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By Sergio Bea

7 reasons why it’s time for NetSecOps

For decades, network operations (NetOps) and security operations (SecOps) teams have operated independently and successfully. NetOps has handled network maintenance, management and orchestration, while SecOps has focused on network and endpoint security.

Expanding network and cloud architectures have created complexities and challenges for both of these teams, however, and their roles have begun to consistently overlap. The time has arrived to bring together these two important teams.

Recent research from Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) found a strong correlation between collaboration and network operations success. The following are some of the main benefits of combining these two teams.

1. Both teams require the same data

NetOps and SecOps both need network monitoring data to perform their jobs well. Sharing and working together to make the most of that data can therefore be a game-changer for network operations at large.

Having the proper network and application performance monitoring (NAPM) tools and real-time access to packet-level insights from the network can go a long way toward fostering collaboration.

2. Improved network performance

Businesses with unified network and security teams spend less time on reactive troubleshooting and more time on proactive problem prevention, according to EMA research. This enables collaborative teams to focus on improving network performance, leading to a better end-user experience.

Security systems may also negatively impact network performance, blocking critical business traffic or creating bottlenecks during periods of heavy traffic. Conversely, security breaches may often be masked as network performance problems, e.g. DDoS attacks. A unified NetSecOps team is much better prepared to properly identify and mitigate these issues.

3. Improved security detection and response times

A unified NetSecOps team can respond to and mitigate threats faster than siloed NetOps and SecOps teams. This greatly reduces the risk of attacks, breaches and even misconfigurations that could put the network in jeopardy.

Collaborative teams are also in a prime position to speed up discovery, containment, mitigation and remediation of risk and threats, as well as ensure better policy compliance and enforcement throughout the organization.

4. Operational and capital cost efficiencies

An integrated NetSecOps team eliminates overlap and redundancy, which translates to capital and operational cost savings. Collaboration enables them to share tools for network analytics, device discovery, continuous packet capture, application dependency mapping and a host of other features.

An integrated NetSecOps team improves tool utilization and eliminates redundancies, decreasing the amount of budget spent on acquiring and maintaining tools.

5. Skills gap coverage

Siloed NetOps and SecOps teams present a skills challenge since there are usually minimal opportunities to cross-train workers. Broader skillsets that expand into both areas of expertise are a massive resource for any organization trying to contain costs and keep up with increasingly complex network management and cybersecurity demands.

6. Faster response to business changes

IT departments and network architectures are continuously fluctuating as organizations move apps and workloads to the cloud and distributed environments. NetOps and SecOps needs to keep pace with these changes, as well as have a strategy for quick adaptation.

7. Improved business agility, visibility and relevance

The cloud offers a host of benefits to businesses and IT teams, but it also presents challenges. One of the biggest challenges faced by NetOps and SecOps teams alike is a lack of complete network visibility.

An integrated NetSecOps team has the tools to enable full visibility from endpoints to the cloud, ensuring network performance and security are properly managed. A collaborative set of tools will facilitate real-time access to packet-level data both on premises and in the cloud.

The time has come to begin integrating NetOps and SecOps teams. The benefits and value of collaboration and shared tools among these teams speak for themselves.

To learn more about how to integrate these two important teams, view our guide, How to Integrate NetOps with SecOps . In the guide, we discuss the current challenges of separate NetOps and SecOps teams, look at the benefits of a combined NetSecOps, and how businesses can get started with the integration process. Beef up your NetSecOps today!