Battle Tendency
Most relevant IT investments in 2019By Oscar Prado | October 25, 2019 | Category: Documentation
In our last article, we talked about cybersecurity
risks that may be present in the most popular IT technology currently
in use. Although we mentioned some of these in the second part of our
previous blog this time our topic will be slightly different. We will
focus on the main IT investments for 2019 and the expected changes and
trends for upcoming years. We will discuss about the budget allocation
regarding IT, as well as the factors that lead companies to invest, or
increase the investments in technology.
Budget Growth
In recent years IT’s increasing relevance has been reflected in the
increase in IT budgets. According to Spiceworks, in its State of IT
report [1], by 2020 44% of companies surveyed will have
increased, and plan to keep increasing, their technology budgets in
upcoming years. Reasons to increase IT budgets are diverse, however,
the most common factor concerning most companies is their need to
replace outdated technology in order to remain competitive within their
market. Relevant factors are:
Figure 1. Top factors leading to IT budget increases in 2020. Source: [1].
Company size must always be taken into account when discussing
technology and money. The larger the company, the higher the budget
dedicated to IT, as we see in the following comparative table
[2]:
Figure 2. IT Budget Comparison of different companies size. Source: [2].
However, a large investment in IT does not necessarily translate into
improved security. A smart investment is frequently better and
more profitable. Focusing on proprietary tools that do not solve the
root causes of issues can mask real security risks and may promise
solutions to nonexistent problems. A better course of action is to focus
on real solutions.
As was previously mentioned, the most common reason companies invest in
new technology is to replace old technology and thus remain competitive,
but security also plays an important role in this field, since it is the
second most relevant reason companies invest in IT.
Source:[1]
"One in four enterprises (1,000+ employees) are increasing 2020 IT spend due to a recent security incident."
Companies seem to learn the hard way. It often takes a security breach
for a company to increase or even define appropriate security policies
regarding IT. Again, a higher investment does not guarantee a
company’s resources will be protected. Investments must be balanced
with good security practices and procedures to address worst-case
scenarios, guaranteeing the safest and best use of every resource. With
this in mind, we created
Criteria, a summary of
security practices and recommendations based on international security
standards primarily in software, but also taking into consideration
hardware and physical security measures. Check it out, it is free, and I
am sure you will agree that enhancing the security policies of your
company should be a top priority.
So, Where is all this budget going?
Now that we’ve clarified that companies are interested in improving
their technology and that there is budgetary support for these changes,
we should identify where allocated budgets are going. Of course, it
depends on a company’s long-term vision, as well as its size, but we can
search for some patterns if we take a look at the budget allocation
trends projected for IT in 2020:
Figure 3. IT budget allocation in 2020. Source [1].
Spiceworks' [1] research surveyed 1,005 European and North
American companies. They found that in 2020, companies' main investment
interests are projected to be in hardware, software, and cloud-based
services. So let’s take a look at the results and form our own
conclusions.
What grabs our attention is the IT technology that companies are most
interested in acquiring. This technology is likely to become the
industry trend in the upcoming years. Spiceworks can help us again to
form a more complete picture of what hot topics will be trending in the
technology field:
Figure 4. Adoption of technology trends according to Spiceworks. Source: [1].
We can also take a glance at the KPMG report [2] which offers
us a similar panorama for IT investments in 740 technology companies
from 12 countries:
Figure 5. Investment Rankings in 2019 according to KPMG. Source: [2].
Now we see some patterns emerging. Internet of Things (IoT), IT
automation, Artificial intelligence, Virtual reality, and Blockchain
technology are the most adopted technology for several companies. Some
other trends, such as serverless computing, container technology, and
hyperconverged infrastructure, are all technologies that we often use at
Fluid Attacks. We are dabbling in artificial
intelligence in a cybersecurity
approach for vulnerabilities classification, and we
already asserts the vulnerabilities closures on our customers' pipelines
(CI/CD) with our continuous hacking
service. We are aware of the
potential of some of these techniques, not only for cybersecurity and
overall hardening but also for development and operations. In the near
future, we hope to implement some of these in our products.
Conclusion
Technology is constantly evolving, whether we are ready or not. It is futile for a company to fight against trends. Embrace them and adapt to them because these changes make our work easier. Technology companies with outdated hardware, software, infrastructure or policies are destined to fail in the long term. Increasing awareness of current and emerging technology is a must to ensure a company’s competitiveness in an everchanging market.
