By Sebastian Goodwin, CISO, Nutanix
IT budgets and revenue growth areas are top of mind at the beginning of every calendar year, even more so with the current state of the world economy. IT departments and data teams are looking at the best ways to prioritize, maintain and build security measures – while being cost effective. It’s a tricky balance to strike but an important one as security cannot be overlooked. How will this happen and how will it impact the data security industry? Now, perhaps more than ever, we can expect to see organizations make an increased push toward automation, growing competition for cybersecurity talent and major data breaches tied to employee turnover in the market.
Increased Automation
Given today’s worker shortage and a possible recession on the horizon, companies are not only finding it more difficult to hire enough people, but more importantly, there are never enough people to manually manage the thousands of threats a company is susceptible to. Developers capable of automating those manual tasks are very costly, but the good news is there are now no-code/low-code tools available that help ease cost challenges. Instead of writing code, employees are now able to drag and drop blocks to create automated workflows, making it a lot easier for companies to implement and leverage automation for their benefit. With the increased ease of automation, we will see more companies leveraging it from both a budget and consistency perspective to mitigate threats and compensate for talent.
Competition for Cybersecurity Talent
The skills gap and lack of talent is at an all-time high, meaning companies are fighting to hire and maintain the necessary talent for their departments. The cloud security space, among other industries, has experienced a welcome expansion that has raised demand to its highest levels in years. Yet, according to a survey conducted by Manpower, 45% of employers are struggling to fill roles with skilled workers thanks to the growing skills gap. This strain on talent will now extend all the way to the boardroom, new SEC requirements are set to go into effect in April 2023, which will demand all publicly traded companies disclose cybersecurity expertise on the board of directors.
Major Data Breaches
Lastly, with high turnover rates and layoffs set to continue in 2023, we will see an increase in larger data breaches due to the gaps in expertise of remaining team members or pure unfamiliarity of new team members. The inevitable loss of knowledge companies will be facing due to reshuffling or termination will leave organizations open to attacks and may lead to a major data breach. In order to protect themselves and ensure possible vulnerabilities are either mitigated or eliminated, companies will need to be very diligent, and process-orientated to ensure handovers and trainings are maintained and access is removed at the right time in a coordinated fashion.
As we enter the new year, there is no certain way to predict how the data security industry will change, but based on what we are seeing now, it is clear these three areas will significantly impact organizations’ decision-making in the coming year. Security risks are unfortunately only going to increase but so will the ability of boards and executive teams to deal with these new challenges. For those that make security a strategic priority, they will be far better equipped to deal with any new risks ahead.
About Nutanix
Nutanix is a global leader in cloud software and a pioneer in hyperconverged infrastructure solutions, making clouds invisible, freeing customers to focus on their business outcomes. Organizations around the world use Nutanix software to leverage a single platform to manage any app at any location for their hybrid multicloud environments. Learn more at www.nutanix.com or follow us on social media @nutanix.
About Sebastian Goodwin
Sebastian is a cybersecurity and risk management executive with experience launching products, leading consulting practices, and managing information security / compliance teams. He has worked throughout the U.S., Middle East, and Europe as an entrepreneur and as a trusted adviser and consultant.
Over the years, Sebastian has worked as a long-term consultant or employee delivering cybersecurity solutions at companies including Nutanix, Palo Alto Networks, Microsoft, NetApp, AT&T Wireless, Goldman Sachs, and Oracle (PeopleSoft).
Sebastian is a recognized IT security industry leader as the author of two books on Windows Server security as well as co-author of the Security+ certification exam. He has taught numerous courses and speaks frequently at conferences worldwide. He holds a B.S., Applied Economics from the University of San Francisco, and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
