More tools lead to greater risk of security issues and burnout
A new survey of over 1,000 IT and security teams suggests that the more tools organizations deploy to solve problems, the more problems they create.
The study from Kandji finds that too many overlapping tools is an issue for 49 percent, gaps or breakdowns between tools is cited by 46 percent, and security risks due to poor integration by 41 percent. Siloed ownership or communication is a problem for 38 percent while the same percentage say that compliance and audits take too much time.
There’s a direct, measurable correlation between the number of tools teams manage and their burnout levels. 17 percent of teams with one to five tools report high burnout, while in teams with 16+ tools 50 percent report high burnout.
Burnout leads to real problems, many IT professionals consider leaving due to work-related stress -- 77 percent report job stress, and 79 percent say they have ‘seriously considered leaving’ -- where poor tooling is often a root cause.
Tool sprawl leads to security risks too, 41 percent of respondents link poor integrations directly to security risks. Multiple disconnected tools create blind spots, inconsistent enforcement, and fragmented alerting, in short, more openings for attackers.
It’s mid-sized businesses with 101-1,000 employees that face the perfect storm of complexity. They've outgrown simple solutions but lack enterprise-level resources to manage the resulting chaos. This increases the maintenance burden as they spend 50-75 percent of their time on tool maintenance rather than strategic work. By contrast enterprise sized businesses face fewer technical risks but 48 percent report issues with siloed communication.
While both IT and security teams prioritize better integration, their secondary concerns reveal natural role-based splits. IT teams focus on automation and efficiency while security teams focus on risk reduction and compliance.
The report’s authors conclude:
For IT leaders, the message is clear: the era of ‘more tools’ is over. The next decade will be defined by integrated, automated platforms that reduce the maintenance burden, free up time for strategy, and close the seams that attackers target. Companies that act now will not only cut costs, they’ll build healthier teams andstronger defenses. Companies that delay will continue paying the hidden complexity tax -- through lost talent, wasted resources, and heightened exposure.
The choice is no longer between innovation and consolidation. It’s between burnout and resilience, between risk and readiness. Integration is the new mandate.
You can read more on Kandji’s The Sequence blog.
Image credit: AndreyPopov/depositphotos.com