Security or Innovation?

I recently bought a house, and as many homeowners know, you should never buy a house without inspecting its foundation. A bad foundation can lead to cracks, instability, and an unsafe living environment. No matter how good the rest of the house looks, without a good foundation it’s unlivable.

In order to foster innovation at your organization, you need to build on a sound foundation. But what makes a good foundation for innovation? It could be fostering community, a “fail fast” attitude, or a way to crowd-source ideas from a large group.

Here at Cisco, we believe the foundation for innovation is security. Organizations that fail to innovate fall behind their competitors and the market.  But, organizations that innovate without security at the heart will not just fall behind – they risk erosion of critical functions, including customer, business partner and supplier relationships; operations; and brand reputation.

Cyber risk is one of the top ten global business risks¹.  According to the Cisco 2017 Annual Cybersecurity Report, 49% of security professionals surveyed said their organization has had to manage public scrutiny of a security breach. No organization that plans to grow, innovate and achieve success wants to be in a position of having critical departments affected by security breaches.

How do you foster innovation in this environment? Security is no longer optional, it is a cost of doing business in today’s digital marketplace.  So, do you have to choose – security or innovation? See our take on this question in this infographic.

You can improve your security – your foundation for innovation – by taking steps like these:

• Improve breach detection and response capabilities with technology, threat intelligence and readiness planning
• Employ the power of analytics to increase efficiencies and multiply your team’s capabilities
• Expand and deepen the security expertise on your IT team with additional training or by partnering with industry experts

With Cisco security services, we help our clients build security into their development cycle, to manage risks throughout their timeline and launch secure, innovative technology that help them grow. From IoT penetration tests, to security program development, our services are building a secure digital marketplace.

Security is the foundation to build trust, and innovate effectively, and grow your business. You don’t have to choose between innovation and security.