By Kevin Simzer, COO of Trend Micro
Today’s business leaders have a tough balancing act on their hands. Persistent high interest rates signal the need for continued capital discipline, while the emergence of potentially game-changing technologies continues to fuel the race for a competitive advantage. Many are responding to these challenges by looking to streamline their functions and become more efficient, especially in their use of technology. Over a quarter of enterprises claimed at the start of the year that they would renegotiate IT vendor contracts and reduce the number of vendors they work with. Vendors, in turn, are trying to consolidate their offerings to meet this demand.
But consolidation is no longer just happening between tools – it is affecting global business units as well. This demonstrates a growing appetite within organizations to work more closely with different regions of the business. The takeaway for cybersecurity vendors is clear: those with a global playbook will have a growing competitive edge.
Global consolidation improves efficiency
Traditionally, large multi-nationals have run their regions independently, allowing decisions to be made locally about which security tools make the most sense at that level. But that practice is changing rapidly with the emergence of globally minded CISOs that have a broader, more unified vision for cybersecurity. Their focus on tackling complexity and costs with convergence and consolidation is already bearing fruit.
Consider cost savings: regionalized IT decision making frequently results in duplicated systems. Global CISOs demanding standardization can help to streamline the vendor management process and drive volume savings on purchases of both security solutions and supporting infrastructure such as cloud and data storage. Over 40 percent of IT pros claim more favorable pricing is a major driver for buying integrated solutions.
Globalized systems also enhance data sharing by removing the silos that make it harder to detect and respond to threats, driving improved risk management and compliance. They reduce risk further by helping the CISO understand what’s going on across the organization – threats or suspicious activity in certain regions may act as an early warning system to attacks elsewhere within the business, for example. And connected systems and data make reporting to the board and across business functions much easier.
Unified global solutions also have a significant positive impact on staffing, enabling organizations to require expertise in fewer systems and increase skills that are more easily transferrable across departments and locations. When combined with technologies like automation, AI and managed XDR, this can go a long way to addressing industry skills gaps and shortages. 88% of IT professionals agree that integrated solutions help free up staff resources and 65% say it increases IT staff productivity. In the security operations center, unified platforms can deliver greater visibility into an ever-expanding attack surface, enabling analysts under pressure to prioritize alerts more effectively. That doesn’t just improve productivity: it can be the difference between an overwhelmed, exhausted security team and a high-performing, motivated one. Containing breaches more quickly means major reductions in financial and reputational risk.
Going global, staying local
This is not to say that CISOs should be looking for one-size-fits-all platforms to run across their global enterprise. The key to extracting value from a consolidated approach is to find vendors capable of offering localized capabilities that meet the specific requirements of individual jurisdictions and regions. That’s the kind of approach that appealed to Trend customers like Flowserve, which has operations in more than 50 countries and 300 locations worldwide.
And this approach doesn’t just mean localizing languages to enhance the user experience. It also means supporting critical data privacy and residency mandates: for example, ensuring that data generated through customer support engagements stays in-country or in-region. Trend deployed tweaked versions of its SaaS platform across nine different regions to enable customers to benefit from a global offering that also upholds local regulatory requirements.
The bottom line is that this kind of global-local approach will make technology companies more competitive – expanding international reach by appealing to prospective customers looking for vendors who can offer the right balance.
A global problem demands a global solution
The threat landscape is in constant flux, but one thing has always been true: most threat actors operate outside of the United States, and they target victims all over the world. Our 2022 roundup report revealed ransomware victims in Africa (3%), the Americas (34%), Asia (45%), Europe (16%) and beyond. To tackle today’s cyber-threat challenges, industry players need to understand the global patterns and trends first – and how they impact customers worldwide.
That requires significant investments in global threat research centers and the publication of proprietary research detailing regional and global threat landscape activity. It could also mean working with regional law enforcement to share expertise where and when it is needed. And global certifications matter too: think FedRAMP in the US, C5 in Germany, CSA Star in the Middle East and ISMAP in Japan. Governments and organizations in highly regulated industries need to have confidence that the vendors they partner with understand security’s global footprint.
Globalization is the new consolidation
The benefits of consolidating technology solutions onto fewer, better integrated platforms are becoming abundantly clear to IT leaders. Integrated solutions meet or exceed business and IT expectations for 95% of customers who have purchased them. But with a new breed of global CISOs comes an additional dimension that cybersecurity vendors can’t afford to ignore.
They are demanding truly global platforms to drive cost savings, improve risk management and optimize in-house skills. But they also want their vendors to offer localization to enhance the user experience and meet strict regulatory requirements. Vendors capable of meeting and exceeding these expectations will find themselves in the driver’s seat as the decade unfolds.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.