Security breaches can wreak financial havoc, tarnishing reputations and triggering legal battles. For Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs), heads of security, and IT leaders, the stakes couldn’t be higher. However, the debate often feels like a showdown between two heavyweights: platform-based solutions or best-of-breed approaches. In this article, we’ll explore the challenges and advantages each cybersecurity solution offers in the ever-evolving fight against cyber threats.

How the Best-of-Breed Approach Can Get Messy

To better understand the security challenge, let’s look at the complexity of just one area. One of the critical security domains within the NIST Cybersecurity Framework is Identity and Access Management (IAM). But IAM isn’t just one straightforward task—it’s a collection of different operational capabilities, each requiring its own set of tools.

When implementing IAM, organizations typically buy specialized products for tasks like user provisioning and deprovisioning. These tools handle requests for adding, changing, or deleting user access.

Now, imagine a scenario where an employee leaves the company, but their access isn’t properly revoked because the line manager failed to raise a request, which creates a security risk. To tackle this, organizations need another separate identity governance solution that can map employees in the corporate directory against the systems they have access to, ensuring no unauthorized access slips through the cracks.

The risk escalates again when privileged access to systems is involved, where the potential for damage is highest. Organizations require yet another cybersecurity solution that includes additional audit trials and monitoring of sensitive activities.

This can result in a single organization juggling as many as three different best-of-breed solutions just to manage identity and access. Each solution addresses a different piece of the puzzle, but the approach can be disjointed, not to mention both costly and complex to manage.

The Evolution of the Integrated Platform Approach

To tackle the challenges posed by multiple point solutions, in the past organizations introduced enterprise-wide monitoring tools known as Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems.

These outdated systems integrated all security feeds into one platform, making it easier for security operations to monitor and manage incidents. However, not all cybersecurity solutions can be integrated into SIEM, which requires ongoing manual monitoring.

The growing complexity of threats has brought about a new layer of automation and data, which is required for the use and implementation of AI. Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) platforms have taken the next step by correlating events across the environment, including those monitored by SIEM and other point solutions. Instead of chasing multiple alerts, SOAR helps analysts understand that what looks like five different incidents might be one.

Introducing AI and Cloud-Based Security Platforms

The latest advancements also bring AI into the mix, further enhancing automation beyond what SOAR could achieve alone. Organizations are now moving towards comprehensive, cloud-based platforms that combine endpoint security, SOAR, SIEM, and AI into a single cybersecurity solution. This unified approach drastically reduces the time it takes to detect and respond to threats and significantly lowers organizational risk while allowing analysts to focus on higher-risk threats.

Which Cybersecurity Solution Is Right for Your Organization?

Adopting a best-of-breed approach or moving to an integrated platform should be guided by your organization’s specific business needs, existing investments, and security strategy.

Think of it like a maturity curve.

Initially, organizations start with various point solutions tailored to specific needs. Over time, the point solutions can be gradually phased out as a security platform is integrated and proves its effectiveness. This transition not only streamlines operations but also enhances the security framework by reducing complexity.

Consider the bigger picture.

When evaluating whether to transition to a single security platform, it’s important to factor in potentially reduced costs, lower risk, and the ability to redeploy your workforce to more critical tasks. While there are always risks associated with any cybersecurity solution, the benefits of a well-implemented platform generally outweigh the potential downsides.