Beyond Protection: Security as a Business Enabler

What comes to mind when you think of IT security? Most likely, you think about the tools and policies that are used to help protect critical business information – tools and policies that allow or deny access to such data based on user roles. But what if security tools could do more? What if they could enable the business by providing deeper visibility into users’ IT infrastructures, and by extension, a better understanding of how corporate compute resources are being used?

“IT pros often view ‘security’ as an insurance policy against the kinds of data breaches we’ve all heard about in the news. And much like insurance, while most responsible people know it’s something they need to think about, many can name a myriad of other ways they would rather spend their money,” says Ron Temske, vice president, Communications and Collaboration, Logicalis US.  “Security, particularly in the ubiquitous mobility space, can be so much more than an insurance policy; it can be a business enabler that results in cost savings and productivity enhancements throughout an organization, transforming security from a ‘must-have’ requirement into a ‘want-to-have’ business tool.”

In this slideshow, Logicalis US has identified seven ways security can step beyond the role of business protector and into the role of being a business enabler.

Seven Ways Security Acts as a Business Enabler

Click through for seven ways security can become a business enabler, as identified by Logicalis US.

Helps You Prioritize Investments

Gain a better understanding of who and how many people are using specific applications within your data center to better support prioritization and investment.

Gives You Geo-Location Data

Learn where your customers reside so you can optimize your advertising efforts while at the same time questioning unusual communication patterns to determine if the behavior is marketing-oriented or malicious.

Saves Time Troubleshooting Service Issues

Security tools can give IT pros a baseline for “normal,” isolating faults and helping them get things back online faster.

Assists IT with Capacity Planning

Security is about visibility into the network, and having that visibility gives IT pros a handle on what resources are being used. No one wants to overbuy capacity that sits unused, or to be caught short by under buying capacity that will impact business productivity, both costly circumstances that can be easily avoided with access to the needed information for informed decision making.

Delivers Social Media Info

Need to know who your sales and marketing teams are interacting with and to measure those interactions by traffic volume? Which social media outlets are most relevant to your employees or customers? Security tools can deliver this kind of detailed information.

Enables Mobile Productivity

While it’s important to secure the mobile devices used in the workplace, it’s even more important to remember the productivity advantages that come from being able to allow employees to do their jobs anywhere, anytime, on the devices that work best for them.  With security solutions such as mobile device management (MDM), organizations can enable enhanced mobile productivity while maintaining full security and compliance.

Establishes User Identities

While it may be commonplace among security solutions, no list of business enablers would be complete without a mention of the authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) tools that give network users a rich identity for enforcement of the organization’s security policies all with a single password, certificate, key fob or fingerprint.