Aberdeen research has shown that through their emerging capabilities in the area of security governance and risk management, best-in-class companies are taking proactive steps to ensure that their investments in security and compliance controls directly support their objectives for the business. A consistent, enterprise-wide view of security risk -- integrating both physical security and IT security -- is a sensible element of this strategy. By combining superior security governance and risk management with an integrated approach to logical and physical security, best-in-class organizations set themselves up to compete in the global economy with a distinct advantage: not only with an optimized IT infrastructure, but also with better protection for their digital, physical, and human assets.
Convergence Benefits
1. 83% of best-in-class companies surveyed reduced the number of actual physical security incidents, compared to a year ago; 40% reduced the average time to respond to these incidents.
2. 48% of best-in-class companies surveyed reduced the number of actual logical security incidents, compared to a year ago; 31% reduced the average time to respond to these incidents.
3. 55% of best-in-class companies surveyed reduced the number of non-compliance incidents (e.g., audit failures), compared to a year ago; 59% reduced the average time to respond to these incidents.
4. Among best-in-class organizations using cards, 14% reduced the average time to issue credentials to a new employee; 18% reduced the average time to revoke credentials for a terminated employee.
5. Best-in-class organizations reduced human error related to logical and physical security by a factor of 16 compared to other respondents over the last 12 months.
“Is logical / physical security convergence in the cards? Yes -- literally in some cases, but more generally as a natural extension of taking a strategic, holistic view of security risk,” said Derek E. Brink, Vice President and Research Director for Aberdeen Group. “Convergence projects will be fueled by the tangible business benefits of better security, sustained compliance, faster response times, lower costs, and improved collaboration.”
Even though both logical credentials and physical credentials may be tied to the same physical device, logical identities and physical identities must be correlated at the management level. Solution providers that can most effectively bridge these technology areas will be best-positioned to drive effective logical/physical convergence opportunities.
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