Cybersecurity professionals are encountering issues of inefficiency due to an excess of tools and the management of diverse vendor networks.
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Managing multiple cybersecurity tools from various vendors is a common practice among UK businesses, but it comes with its own set of challenges. A recent study by Kaspersky found that 74% of UK companies rely on multi-vendor ecosystems for their cybersecurity. However, these ecosystems can create critical blind spots, increase operational complexity, and lead to inefficiencies.
One of the main challenges is tool sprawl and redundancy. Organisations often accumulate multiple overlapping cybersecurity tools, leading to inefficiencies such as duplicated effort and higher costs. According to a study by Red Canary in October 2024, tool sprawl is a key challenge facing software development teams, with 43% of respondents indicating they cannot keep a handle on security processes due to a lack of cross-platform integration.
Another issue is poor integration and visibility gaps. When multiple tools do not integrate well, security teams struggle to get a holistic and unified view of threats, causing limited visibility into the overall risk landscape and critical blind spots. This inconsistent threat visibility creates blind spots and reduces overall situational awareness, as stated in the IDC study where over two-thirds (70%) of respondents stated that switching between different tools reduced their efficiency.
Fragmented policies and inconsistent enforcement is another challenge. Different tools and policies applied across on-premises and cloud environments often result in inconsistent security practices, increasing vulnerability to attacks and complicating incident response.
The complexity in multi-vendor ecosystems also causes operational inefficiencies and slowed response. Multi-vendor setups cause slower threat detection and response times due to manual processes, siloed information, and unclear roles and responsibilities among vendors. This can lead to finger-pointing and delayed resolutions, as highlighted in a separate research from IDC that examined the mental strain caused by tool sprawl, known as 'context switching'. Katie Norton, research manager for DevSecOps and software supply chain security at IDC, stated that context switching not only wastes an employee's time but also inflates costs.
Moreover, managing multiple cybersecurity providers and tools requires more internal resources, expertise, and coordination, straining security teams and diverting focus from strategic priorities. According to Ilya Markelov, head of unified platform product line at Kaspersky, enterprises often rely on multiple vendors by default, rather than through deliberate strategic planning. The Kaspersky report highlighted that these redundancies not only inflate costs but also complicate resource allocation and strategic planning.
Maintaining disparate tools in a multi-vendor ecosystem has a knock-on effect across the cybersecurity segment, with compatibility issues being a key challenge. 36% of respondents struggle with inconsistent threat visibility due to the growing array of tools and solutions in their cybersecurity stacks. This degrades overall threat visibility by making it difficult to correlate data across tools and identify emerging risks comprehensively.
To mitigate these challenges, experts recommend consolidation and tool rationalisation to streamline management and cut costs. Adopting centralised security solutions that aggregate data, automate detection and response, and provide unified visibility across environments is also suggested. Clear internal alignment, defining responsibilities across security, procurement, and compliance teams to facilitate collaboration and accountability, is also crucial.
By addressing multi-vendor challenges proactively, organisations can improve operational efficiency and gain better, more comprehensive threat visibility, ultimately strengthening their cybersecurity posture.
- The struggle for seamless integration and visibility among multiple cybersecurity tools contributes to a lack of holistic threat perception, as highlighted in the IDC study, where over two-thirds (70%) of respondents stated that switching between different tools reduced their efficiency, potentially leading to blind spots and reduced situational awareness.
- Software development teams may also encounter inefficiencies due to tool sprawl, as indicated by the Red Canary study in October 2024, where 43% of respondents stated they cannot keep a handle on security processes due to a lack of cross-platform integration, potentially leading to increased costs and duplicated effort.
