2021 has been a year of business uncertainty. From work from anywhere (WFA) to Ransomware to staffing challenges, the business landscape has been rapidly changing and has been deeply felt by the IT organizations that support the needs of the business. The COVID-19 pandemic has ingrained Information Technology and Cybersecurity into the very fabric of almost every aspect of business.
In Mainline’s conversations with our customers, they share their concerns and their foreseeable needs as they plan for 2022 and beyond. Leaders want to understand the potential impact of new business processes such as remote workers, as well as how to mitigate or respond to security breaches and cyberthreats.
The top five security topics that are top of mind with our customers’ leadership teams are:
1. Hybrid Remote Security
2. Cloud Security
3. Ransomware
4. Cost Savings and Value
5. Security Logging/Analytics and Automation
Let’s look at these five priorities and how Mainline helps to address these concerns.
Hybrid Remote Security
Whether called WFA (Work from Anywhere), WFH (Work from Home), remote working, or hybrid work, the security challenges associated with a workforce being anywhere in the world remains a constant question for today’s IT leaders. Things were much simpler when everyone was in the company office. Users authenticated via the same methods that have worked for the last twenty years. A big enterprise firewall filtered and blocked connections coming into and out of the office. Company data was stored, protected, and backed up on a storage array located in a data center. The pandemic has forced IT leaders to reassess and redesign major parts of their IT infrastructure. No longer are employees sitting inside an office. The focus has pivoted to cloud-based applications and storage and the threat landscape has changed. Businesses must reinforce and invest in endpoint security utilized by employees working at home and make MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) part of the identity controls DNA for all employees. All the while, IT leaders have had to contend with the ever-present threat of Ransomware.
IT leaders are looking for solutions that are secure and easy to manage. They are looking for services that can be enabled in a matter of days if not hours – services that provide the same level of security no matter where the employee is working. Mainline works closely with companies like Palo Alto Networks, Zscaler, and Fortinet to solve these challenges.
Cloud Security
The pandemic accelerated IT leaders’ plans to move their organizations to the cloud. Following the mantra of “Cloud First” or “Cloud Smart”, IT leaders are overwhelmingly leaning towards adopting cloud as part of their 2022 strategic planning. Whether they are moving toward public- or hybrid- or even considering multi- or poly-cloud, cloud architectures can provide many solutions that are easily consumable to support today’s DevOps focused agile business needs. That speed greatly increases the risk of a misconfiguration that could lead to a data breach. Numerous companies, pursuing a digital transformation goal, have fallen victim to a breach of their cloud environment. Many IT leaders have found that cloud introduces risks that they did not have when all resources were inside their data centers. Further, the skills to successfully build a secure cloud architecture are difficult for organizations to acquire via recruitment. Mainline has developed an ecosystem of partners that have a proven track record of aiding companies in their cloud journey. From developing the strategy to identifying risks to meeting compliance requirements, Mainline has the proven capabilities to make sure that “Cloud First” is also “Cloud Safe”.
Ransomware
Every business leader is concerned about a Ransomware attack. You cannot go a day without reading or hearing about a new cybercrime victim. 2021 has been a very difficult year for security risk posed by Ransomware. IT leaders are being pressed by ever growing business needs knowing that a Ransomware incident will bring the best laid plans to a grinding halt across the organization. Leaders are leaning more into improving their protection against Ransomware by utilizing outside services. Purpose built security services are available that can quickly be integrated into an organization without the need for additional labor requirements. Solutions include managed endpoint solutions, risk and compliance, incident response and more. IT leaders are finding that by incorporating managed services they can employ best of breed services to support continued business growth without having to recruit. Solutions like those provided by Arctic Wolf, CrowdStrike, and Fortinet are providing managed solutions that can counter the risks associated with Ransomware.
Cost Savings and Value
To do more with less. IT leaders are being challenged by business leadership to reduce costs. Gartner is forecasting nearly a 9% increase in worldwide IT spend for 2021. 2022 is projected to see another increase in IT spending as organizations continue to transform and adopt more hybrid architectures. To most organizations IT has traditionally been viewed as a cost center. However, one of the aftereffects of the pandemic is that the IT organization became a critical part of doing business. With employees working from anywhere, being able to provide the necessary IT services became a vital function of business. Cloud adoption and migrations became an ever-increasing problem for IT leaders. Cloud, with its focus on OPEX spending, has become increasing difficult to budget. IT leaders have expressed a need for solutions that will identify cost savings opportunities. Mainline has been working with companies, such as Bridgepointe Technologies and Morpheus to provide IT leaders with visibility into their spend and to locate more cost-effective solutions.
Security Logging/Analytics and Automation
CISOs and IT leaders had to contend with the increase in threats in 2021.Threats ranging from Identity Theft to Ransomware to Distributed Denial of Device (DDOS) attacks have crippled organizations around the globe. IT leaders are increasingly looking for logging and analytics solutions that integrate with automation. Automated attacks are becoming more and more frequent. Credential stuffing, scraping, DDOS, and captcha bypass as well as other attacks are frequently being executed using automation. IT leaders, more than ever, are looking for Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) solutions that can counter an attack as quickly as it is initiated. Mainline has partnered with proven SOAR solutions providers including IBM, Splunk, Red Hat Ansible, and others that can quickly integrate with their existing program to provide value and meet the challenge.
Security Offerings
2022 is looking to be another security-challenging year for IT and Security leaders. IT leaders need to find solutions that meet today’s business needs while contending with the realities of today’s budget conscious business climate.
Mainline partners and collaborates with more than 120 different technology providers to develop the best solutions for your organization. We actively collaborate with our partners and deliver significant value through groundbreaking and innovative solutions, and we help organizations architect best-fit solutions for their needs.
More Information
Mainline has expert security skills to help companies develop cybersecurity solutions to protect your environment. From analyzing the current architecture to identify vulnerabilities to designing and implementing a new solution, Mainline has the proficiencies necessary to put your environment on secure footing, protecting it from cyber-attacks. For more information on security solutions, reach out to your Mainline Account Executive directly, or click here to contact us with any questions.
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