Support for remote work accelerated dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, likely causing long-lasting shifts in work patterns, physical office requirements, and demands on IT teams. In this recent webcast, Comcast Business and IDC looked at survey findings on how organizations are re-evaluating their current and future cybersecurity technology investments and policies as a result.

With almost everyone moving to the cloud, organizations with more newly remote workers tend to have more cloud-based apps. The survey revealed that almost half of organizations find it very challenging to secure these applications to the cloud (52%). Their top concerns include: data theft from cloud applications, advanced threats against the cloud application provider, incomplete control over access to sensitive data and increased latency. Those who moved more aggressively to remote may have already had experience with protecting their data.

The survey also found that smaller organizations are much more likely to seek fully-managed solutions. For organizations with greater than 1,000 employees, 87% want co-managed services, while 53% of those companies with less than 1,000 employees were looking for fully managed cybersecurity. A majority, (62%) are focusing their budgets on updating cybersecurity. The survey found that for IT decision makers, disaster recovery is a much greater need for those with fewer remote workers and they are seeking guidance from a trusted advisor.

Panelists

• Christina Richmond, Program Vice President, Security Services, IDC
• Joseph Richardson, Sr. Director Cybersecurity Products, Comcast Business
• Jim Malone, Senior Content Strategist at IDG