Report: Network Complexity Creates Security Headaches

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Complexity will hold two out of every five organizations back from making any upgrades to their networks in 2017, and security products are contributing to the problem, according to new research from Cato Networks.

The Top Networking and Security Challenges in the Enterprise report, released on Tuesday, shows that the majority of organizations use between two and five security solutions, with a quarter of respondents using even more.

Cato Networks asked over 700 IT professionals from around the world about their planned investments in 2017. It found that organizations with over 1,000 employees tend to experience even more security complexity, with 39 percent managing five or more solutions.

More than half of IT professionals, and almost three-quarters of CIOs surveyed said defending against emerging threats like ransomware is their top priority over the next year, and 41 percent say Firewall-as-a-Service is the most promising emerging technology for protecting infrastructure.

READ MORE: New Ransomware Targets Linux Servers, Deletes Files

“The results of this global survey highlight systemic weaknesses in network and security architectures currently built upon point products and dependent on hard-to-find skills. Today’s network rigidity hampers IT’s ability to adapt to growing threats and dynamic business requirements,” Shlomo Kramer, founder and CEO of Cato Networks said in a statement. “The only way forward is a radical simplification of the current infrastructure complexity that underpins on-premises and cloud environments.”

Many respondents using wide area networks (WANs) reported problems with user experience, infrastructure maintenance, and a lack of effective control over mobile access.

Almost half report that their biggest network security challenge is the cost of buying and managing security appliances and software, and half also report difficulty enforcing security policies for mobile users. Nearly half provide mobile access to the cloud by VPN, while 15 percent use a cloud access security broker (CASB).

Cato suggests streamlining is a key to enterprise IT security, and while an overwhelming majority of enterprises see hybrid as the best cloud model for them, even hybrid proponents admit its complexity.

This post originally appeared here on The Whir.