Last updated at Thu, 11 Jan 2018 15:18:34 GMT

We know how difficult it can be to get the full value from security products — especially when many don’t connect with others easily. Some products take too long to fully configure; others suffer from feature bloat, making them difficult to use; and some, sadly get forgotten, simply collecting dust on the shelf.

Here’s how to better utilize each security tool you already have so you can maximize that investment and get more done, faster.

Make a Plan

Before you get started, take a moment to define the goals your security tools must achieve to better your company’s security posture. In this post we offer a framework to do so. In short, your goals should be specific and have clear and measurable outcomes.

Once you have identified your goals:

  • Map your goals to the appropriate tech solution(s) — whether you have them or not
  • Pinpoint the gaps in coverage that are preventing you from reaching your goals
  • Weed out the tools that no longer serve you in reaching these goals

This exercise will ensure your security toolbox is as valuable and useful as possible.

Now is also a great time to assign ownership for each tool. This ensures that there is someone explicitly responsibility for overseeing each one — from monitoring activity to updating and configuring it.

From here, the owner(s) should make a clear plan for each tool’s implementation and maintenance to be sure they’re used to their fullest potential. In this plan you should address:

  • What development resources are required to implement and maintain each tool?
  • Do they need to be configured and tuned on a regular basis?
  • Are there any integrations with other tools that need to take place?

With the foundation set, you can start to optimize your tools in a more holistic way.

Orchestrate and Automate

Many security tasks are quite tedious. Whether it’s configuring your security monitoring tool’s alerts or sending a notification message to Slack, much of these tasks become overwhelming to manage.

Often to gain the most value from a tool, you need to connect it with other tools so that they can talk to each other to correlate data, provide insight into security events, and aid in the incident response process.

This is where the power of integration that orchestration and automation enable comes in. Security orchestration connects all of your security tools in one place, bridging the gap between each tool, and security automation streamlines workflows between your tools, enabling measurable operational efficiencies. This means time saved (up to 83%!), and ultimately, money saved, too.

Using a security orchestration and automation platform gives you a command center with powerful machine-to-machine automation. Komand takes care of tedious tasks like alert investigations and tool integrations so that security teams can be sure they’re extracting the full value from each tool — and without any coding required.

And not only do orchestration and automation maximize the value of your tools, it also maximizes the output of your security team by automating the most tedious security tasks so their valuable time can be spent focusing on strategic work like detailed analysis and incident response.

Bridging the Gap Between Security Tools

You’ve heard the saying, “greater than the sum of its parts” and this couldn’t be more true when it comes to security tools. The real value in any security tool is in how it contributes to the greater security strategy and posture.

By connecting your tools and creating workflows in a platform like Komand, you can ensure nothing falls through the cracks and that your security tools are working for you to their fullest potential.

If you're ready to get started with security orchestration and automation, we have a free resource just for you, grab it for free here.