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Masergy Adds 'Shadow IT Discovery' to SD-WAN for Finding Unauthorized SaaS Apps
Masergy has boosted its managed software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN) service by adding a Shadow IT Discovery solution to help enterprises track unauthorized applications -- often Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) apps -- on their networks.
The software-defined network and cloud platform specialist republished an article from Telecom Reseller that quoted research that found average IT leaders believed they had only 30 to 40 apps running on their network, when the actual number was more than 900. Those apps can reportedly increase security risks and increase costs.
"The proliferation of SaaS applications continues to compound each year, exposing businesses to ever-increasing cloud threats and cybersecurity vulnerabilities," Masergy said in a Jan. 14 statement. "According to one study, the average enterprise has more than 888 unauthorized SaaS applications running unbeknownst to IT departments. Furthermore, Gartner clients indicate that 'shadow IT' investments can exceed 40 percent of the formal IT spend."
In describing its Shadow IT Discovery solution that automatically scans and identifies cloud-based SaaS applications running on networks, Masergy said:
- Graphs provide a breakdown of the number of known vs. unknown apps
- Application usage analytics aid in prioritizing remediation efforts
- Risk scores classify the threat levels associated with each application
"With more than half of all enterprise workloads now running in IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS, securing enterprise access to multiple clouds is crucial," Masergy quoted Principal Research Analyst John Burke, at Nemertes Research, as saying. "Shadow IT in the form of the proliferation of unsanctioned cloud solutions cannot be ignored, and integrating shadow IT discovery into a managed SD-WAN offering, as Masergy has done, gives crucial new visibility to IT teams with minimal added effort."
More information on Shadow IT Discovery and Masergy's managed SD-WAN service can be found here.
About the Author
David Ramel is an editor and writer for Converge360.