Tufin Survey Reveals 91% of Security Managers are under pressure to Deliver Applications and Services Faster

Survey Highlighted Multiple Opportunities Where Better Automation Can Help Security Address the Increasing Complexity, Lack of Collaboration and Constant Change Cited as the Top Challenges Faced by Network Security Professionals 

Morristown, New Jersey, February 25, 2014 - Tufin Technologies, the market-leading provider of Security Policy Orchestration solutions, today announced the results of a survey of 169 security professionals on the current state of security operations. Conducted at Cisco Live! in Milan, Italy in January, 2014, more than 90% of the respondents reported that the on-demand nature of virtualization and the cloud has increased pressure on them to deliver applications and services faster. With more than three quarters of respondents believing virtualization will have the biggest impact on Security Operations over the next 12-18 months, the pace will only accelerate, underscoring the need for increased automation. In order to help security teams stay ahead of the accelerated pace, Tufin, in separate releases also issued today, announced new security, automation and orchestration capabilities and a partnership with IT automation software leader Puppet Labs.

These survey results complement the findings of a larger October 2013 Tufin-commissioned survey in which 71% of more than 500 senior IT professionals found themselves having to adopt new processes, learn new technologies and interact with new people because of these same trends. The Cisco Live! attendee responses pointed to additional problems being caused by the intense pace of change, highlighting several opportunities to improve Security Operations:

• Almost 90% felt that organizations rely too heavily on network security products and tools at the expense of good network architecture and design in order to deliver the optimum level of network security.  
• Almost 40% reported that the biggest barrier to effective network security is network complexity while 25% cited a lack of collaboration and another 20% cited the constant change occurring in today’s networks as their biggest barriers.
• With this being the case, it comes as no surprise that about 89% of the respondents reported that between 20-60% of security policy changes in their organization need to be corrected after the fact.
• Another one-sixth reported that as much as 60-80% of their organizations’ security policy changes need to be revised after the fact as well.

“As previous surveys have confirmed, the role of security within Operations is expanding in order to deal with the network security challenges brought on by the cloud and virtualization,” said Ruvi Kitov, Tufin CEO. “This leads to more and deeper collaboration with other IT groups in order to integrate and automate security into areas such as network design, change processes and operational performance. Our customers tell us this is the best way to ensure next generation networks are efficient, agile and equipped to deal with next generation security concerns. We agree and believe intelligent change and process automation will become standards as virtualization and the cloud become more pervasive.”

Survey respondents also made it emphatically clear that the threat landscape itself is changing just as quickly as corporate networks. When asked to name the three developments that will most greatly impact security operations over the next 12-18 months, advanced threats were the number one answer, nosing ahead of virtualization (number two) and the transition of mission critical enterprise apps to the cloud (number three). 

However, the survey revealed that Security Operations teams are rising to the challenge. More than three-quarters believed their networks were more secure (55%) or just as secure (22%) than they were five years ago. Plus security teams identified that automation would positively affect the accuracy of policy changes (33%), the lack of consistent processes across departments (25%), and the lack of network control (20%). This underscored the need for a complete automation suite designed to handle these issues with features such as topology mapping and one-click repair.

“It is clear that virtualization and the cloud deliver great benefits but also introduce greater complexity and unforeseen risks that must be addressed,” said Kitov. “Our customers know that automation is necessary to properly safeguard today’s networks and support the needs of the business. Tufin continues to add capabilities to our product suite to provide the best-of breed automation and orchestration solutions needed to deliver the efficiency, agility and collaboration required for their ongoing success.”

Rebecca Edwards

44(0)20 7403 8878

Rebeccae@rlyl.com

www.rlyl.com

About Tufin Technologies

Tufin® is the leader in Security Policy Orchestration, automating and accelerating network infrastructure changes while maintaining security and compliance. By improving network change processes, organizations using the Tufin Orchestration Suite™ will have a positive impact on the business by reducing the time and cost spent implementing network changes by up to 80 percent. Taking a holistic view of IT, the Tufin Orchestration Suite helps organizations automate security and efficiency into day-to-day operations, enabling them to be more agile and leverage technology to gain a competitive advantage. Founded in 2005, Tufin serves more than 1,200 customers in industries from telecom and financial services to energy, transportation and pharmaceuticals. Tufin partners with leading vendors including Check Point, Cisco, Juniper Networks, Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, F5, Stonesoft, Blue Coat, McAfee and BMC Software, and is known for technological innovation and dedicated customer service.

For more information visit www.tufin.com, or follow Tufin on:

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