Numbers often tell stories that words fail to convey properly. A personal challenge is anecdotal, but data can aggregate these into a collective experience. If you rely on manual processes and spreadsheets for firewall management, you’re not alone. According to our research, 50% of organizations still use these time-consuming resource draining processes while another 51% find collaboration across network security and cloud security painful.
To make you feel even better – or worse – your organization’s size isn’t the determining factor. In fact, large organizations may have it a bit worse as 54% said they rely on manual processes and spreadsheets despite managing more firewalls and a wider attack surface.
While the 1980s G.I. Joe cartoon may have taught that “knowing is half the battle,” these statistics only provide a sense of camaraderie with your peers. Solving these challenges requires real solutions that provide quantifiable benefits.
Our upcoming webinar discussing the Dark Reading research dives deep into our research and offers actionable steps for streamlining your network security and operations.
What did we learn about network security and management challenges?
Across a surveyed 100 IT, network security, and cybersecurity professionals whose companies run 20 or more firewalls, we learned that organizations of all sizes struggle with:
- Cross-functional collaboration
- Shifting roles and reshaped boundaries brought on by digital transformation
- Lack of automation across network security policy management
- Inability to consistently execute firewall management duties across on-premises and cloud network assets
- Unreliable, time-consuming audit processes
The numbers underlying these insights tell a tale about teams stretched to their capacity who want to focus on strategic initiatives and secure networks more effectively in the limited hours they have every day.
If you’re reading this, you probably identify with one or more of the following:
- The more than 50% of teams working in organizations with over 2,500 employees who need to handle 50+ change requests per week.
- The 45% of large organizations and 30% of the broader respondent pool who struggle navigating the political, cultural, and logistical challenges brought on by cloud implementation.
- The 71% of respondents who know that firewalls and network security policies are critical to security but feel current management processes are risky to their posture.
- The 29% of organizations – that increases to 43% for large ones – reporting that change management and policy management causes them to miss SLAs for servicing business partners.
While these data points only scratch the surface of our findings, they give us enough knowledge to start fighting the other half of the battle with you.
What is the future of network security?
While these collective challenges may seem like a dark cloud over network security, its future is so bright you might want to wear shades.
Emerging technologies on the frontlines of defense can help you improve network security and performance while giving your team more time to focus on strategic initiatives. To support your team in the new year, some supporting technologies include:
- AI and automation to improve decision-making
- SASE and SSE to manage secure network access across a distributed workforce and hybrid infrastructure
- Unified security policies to apply and enforce controls consistently across all networks
Why join our webinar?
These insights are just the beginning of what we learned through our research. Joining our webinar will not only help you feel more connected to others trying to manage the same challenges as you, but we’ll provide actionable steps to show you how to overcome them.
Register for our upcoming webinar “The State of Firewall Management: Current Challenges and the Future of Network Security” to gain more in-depth insights and learn how leading-edge technologies can give you back hours – or even days – of time by eliminating manual processes and spreadsheets. Register here.
If you would like to read the report, you can request your free copy here.
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