Organisations are facing security complexity challenges as they juggle an average of 83 different security solutions from 29 vendors, according to research from IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) and Palo Alto Networks
Conducted in collaboration with Oxford Economics from July through September 2024, the study involved a survey of 1,000 executives across 21 industries and 18 countries – including 37 Singaporean organisations.
Results show that seven out of every 10 surveyed companies with a high degree of security platformisation report that their cybersecurity investments have helped business outcomes such as operational efficiencies and revenue generation.
More than half (52%) of surveyed executives note fragmentation of security solutions is limiting their ability to deal with cyber threats, but 75% of organisations that have embraced security platformisation agree that better integration across security, hybrid cloud, AI, and other technology platforms is crucial.
The analysis suggests the trend of adding more solutions to combat evolving security threats is contributing to inefficiency – impacting both performance and the bottom line – while moving to a platformised security approach can help businesses achieve reduced response times and costs without sacrificing security efficacy.
Surveyed executives estimate security fragmentation and complexity costs their organisations an average of 5% of their annual revenue. For a $20 billion annual revenue company, that’s a $1 billion cost to the business in aggregate.
Tally the costs of security incidents, lost productivity, failed digital transformations, stalled AI initiatives, loss of customer trust and reputational damage and the numbers add up.
“Singapore’s organisations are rapidly embracing a platformised approach to security, recognising its ability to enhance efficiency, strengthen cyber resilience, and simplify operations. In an AI-driven era, strong partnerships are more critical than ever,” said Steven Scheurmann, Palo Alto Networks regional VP in ASEAN.
Findings show that 78% of Singaporean executives (52% globally) say complexity is the biggest impediment to their cybersecurity operations.
Three-fifths or 62% of Singaporean executives (80% globally) agree they face pressure to reduce the cost of security – while globally, 41% say security fragmentation has driven up procurement costs.
Four out of every five non-platform organisations say their security operations cannot effectively deal with the sheer quantity of threats and attacks.
Globally, 80% of platformisation adopters say they have full visibility into potential vulnerabilities and threats.
Also, globally, for platformised organisations, mean time to identify (MTTI) and mean time to contain (MTTC) security incidents are shorter by an average of 72 and 84 days, respectively.
The research finds effective security requires platformisation. Consolidating multiple tools into a unified platform not only bolsters security posture but enables organisations to experience nearly four times better ROI from their cybersecurity investments, leading to revenue generation and increased operational efficiencies.
When it comes to AI, a platform approach can also enable an organisation to better ingest and analyse data to deliver actionable insights. With 90% of surveyed executives expecting to scale, optimise, or innovate with AI within the next two years, integrating AI into their platforms can play a critical role in advancing their security preparedness.
For example, accelerating adoption of agentic AI for security and tapping platformisation for fewer investment cycles; or, using platformisation to create the common governance needed to deliver the AI capabilities shaping the future.
By adopting a platformisation approach, businesses can align technologies, drive innovation, and prioritise security as a core business requirement.
