A Forrester Consulting study showed security leaders are increasing their investments in network visibility, with 97% of respondents already invested in or are planning to invest in new visibility tools and technologies over the next three years. 

Visibility tools can refer to device discovery, identifying network capacity such as bandwidth and availability, and planning for network resources, Principal Analyst Andre Kindness explained in a live webinar. 

Kindness said the impetus behind so many organizations pursuing visibility tools is the shift from “everything residing in a data center” to being dispersed throughout cloud and edge. He added visibility is essential in modern infrastructures where more security is needed and thus “complexity is increasing by magnitudes.”

The Infoblox-commissioned survey showed a significant perceived correlation between visibility and security, with 81% of surveyed decision-makers agreeing that better network visibility would improve their organizations’ security posture and capabilities. Investing in network discovery infrastructure (61%) was the top approach respondents are using to support security capabilities.

“Visibility tools are [essential] into security investigations and troubleshooting, and network discovery, and so that’s why you see these investments going on in these areas to help this happen,” Kindness said. 

Forrester said to improve security response, automate compliance tasks, and better manage processes and outcomes requires collaboration between the networking and security teams, with “network visibility as the glue.” 

Nearly 80% respondents view an integrated solution that benefits both their organizations’ networking and security objectives as appealing, particularly to break down the silos between these organizations, which three out of four surveyed decision-makers noted was a problem in their company.

The report recommends several mitigations to break silos and expand visibility, including building zero trust with an “identity-centric approach” and “standardizing on foundational solutions such as the DDI services organizations already use for network connectivity along with DNS security to accelerate threat hunts.” 

Kindness noted today's complex environment where "things are all over the place" is not suitable for manual operations. With the emergence of software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud environments, he said network automation is becoming an integral part of moving organizations forward, especially when it comes to the integration of monitoring and visibility tools. 

Additionally, Forrester suggested all organizations educate and train teams on these solutions to optimize value. “Ensuring teams cross-functionally leverage the unique visibility DDI metadata yields will also help teams align on goals and minimize damages, particularly from security risks stemming from undetected threats,” the firm said.