We’re way past cream and sugar
According to a popular coffee chain’s website, this is the way I should be ordering my daily cappuccino:
Step 1: Hot or Iced Drink?
Step 2: Coffee drinks come in four sizes. Which one? 8 oz., 12 oz., 16 oz., 20 oz.
Step 3: Choose the drink beverage: Coffee , Latte, Americano, Espresso Con Panna, Espresso Machiatto, Caramel Machiatto, Cafe Au Lait or Misto, Cappuccino, Frappuccino, Mocha, White Mocha, Mocha Valencia
Step 4: Wet or Dry?
Step 5: How strong? Specify the number of espresso shots.
Step 6: Choose the type of milk or creamer.
Step 7: Extra directions?
It’s coffee, not cyber security. But it illustrates the choice and complexity inherent in this simple daily act.
John McClurg, Dell’s CSO, often speaks about the chaos, complexity and current conundrums that characterize our times. He advocates for holistic security management across the enterprise. One of the roadblocks to implementing a holistic approach is the challenge faced by CISOs and CIOs in having to choose between meeting the needs of security and the needs of the business. These should align and work in tandem. For many companies, they don’t.
The multiple choice challenge in security
In today’s highly connected world, it is IT’s job to do all of the following: secure the organization, keep everything running smoothly, ensure compliance and most important – enable the organization to grow. Many CISOs and CIOs face the challenge of being able to deliver only some of these imperatives confidently while having to short change others. This dilemma, essentially a tradeoff, keeps a lot of IT professionals awake at night.
The key to addressing this dilemma is to find a way to align the security strategy with business needs and then finding the right process and technologies to deliver against the objectives. Unfortunately, in most organizations, the security strategy and business objectives tend to be created, implemented and measured independently. Eventually we will see acceptance of a converged approach as organizations recognize the link between aligning security with business needs. For now however, most CISOs and CIOs are still dealing with a multiple choice proposition.
A different approach that aligns security strategy to business needs.
Dell has studied the shortcomings of today’s IT security with a fresh perspective. We have seen the fractured nature of the solutions, and the absence of security strategies that align with business needs. Our approach to security is based on simplicity, efficiency and connectivity that tie together the splintered aspects of IT security, capable of sharing insights across the organization.
It adds a critical layer of guidance from Dell experts, who help businesses focus their security efforts. And it makes security simpler, so that business users can manage the rules and policies, and end users can easily comply. Together these enhancements can radically change the culture of compliance within organizations. And strengthen the overall security posture, allowing easier adoption of disruptive technologies — like cloud and mobile — so your organization can refocus on doing what it does best.
Our approach is built around the three foundational imperatives of IT security:
- Protect – the whole enterprise, from end-to-end, inside and out, with efficiency
- Comply – with internal governance policies and external regulations using a consistent, reliable approach that doesn’t compromise business agility
- Enable – the confidence to adopt new technology and pursue innovation and operational efficiency
Connections for superior outcomes
Dell has always been inspired by finding ways to improve IT and lower costs to customers, especially in markets where customers are locked in by the status quo. By architecting solutions that have common DNA, Dell is taking the first steps toward more connected, holistic security. The promise is that this approach will be more efficient, more secure and more easily adopted. Most importantly, it will work with the business, not against it.
Better security means better business
Being protected end to end, compliant with consistent, reliable governance and enabled to adopt new technologies and operational efficiencies allows CISOs and CIOs to make an ‘all of the above’ choice, eliminating the need to choose between the needs of security and the needs of business. That nets out to security enabling a better, stronger business.
For more on Dell Security Solutions, go to www.dell.com/security.
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