Dell Joins Cisco in Hyping DT Security:
Dell’s survey of 631 US, European and Australian IT decision-makers with responsibility for security found an interesting disconnect: while 89% of respondents recognize digital transformation is happening in their industry, only 50% believe it’s happening in their organization. Yet 72% express active projects in mobile, with 68% involved in cloud projects and 37% in IoT, the usual suspects in formal digital transformation projects.
This disconnect is because DT is not like other transformation initiatives, said Jackson Shaw, Senior Director, Product Management, Dell Security. Digital transformation tends to be a top-down strategic initiative, that starts initially at the board or C-level, he told IT Trends & Analysis.
“DT as a process originates really high in the organization and the line of business really sees it as their slice of heavenly pie,” agreed Bill Evans, Senior Director, Identity and Access Management, Dell Security. One of the challenges that we see, where it happens organically from the bottom, that’s where security gets left out, he added.
Strategic or not, DT can be derailed by security, said Shaw. While security often is seen as a barrier to digital transformation and brought into the process too late to make a meaningful impact, security teams can serve as enablers in helping the business adopt digital technologies when included early in the planning process, according to Dell.
Security is at the heart of digital transformation, agreed Cisco’s Ben Munroe, Senior Manager, Product Marketing. Of necessity — and having absolutely nothing to do with the company’s core business — he maintained that “Security must start with the network.”
A key reason why security is too often looking in at DT from the outside has to do with the traditional view of security as the Department of No, said Evans. “We see security as enabler… it has to step up and become an enabler, the Department of Yes.”
“Digital transformation is bigger than just IT and security,” said Shaw. “It’s used by organizations to transform themselves, to become more customer centric.”
DT can pay huge dividends, according to a survey commissioned by CA: 45% reported increased customer retention rates; while 44% also recognized an increase in top line revenue growth. The companiesfurthest along in their digital transformation have two times higher revenue growth and two and a half times higher profit growth than organizations that have not gone DT.
Although somewhat dated, Teradata offered some interesting insights into digital transformation. Companies that make data-driven decisions are more effective — 5% more productive and 6% more profitable — said Teradata President and CEO Mike Koehler. It’s digital disruption, a “business phenomenon with a body count,” said Darryl McDonald, President, Teradata Applications.
In other news from Dell, the company got a strong vote of confidence for its pending $60-billion-plus acquisition of EMC with 98% of voting EMC shareholders, representing approximately 74% of EMC’s outstanding common stock, voted in favor of the merger. The last hurtle remaining before the deal is completed later this year is approval by Chinese regulators.
This week Cisco also provided some additional food for thought in its Cisco 2016 Midyear Cybersecurity Report. According to the report, ‘the struggle to constrain the operational space of attackers is the biggest challenge facing businesses and threatens the underlying foundation required for digital transformation.’ Other key findings include adversaries expanding their focus to server-side attacks, evolving attack methods and increasing use of encryption to mask activity.