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With the combined growth of BYO set to skyrocket in the next few years, (according to Gartner two-thirds of the mobile workforce will own a smartphone in 2016, and 40 per cent of the entire workforce will be mobile), endpoint security is becoming harder than ever to manage. With so many different access points to an enterprise’s data, organisations are unsurprisingly struggling to keep up. It is commonly accepted that organisations can no longer afford to defend continually against every threat, including those that exist and those that are yet to be conceived. Yet it is also evident that IT departments must become more flexible in their approach to network security.

They must also become proactive in their approach to potential threats rather than just reactive. As Gartner reported last year, advanced targeted attacks will soon render prevention-centric security strategies obsolete. It’s clear therefore that it’s not simply a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’ enterprises will fall victim to an attack. So why are prevention-centric security strategies no longer fit-for-purpose? Prevention strategies have typically used IT to look at servers as they work away behind the scenes, which was all well and good when there were a few easily monitored access points, but with the growth of BYO and the millions of access points that come with it, this is no longer a viable strategy for enterprise.

It is also arguable that, to an extent, BYO has taken the control over access points out of the hands of the IT department and into the world of the IT consumer. The workforce is no longer being dictated to by the IT department, which increases levels of flexibility dramatically. And this flexibility makes it increasingly difficult for the IT department to monitor the security of all devices essential for a productive working enterprise. IT departments should consider the use of IT operations analytics, or ITOA, to enable them to view what’s going on across the whole IT infrastructure – particularly from the viewpoint that matters most, that of the end-user. Real time visibility is the key to identifying problems, which is half the battle, and more often than not fixing the problem is not nearly as time consuming as identifying it in the first place.

So, it is apparent that ITOA solutions are one way of monitoring the security of all aspects of an IT infrastructure much more effectively. ITOA tools allow the IT department to see what is really going on for individual users and also enable them to monitor end-user devices to ensure compliant enforcement of security standards. A further sticking point for IT departments is often the disproportionate amount of time spent chasing various root causes for issues, something that the use of ITOA solutions can certainly cut down on. By providing real time visibility of end-user devices and the estate infrastructure, IT teams have a clearer view of where threats are coming from, which prevention methods work, which don’t, and the levels of effectiveness in between.

So, if we are to believe the oft–quoted statistic that 80 per cent of security breaches involve end-user devices, it’s clear that it is extremely important to have real-time visibility across both these end-user devices and the IT infrastructure. For better protection from more sophisticated attacks, organisations need complete visibility across the whole infrastructure, not just the traditional backend. ITOA solutions are able to complement traditional security information in order to provide full end-to-end coverage of IT security and compliance. If enterprises are willing to invest and install systems with ITOA capabilities, then the future will be brighter and safer.