within your environment. To keep it simple, here is a quick checklist:

1. New Focus: Starting with a new approach to your organization’s cybersecurity process can alleviate some of this pressure. Focus on the security solutions you already have—do they align with your business and where potential threats may lie based on your industry? Are there technologies that overlap? Can you eliminate solutions that aren’t needed? Start by maximizing your current security solutions; you can do more with less.

2. Optimization: By implementing a continuous cycle of improvement, you can constantly assess and optimize each security control so that it continues to improve your security posture.

3. Automation: Automation is key to security consolidation. Each solution requires a lot of work to maximize functionality, which is why most businesses rely on vendor default configurations. But therein lies the problem; instead, businesses should automate the process of security configuration optimization. This will not only optimize your current security solutions to operate at their best to fit your environment but also allow the business to continue running efficiently without interruption. Having a proactive approach like this can vastly improve security operations and leave more room to focus on the business.

While the solution to security consolidation may start with a checklist, it’s maintained by a shift in mindset. Instead of thinking about what new security solution your business needs, let’s start optimizing what the business already has and bridge those gaps. Cybersecurity is certainly not simple, but consolidating your solutions can be.