Everything as a Service: Cybersecurity risks of outsourcing
Everything as a Service (XaaS) has taken the cybersecurity field by storm, with enterprise organizations outsourcing security and development functions to third parties, including Software as a Service, Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a Service and even Ransomware as a Service — in which cybercriminals outsource malware to organized hacking groups.
While outsourcing technologies and security may help alleviate the workload faced by information technology (IT) and security teams, XaaS can also present cybersecurity risks to enterprise organizations.
According to the Deloitte Everything as a Service (XaaS) Study, which surveyed 600 IT and business leaders responsible for XaaS usage at their large enterprise, the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly accelerated XaaS adoption: three-quarters of respondents indicated that their organization has outsourced more than half of their IT function to XaaS models.
Challenges of XaaS
When asked to rank the challenges of XaaS adoption, IT leaders at enterprise organizations that use the technology said that XaaS challenges include:
- Data security/privacy concerns (43%)
- Lack of IT staff ability to deploy XaaS (36%)
- Difficulty integrating with other systems (34%)
How XaaS can benefit businesses
Despite the above challenges, XaaS remains a valuable tool to enterprise IT teams, according to the study. Respondents ranked the following top three benefits of the model:
- Create new solutions/business models that aid in adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic (42%)
- Maintain employee productivity and engagement levels (41%)
- Reduce IT costs (37%)
Learn more about XaaS here.
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