“These days we have far fewer introductory conversations in which we teach them why they’re vulner- able,” said Jack Danahy, senior vice president for security at AlertLogic, one of AVANT’s key partners in the IT security space. “They understand that security is an issue and that threats are all around them. On the other hand, the dynamic nature of the threats and the complexity around those threats can of- ten lead customers to feel confused. So, we have to present with great clarity around what we’re going to do and how we are going to do it.” Danahy further added that some companies have moved away from a viewpoint in which security is considered a defensive measure, as opposed to a strategic enabler through which they can more fully leverage their overall IT investment. “The reason really excellent sports cars have really excellent brakes is so that they can go faster,” Danahy said. “What we’ve been seeing over the last few years is that forward thinking organizations have great plans for how to take advantage of the cloud or some new applications, but by automating or outsourcing security they actually begin to see security as an enabler of a new kind of business. In some cases, companies view security as insurance, but there are many things that companies want to do, such as pervasive things wired interconnectivity with their users and open relationships with partners that make this level of security important.” By Danahy’s account, IT security enables companies to do more things with technology in a safer manner. Similarly, a car with good brakes is able to travel at higher speeds more safely by virtue of its increased ability to stop. This newfound appreciation for the value of IT security clearly stimulates increased budget accep- tance, yet plans for significant upgrades still require substantial consensus-building within enterprise organizations. “Two or three years ago there was a significant increase in awareness of the potential for breach in both large and medium to small size organizations, and yet there was a failure to act in many cases,” said Lee Pallat, vice president of cloud and security strategy at Stratacore, an IT consulting broker based in Seattle. “There is certainly increased awareness and increased willingness to provide the budget for new security tools, and yet there can also be a fair amount of foot-dragging and delay. Even if you’re willing to spend the money it takes a fair amount of resources for a large or mid-sized compa- ny to put even managed security tools in place.” While there is general agreement that budget and corporate willingness are moving in the correct direction, Ben Ferguson, a network and cloud architect at Shamrock Consulting, a Trusted Advisor in El Segundo, California, says this trend is often tied to company size. Copyright © 2020 AVANT Communications, Inc. 15