Finding Your Fit: Understanding the Cybersecurity Vendor Landscape

The cybersecurity industry is flooded with vendors—more than 1,200 to be specific. With so many vendors offering seemingly the same products and services, it’s not always easy to choose the best fit to secure your environment.

Our recent Naked Data white paper provides an overview of Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) vendors and tools, encouraging you to take advantage of their benefits. While we always welcome new partners (we are a little bit biased toward our own services), it’s important you find a vendor to help manage and support your environment that best fits your needs.

But, how do you know which vendor is the right match for your organization? Or, what questions to ask to find the best fit? This blog provides some high-level tips for navigating the cloud security vendor landscape and explains how to do just that.

Why Partner with a Cloud Security Vendor?

Before we dive in, let’s start from the top. Why should your organization partner with a cloud security vendor? Storing data in the cloud is becoming increasingly popular as organizations recognize its benefits. As a result, cloud security is becoming equally popular. Sure, not every company needs to outsource cloud security, but a growing number find that it makes sense given some noticeable and powerful trends in the industry. Consider this:

There’s not enough talent to go around. The IT research firm (ISC)2 estimates that the worldwide shortage of cybersecurity professionals now approaches 3 million—half of that in North America. So, companies may not be able to access the talent they require without tapping outside vendors.

Cybervulnerabilities are always changing, and keeping up is important. As businesses adapt to a rapidly changing technological environment that enables e-commerce, mobile payments, cloud computing, Big Data and analytics, IoT, AI, machine learning, and social media, cybercriminals adapt too, finding new vulnerabilities in emerging technologies. Hiring a vendor gives your company a range of cybersecurity experts who are monitoring for and can quickly understand new and evolving threats. Having an in-house team of professionals might mean they are being pulled a million different directions and not able to keep up with threats as well as a dedicated vendor team could.

Outsourced cybersecurity is cost-effective. In 2018, the average data breach cost nearly $3.9 million, according to the Poneman Institute. That’s a large exposure, and yet many companies balk at the expense of maintaining 24/7 protection. A cybersecurity partner can provide the same level of security—if not more— at an affordable cost.

Identifying the Right Cloud Security Vendor

Not all CSPM providers are alike. Finding a vendor who aligns with your company’s needs and priorities will require some digging. Below are some considerations and questions to ask yourself and your vendor when looking for a partner:

Define what you need: Your search should start close to home, with an in-depth review of your company’s IT infrastructure, the data you’re protecting, and the risks that threaten it. Only by thoroughly understanding your own cybersecurity needs can you identify a vendor who is equipped to meet them.

Align your goals: Your cybersecurity strategy should support your business—protecting the data that is most critical to your success against the threats that are most likely to compromise it. No single security solution will work for all organizations. To find vendors whose products and capabilities are a good fit for your particular needs, ask who they’ve worked with in your industry, and how they’ve solved some of the problems that you face.

Seek appropriate solutions: The cybersecurity industry is growing explosively, creating a dizzying array of new companies, products, and capabilities. A good security partner will work hard to understand your organization’s needs and find the technologies that will work best for your environment.

When choosing the right vendor, be sure to ask the following questions:

  • How much will it cost?
  • What will it do for my organization?
  • What benchmarks do you use to measure effectiveness?
  • How will you protect the security of my organization’s data?
  • How will you assist in meeting compliance and reporting requirements?

The Benefits of Partnering with a Security Vendor

A data breach, a ransomware attack, the loss of critical proprietary data, the exposure of customers to identity theft and financial loss: the risks of not protecting your data have never been greater. And yet, for many organizations, the cost of maintaining a full-time cybersecurity department is still too high. Outsourcing your cybersecurity can provide a cost-effective solution that is managed by experts and customized to your unique needs and priorities.

Armor is a cloud security company that takes the complexity out of protecting your data, whether it resides in a private, public, or hybrid cloud—or in an on-premise IT environment. We provide managed security solutions that give you a clear picture of threats facing your organization. This allows us to provide you with the people and security resources to stop attacks before they happen and react quickly and effectively when they do, keeping your data safe and compliant. Wherever you are on your cloud journey, Armor can help. We make cybersecurity simple.

For more information about our CSPM offerings and other capabilities, get in touch today.

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