5 Ways to Streamline IT & Security Innovation Adoption in 2022

Shalom Carmel CIO @ GlobalDots

29.12.21 5 Min read

The New IT is Under Growing Pressure

Technology has evolved into a vital instrument in every company, aiding in retaining a competitive advantage in an ever-competitive market. It is also constantly changing, with new features and options appearing by the hour.

That is why, amid the ever-increasing complexity of their work environment, IT & Security must accomplish more with far less: They must address internal & external pressures despite tight budgets, HR instabilities, and a skill and consumption gap; 

Some of these internal pressures include:

• Multiple employee onboardings per day as the company seeks fast growth
• SOC teams receive an average of 11,000 alerts per day, without proper prioritization or actionable details
• Password support accounting for 80% of manual IT work, and 20-50% of IT helpdesk tickets
• An average company in 2021 uses 110 SaaS tools – excluding shadow SaaS which most employees admit to use
• The need for faster product deployment demands that all IT & Security procedures run in the background without forcing pauses and friction on development teams

Cloud Cost Optimization Case Study

Among external pressures, consider:

• Web performance expectations, where a 2-second delay in page load time results in up to 87% abandonment rates 
• The increasing cost of downtime, currently averaged $300,000 per hour
• Ever-increasing security threats, from DDoS attacks to hacking breaches – all exploiting the organization’s infrastructural (insufficient observability) and behavioral (outdated authentication and vulnerable passwords) weaknesses

Innovation Helps IT & Security Do More with Less

Adopting new IT and security innovation helps optimize workflows while enhancing overall security.

For example, automation can save valuable time and speed up response times to alerts. Innovative monitoring solutions can predict potential issues before they emerge through an unprecedented data ingestion capacity. Cutting-edge cost optimization tools and methodologies can reliably predict infrastructure expenses and provide insights to reduce these expenses.

Implementing an innovative IT infrastructure can also help retain IT employees, with 73% of tech leaders showing concern for losing IT employees due to their IT infrastructure. Employees feel this concern as well with 40% of IT employees stating they do not plan to stay with their current employer in 2022.

And so, the question remains: How can companies streamline IT & Security innovation adoption?

5 Ways to Streamline Innovation Adoption in 2022

Although technological advancements are unavoidable in the business world, putting them into practice can be time-consuming and complex. Organizations will have the best chance of effective integration if they streamline the adoption process and ensure that all team members are on board at all times.

Here is how to do it:

1: Set Priorities by Benefits

The first step in any technology adoption strategy is to investigate the products you want to use and make sure you choose the best one for your company’s requirements. Set priorities depending on your company’s requirements and potential benefits. You could, for example, create a format that looks like this:

• I need innovation to augment my security posture
• I need innovation to save my team’s precious time
• I need innovation to cut my cloud costs

2: Determine who Owns the Process

The implementation of the innovation process relies heavily on project management. Projects that do not have a clearly defined project management hierarchy are prone to bouncing back and forth between approval and feedback stages.

Thus, it is wise to decide whether you conduct the process in-house or partner with a third party. Here are some of the pros and cons of conducting processes in-house versus with a third party:

	In-House	Third-party
Pros	Employee Engagement & Buy-In Guaranteed	– Expertise and Experience – Shorter Cycles – Smaller Consumption Gap
Cons	– Time Consumption – Conflicting Priorities – Lack of Expertise	Not all are Vendor-Neutral

3: Stay Educated

Employees should be trained on best practices for the technology and basic functionality, just as they should be for anything new. They should be familiar enough with the most important aspects of the technology to begin their work.

In your drive to stay educated, consider the following tips:

• Choose key sources & topics to follow: Following specific sources and topics allows team members to acquire a deep understanding of the most relevant information to your business
• Observe a weekly innovation hour: Maintaining a weekly innovation hour allows all team members to research for the latest developments. This also provides a set time for discussions on issues that innovation can solve
• Do not shy away from how it (actually) works: Acquiring an understanding of the actual architecture & delivery of your evaluated solution might take time and perhaps feel embarrassing if you have knowledge gaps. Nevertheless, it’s vital to make sure this solution can work in harmony with your existing ecosystem and business expectations

After the launch, training will be necessary regularly as the technology adapts to the changing business scenario.

4: Seek to Decrease Waste and Consumption Gaps

Whenever new software or a feature update gets deployed, IT teams must adequately convey it to all personnel in the organization who will be affected.

This initiative will persuade employees who are suspicious of the changes, typically those in the laggard group, to embrace it sooner than they would otherwise. Encourage them to ask questions and share their hardships so you prevent consumption gaps in advance.

In doing this, consider the following tips:

• Seek holistic solutions which can replace several products: This will increase your chances for employee buy-in. For example, a cloud security data platform can replace your open source security, cloud monitoring, container, and k8’s security into a single solution
• Seek a technology partner with a prescriptive support standard: Prescriptive support proactively advises ways the customer can fully exploit all product features and functionality of the solutions they use. This is all about getting your money’s worth as the solution is more likely to live up to its promises

5: Consider Third-party for Implementation Assistance

Implementation challenges, including training, configuration, and integration, are mentioned by 84% of security leaders as primary Consumption Gap drivers.

This issue gets addressed with a diverse team of experts from a third-party technology partner. With an extensive knowledge of emerging software, apps, and technology that can propel your growth, getting the right third-party partner is pretty much like hitting that Download the eBook option at the end of this article — you get the implementation assistance you deserve.

Conclusion

Technology innovation is critical for a company to be competitive, and it’s a perpetual effort to stay on top of it. Not every technological change is required or advantageous to a company, and businesses must make sure to only adopt innovation that has a clear, measurable impact in line with the organization’s goals. 

Allow GlobalDots to help you in this regard. GlobalDots is a world leader in discovering and implementing cloud & web innovation by:

• Being Innovation Hunters: they constantly track the industry to provide spot-on solutions for your ecosystem
• Being Vendor-Agnostic: their ever-evolving portfolio and customizable solutions cater to each unique use case
• Streamlining Technology Adoption: they breeze you through from selection to deployment, exhausting every feature.
• Providing a Holistic Approach: they see your business and architecture as a whole, focusing on what matters

For a commitment-free discovery of how your ecosystem can streamline and strengthen with innovation, Contact GlobalDots today.