Chris Steffen joins the EAE podcast to discuss how automation teams can collaborate with security teams to maintain a secure, resilient environment.
Enterprise automation is expected to orchestrate critical processes 24x7x365. Automation teams must address risks from infrastructure failures and security vulnerabilities in their tools and environments.
Key Ideas
- Automation systems carry high risk due to their critical role and extensive integrations across business, analytics, and operations.
- Cloud and SaaS foundations still require automation teams to understand configurations for reliability.
- Business-critical automation systems often demand 99.999% availability ("five nines").
- Risk assessment is the first step to address cybersecurity, examining implementation, integrations, operations, and access controls.
- Limiting access privileges and eliminating unused accounts reduces vulnerability.
- Changes to systems can impact availability and security, requiring careful change management proportional to risks.
- Security teams and automation teams share the goal of a reliable, resilient environment.
Takeaways for Automation Leaders
- Regularly assess risks from human error, software defects, and third-party failures. Test updates in non-production environments before rollout.
- Build relationships with security teams to prioritize risks and improve team knowledge.
- Audit access management to identify and limit unused or excessive privileges.
- Review change processes for automations, software, and infrastructure to identify mitigations for significant risks.
Founded in 1996, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) is a leading industry analyst firm that provides deep insight across the full spectrum of IT and data management technologies. EMA analysts leverage a unique combination of practical experience, insight into industry best practices, and in-depth knowledge of current and planned vendor solutions to help their clients achieve their goals. Learn more about EMA research, analysis, and consulting services for enterprise line of business users, IT professionals and IT vendors at www.enterprisemanagement.com.
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