Global survey reveals 75% of surveyed
organizations pursuing a consolidated approach to security agree
better integration across security, hybrid cloud, AI and other
technology platforms is crucial
ARMONK,
N.Y. and SANTA CLARA,
Calif., Jan. 28, 2025 /CNW/ -- New global research
from the IBM (NYSE: IBM) Institute for Business Value (IBV)
and Palo Alto Networks® (NASDAQ: PANW), found that surveyed
organizations are facing security complexity challenges as they
juggle an average of 83 different security solutions from 29
vendors. It also shows 7 out of 10 surveyed companies with a high
degree of security platformization report their cybersecurity
investments have helped business outcomes such as operational
efficiencies and revenue generation.
In the study, "Capturing the cybersecurity dividend: How
security platforms generate business value," more than half (52%)
of surveyed executives note fragmentation of security solutions is
limiting their ability to deal with cyber threats, but 75% of
organizations that have embraced security platformization agree
that better integration across security, hybrid cloud, AI, and
other technology platforms is crucial. The analysis suggests the
trend of adding more solutions to combat evolving security threats
is contributing to inefficiency – impacting both performance and
the bottom line – while moving to a platformized security approach
can help businesses achieve reduced response times and costs
without sacrificing security efficacy.
Cybersecurity Complexity is a Daunting Reality
Increased digital interconnectedness expands attack surfaces and
can create new cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Cyberattacks are
becoming more sophisticated and harder to defend against, while AI
is being used by both defenders and attackers, creating a race in
cybersecurity capabilities.
In an evolving threat landscape, surveyed executives estimate
security fragmentation and complexity costs their organizations an
average of 5% of their annual revenue. For a $20 billion annual revenue company, that's a
$1 billion cost to the business in
aggregate. Tally the costs of security incidents, lost
productivity, failed digital transformations, stalled AI
initiatives, loss of customer trust and reputational damage and the
numbers add up.
"Organizations continue to be challenged with updating their
security posture to address new threats, while simultaneously being
pressed to reduce complexity and decrease spend," said
Mark Hughes, Global Managing
Partner for Cybersecurity Services, IBM. "Security executives
need to enable innovation, protect assets and derive value from
their cybersecurity investments to help their organizations thrive
and further their business goals."
"We have seen the positive impacts of adopting a platformized
approach to security, and the benefits it delivers to
organizations. In today's AI-fueled world, strong partnerships are
more essential than ever," said Karim
Temsamani, President, Next Generation Security, Palo Alto
Networks. "IBM and Palo Alto Networks are aligned on a common
vision of creating better outcomes for our customers - whether in
value, operational, or security…and platformization accomplishes
all of them. This isn't just about improving fragmentation today,
it's about enabling better outcomes for the future."
Key insights from surveyed business leaders:
- 52% of executives say complexity is the biggest impediment to
their cybersecurity operations;
- 80% agree they face pressure to reduce the cost of security,
and 41% say security fragmentation has driven up procurement
costs;
- 4 out of 5 non-platform organizations say their security
operations cannot effectively deal with the sheer quantity of
threats and attacks;
- 80% of platformization adopters say they have full visibility
into potential vulnerabilities and threats; and,
- For platformized organizations, mean time to identify (MTTI)
and mean time to contain (MTTC) security incidents are shorter by
an average of 72 and 84 days, respectively.
Enhancing Businesses with Platformization: Unleashing the
Power of Digital Transformation
In today's world, the
research finds effective security requires platformization.
Consolidating multiple tools into a unified platform not only
bolsters security posture but enables organizations to experience
nearly 4 times better return on investment (ROI) from their
cybersecurity investments, leading to revenue generation and
increased operational efficiencies.
When it comes to AI, a platform approach can also enable an
organization to better ingest and analyze data to deliver
actionable insights. With 90% of surveyed executives expecting to
scale, optimize, or innovate with AI within the next two years,
integrating AI into their platforms can play a critical role in
advancing their security preparedness. For example, accelerating
adoption of agentic AI for security and tapping platformization for
fewer investment cycles; or, using platformization to create the
common governance needed to deliver the AI capabilities shaping the
future.
By adopting a platformization approach, businesses can align
technologies, drive innovation, and prioritize security as a core
business requirement. Through IBM and Palo Alto Networks' strategic
partnership, the companies are bringing together leading security
platforms, AI, and transformation capabilities to help
organizations confidently navigate their digital transformation
journey, achieve their desired outcomes and drive substantial
business value.
Tips for Platformization Success
- Choose partners that streamline your security mission and
trim those that don't. Critically evaluate current and
potential technology, services, and support partners, and make hard
decisions about where to double down and when to part ways.
- Run your playbook. Stage incident response drills to
assess where a unified platform can deliver the greatest impact.
Take action to improve your incident response capabilities.
- Help your business get prepared to respond to threats by
putting it to the test. Visit a cyber range to prepare business
and technical teams to address the latest cyber threats through an
immersive, organization-wide business-focused engagement. IBM and
Palo Alto Networks now provide a joint Cyber Range experience in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, where
clients can leverage the facility to support continuous
improvement, training, and change management as they transform
their security operating models with platformization.
Additional Resources:
- To learn more about IBM's partnership with Palo Alto Networks,
visit: https://www.ibm.com/consulting/palo-alto
- To learn more about Palo Alto Networks perspectives on
platformization and the IBM IBV study, visit:
http://paloaltonetworks.com/resources/research/ibm-study-platforms-deliver-value.
To hear more, check out the company's Ignite on Tour events:
https://register.paloaltonetworks.com/igniteontour.
Study Methodology
This IBM Institute of Business Value (IBV) research, conducted in
collaboration with Oxford Economics and published in partnership
with Palo Alto Networks, surveyed 1,000 executives across 21
industries and 18 countries from July through September 2024. The IBM IBV team then analyzed
insights and data from respondents to facilitate the creation of a
"platformization index," which measures the extent to which an
organization has moved toward security platformization, then used
that index to ascertain the relationship between security
platformization and security and business outcomes.
The IBM IBV, IBM's thought leadership think tank,
combines global research and performance data with expertise
from industry thinkers and leading academics to deliver insights
that make business leaders smarter. For more world-class thought
leadership, visit: www.ibm.com/ibv.
About IBM
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and
consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries
capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business
processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their
industries. More than 4,000 government and corporate entities in
critical infrastructure areas such as financial services,
telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM's hybrid cloud
platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital
transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM's
breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing,
industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and
flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM's
long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility,
inclusivity and service. Visit ibm.com for more
information.
About Palo Alto Networks
Palo Alto Networks is the global cybersecurity leader,
committed to making each day safer than the one before with
industry-leading, AI-powered solutions in network security, cloud
security and security operations. Powered by Precision AI, our
technologies deliver precise threat detection and swift response,
minimizing false positives and enhancing security effectiveness.
Our platformization approach integrates diverse security solutions
into a unified, scalable platform, streamlining management and
providing operational efficiencies with comprehensive protection.
From defending network perimeters to safeguarding cloud
environments and ensuring rapid incident response, Palo Alto
Networks empowers businesses to achieve Zero
Trust security and confidently embrace digital transformation
in an ever-evolving threat landscape. This unwavering commitment to
security and innovation makes us the cybersecurity partner of
choice.
At Palo Alto Networks, we're committed to bringing together
the very best people in service of our mission, so we're also proud
to be the cybersecurity workplace of choice, recognized among
Newsweek's Most Loved Workplaces (2021-2024), with a score of 100
on the Disability Equality Index (2024, 2023, 2022), and HRC Best
Places for LGBTQ+ Equality (2022). For more information,
visit www.paloaltonetworks.com.
Media Contacts:
Joel Rushing, IBM
Joel.Rushing@ibm.com
Nicole Hockin, Palo Alto
Networks
nhockin@paloaltonetworks.com
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SOURCE IBM
