Monday Morning Impact – January 1
New Study Reveals Primary Reason for Sensitive Data Loss
Fortanix, a Santa Clara, California-based IT security company, has released a new study suggesting that a lack of encryption is the primary contributor to sensitive data loss, even though confidence in cryptographic capabilities is strong. At the same time, encryption is pervasive and on the rise for data at rest, in motion, and in use.
The survey found that 90% of respondents agreed that encryption has a positive impact on the various facets of their network security, data security, and overall security, with more than 50% saying it has a significantly positive impact in each of these areas. The report also indicates that businesses want to encrypt their data, but they often don’t know how. A lack of adequate cybersecurity staff and expertise leads to confusion around where and when to apply encryption, management complexities, and difficulty assessing cyber-security. Similarly, a lack of encryption remained the top reason for data loss for almost 33% of the respondents, and 25% experienced data loss due to policy violations such as small key size.
Ultimately, determining when and where to apply encryption emerged as the most difficult task for tech professionals, indicating the need for solutions that provide consolidated discovery and assessment of cryptographic keys across hybrid, multi-cloud environments to protect critical assets and enable security, cloud operations, and developer teams to jointly assess risk posture and remediate compliance gaps.
More than two-thirds (76%) of respondents are aware of post-quantum cryptography (PQC), including 37% already actively testing it and 14% that are currently using it. Costs, budgets, and staffing are the biggest limitations in PQC adaptation.
Roughly 81% of respondents said their organizations have dedicated teams to handle encryption, key management, and certificate management, with 63% of those reporting directly into the C-Level.
Key management systems, data loss prevention, and hardware security modules are the top three security technologies used by respondents to secure their organization’s data. Fewer than a quarter (24%) currently have a single unified key management system in place, although that is expected to grow to 50% soon. Meanwhile, distributed or federated key management system usage will shrink from 74% to just 47%.
“More than 80% of organizations say they have begun or have implemented zero trust technology, but the survey also revealed that they don’t always know where to turn when looking to implement the highest level of data security,” said Anand Kashyap, co-founder and CEO at Fortanix. “The truth is, most enterprises lack complete control over encryption keys, creating significant risk. It’s paramount these organizations adopt a paradigm shift towards a data-centric security strategy with full visibility and control over their encryption assets.”
The company’s “Operationalizing Encryption and Key Management” report surveyed nearly 400 IT, compliance, DevOps, and cybersecurity professionals involved with encryption and data security technologies and processes across the U.S. and Canada. All respondents were from either large/mid-market organizations within industries including manufacturing, financial, technology and healthcare.
Channel Impact®
The research spotlights new opportunities for partners to add value and help to strengthen the defenses of their customers.
TD Synnex Launches Global AI Enablement for Microsoft 365 Copilot
TD Synnex has announced the launch of its Enablement Journey for Microsoft 365 Copilot, a program designed to prepare partners for navigating AI-powered workplace productivity. To support this transformation, the distributor will provide partners with early access to insights, sales, technical enablement, and training, as well as readiness tools and resources.
The initiative consists of various resources and trainings, such as Copilot Practice Builder, Customer CloudLabs Experiences, and the “Get Ready for Copilot Workshop.” Partners who complete the training can earn a badge to demonstrate their competencies around Copilot adoption.
Microsoft 365 Copilot is now part of the company’s Destination AI program, which aggregates a variety of AI services, solutions, and resources available to partners. By adding Copilot enablement to Destination AI, customers can access enablement as well as a wide range of AI applications and services that run on Microsoft 365 and Azure, such as computer vision, natural language processing and data analytics.
“TD Synnex is committed to empowering our customers’ AI and cloud journey and helping them navigate these emerging technologies securely and efficiently,” said Chief Strategy Officer Sergio Farache. “Through our enablement journey and resources, we believe partners can gain a competitive edge in the rapidly growing AI market, which is currently valued at more than $530 billion.”
First launched in North America, select features of Destination AI are now also available globally, including Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Channel Impact®
By leveraging these resources, partners can gain a competitive edge in the SMB market through the training and enablement provided.
Arrow Electronics Updates its Cloud Management Platform
Arrow Electronics has introduced a series of significant updates to its cloud management platform, “ArrowSphere,” aimed at simplifying multi-cloud and hybrid cloud monitoring – particularly in the areas of sustainability, cost optimization, and security.
The addition of the GreenOps, FinOps, and SecOps dashboards provides an aggregated view of all cloud accounts that a channel partner manages. This is intended to improve cost management and security analysis, while addressing the deepening global environmental call to action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including in response to the upcoming EU regulation CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive).
“Over the last decade, ArrowSphere has evolved from a transactional platform to an automated platform that supports cloud business excellence,” said Eric Gourmelen, global vice president and chief technology officer of cloud for Arrow’s enterprise computing solutions business. “Our latest updates focus on simplifying and building transparency around managing costs, monitoring sustainability, and helping ensure that end-user solutions are safeguarded against the ever-changing threat landscape.”
The sustainability dashboard is designed to help channel partners build solutions that make a minimal impact on the environment. As environmental regulations put increased pressure on businesses to report their carbon emissions, ArrowSphere’s sustainability dashboard comes with reporting capabilities as well as a global monitoring tool for channel partners and their customers to measure the carbon footprint of their cloud activities.
The cost optimization dashboard delivers visibility across the entire cloud estate through a consolidated dashboard that also provides recommendations where spending can be adjusted.
The security dashboard delivers a scoring system where 100% purports to be complete security coverage. This allows channel partners to see at-a-glance the security posture of their entire end-customer base, identify potential threats, and take proactive action.
Channel Impact®
As market dynamics shift to everything-as-a-service, Arrow’s updated tool is designed to support channel partners through a variety of business transformations, including economic, environmental, and security changes.
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