Back to blog

Best of Both Worlds: Balancing Security & Cost Savings

3 minute read

In the wake of a global crisis, organisations are faced with a tough balancing act: cut costs in their IT estate, without leaving themselves vulnerable to security threats. Is it possible to have the best of both worlds?

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that nothing accelerates development like a crisis. Whereas remote working and digital transformation already occupied the top spots of many organisations’ priorities, the sudden need to pivot saw leaders adopting new technologies and IT solutions to ensure employees could continue working away from the office.

As the dust settles, however, attention naturally turns to how we might be able to recoup some of the costs associated with these new measures – after all, we’re all now faced with building back better in the wake of a seismic shift.

But whereas other cost savings made during the pandemic – such as redundancies, office closures, and general overhead trimming – are likely to have left security untouched, when it comes to IT and technology, further considerations need to be taken.

Luckily, it’s possible to balance cost optimisation with security by keeping a few core tenets in mind.

 

1. Be Licensing Smart

 If you’ve recently found yourself as one of the now 145 million daily Microsoft Teams users, you’ll have seen first-hand how organisations have flocked to buy new licences to allow their employees to communicate and collaborate. While the new licences adopted will likely continue to play a role in how employees work, there’s a cost-saving to be made – if organisations are smart.

By identifying and de-provisioning unused licences attributed to former employees, IT teams can trim resources while actively closing security gaps left by leavers with lingering permissions. This effectively helps IT leaders to take a proactive stance on securing identities without any additional cost.

 

2. Encourage Usage

In some instances, the usage we need to monitor isn’t that of a licence, but of a specific a feature instead. How many of your employees, for example, have multi-factor authentication (MFA) activated and in use? At a time when attack surfaces continue to increase and security threats are rapidly evolving, can you afford for employees to not be using features like MFA?

Identifying usage gaps in this area will allow you to secure accounts and their data while cementing a much-needed return on investment. Security features don’t stop at MFA, either, and getting a reading on your team’s usage of related features will allow you to address the lack of knowledge, increase adoption, and greatly reduce the attack surface.

 

3. Don’t Compromise

When all is said and done, keeping a level head and being smart around security is the best option. There will always be a cost associated to security, but it’s easier to swallow when compared to the €158.5 million in GDPR fines issued in 2020 or the $2 million average cost for ransomware recovery.

Instead of compromising on security, consider identifying other areas of cost optimisation – such as the aforementioned licensing, or through consolidating solutions – and reallocating the savings to security measures. No compromise needed.

 

A Balancing Act 

Surveil – the purpose-built platform from ITEXACT – addresses each of these issues, helping organisations to optimise their licences, costs, and productivity while strengthening security and powering business decisions.

Expenditure and security continue to dominate conversations with our customers, and they find significant value in how Surveil can help them to truly have the best of both worlds: lowering costs without compromising on security.

By using tools such as Surveil to identify and action safe cost savings, it’s possible for organisations to emerge from the so-called ‘New Normal’ in a strong position – ready to continue their digital transformation journey confidently.

See for yourself what the best of both worlds might look like with a free Surveil Health Check. Identify areas of optimisation without compromising security, using AI-backed intelligence. Get in touch to book your demo.

 

Related articles