Interest rates are rising, US Inflation is at its highest point in over 40 years, the stock market has dropped into bear territory, Q1 22 venture funding has dropped by 19%, and analysts are suggesting a recession is around the corner. And all of this is happening as enterprises prepare for 2023 IT funding requests.
David Fokkers-Landau, an economist with Deutsche Bank said, “Two shocks in recent months, the war in Ukraine and the buildup of momentum in elevated U.S. and European inflation have caused us to revise down our forecast for global growth significantly. We are now projecting a recession in the U.S.…within the next two years.”[1]
“Belt tightening” is going to be a phrase heard in many board rooms in the coming months. With financial challenges mounting, CIOs will be charged with finding opportunities for growth while protecting the enterprise.
Threats to the network aren’t going away
Unfortunately, network threats are not going away. With the rise in remote workers, migrations to the cloud and increases in network complexity, we’re seeing a surge in the number and types of threat vectors that the bad guys are all too willing to exploit.
For example, Positive Technologies, recently published a penetration test study that found cybercriminals can penetrate an alarming number of enterprise networks. “In 93 percent of cases, an external attacker can breach an organization’s network perimeter and gain access to local network resources.” [2]
Facing the Realities of the Ongoing Hybrid Workforce
Findstack.com recently published a story on remote work statistics that found 77% of remote workers say they’re more productive at home and 85% of managers believe that having remote teams will become the new norm.[3] However, not everyone will be remote and those who are won’t be remote 100% of the time. When network administrators are tasked with connecting and securing this increasingly hybrid workforce, how do they answer the questions of how many sites the enterprise has and are you counting your cloud provider sites as instances?
Enterprises need to evolve
Digital transformation/network modernization initiatives that can accommodate today’s new normal are forcing enterprises to evolve quicker. And that evolution is being enabled by convergence. Call it secure access service edge (SASE), security service edge (SSE) or network edge security-as-a-service (NESaaS), the fact is network and security responsibilities are merging in the cloud.
This convergence of responsibilities gives CIOs flexibility to both innovate and keep costs down. Convergence frees IT teams from the legacy contracts that tie to capital expenses. Because the world doesn’t work in 3–5-year cycles anymore, your network and security infrastructure can’t either.
The beauty of convergence is that it reduces big data center costs along with inflexible MPLS contracts and the obligatory network and security hardware refreshes. The convergence of the network and security into the cloud and delivered as-a-service allows CIOs to do more with less. It offers a smarter, more effective deployment of capital resources that is prepared for whatever craziness the world throws at it next.
Procurement: unsung heroes of digital transformation
While the concept of convergence described above is sound, motivation and intent aren’t always aligned with contractual, financial, and operational realities. For example, many organizations are burdened with legacy MPLS and long-term contracts that can impede modernization, making it hard to increase operational agility, reduce costs, and protect workloads and users that have become increasingly distributed.
“The reality is enterprises have existing investments in hardware that is not fully amortized and in software contracts with time remaining,” Gartner states in its 2021 Strategic Roadmap for SASE Convergence. “Hardware refresh cycles at branch offices average five to seven years. Relationships and staff expertise with incumbent vendor offerings is another factor. Complicating SASE adoption is that most larger enterprises have separate network security and network operations teams.”
These financial obligations can hold enterprises back from true transformation. Fortunately, most companies have a procurement team whose only focus is on contractual obligations.
Procurement teams can’t force operational alignment, but they do have the unique ability to influence and optimize hardware refresh cycles, vendor relationships, and service contracts.
According to Gartner*, organizations wanting to accelerate digital transformation and reduce costs should:
- Implement a multiyear phase out of on-premises perimeter and branch hardware in favor of cloud-based delivery of SASE capabilities.
- Consolidate vendors and cut complexity and costs as contracts renew for secure web gateways (SWGs), cloud access security brokers (CASBs) and VPN. Leverage a converged market that emerges combining these security edge services.
- Actively engage with initiatives for branch office transformation and MPLS offload in order to integrate cloud-based security edge services into the scope of project planning.
- Phase out the use of MPLS and adopt internet-only access for the majority of branches. As part of this, evaluate emerging hyperscale offerings for WAN connectivity for branches as they become an alternative for WAN services.
The great news is that procurement teams can help achieve all of these recommendations. They track hardware end-of-life and refresh cycles; assist with vendor consolidation strategies and cloud migrations; and reassess MPLS needs and commitments. They can also identify services and vendors that provide increased levels of agility and cost efficiency – without sacrificing performance, reliability, or security.
Gartner recommends, “Midsize enterprises should evaluate consolidated SD-WAN and cloud-based security edge services from a single provider.”**
As the economy contracts, enlisting the help from your procurement team is a collaboration that can pay for itself for years to come.
Sources:
- 1 = https://bit.ly/3FJ6cG4
- 2 = https://bit.ly/38pzCwE
- 3 = https://bit.ly/3l94og5
- * = Gartner, “2021 Strategic Roadmap for SASE Convergence,” March 2021
- ** = Gartner, “2021 Strategic Roadmap for SASE Convergence,” March 2021
