The 5 Cs of Security as a Service

The 1st C: Change  

As a follow up to my last post, we are exploring the primary motivations for organizations to seek alternatives to traditional client/server architecture and on-premise software installations. The first “C” is for change.

Change
Organizations face a constantly changing array of pressures from various sources. Competitive threats, new regulations, financial uncertainty, technological shifts, and business risk all force managers to maintain a state of perpetual vigilance. Globalization and technological advancements have enabled new business models and competitors to spring up seemingly overnight. The ability of businesses respond to these pressures can be in itself a source of sustainable competitive advantage.

Savvy managers are taking cues from Darwin and are building lithe organizations with systems and infrastructure capable of responding to threats and capitalizing on opportunities with amazing speed. Today’s CEOs look to CIOs and CSOs for answers on how to be more competitive, not simply to deliver a service to the organization. Any CSO who fails to consider business agility and speed to market in their planning is likely to be consumed by a hostile business environment.

The SaaS delivery model supports these objectives by providing capabilities that can be rapidly deployed and retracted based on the needs of the business. In the context of physical security, SaaS applications allow CSOs to provision new security capabilities as needed, and where needed, without investing in the technology and human resources required to support the service. Also, since the SaaS model is built around ever improving technology supported by monthly fees, CSOs can ensure their organizations access to the latest features without ever having to concern themselves with upgrade patches and hardware limitations.

Thus the agility offered by forgoing fixed technology investments and using “rented” IT resources allows organizations to be positioned to move quickly in response to whatever may be around the next corner.

-John Szczygiel