The tiger seems to be the animal for 2022, not just based on the Chinese calendar but also in terms of digital transformation.
“When I think back to my conversations with customers and partners in the region and the shift that I’ve witnessed in their businesses, I picture an executive riding a tiger,” says Dhanya Thakkar, senior vice president for AMEA at cybersecurity firm Trend Micro.
He continues: “The tiger represents digital acceleration and the speed at which it’s taking place, while the rider represents a chief information officer (CIO) or IT executive whose job is to support digital acceleration. The reality is, this executive is riding the tiger like never before because if not, he or she will be eaten up by the tiger.”
As the term suggests, digital acceleration refers to the trend of organisations speeding up their digital transformation initiatives to address new expectations from employees, customers, and partners during and after the pandemic. Reliance on newer technologies, including the cloud, is no longer part of a long-term plan but an immediate need.
However, Thakkar highlights that businesses tend to set aside a small budget for digital acceleration. “The amount of budget given [to such efforts] is only 2% more than previous years. I refer to this as the 2% diet, which is unsustainable and undoubtedly challenging,” he says.
Moreover, organisations also had to tame the tiger. “This job falls into the hands of the security leaders who are trying to ensure that the risk and compliance needs that come with digital transformation are looked after. At present, acceleration is outstripping investment and there is a huge cybersecurity knowledge gap. As a result, security leaders are under pressure to prevent riders from falling off,” he explains.
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Here, Thakkar tells DigitalEdge Singapore more about the need to be one with the tiger and how organisations in Asia Pacific (Apac) can do so successfully.
What’s the cost of Apac businesses not being able to become ‘one with the tiger’?
To me, fully reaping the long-term benefits of digital acceleration is not about riding or taming the tiger, but being one with it. While riding the tiger will yield exciting short-term growth, businesses looking for sustainable growth must shift their perspective. They need to adopt the following dos and don’ts:
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- First, as fast as digital acceleration is taking place, businesses must view it as a hurdle instead of a sprint. It’s time to re-evaluate strategies and shift gears from “reactive” to “proactive”.
- Second, don’t hire. This might be a controversial view, especially as many are looking to fill their cybersecurity gaps by sourcing talent. However, the reality is that no organisation can hire fast enough to plug this gap.
- Instead, I recommend developing from within. They should continue to invest in cybersecurity tools, and break silos between teams, product lines, and customer groups.
These are important steps in building an organisation’s transformability. I often see digital transformation projects that have started even before the head of security is aware, resulting in the security team playing catch up. The last two years have been a harrowing experience for security leaders, and it is no wonder that our study found 70% of IT and security professionals are feeling emotionally overwhelmed.
For leaders to keep pace with digital acceleration and the threats that come with it, it is no longer sufficient to just equip teams with the latest cybersecurity solutions. Today, having a robust cybersecurity strategy is simply a prerequisite. The true game changer is a solid people strategy so that their team can use the tools provided to their full potential.
Looking back, it’s impressive that many businesses have embraced the sprint. But it’s time to adjust the pace. Instead of focusing on speed — which may result in burnout and potential risk of failure — it would be more realistic to think about the digital transformation race as overcoming little hurdles, with each hurdle bringing you closer to an organisation that is more resilient to future disruptions.
What are the common digital acceleration mistakes that Apac organisations make?
Today, when businesses talk about digital acceleration or transformation, they begin with the cloud. This is one area businesses are struggling with because they forget they have legacy people, processes, and applications.
For these companies, one common mistake is to look at digital natives — who have started everything from the cloud — and follow suit. This is a recipe for failure.
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For example, when businesses quickly migrate applications to the cloud, they may suddenly find that their applications don’t work. This is why the cost of cloud projects are very high. At the same time, it would be challenging for existing people to keep pace with the demands of cloud overnight. For this reason, we must not see the journey as a sprint and start hurdling.
Other common mistakes I’ve seen include:
- Blind adherence to technology or digital transformation concepts, which happens when business leaders think the latest solution or service can address all their business challenges.
- Trying to execute digital transformation in one go. As businesses “jump the gun”, many tend to implement plans that focus on too many aspects of digital transformation at the same time.
How can Apac businesses succeed in digital acceleration?
I would like to offer two pieces of advice as more organisations seek to reap the benefits of this unprecedented force.
First, look at the overall business goal, existing people and processes — and adopt a human-centric leadership approach. Both consulting firms Gartner and McKinsey advise CIOs to focus on “soft skills” and to “lead empathetically”. This is particularly important as the majority of cybersecurity professionals are already overwhelmed.
Employees are no longer just the responsibility of human resource teams, and a solid people strategy is essential for success. Business leaders can ask themselves the following questions:
- Are my employees equipped with the right training to fully utilise new solutions/services?
- Are they kept in the loop in terms of business outcomes and impact?
- Are they able to see why and how these technologies can help us achieve our goal?
- Are there clear processes in place to ensure seamless onboardings?
My final advice goes back to my earlier point: Stop sprinting and start hurdling. Focus on evolution instead of revolution — this is what it means to grow. Instead of trying to digitalise or transform the entire organisation at once, business leaders can break down current challenges into bite-sized goals.
How can Trend Micro help Apac organisations to reimagine their security while going through digital acceleration?
Flowserve is an organisation that we work closely with — not just in the region but globally — to do so. It is one of the leading providers of flow control products and services to the water, power, oil, gas, and chemical industries.
Flowserve’s primary challenge was protecting legacy applications while modernising and transforming the company. Its goal is to move 90% of its systems from on-premises to the cloud by 2026, which requires a shift to cloud security.
We helped Flowserve to understand the complexity of its landscape and the need to protect its vast majority of applications, operating systems, servers, and cloud workloads. We then implemented our Workload Security tool to quickly protect its legacy servers from vulnerabilities. This helped Flowserve achieve its digital transformation goal by protecting cloud workloads as it adopted an increasingly hybrid IT environment.
What are some cybersecurity trends that will dominate 2022 as digital acceleration takes off?
There is a constant demand for cyber-security services and talent, given the fast-changing threat landscape. As a result, CIOs and chief information security officers (CISOs) are constantly tasked to do more with less. Many organisations, therefore, adopt technologies such as Extended Detection and Response (XDR) to drive the consolidation of workspace security technologies and consolidate the number of vendors securing the lifecycle of their cloud-native applications.
Given this trend, I foresee more cybersecurity vendors like ourselves continuing to re-invent, innovate, and integrate security capabilities into a single platform, to better support CIOs and CISOs in the coming year.
Another megatrend we are seeing is a bit more unexpected, and that is losing control. Today, business units and individuals can make substantial decisions about their digital destinies, some of which lead to poor security outcomes.
Consequently, cybersecurity and risk management leaders are forced to revisit their strategies, leaving an overused security buzzword on the table: Zero Trust. Many organisations are rightfully implementing Zero Trust, but they need to be mindful of their approach. It is important to understand the differences between identity-based and risk-based approaches. In my view, a risk-based approach will provide more context for a successful Zero Trust strategy in the long term.
Photo: Trend Micro
