There are many factors that have created the cybersecurity monster that we battle every day. Complexity brought on by multi-cloud environments, heterogeneous systems, dissolving enterprise security perimeters, mobility, and a global pandemic have all contributed to this mammoth challenge.
Modern cyber defenses must be agile, dynamic, and fully integrated into business processes if the battle plan is to have any measurable impact. The "moat model" is not a great defense in the 21st Century. And traditional perimeter security isn't as effective for today's distributed business environments. The concept of a corporate boundary has virtually disappeared, increasing the need to manage and control human and machine identities from anywhere.
Complicating matters further are the patchwork of Identity and Access Management (IAM) vendors and myriad single-function network and security products many organizations have in place. Each of these solutions has different form factors, configuration requirements, and management interfaces. These technology silos create business inefficiencies and impede an organization's ability to deliver maximum business value. Together with a growing security talent gap, these technology inhibitors have made digital infrastructure more costly and vulnerable.
The growing cloud-driven IT and security market
It's been said that the largest taxi company (aka Uber) doesn't own any vehicles, and the largest hotelier (aka Airbnb) doesn't own any properties. Soon, we may witness large enterprises relinquishing ownership of IAM software and servers, and moving everything to managed services. Organizations large and small are increasingly making the move. In fact, Gartner forecasts the market for cloud-managed services to reach $80 billion by 2024. The demand comes from organizations needing greater agility and support for their increasingly complex digital environments.
Today, managed service providers (MSPs) are harnessing the agility and scale of multiple cloud environments to offer fully integrated IAM services, covering a broad suite of privileged access management (PAM) and identity governance and administration (IGA) tools. These offerings are also increasingly bundled with additional services to fully deploy, operationalize, monitor, and onboard enterprise applications, with measurable business KPIs. However, finding, training, and retaining skilled people, particularly with relevant cloud security experience, is an ongoing challenge, and why managed IT and security services are growing so fast. Underpinning these services are processes and capabilities that allow MSPs to achieve greater economies of scale and deliver cost efficiencies for end-user organizations.
Leaving security in the hands of inexperienced people, poorly tested processes, or nascent technologies is a high-risk game. It creates complacent security practices and allows businesses to overlook key risk areas and mistakenly assume they are protected. Effective security processes must be planned, run, operationalized, and integrated by highly skilled technicians and domain experts and monitored and managed 24/7/365.
Simplifying complex digital infrastructure
To be effective, Identity Security must be centered on PAM. With a managed PAM service, featuring a cloud-hosted architecture, the entire infrastructure can be integrated and orchestrated within a single platform, with simplified visibility enabled through a single-pane-of-glass approach.
Beyond simplifying technology management, a managed PAM service reduces the complexity of using and paying for these services. The business relationship with the MSP provider is executed by a single contract and uses one billing mechanism for all underlying services deployed. PAM solutions secure technologies and business processes across multiple departments. Managing and securing corporate assets is a cross-functional process that impacts IT, security, HR, finance, compliance, risk, and other business units.
Leveraging specialized skill sets, and with a deep understanding of enterprise security and identity, managed PAM services provide offerings that are highly orchestrated:
- Providing simplicity and security to deliver a quality user experience
- Lowering operational costs while reducing time-intensive and productivity-draining tasks for managing identities and privileged infrastructure
- Enabling IT personnel and security teams to focus on high-value, strategic business projects
- Transforming identity and privileged access from a CapEx model to a subscription-based OpEx model
Overcoming the cybersecurity skills gap
Cybersecurity threats are a growing problem for every organization, no matter their size or industry. The increasing number of interconnected human and machine identities, many with elevated access or privileges, creates even greater risk. Therefore, we believe every organization needs to have an Identity Security solution, centered on PAM, built into their IT infrastructure.
An ongoing talent gap is a roadblock in creating an effective cybersecurity defense strategy. Nowhere is the workforce skills gap more evident than in cybersecurity. According to Frost & Sullivan, by 2022, the global cybersecurity workforce shortage is expected to reach 1.8 million unfilled positions. Worse yet, according to the MIT Technology Review, fewer than one in four candidates for cybersecurity jobs are adequately qualified. The lack of professionals, coupled with the increase in cyberattacks, poses a great problem for many organizations.
To remain competitive, businesses must focus their time and resources on their core competencies. Organizations need to leverage experts with skills in security, identity, compliance, geographical or regional requirements, and application integration, in order to keep up with technology advances and regulatory compliance.
Managed PAM services overcome the cybersecurity worker talent-gap and allow organizations to benefit from the economies of scale. Organizations can take advantage of cost savings and operational efficiencies by leveraging best-of-breed technologies, best practices, out-of-the-box workflows, and the human capital of a managed PAM service.
The value of a single contact for PAM and security infrastructure
A managed PAM service is responsible for desktops and user devices, applications and services, and back-end, on-premises, and cloud infrastructure. Offloading these tasks to a managed service provider lowers total cost of ownership while ensuring reliable and consistent testing, patching, monitoring, maintenance, and upgrades throughout an organization. Consistent SLAs help additionally ensure runtime success.
For retailers, healthcare providers, financial services, government agencies, and other organizations, where identity and security infrastructure are not their primary business, it may be time to reprioritize effort by leveraging managed services.
A strong security posture begins with Identity. Protecting elevated privileges and access to sensitive corporate data and infrastructure is critical to reducing the risk of internal and external threats. MSPs bring the necessary people, process, and technology. They integrate PAM solutions into existing processes, map them to business and security programs, and operationalize better security practices.
PAM MSPs enable organizations to maximize the value they can receive from cohesive technology services that reduce risk, improve the user experience, and cost-effectively support their businesses.
This article was co-written by Des Powley, Head of Global Managed Services at CyberArk.
