Complexity is the bane of security administrators. This is doubly true as organizations seek to empower a growing remote workforce, respond quickly to increasingly sophisticated attacks, and support a broad range of devices and applications at a time when there is a severe shortage of qualified cybersecurity personnel.
Nearly 60% of decision-makers said cybersecurity has gotten more difficult since the pandemic, according to research from Enterprise Strategy Group. The primary reason? The increase in the number of remote workers, cited by 41% of respondents. Not far behind: an increase in the threat landscape (38%), and an increase the number of cloud apps (32%). Another 17% of respondents cited ineffective and inefficient security tools.
Complexity adds security costs and risk, putting organizations at a severe disadvantage against adversaries that are increasingly using automation, machine learning, social engineering, and other modern tools to launch more sophisticated and potentially devastating attacks.
The ongoing shortage of qualified security personnel is compounding a skills gap that is only getting worse over time. Half of cybersecurity professionals surveyed by ESG say job stress levels have increased as a result of remote worker support; 28% said either they or their peers have experienced significant personal issues because of job-related stress.
To help overburdened cybersecurity teams, organizations are looking to comprehensive, integrated, end-to-end solutions to fill the gap. By modernizing and unifying your approach to cybersecurity, you can reduce complexity, lower costs, ease the burden on cybersecurity personnel, and mitigate the risk of external attacks or internal breaches.
Here are three key steps you can take:
Modernize identity and access management (IAM)
With the shift to remote work, the teams responsible for access and identity need to provide secure access to thousands of applications scattered across on-premises, public cloud, and private cloud environments. As noted by Forrester Research, “To be successful, these teams require a simple solution that can cut through these complexities and apply consistent security and access policies to all applications and users.”
By moving IAM to the cloud with Microsoft Azure Active Directory (AD), organizations can deliver to users a single sign-on experience, allowing remote workers to access applications from anywhere. IT can reduce operational time and expenses by automating user provisioning, reducing policy and vendor management, and eliminating the need to patch and maintain on-premises servers. According to a Forrester Total Impact™ Study, three-year cost savings with Azure AD totaled $8.8 million with a return on investment of 123%.
Leverage unified, centralized hybrid cloud management
The future of cybersecurity is in the cloud. It makes sense because cloud delivery is a much more efficient model for cybersecurity. It is faster, more responsive to active threats, and safer and simpler for applying policy, governance, patches, updates, and virtually anything else in today’s world of remote and hybrid work.
When it comes to cloud management, Microsoft has a huge advantage versus the more traditional cybersecurity providers because its solutions are not only tightly integrated with existing software but also cloud-native and able to deliver value across multiple public cloud environments. Azure security services offer an integrated solution that can also help protect other public cloud and on-premises infrastructure. Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Azure network security, and Microsoft Sentinel enable customers to reduce costs, improve operations, and alleviate complexity while strengthening protection and mitigating the risk of breaches.
Move to a platform model with built-in, not bolted-on, security
In today’s environment, cybersecurity is multilayered and multidimensional. It is no longer about just protecting the perimeter with a firewall—in fact, with remote work and work from home, every user and device is a perimeter unto itself. With a platform model, you can evolve to a future-ready architecture in which security is built in and tightly integrated with the everyday productivity tools users are already using, such as Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft Azure AD.
Built-in integration makes cybersecurity less expensive. Compared with paying for dozens of point products and their upkeep, the additional software licensing fees for built-in security and compliance protections are a fraction of the cost. Integration also makes security management for administrators much easier, with automated updates and patching, coordinated governance and version control, and simplified onboarding and offboarding.
Finally, the platform model accelerates access to innovation, making it easier to expand automation, deploy Zero Trust, and leverage advanced threat protection. With an integrated, end-to-end platform, cybersecurity teams and security operations centers have a faster path to using machine learning and artificial intelligence to reduce costs, simplify operations, reduce risk, and improve protection.
Taking the next step
Hybrid and remote work are not going away. Rather, they are becoming fixtures in the workplace. Organizations that support, empower, and protect remote and hybrid workers have a big advantage in hiring, retaining, motivating, and inspiring their people. The same advantages in hiring and retaining cyber talent hold true for organizations that succeed in reducing stress and complexity for their cybersecurity teams.
By modernizing identity and access management, leveraging hybrid cloud management, and moving to an integrated, end-to-end platform model, decision-makers can take proactive steps to protect their organizations and remote users—while also reducing security team workloads. To begin, extend or expand your cybersecurity modernization journey, please visit Microsoft.
