EXPERT OPINION be prioritised . Remote workers give rise to unwieldy hybrid environments of cloud storage , containerisation , personal devices and unvetted public networks . With an always-accurate inventory , you can at least identify weak points more easily and formulate action plans to address them .
Otherwise , you are in the dark , waiting for the inevitable breach . When you consider this scenario and the potential catastrophes it portends , you can appreciate how the phrase ‘ Shadow IT ’ was coined . It always sounded ominous , and for good reason .
Today , IT asset management is largely automated . Even at massive scale , any device that connects to the corporate network is assessed and logged , from home PCs to cloud services , software containers and IoT devices .
If it reads , creates , or updates data , you will know about it . Welcome to a world in which real-time tracking and vulnerability scanning are standard .
While we chase a galloping horizon , we should be vigilant .
Sound asset management allows you to patch more easily . Vulnerabilities are a fact of life in technology ecosystems . Dealing with them sensibly is one of the most essential jobs of today ’ s IT teams . But methodically going through every app and manually applying every available fix is impractical and counterproductive . Instead , you need to form a priority list of fixes that accounts for how easy the flaw is to exploit and how damaging the resultant penetration could be . Each business will have its own nightmare scenarios and its own critical apps and data .
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