Involve security team at an early stage

For the international study "Digital Transformation Security Survey", Dimensional Research surveyed a total of 631 IT decision-makers with responsibility for security about the impact of digital transformation on IT security teams.

The results

While almost all respondents say they are investing in digital technologies such as mobility, cloud applications, cloud infrastructures or the Internet of Things (IoT), only 18 percent involve IT security in the relevant initiatives. 85 percent feel that earlier involvement of security teams would better drive these initiatives.

Most companies are already in the process of digital transformation, but many do not know to what extent their own company is involved. While 89 percent of all respondents see digitization in their respective industries, only 50 percent believe that this is also happening in their companies. 72 percent mention active projects in mobility, 68 percent in cloud projects and 37 percent in the Internet of Things.

Remarkably, 27 percent of those surveyed said that their company had a digitization strategy with clear objectives. In Germany, as many as 31 percent are of this opinion, while in Scandinavia only 23 percent and in the UK only 22 percent are of this opinion.

Sixty-nine percent of respondents say digitization can pose challenges in terms of lack of resources, potential security risks, finding the right balance between security and employee productivity, and the threat of loss of control. Interestingly, 85 percent of respondents state that business users always or sometimes see security teams as an obstacle, which is why they are left out of digitization projects; however, the same percentage also recognize that these teams could be an important factor in digitization if they are involved in projects at the right time.

Other key findings of the study:

• Only 18 percent of respondents say security is involved in all mobile, IoT, cloud and self-service initiatives
• 76 percent believe that the topic of security is brought into digitization initiatives too late
• Eighty-five percent say business users avoid involving IT security teams because they fear their initiatives will be hampered if they do. However, only 63 percent say such concerns are actually justified
• More than 90 percent of respondents say security teams could better act as business enablers if more resources were made available

The results show that digital key technologies are already being used to a high degree and that further growth and higher employee productivity can be expected through digitization. The respondents say that investments in digital technologies will also increase in the future. IoT is seen as the most important technology of the future - 55 percent of respondents say they already have plans to introduce this technology.

Different drivers depending on the region

However, the business drivers for digital technology adoption vary by region:

• The USA and Benelux focus more on business growth than other regions
• Scandinavia - followed by the UK - cares more about employee productivity than other regions
• Australia cares more about competitive pressure than other regions
• Germany - followed by Australia - is keen to bring security teams into all digital transformation projects
• Benelux - followed by Germany - is concerned that safety teams are involved too late in the process

"The study offers interesting figures on the role of IT security in digital transformation," explains Florian Malecki, International Product Marketing Director Dell Security. "Companies are already deep in the process of digitalization, but many questions still seem to be unanswered, especially in the area of security. Yet there can be no doubt that security is essential for digitalization; just think, for example, of the fatal possibilities for manipulating technical systems on the Internet of Things."