It’s no secret that tough financial times are upon us.
And you know what that means: slowed spending and slashed budgets across organizations.
Cybersecurity roles have historically remained resilient amid economic uncertainty. But this downturn is a bit different. Resources, including headcount, are scarce for IT and cybersecurity teams. Leaders must justify every dollar spent and prove ROI — placing a big focus on identifying cost inefficiencies.
Keep reading to learn three common types of IT and security cost inefficiencies you should look out for, plus how to resolve them.
Discovering cost inefficiencies is a simple way for teams to save money and shift unrealized spend to better use. By looking closely at cost inefficiencies, you can re-evaluate:
A critical component of identifying cost inefficiencies is collaboration. This means working with stakeholders across the business to understand their priorities. You’ll want to determine whether the tools your organization has purchased are actually doing the job required of them — or if they’re leading to unnecessary costs.
Here are three common cost inefficiencies to keep in mind:
One way to recover budget is by finding tools that aren’t being used at all. Licensing is one area with a lot of potential for cost inefficiencies.
Also consider the software licenses that go unused after an employee leaves the company and the position isn’t backfilled.
If you don’t know what’s being used, then you’re potentially spending money on infrastructure that’s no longer relevant.
Take virtual machines (VMs), for example. These are so easy to spin up that it’s not unrealistic or unreasonable for an organization to have hundreds of thousands of VM instances. The thing is, many remain up and running long after their intended use is no longer relevant.
Organizations buy a variety of tools for all sorts of reasons. Inevitably, some of those tools are going to have overlapping features or functionality. (And this is definitely true if teams are working in silos or aren’t regularly talking with each other.)
Once you’ve identified unrealized spend, you can start to address it. Collaborate with stakeholders to:
We dive deeper into how to find cost inefficiencies and the ROI of IT cost optimization in our latest ebook.
"Culture is the foundation for any high-performing team. We all process information differently, we listen differently. We come from different backgrounds and experiences. No matter who you are, I want to know that. I want to understand what makes you you and treat you the way you want to be treated, not how I project myself onto you.”
— Jen Easterly, director, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
“[Create an environment] where people can understand when they can take time off and not feel like everything is going to fall apart. [Where] they have a plan for their career and how they’re going to grow. [Where] they have time to be with their friends and family enough not to be burned out."
— Deidre Diamond, founder and CEO of CyberSN and Security Diversity
“Actively invite engagement, listen with purpose, and look for signs of burnout. You can't expect everyone to feel equally comfortable expressing an opinion, and so it's important to solicit feedback at times as opposed to always passively expecting it. When you are getting engagement, listen with purpose. Make an effort to not only hear what's being said, but understand and empathize. Lastly, look for signs of burnout. … If you're noticing signs of burnout on the team, look for ways to intervene, like ensuring adequate team resourcing/load balancing to create a healthy work/life balance for everyone, and that team members are able to take PTO."
— Daniel Trauner, senior director of security, Axonius
“We need an environment where failure is not only tolerated, but an understood aspect of innovation. Our attackers are failing forward every single day, [and] we deserve the ability to do the same if we are going to protect our people, data, and organizations.”
— Chris Cochran, co-founder at Hacker Valley Media and creative director at Axonius
41 Madison Avenue, 37th Floor
New York, NY 10010