How To

Cheap IT Security? The Tools Were There All Along

Fortunately, there are plenty of cheap tools to ensure a solid defense. Some of these tools have been in the arsenal all along, but you never knew it. (Part four in a series: How to Manage Security in a Recession)

By Bill Brenner, Senior Editor

"Organizations in hearty growth phases generally turn a blind eye towards the ability to leverage existing resources, which results in excess throughout the IT ecosystem," he says. "In times of belt tightening, technology teams should fully vet all of the ongoing IT services. This simple review will identify hardware and software that can be retired and simplify the amount of machinery that needs protecting."

He said the net effect includes:

• Reduced power bills because you are running fewer systems.
• Lower human capital costs - less systems to maintain, upgrade, and service.
• Reduced facility costs in hot/standby data centers that mimic primary data centers.
• Reduced number of software licenses that need to renewed, which means lower maintenance fees.

"Reducing the number of systems that require safeguards and controls means fewer anti-malware licenses, less patch management time, less backup space for recovery, and fewer security tokens," DeLuccia says.

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