With the cybersecurity industry expanding rapidly over the last few years, organizations are finding themselves using several security tools from different vendors, but they are now looking to consolidate those tools to improve risk posture and reduce spending, according to new research from Gartner.
The Stamford, Conn.-based research and consulting firm’s survey found that three-quarters of organizations are pursuing cybersecurity vendor consolidation, a large increase from the 29% that said they were looking to consolidate security tools in 2020.
According to Gartner analyst John Watts, security leaders are growing dissatisfied with the operational inefficiencies and lack of integrations of a heterogeneous security stack. That is leading organizations to consolidate the number of vendors they use, but cost optimization is not the primary driver, as 65% are doing so to improve their risk posture. Just 29% are consolidating security vendors to reduce spending.
The research found that 57% of organizations are working with fewer than 10 security vendors, and they are looking to reduce that number further in key areas such as secure access service edge (SASE) and extended detection and response (XDR).
Length procurement processes and requests for proposals are introducing opportunities for consolidated offerings for those two tools, both of which are in-demand and are planned to be adopted by a large portion of organizations by the end of the year. The survey found that 41.5% of organizations plan to have adopted SASE within their organizations by the end of 2022, while 54.5% have plans to adopt XDR by the end of the year.
Gartner analysts say XDR and SASE are compelling options to help organizations start their consolidation journey, and the research backs that up, as 57% of organizations say they resolved security threats faster after implementing an XDR strategy and more than half of surveyed organizations use SASE projects to simplify network and security policy management.
Nearly 90% of organizations want SASE and XDR to work together, but 46% of IT security leaders will opt to keep them distinct from one another while ensuring they can interoperate, the research says.
According to Watts, security and IT leaders should plan at least two years for consolidation, as it takes time to effectively consolidate and consider switching costs.
“It is also important to anticipate vendor M&A disruption as the security market is always consolidating but never consolidated,” Watts says.
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