Despite having hundreds of security tools at their disposal, IT and security teams experience challenges when attempting to gain a clear view of their asset landscape. That’s one finding from a new research eBook we released this morning, which reveals how trends — including the ever-increasing number of end-user devices, rapid cloud adoption, and the looming IoT explosion — are leading to increased complexity and decreased visibility.
Together, these changes are putting enormous pressure on IT and security teams, who are already struggling to find new management and security tools that can keep up. VMs, new devices, and new device types are driving complexity. Most say that they already have too many tools, yet still report visibility gaps in what they can see versus what they want to see across cloud, mobile, and IoT environments. This gap directly translates into added security risk. 85% of organizations plan to increase investment in asset management to help overcome these issues.
— Dave Gruber, Senior Analyst, ESG
The research eBook titled, “2020 Asset Management Trends: As IT Complexity Increases, Visibility Plummets,” is available for download now.
Methodology
Axonius commissioned a comprehensive online research study with Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) to understand asset visibility challenges and trends impacting IT and cybersecurity professionals across private- and public-sector organizations in the United States and Canada.
The sample size included 200 IT or cybersecurity professionals personally knowledgeable with their organization’s cybersecurity environment and cloud infrastructure usage. The online survey ran from December 6 – 21, 2019.
Key Findings
IT infrastructure barely resembles what it looked like just five years ago. IT transformation is driving a massive move to the cloud in all aspects of the business. The role of the data center has been diminished, with 52% of all VMs now residing in the cloud. Mobile devices are core to the operations of most business users, with an average of four devices in use by every employee, combining corporate-issued and BYOD devices. 55% of organizations indicated that they have active IoT projects, with most believing that the number of IoT devices that they support will exceed all other devices within just three years.
From the press release:
When we speak with customers from the midmarket up to the Fortune 100, we hear the same challenges: teams are faced with too many assets, a patchwork of security tools, and maddeningly manual processes to understand what is there and whether those assets are secure,” said Dean Sysman, CEO and Co-Founder at Axonius. “This survey with ESG uncovers the depth and breadth of the asset management challenges we see today and what’s on the horizon.
— Dean Sysman, CEO, Axonius
Implications
To regain the visibility needed to combat these challenges, security and IT teams are returning to a focus on the fundamentals, like investing in gaining a credible inventory and automating asset management.
Comprehensive IT asset inventories, however, take over two weeks of effort, requiring 89 person-hours of labor. On average, they happen 19 times per year, demanding the involvement of multiple teams and people, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the survey found 85% of organizations plan to increase investment in asset management to help overcome these issues.
The rapid pace of infrastructure change will continue to add complexity for information security teams, and a new approach is needed. Download the eBook, “2020 Asset Management Trends: As IT Complexity Increases, Visibility Plummets,” to gain access to the survey’s full findings.
