Shadow IT has been a growing concern, primarily due to more work-from-home and hybrid setups. Unauthorized program use — including messaging or productivity apps — is sometimes benign, but they can create security gaps if teams haven’t discovered their use. Software asset management (SAM) simplifies shadow IT identification and makes workplaces safer.
What Is Software Asset Management (SAM) and Its Role?
SAM programs streamline software oversight. They track licenses and subscriptions, reveal installations, and monitor users. A SAM may collect analytics to guide stakeholders and analysts on the usefulness of their digital infrastructure. It can also reveal security gaps or piracy as the application discovers programs the company didn’t know existed.
This technology’s role in an organization is to phase out unsafe and inefficient tools. It should also continually safeguard and monitor applications with the most value. These functionalities improve the ability to comply with cybersecurity standards. In turn, businesses will receive fewer fines and unexpected audits from vendors if implemented correctly.
Some SAM suites also monitor data centers, cloud environments and on-site servers for even more comprehensive cybersecurity. The visibility means every program and contract is categorized and reviewed for its cost-effectiveness, safety, and compliance.
How Can SAM Implementation Combat Shadow IT?
Brands have hefty tech stacks, with some using as many as 110 software-as-a-service applications in addition to shadow IT. SAM impacts it most in these distinct ways.
1. Discover Workflow Problems
Many employees install unapproved software because they want greater convenience. The existing proprietary solution may be cumbersome. Therefore, staff assume responsibility for catering to their work styles. An official change would have to go through administrative hurdles, taking months to implement if it was justifiable financially.
SAM can notice what types of shadow IT are most prevalent, such as task management plug-ins or digital storage tools. Spotting these trends as they arise can instigate internal changes or updates to systems to fix people’s pain points.
2. Increase Transparency and Accountability
IT teams must advertise they use SAM to their colleagues. The expanded awareness establishes a culture of transparency and acts as social accountability. If the workforce knows the SAM is looking out for shadow IT, they may be less likely to use them. Defensive experts will have to field fewer surprise installations for security compromises.
This benefit extends beyond internal visibility. Boosted oversight benefits governance and auditing agencies so enterprises can stay on top of updates and vulnerabilities. SAM programs can notify workers when these actions are necessary. The organization’s SAM usage eases reporting burdens because infractions may be less frequent.
3. Embrace Automation
Manual investigations into shadow IT monopolize analysts’ time. This energy is more useful when directed to triaging threats or implementing new defensive strategies. Automated detection expedites discovery to let experts intervene more rapidly if the shadow IT poses a threat.
4. Find Redundant Expenses
The SAM lists every license and expense related to corporate software. The inventory could reveal multiple applications that serve the same purpose, but the company is paying for all of them. It could also highlight the most expensive and underutilized investments. Even schools are deploying SAM to student-issued devices to protect over $22 million in IT resources across 20 districts.
Workers in small businesses may feel encouraged to find free or low-cost shadow IT. Their employer may lack the funds to invest in internal solutions. Finding what freeware people are using is helpful because leaders may want to invest in a safer, more robust alternative with a higher cost-benefit analysis.
5. Enhances Cybersecurity
Boosted digital defenses are arguably the most powerful reason to adopt SAM. Unknown vendors could stop supporting an application or ignore current regulatory standards.
Recent analyses verify how many IT resources need additional supervision. Around 28% of IT assets of 1.2 million observed failed to have at least one essential defensive control, like patching security concerns as new threats become prominent. Additionally, 6% of these tools are reaching their end-of-life. SAM could mend these awareness gaps by informing teams what user protections are necessary, especially in shadow IT.
The Shadow IT-SAM Connection
Shadow IT may be well-intended, but it is a deceptively pervasive problem for cybersecurity and IT teams. Combating this pattern requires corporations to use tools like SAM programs to find workflow inefficiencies, protect data and automate labor-intensive tasks. Brands should seek reliable vendors and additional security practices to learn more about how to fight against harmful shadow IT.
As the Features Editor at ReHack, Zac Amos writes about cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and other tech topics. He is a frequent contributor to Brilliance Security Magazine.
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