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Orchestrate a safer world with IoT and data convergence
IoT data has the potential to make businesses more secure and proactive against threats. But a successful deployment requires the right combination of data and software.
Digital transformation has led to a flurry of data from devices of all types, dramatically increasing the potential to use that information in ways that deliver exceptional experiences, enhance business operations, and even help to protect people, property and vital processes.
Imagine being able to combine data from various applications and devices with data from physical systems, such as door alarms and video cameras, to identify ways to manage the flow of patients through a busy emergency department within a hospital.
The benefits are tremendous, but taking advantage is challenging.
Converged data models provide the foundation
The key to successful, secure IoT setups is a converged data model that provides an integrated setup that harnesses the data's power. With a unified technology landscape, organizations can ingest the flood of IoT data and properly contextualize it for optimized intelligence and incident response.
This use case is what many stakeholders refer to when they talk about situational awareness. Interconnected data from connected systems can provide an incredible amount of operational knowledge and efficiency.
Because it's such a fire hose of data, enterprises need help to determine what data is actionable, what is essential, what must be tracked, what signifies a trend or pattern, and what is simply noise.
Whether that information is received through video systems, access control, intrusion detection systems, a VPN connection or secure network monitoring, all data points must be correlated across each other to fully use analytics and AI.
This converged data model provides the ultimate benefit of combined cybersecurity technologies and the elements. To pull out the needles in the data haystack, organizations and admins must understand all risk vectors.
Imagine a security intelligence center where admins identify a risk as a disgruntled employee on the web. In a converged model, all pertinent information is put together, often automatically, and then analyzed through a software layer so admins can identify, track, understand and respond to the threat. They can also visualize data through a centralized management pane with the right tools at their fingertips to initiate a reasonable, real-time response with planned operating procedures.
Global adoption is essential
Mission-critical organizations are adopting these intelligent concepts because such processes and technology are an ideal way to build an efficient IoT program and propel increased collaboration between public and private sector officials.
Business leaders can identify current threats through increased cooperation while they learn and analyze data points to address future risks, which enable stakeholders to achieve greater situational awareness.
Data obtained from IoT devices, video surveillance, social media and operational systems ensures safety and optimizes operations. But the amount of data collected today can be overwhelming. Stakeholders need methods to transform raw data into valuable insight to realize informed, intelligent decisions.
Integrated IoT offerings can connect the dots for more effective command and control. Organizations can protect what matters most with actionable insights with the fusion of business and security data from various sources, systems and devices.
These integrated, intelligence-driven capabilities must work in concert -- a symphony of critical data orchestrated and analyzed by advanced analysis to ensure informed decision-making.
Envision an interconnected offering that aggregates data from multiple sources and devices. With data-driven video and situational awareness software, health and safety monitoring systems, and emergency response offerings, officials can streamline complex operations to help achieve more vital awareness, more resonant threat detection and broader visibility across any organization.
In harmony, these open, scalable and adaptable offerings can develop a converged infrastructure and support a more proactive, secure business model.
It's a fact: Organizations are moving away from siloed data systems and reactive behaviors, and leaders are seeking ways to centralize management and get ahead of threats, prevent them before they happen with deeper insight and respond to them in real time.
Come together to transform into a safer IoT world
The future vision is that data from multiple IoT devices and systems can target what is relevant and essential for the predictive analytics exercise to understand the threat attack surface, identify patterns, provide situational awareness and create an intelligent threat response network.
Convergence might be more than the integration of cyber, IT and traditional security operations to enhance risk mitigation. It wouldn't be unfitting to describe convergence as an organizational mindset. The adoption of unified security intelligence starts with the realization that internal collaboration and executive buy-in, plus integrated technologies, help the seamless unification of systems, sensors and people.
The bedrock of this approach is an open architecture for scalability and expansion. This method means IT teams can connect web intelligence, enhanced data collection and analysis, threat visualization, target identification and crisis event management. With such a setup, companies of all sizes can successfully converge existing and emerging applications to transform their siloed security operations into a combined security intelligence center.
About the author
Alan Stoddard is president of Cognyte North America, where he leads business strategy and leadership efforts for the company. An experienced global technology executive with a proven record of delivering earnings and revenue growth, he focuses on delivering innovative intelligent security solutions to mission-critical organizations. Over the course of his career, he has held senior-level positions with Honeywell, Flexjet and AMX Corp. He holds an MBA in finance and operations from Duke University and a B.S. in astronautical engineering from MIT.
