This post is part of our 2023 cybersecurity predictions series.
Michael Garrett, CEO, Omada
Standardization and automation over customization.
With increasingly strong headwinds in the macroeconomic climate, organizations are going to be heavily focused on how to enhance their security and compliance capabilities without increasing dependency on high-skill resources. For those enterprises still relying on legacy and/or on-premises solutions, they deal with massive complexity, that will make migration to the cloud be increasingly appealing. They’ll be looking for automation-oriented configurations versus solutions that need major amounts of customization in order to improve operating capability and flexibility while reducing cost and risk. As they look to balance budgets and reevaluate external spend, they’ll be making more decisions about whether to stick with third parties for functionality like systems management or instead move toward more standardized, cloud-based platforms that can be deployed quickly with low costs and low resource requirements.
Fewer big splashes and more phased approaches when it comes to IT overhaul.
With the events of the past few years and the need to tighten budgetary belts, we’re going to see a little more conservatism when it comes to innovation projects. It will be the “think big, act small” model in which organizations are more likely to take a phased and incremental approach to digital transformations. They’ll be focusing on first adopting those technologies that can get them to ground zero and then scaling incrementally and programmatically. This all goes back to the notion that as companies grapple with smaller budgets and more scrutiny over budgets, there will be increased pressure to show direct ROI from these undertakings. Benoit Grange, Chief Technology and Product Officer, Omada
More emphasis on how to gain centralized visibility into different tools, identities and applications.
With the rise of remote work and distributed organizations, in addition to all of the different tools and applications that companies have adapted, there’s been a mass proliferation of identities. There’s shadow IT and applications aplenty. This has resulted in a massive growth in the sheer number of tools that organizations think they need to enable and secure their networks, and it’s estimated that the average organizations now uses upwards of 45 different security tools. Getting visibility over all this, in one centralized fashion, is going to be a key goal for organizations moving forward as its key to so many other initiatives and requirements including security and compliance. Leveraging a strong identity fabric and utilizing these different tools in a cohesive fashion is crucial to this goal.
There’s a reason we’re seeing much more widespread adoption of zero trust and least privilege initiatives; organizations are quickly realizing that identities are at the heart of every single cybersecurity attack. They are realizing they need visibility but aren’t always clear on how or where to get it. While many speak of vendor consolidation, this won’t necessarily be the right answer to this challenge because it brings the potential for other security holes. 2023 will see a big push towards centralized management to make these security tools work in synchrony and ensure businesses are getting proper coverage from their investments.
Rod Simmons, Vice President of Product Strategy, Omada
Automation remains in high demand as organizations seek to simplify engagement and reallocate resources.
Customers are continually looking to simplify their engagement with IT solutions, especially security products. They are seeking ways for automation, AI, and ML to augment decision-making in areas that are lower-risk, to free up human time for those higher-risk decisions. In other words, there will be a bigger push towards using both automation and prescriptive analytics in processes that don’t impact the overall security or governance requirements of an organization, but rather help operationally. This hybrid approach to automation and analytics to provide assistance and recommendations will also be key in helping businesses augment their staff and enable them to re-allocate employee resources to the areas that require the highest levels of skill and technical acumen.
The heat will be on for businesses to be able to prove ROI
As digital transformation has taken a strong hold in the past few years, many organizations have made massive amounts of purchases in terms of tools aimed at increasing productivity, efficiency etc. In 2023, we will see more of a reckoning over these purchases as organizations tighten their belts amid the current economic climate and begin to really take stock of their present situation. That’s going to usher in an increased need to show to value of these purchases and their outcomes. Businesses will need to get smarter about how they prove the value of the tools and solutions they’ve purchased and in turn, this pressure will be moved to the vendors to help them show that value in a meaningful way.
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