IT leaders raise concerns over IT security overspend

IT leaders say they are overspending on cyber security tools, a survey of 800 IT leaders from Flexera has found.

The poll reported that 31% of the IT decision-makers who took part in the survey ranked IT security tools as the top area of overspending. This represents a six-point increase from last year’s survey (25%).

Even though reducing IT security risks ranked second (28%) behind artificial intelligence (AI) in terms of priorities over the next 12 months, the findings suggest that the conversations around the inflation of security tools and difficulties in integrating separate tooling together are ongoing.

Last year, analyst IDC surveyed 503 IT decision-makers in North America looking at cloud-native application protection platforms; data security; endpoint detection and response; extended detection and response; network security; next-generation firewall; security information and event management; security service edge; and vulnerability and exposure management. The respondents had anywhere from 41 to 60 security tools in their environment, with 25% reporting 21 to 40 tools.

Beyond IT security tools, the Flexera survey found that 68% of IT leaders say business units are spending far more on cloud and software as a service (SaaS) than they are aware of.

According to those surveyed, the estimated average amount of overspending across cloud, software, SaaS and hardware is around 20-25%. When asked about their top IT spending challenges, 45% said it was controlling growth in IT spend; for 40%, the biggest challenge was tackling IT spending efficiency and avoiding waste; and 39% saw their biggest challenge as managing price hikes from their software providers. 

Flexera said the responses suggest that IT leaders desire more thorough visibility across their entire technology investment, yet are continually juggling unknowns as they seek to determine the best course of action to correct overspending and better balance their piece of the budget.

The survey results also suggest that AI is redefining IT leaders’ priorities. Almost half (48%) of the IT leaders polled put integrating AI as their top priority for the next 12 months.

“While IT leaders are facing a myriad of challenges and opportunities, artificial intelligence seems to pose the biggest potential gains in the short- and long-term,” said Conal Gallagher, chief information officer at Flexera.

“There’s an extraordinary expense required of AI projects, creating an even greater sense of urgency to not only understand the impact of the investment, but to quickly demonstrate returns that advance core business objectives,” he added.

“AI is not only disrupting and transforming IT – for example, creating more focus on compute resources and data quality – but planting the seeds to change the way we all work. It’s no surprise that IT is at the forefront of recognising and ushering in this disruption, helping to be a guiding force for their organisations.”