The convergence of Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) is transforming industries. While this integration drives operational efficiency and faster decision-making, it also creates new cybersecurity challenges. GREYCORTEX Mendel offers a unified way to monitor and protect both your IT and OT environments.
As digital transformation continues, IT systems, like corporate networks and databases, are increasingly linked with OT systems, such as industrial control systems and sensors. This connection improves data sharing and process control but demands a unified approach to securing both technologies.
New cybersecurity threats are constantly emerging as the Internet of Things (IoT) and automation continue to grow. One of the biggest challenges is ensuring seamless communication between IT and OT teams, which often have distinct goals and methods. Addressing these challenges requires identifying critical assets and implementing tailored security measures.
The Core Security Requirement
A fundamental security requirement in any company is identifying and classifying assets. Understanding the value and strategic importance of each asset allows for the appropriate level of protection. Tools that enable effective monitoring and protection of both industrial and digital assets are essential in this context.
Key Differences Between IT and OT Environments
IT and OT environments differ in focus, asset life cycles, and the personnel managing them. While IT prioritizes data processing, business operations, and frequent updates, OT centers on controlling physical processes and maintaining long-term operational stability. OT systems often remain in place for decades without major updates, creating potential security gaps.
IT and OT teams also have different expertise. IT teams focus on data confidentiality and cybersecurity, while OT teams prioritize the safe operation of industrial assets, often resisting upgrades to avoid disruptions.
Another key difference lies in the communication protocols used in each environment.
So how do you protect both environments with one monitoring solution?
NDR’s Role in Protecting IT and OT
NDR solutions are pivotal in safeguarding industrial environments, providing visibility into both your IT and OT networks. A prime example is GREYCORTEX Mendel, which passively monitors traffic across both networks to detect anomalies without interfering with system operations—a critical requirement for industrial settings.
Mendel correlates data from various sources to identify threats early, allowing analysts to investigate security events and uncover connections between them. While defining processes and security policies is critical, verifying compliance is equally important. Mendel continuously monitors these processes and notifies you about any non-compliance. Any incidents detected can also be easily exported into clear reports.
Bridging the IT-OT Divide
Better infrastructure visibility, deeper threat understanding, stronger protection of both digital and industrial assets—these are some of the key benefits that NDR solutions bring.
Mendel facilitates cooperation between your IT and OT teams. By integrating with the MITRE ATT&CK® Framework, Mendel creates a common language for analyzing threats, helping both teams collaborate more effectively.
Additionally, Mendel allows you to customize event categorization based on team needs, ensuring IT and OT professionals see the information that matters most to them—within the same solution, but with their own tailored interface.
The Future of Industrial Cybersecurity
As cyber threats evolve, the convergence of IT and OT systems requires tools that can adapt and offer comprehensive protection. GREYCORTEX Mendel meets these needs by learning and responding to new attack types, ensuring the security of both your digital and industrial assets. The continued integration of IT and OT networks necessitates a unified monitoring and response approach, where NDR solutions are central. By leveraging tools like Mendel, organizations can strengthen their cybersecurity posture, ensuring resilience and continuity in an increasingly interconnected digital landscape.
About GREYCORTEX GREYCORTEX uses advanced artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data mining methods to help organizations make their IT operations secure and reliable.
MENDEL, GREYCORTEX’s network traffic analysis solution, helps corporations, governments, and the critical infrastructure sector protect their futures by detecting cyber threats to sensitive data, networks, trade secrets, and reputations, which other network security products miss.
MENDEL is based on 10 years of extensive academic research and is designed using the same technology which was successful in four US-based NIST Challenges.
About Version 2 Digital
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
In this blog, we look at eight ways to improve your Apache Tomcat security hardening, ranging from basic best practices like not running your Tomcat as the root user, to more advanced tips like using realms to control resource access. At the end of the blog, we’ll wrap up with some final thoughts about how to secure Tomcat and then link to some related resources you should check out. Let’s dive in!
Editor’s Note: This blog was originally published on December 29, 2020 and was revised and updated with new content on September 3, 2024.
Why You Need to Secure Tomcat
Apache Tomcat is a robust application server that includes many features available right out of the box. However, just because these features and settings are available right away doesn’t mean that your Tomcat server is ready for production. Before you go to production, you need to perform thorough tuning and security hardening to ensure your Tomcat server is secure.
How to Keep Your Tomcat Secure: 8 Tomcat Security Hardening Tips
There are many ways to improve Apache Tomcat security, and this blog is no replacement for a thorough dive into the possible ways in which you can do so. However, the tips below are a good starting point for people interested in hardening their Tomcat server deployment.
1. Don’t Run Tomcat as the Root User
The root or administrator account has access to everything in the file system. It is best practice to create a separate account that has read, write, and execute access to the Tomcat installation directory and specific folders the application needs access to. Grant this account minimum operating system permissions.
Vulnerabilities are exposed periodically with Tomcat releases and updates to your application and any frameworks your application uses. Fixes for these vulnerabilities are provided rapidly by the community, but it can give an attacker a small window of time to do something malicious.
2. Default Samples and Test Applications
There are four web applications that come out of the box with Apache Tomcat:
docs: This is the documentation for Apache Tomcat. This is a duplicate of the documentation you will find on Apache Tomcat’s website.
examples: This is servlet, JSP, and WebSocket examples along with the source code that runs those examples.
manager: This is the Tomcat Web Application Manager application that enables you to administer the application server via a user interface. You need the role “manager-gui” to access this application.
host-manager: This is the Tomcat Virtual Host Manager is a web application that allows users to manage virtual hosts. Virtual hosts allow you to deploy multiple websites (or domains) in single instance of a Tomcat server. The “admin-gui” role is required to access this application.
You can remove these four applications and still have a fully functional application server, but by default they are only accessible by the machine they are running on. You can change this behavior in each application’s META-INF/context.xml (more on this later).
The examples application does have some vulnerabilities (session manipulation) and should be removed from any production environment. The docs application should be removed because it identifies to a potential attacker what application server and version you are running.
The manager and host-manager applications can remain on the Tomcat instance, but these applications should be locked down by setting the proper permissions using roles in tomcat-users.xml and setting a very strict Remote Host or CIDR Valve in the applications META-INF/context.xml file.
3. Set Your Tomcat Permissions Carefully
The SecurityManager in Jakarta EE 11 has finally been removed, so you will not find a conf/catalina.policy for Apache Tomcat versions 11 and greater. This file controlled an application’s permissions to internal Catalina jars and classes.
If you are running a version of Tomcat prior to version 11, then a review of this file would be worthwhile. Most of our customers do not touch this file, and fortunately the format of this policy file is self-documenting and easy to read. If you compare the catalina.policy with the out of the box unmodified file, then you can identify any changes easily.
4. Upgrade to Tomcat 11
Apache Tomcat 11 (currently in beta but we expect the GA release any day now) includes security enhancements and implements six specifications of Jakarta EE 11, which also includes additional enhancements to Tomcat including:
Removing sensitive HTTP headers from TRACE requests
Mandatory HTTPS support
Updated HTTP RFC references to the latest versions
Examples and documentation web applications are only accessible from localhost by default as this might expose a cookie to an attacker.
rejectIllegalHeader hard-code to true: We can either ignore illegal HTTP headers or send a 40x.
allowHostHeaderMismatch hard-coded to false: issues in reverse proxy situations where header is different from the URL.
Align AJP connector handling of invalid HTTP headers with HTTP connector.
Added RateLimitFilter: Prevents Denial of Service (DoS) and brute force attacks by limiting the number of requests that are allowed from a single IP address within a time window.
Log TLS certificate information on startup.
Dedicated loggers for detailed TLS configuration information.
Added TLSCertificateReloadListener: Monitors certificate expirations and trigger automatic reloading of the TLS configuration a set number of days before the TLS certificate expires. Tomcat restart required or JMX command to reload it. It periodically checks on a frequency you define. Shows how close that certificate is from expiring. If you do not update it, then it will start logging warnings.
5. Enable TLS
A critical step in hardening your configuration is setting up end-to-end encryption between the browser and the application server. The first step is creating a keystore using the JDK’s keytool:
keytool will ask a series of questions. The most important question is “What is your first and last name?” This should be set to the domain name the server will sit behind and not your first and last name. The question should be reworded to: “What is your CN (Common Name)?” This means the domain which your server will be known by. The output of the keytool should look like the following:
Enter keystore password: changeit
Re-enter new password: changeit
Enter the distinguished name. Provide a single dot (.) to leave a sub-component empty or press ENTER to use the default value in braces.
What is your first and last name?
[Unknown]: openlogic.com
What is the name of your organizational unit?
[Unknown]: OpenLogic
What is the name of your organization?
[Unknown]: Perforce
What is the name of your City or Locality?
[Unknown]: Minneapolis
What is the name of your State or Province?
[Unknown]: MN
What is the two-letter country code for this unit?
[Unknown]: US
Is CN=openlogic.com, OU=OpenLogic, O=Perforce, L=Minneapolis, ST=MN, C=US correct?
[no]: yes
Generating 2,048 bit RSA key pair and self-signed certificate (SHA384withRSA) with a validity of 90 days
This command will create a keystore.jks in the directory keytool was run from.
A certificate signing request (CSR) will need to be generated from the keystore.jks and sent to a trusted certificate authority if you want the certificate to be trusted by the browser. This step is optional if you are testing. The traffic will still be encrypted, but you will receive a “not trusted” message from the browser.
Then send openlogic.csr to a trusted certificate authority for signing. We will not cover the steps here, but the certificate authority will send you back a certificate to import into your keystore.jks.
There are certificate authorities which will send you a free 90-day signed certificate for free as long as you are the domain owner. They will require you to import their root, intermediate, and your signed domain certificate into keystore.jks.
You cannot only import your signed certificate because the browser also needs the root and any intermediate certificates to trust the domain certificate.
The next step is configuring your server.xml to listen on a trusted secure port by presenting a valid certificate and end-to-end encryption. The syntax assumes Tomcat 9.0+; versions of Tomcat prior to 9.0 require a different syntax which we will not cover here.
Create the following snippet of XML in Tomcat’s conf/server.xml:
This assumes the keystore.jks is in Tomcat’s conf directory.
The configuration changes up to this point do not force plain-text port 8080 to redirect to 8443. To enable this functionality, modify Tomcat’s conf/web.xml by adding the following XML snippet:
By modifying Tomcat’s conf/web.xml with this change, this tells the application server that you want all unencrypted traffic to be handled by an encrypted port. Restart Tomcat for the configuration changes to take effect. Then go to http://localhost:8080.
If you did not send the CSR from the earlier step to a trusted certificate authority, then you may receive some warnings from the browser. Tomcat will then redirect the browser to https://localhost:8443.
The server I tested with is Apache Tomcat 11 with OpenJDK 21.0.4. After running a protocol test, the server was found to support TLS 1.2 and 1.3 with no support of outdated protocols SSLv3, TLS v1.0 and 1.1 (which is desired due to vulnerabilities).
6. Log Your Network Traffic
To enable logging of network traffic in Tomcat, use the AccessLogValve component. This can be configured on a host, engine, or context basis and will create a standard web server log file for traffic to any resources associated with it.
The Access Log Valve supports a variety of attributes to control the output of the valve. This valve is enabled by default in server.xml:
This valve creates a daily rotating localhost_access_log.yyyy-mm-dd.txt file in Tomcat’s log directory. With the pattern configured in the statement above, the valve will print the remote host (%h), username (%l), date and time (%t), first line of the request (%r), HTTP status of the response (%s), and bytes sent (%b) of every request.
The following output results when the root page is accessed:
The pattern can be customized in numerous permutations; see Tomcat 11 documentation for details.
Be careful in using this valve as it can put write pressure on the disk if the application server is busy.
7. Limit Access to the Tomcat Manager App
The Tomcat Manager application is a built-in webapp used to manage Tomcat instances, application deployment and other various settings. By default, the Manager application can only be accessed from the machine it is running on or an address in the 127.0.0.0 subnet range using IPv4 or the IPv6 loopback (::1 or 0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1), and this is configured in the META-INF/context.xml using the Remote Address Valve:
This allows access from the loopback address as well as any addresses in the 192.168.1.0 subnet range.
8. Use Realms to Control Resource Access
Realms are another method of controlling authentication and authorization to resources in Tomcat. A realm is a collection of users and roles that are assigned access to a given application or group of applications and the privileges they have within the application once logged in.
There are four built-in manager roles:
manager-gui: HTML GUI and the status pages
manager-script: HTTP API and the status pages
manager-jmx: JMX proxy and the status pages
manager-status: Status pages only
Realms are pluggable. Realms can be configured to connect to a relational database, LDAP, JAAS, a global JNDI resource (such as an XML file), or a combination of realms.
The LockOut Realm is the default in Tomcat which uses the conf/tomcat-users.xml file to control authentication and authorization.The role and users are by default commented out, but a simple example with one user with the manager-gui role would look like the following:
The LockOut realm by default will cause a user to be locked out for five minutes if the password is guessed incorrectly five times which will be displayed in the catalina.out log file:
05-Aug-2024 21:29:39.980 WARNING [https-jsse-nio-8443-exec-4] org.apache.catalina.realm.LockOutRealm.filterLockedAccounts An attempt was made to authenticate the locked user [tomcat]
In addition, the plain-text passwords in tomcat-users.xml can be encrypted. In server.xml, find the UserDatabaseRealm and change it to:
Any changes to server.xml require a server restart. Modifications to tomcat-users.xml do not necessitate a server restart as this file is monitored for changes.
Generate a hash from a plain-text password:
${TOMCAT_HOME}/bin/digest.sh -a SHA-256 -h org.apache.catalina.realm.MessageDigestCredentialHandler changeme
The “-a” is for the algorithm to be used when encrypting the password. Any algorithm available to the JDK can be used such as SHA-512.
The hash of the password will be displayed after the colon:
Keep in mind that all passwords must be hashed in tomcat-users.xml if the MessageDigestCredentialHandler is used.
Tomcat should detect the file changed without a restart:
05-Aug-2024 21:26:22.987 INFO [Catalina-utility-2] org.apache.catalina.users.MemoryUserDatabase.backgroundProcess Reloading memory user database [UserDatabase] from updated source [file:/home/rocky/apache-tomcat-11.0.0/conf/tomcat-users.xml]
Lastly, file access to Tomcat’s conf should be limited to the account running Tomcat.
While these are some of the many ways you can secure Tomcat, there are still plenty of other things out there that can be done which go beyond the scope of just a blog article. We encourage all our Tomcat users to take a deep dive approach to Tomcat security, utilizing all the resources out there.
About Version 2 Digital
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About Perforce
The best run DevOps teams in the world choose Perforce. Perforce products are purpose-built to develop, build and maintain high-stakes applications. Companies can finally manage complexity, achieve speed without compromise, improve security and compliance, and run their DevOps toolchains with full integrity. With a global footprint spanning more than 80 countries and including over 75% of the Fortune 100, Perforce is trusted by the world’s leading brands to deliver solutions to even the toughest challenges. Accelerate technology delivery, with no shortcuts.
As we move into Q2 2024, data protection remains a critical area of focus for organizations worldwide. The “2024 Data Protection Trends Report” by Veeam Software provides a comprehensive analysis of the current landscape and future directions in data protection.
This report is based on insights from over 1,200 unbiased IT leaders and implementers in 10 countries who are leading data protection strategies for enterprise organizations of various sizes. The report had four agenda items: What are IT leaders thinking about? Where does the cloud fit? Cyber continues to be ‘when’ not’ if, ‘ and most are not ready for a disaster. Below is an overview of the report.
Increasing Investment in Data Protection
One of the report’s standout findings is the increasing investment in data protection. Organizations are expanding their IT budgets and allocating a larger portion specifically to data protection. According to the survey, 92% of organizations are increasing their data protection budgets, and protection budgets are expected to grow by 6.6%.
This trend underscores the growing recognition of data as a critical asset that needs robust protection systems. As cyber threats become more sophisticated and pervasive, the need for advanced data protection solutions becomes a top priority.
Summary of the Data Protection Trends Report
1. Key Trends in Data Protection
Backup Solutions
A significant 54% of organizations indicated a strong likelihood of changing their primary backup solutions within the next twelve months. Several factors drive this willingness to switch:
Improved Reliability:
Enhancing the success rate of backups remains a top priority. Unreliable backup solutions can lead to significant data loss and operational disruptions.
Cybersecurity Integration:
The ability to detect and remediate cyber threats, particularly ransomware, is crucial. Organizations are looking for backup solutions that offer integrated cybersecurity features.
Diversification:
Organizations want to diversify and use different data protection tools for different workloads. Thus, they can work with a more robust data security system, ensuring better protection from data loss and cyber threats.
Cloud Integration and Hybrid Flexibility
The report highlights the growing importance of cyber integration in modern data protection strategies. Hybrid cloud environments, which combine on-premises and cloud resources, are becoming increasingly popular too. Organizations believe that these elements are the most important in modern data protection:
Cyber-integrated Solutions:
Data protection solutions that integrate cybersecurity tools are the top choice for organizations. Such solutions offer comprehensive protection against various data threats, including cyber threats.
Cloud-to-Cloud Workload Mobility:
Moving workloads seamlessly between cloud services, such as Amazon and Azure, is a significant advantage as it offers hybrid flexibility.
2. Challenges in Data Protection
Enterprise Backup
An enterprise backup solution is crucial for ensuring business continuity and data integrity by safeguarding against data loss due to hardware failures, cyberattacks, human errors, and natural disasters. The top attributes organizations consider when choosing an enterprise backup tool are:
Consistent Reliability:
Backup solutions must always be reliable to protect and recover data during data disasters. Thus, reliability is the most crucial attribute for organizations.
Support Modern cloud-hosted workloads:
Support for modern cloud-hosted workloads like SaaS and IaaS is crucial for ensuring comprehensive data protection and seamless recovery across all environments where business operations occur. As organizations increasingly adopt cloud services for scalability, flexibility, and cost-efficiency, backing up these workloads is essential to safeguard against data loss, downtime, and compliance risks.
Ease of Management:
Another crucial attribute is the ease of management across different locations and geographies. An enterprise backup solution that seamlessly backs up data across every location and platform is essential for large companies with various places that can spread across geographies.
DX Challenges
Cybersecurity threats and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals are the top anticipated challenges for organizations in the next 12 months. The intersection of these areas highlights the need for data protection strategies that safeguard data and align with broader organizational goals, such as sustainability and ethical governance.
3. Customers in the Cloud
Cloud storage has become crucial in the modern data environment as organizations have migrated from traditional storage to modern ones like the cloud. However, these data require protection against data disasters, ensuring total data recovery during a disaster. A survey on cloud backup revealed:
74% of the surveyed organizations use third-party backup products or BaaS services to secure their data outside the M365 environment.
Most organizations still only back up their containers.
In the next two years, 88% of the surveyed organizations will likely use BaaS and DRaaS to protect their servers.
Most organizations choose cloud infrastructure or DRaaS over multiple self-managed data centers.
4. Cyber-resiliency: Not ‘If’ but ‘When’
Cyber-resiliency is no longer a matter of “if” but “when,” as cyberattacks have become rampant and inevitable in today’s digital landscape. Organizations cannot afford to neglect cybersecurity because the frequency, sophistication, and variety of cyber threats continue to escalate, targeting businesses of all sizes and sectors.
Below is the analysis of cyber-resiliency:
Cyber attacks were the most common and most impactful cause of outages over the past two years.
75% of the surveyed organizations suffered ransomware attacks in 2023.
5. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
The ability to recover from disasters, whether cyberattacks, natural disasters, or other disruptions, is critical. The report indicates that many organizations struggle to meet service level agreements (SLAs) during disaster recovery tests.
Within the last year, 58% of organizations met SLAs during data recovery tests.
Only 32% of organizations can recover a 50-server site.
85% of organizations recover their DR servers from cloud copies of their data.
Only 13% of organizations use orchestrated workflows for their failover mechanism when resuming functionality.
6. Employee Retention
The survey also revealed that 47% of employees in the data protection sector intend to change jobs outside their organization within the next twelve months, which is higher than the 33% of employees who are pretty confident they will retain their jobs.
Caution: Losing data security experts leaves an organization vulnerable during an inevitable cyber event.
Opportunity: Organizations should recruit new talent with skills to know how to protect modern clouds and prepare against cyber events.
How does Storware address the issues identified in Veeam’s 2024 Data Protection Trends Report?
Based on Veeam’s report, here’s how Storware Backup and Recovery can address some key findings:
Cloud-powered Protection: The report highlights a surge in cloud adoption for data protection (70% by 2026). Storware, if integrated with a cloud-based backup solution, can facilitate backing up data locally with Storware and then easily replicating or tiering it to the cloud for long-term storage and disaster recovery.
Modernizing Backups (54% seeking new solutions): Storware offers features like:
Scalability: Storware scales to accommodate growing data volumes, potentially eliminating the need for an entirely new backup solution.
Efficiency: Deduplication and compression can reduce storage requirements, making backups more efficient.
Security: Integration with features like immutable backups can enhance data security against ransomware attacks, a growing concern according to the report.
Protection Gaps (27% of organizations acknowledge a gap): Storware can potentially help close this gap by:
Supporting Diverse Workloads: Backing up a wider range of data sources, including physical, virtual, and cloud-based environments.
Granular Recovery: Enabling granular restores of specific files or applications, minimizing downtime during recovery.
Conclusion
The “2024 Data Protection Trends Report” by Veeam Software provides valuable insights into the evolving data protection landscape. As cyber threats continue to escalate and the importance of data grows, organizations must prioritize robust data protection strategies.
Organizations can enhance their resilience and ensure business continuity by investing in advanced backup solutions, integrating cybersecurity features, and prioritizing disaster recovery.
About Version 2 Digital
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About Storware
Storware is a backup software producer with over 10 years of experience in the backup world. Storware Backup and Recovery is an enterprise-grade, agent-less solution that caters to various data environments. It supports virtual machines, containers, storage providers, Microsoft 365, and applications running on-premises or in the cloud. Thanks to its small footprint, seamless integration into your existing IT infrastructure, storage, or enterprise backup providers is effortless.
The Cloud Excellence Awards are presented by UK’s Computing magazine.
Austin, TX – Oct. 1, 2024—Portnox, a leading provider of cloud-native, zero trust access control solutions, today announced that its Portnox Cloud platform was recognized by Computing magazine’s 2024 Cloud Excellence Awards. Portnox Cloud was a finalist in the Cloud Security Product of the Year (Enterprise) category. Find Portnox and the complete list of finalists here.
The Cloud Excellence Awards recognize the very best of the UK’s cloud computing industry, from the most innovative and compelling products and vendors to the top use cases from the companies that use them. The cloud paradigm can enable organizations to stay up to date on security issues, respond rapidly to changing market conditions, and experiment with new ideas, products, and tools. It can also be an efficient way to set up and secure new infrastructure and platforms, or to share the management of parts of the IT estate the business would prefer not to keep in-house.
With many organizations still unsure about storing valuable data in the cloud due to security concerns, products that help set minds at ease are more important than ever. For the Enterprise Cloud Security Product of the Year category, the judges were told to consider innovation, features, and market share.
“Being shortlisted for the Cloud Excellence Awards is a testament to Portnox Cloud’s innovation and its impact on helping organizations worldwide implement unified access control across their enterprise networks, applications, and infrastructure,” said Denny LeCompte, CEO of Portnox. “We remain committed to providing the zero trust security and peace of mind companies need to operate with confidence in today’s complex threat landscape.”
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About Portnox Portnox provides simple-to-deploy, operate and maintain network access control, security and visibility solutions. Portnox software can be deployed on-premises, as a cloud-delivered service, or in hybrid mode. It is agentless and vendor-agnostic, allowing organizations to maximize their existing network and cybersecurity investments. Hundreds of enterprises around the world rely on Portnox for network visibility, cybersecurity policy enforcement and regulatory compliance. The company has been recognized for its innovations by Info Security Products Guide, Cyber Security Excellence Awards, IoT Innovator Awards, Computing Security Awards, Best of Interop ITX and Cyber Defense Magazine. Portnox has offices in the U.S., Europe and Asia. For information visit http://www.portnox.com, and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.。
Do you doubt data-driven decision-making is crucial, particularly in enterprise mobility? The answer is simple. Just as a driver relies on a GPS to navigate unfamiliar roads, businesses depend on data to guide their strategies and operations. Imagine driving without a GPS. You might take wrong turns, miss the quickest routes, or even get lost.
Just like that, businesses may struggle to make informed decisions without leveraging data, leading to inefficiencies and missed opportunities.
What is Data-Driven Decision Making?
According to a recent study [1], businesses that leverage data-driven strategies are 23 times more likely to acquire customers and 6 times as likely to retain them. This statistic highlights the role that data-driven decision-making plays in achieving success.
Making data-driven decisions can drastically increase productivity, improve security, and achieve cost efficiency in enterprise mobility. By integrating comprehensive data analytics into their strategies, businesses can simplify the complexities with greater accuracy and effectiveness.
What is Data-Driven Decision-Making?
Data-driven decision-making includes using data analytics and insights to inform and guide business decisions. This approach allows businesses to make more accurate, objective, and impactful choices.
Think of it as making decisions based on clear evidence rather than gut feelings or guesswork. Businesses can identify trends, measure performance, and predict future outcomes by analyzing data collected from various sources. This leads to more reliable and effective strategies, ensuring resources are allocated efficiently and goals are met with greater precision.
With context to enterprise mobility, data-driven decision-making is necessary for managing mobile devices, applications, and security. It helps businesses understand how their mobile resources are being used, identify potential issues, and optimize their operations for better performance and security.
All in all, data-driven decision-making provides businesses with the knowledge they need to keep up with modern enterprise mobility and effectively achieve their objectives.
Importance of Data for Decision-Making
How do you think the business world was two decades ago? Decisions were often made based on intuition, experience, and, sometimes, sheer guesswork. Leaders usually relied on their gut feelings, industry trends, and a handful of reports to drive their companies forward. It was a time when adapting to change meant taking risks without the concrete reassurance of data.
Now, let’s jump back to today, and you can see a dramatic transformation. Data-driven decision-making has become the oxygen of successful enterprises. Instead of relying solely on hunches, businesses now use the power of data analytics to gain deep insights into customer behavior and market trends. This shift has revolutionized how strategies are crafted and executed.
In the past, identifying opportunities and challenges was like hoping that you wouldn’t hit your toe in the dark. Today, data illuminates the path ahead, offering a clear view of what works and what doesn’t. Companies can now predict market demands with precision, optimize their resources effectively, and modify their offerings to meet customer expectations.
A recent study by the Centre for Economics and Business[2] found that 80% of businesses that leverage real-time data experience significant revenue growth. This statistic highlights the substantial impact that real-time data can have on a company’s financial performance.
Moreover, data-driven decisions are not just about numbers; they reflect a shift toward objective reasoning and informed choices. By analyzing vast amounts of data from diverse sources, businesses uncover hidden patterns and correlations that were once elusive. This empowers them to act swiftly and decisively, minimizing risks and maximizing opportunities in a rapidly evolving marketplace.
In short, the evolution from traditional decision-making to data-driven insights marks a profound leap forward for businesses. It’s not merely about accepting technology; it’s about having a mindset that values clarity, efficiency, and innovation.
Role of Data in Enterprise Mobility
What is enterprise mobility? Enterprise mobility refers to the trend of businesses allowing employees to work from various locations using mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops. This approach makes it feasible, flexible, and productive for employees to access corporate data and applications from anywhere, at any time.
Types of Data Used
User Behavior Data: This tracks how employees use their devices and applications, providing insights into their work habits and preferences. It also helps identify which applications are most frequently used and which ones might need improvement or support.
Device Data: This includes information about the devices being used, such as their operating system, model, location, and status. It is vital for managing device inventory, ensuring devices are up-to-date, and can identify potential security risks.
Application Performance Data: This measures how well applications are functioning, including load times, crash reports, and user feedback. It enables IT teams to optimize application performance, ensuring a smooth and efficient user experience.
How Data from Various Sources Can Be Integrated for Comprehensive Insights
Integrating data from multiple sources provides a holistic view of enterprise mobility, helping with more informed decision-making. Here’s how this can be done:
Centralized EMM Solutions: Platforms like Scalefusion aggregate data from different devices, applications, and users into a single platform. This centralization simplifies the management, security, and analysis of mobile devices and endpoints. EMM solutions encompass mobile device management (MDM), mobile application management (MAM), mobile content management (MCM), and identity and access management (IAM). They provide features like device provisioning, policy enforcement, app distribution, data encryption, remote wipe, and compliance monitoring, ensuring that enterprise mobility is secure and efficient.
Cross-Data Analysis: By correlating data from various sources, businesses can uncover patterns and trends that might not be evident when analyzing `data in isolation. For example, combining user behavior data with application performance data can highlight which applications are most critical to productivity and require more resources or support.
Real-Time Monitoring and Reporting: Real-time data integration allows for immediate insights and faster response times. Continuous monitoring of device data can quickly identify and mitigate security threats, while real-time application performance data can ensure optimal functionality and user satisfaction.
Key Data Sources in Enterprise Mobility
1. Unlocking Insights: Device Usage Analytics
Device usage analytics provide invaluable insights into how mobile devices are utilized within a business. Tracking metrics, such as device uptime, usage patterns, and application usage rates, help businesses optimize resource allocation and improve workforce productivity. For example, analyzing which applications are most frequently accessed can guide decisions on software investments and user training programs, ensuring employees have the tools they need to perform at their best.
Monitoring application performance metrics is essential for maintaining smooth and efficient operations. Metrics such as load times, crash rates, and user feedback help IT teams identify performance bottlenecks and prioritize improvements. This approach enhances user satisfaction and ensures critical business applications operate smoothly across diverse mobile platforms and environments.
3. Shielding Operations: Security and Compliance Data
Security and compliance data counts monitoring activities related to mobile device security, data protection, and regulatory compliance. This includes tracking security incidents, enforcing access controls, and looking after adherence to industry standards. By leveraging security analytics, businesses can detect and mitigate potential threats actively, safeguarding sensitive data and maintaining regulatory compliance.
Network performance data focuses on evaluating the efficiency and reliability of mobile networks supporting enterprise operations. Metrics such as bandwidth utilization, latency rates, and network availability help IT admins calculate network configurations and troubleshoot connectivity issues promptly. This management approach promises uninterrupted access to critical business applications and services, supporting mobile workforce productivity.
Data Intelligence with Scalefusion DeepDive
We talked about the importance of data-driven decision-making and its role in enterprise mobility. That is how businesses should use actionable insights derived from data to walk through complexities and drive informed decisions. While device usage analytics, application performance metrics, security, and compliance data, as well as network performance data, provide foundational insights, Scalefusion DeepDive takes this capability to the next level.
Unlocking Insights with Scalefusion DeepDive
1. Mission Control: Your Inventory at a Glance
The Mission Control section of Scalefusion DeepDive offers a snapshot of your device inventory, featuring a Platform Summary, Device Type, and License Overview. This section is designed to provide a quick yet thorough overview of your entire fleet:
Platform Summary: View a high-level overview of all managed devices across various platforms, such as Android, Windows, iOS, macOS, and Linux.
Inventory Snapshot: View detailed device information based on different operating systems.
Active vs. Inactive Devices: Easily distinguish between online, actively used devices and those that are offline or idle, helping you optimize your device management strategy.
2. Detailed Insights at Your Fingertips
DeepDive allows you to drill down into specific details to gain deeper insights into your device ecosystem:
Device Details: Explore graphical representations of OS versions, device make, and storage capacity across different platforms. It helps you understand the distribution of your devices and their available resources.
Compliance Violations: Get a visual breakdown of compliance violations, such as geofence compliance, and security incidents, like failed unlock attempts and SIM swaps.
Data and Connectivity: Track data usage, device connectivity status, and the frequency of device syncs with the Scalefusion dashboard. This ensures you have real-time visibility into your device activity and connectivity health.
3. Enterprise Store and Content Management
DeepDive also provides a detailed overview of your enterprise content and storage:
Enterprise Storage Space: Monitor the available and used space in your Enterprise Store.
Content Management Space: Keep track of the available and used content management space.
Application Details: View the number of enterprise APKs, Play for Work apps, and iOS apps uploaded to the Scalefusion dashboard, with direct links to manage these applications efficiently.
4. Geofence Compliance: Keeping It Secure
Understanding your geofence compliance is important for maintaining security and efficiency:
Geofence Summary: Get an overview of the number of geofences created and the devices that comply with them. This summary helps you ensure your workforce adheres to predefined geographic boundaries.
Geofence Compliance Details: Access detailed views of each geofence, including device statuses and logs. Get information on geofence names to review specific logs and ensure compliance.
Empower Your Business with Data-Driven Insights
Data-driven decision-making is not just a trend but a necessity in today’s competitive business world, especially in enterprise mobility. From optimizing device management to enhancing security and performance, the insights provided by Scalefusion can transform your approach to IT management.
Dive deeper into your device inventory, performance metrics, and compliance data. Start a 14-day free trial or schedule a demo with our experts today!
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About Scalefusion
Scalefusion's company DNA is built on the foundation of providing world-class customer service and making endpoint management simple and effortless for businesses globally. We prioritize the needs and feedback of our customers, making sure that they are at the forefront of all decision-making processes. We are dedicated to providing comprehensive customer support services, and place emphasis on customer-centric thinking throughout the organization.
