Automation-Enabled Managed IT Services

Managed IT services prove significantly helpful for companies with an extensive IT setup and a complex IT environment spread across multiple geographies. While reducing costs, they can help streamline IT operations and help companies achieve IT excellence. But over the years, managed IT services have evolved, embracing automation.

So, how do automation-enabled managed IT services benefit companies? CMS IT Services, one of the leading names in IT process automation and business process automation solutions, explores five advantages.

IT Process Automation – What is it?

As the name suggests, IT process automation involves automating IT-related operations to address a particular business situation or operational need. Automated IT-managed services enable companies to streamline workflows, expedite processes, reduce manual tasks, and eliminate delays that cost companies time and money.

5 Benefits of Automation-Enabled Managed IT Services

From pecuniary advantages to increased productivity, automation-enabled managed IT services, when leveraged appropriately through an IT and business process automation company, can benefit in the following ways.

Lowered IT Costs

Automation in managed IT services can help companies do more in lesser effort and time. Thus, it helps them deliver better value to their clients. Additionally, companies do not have to employ professionals to manage their IT environment. Automation handles many routine tasks, thus enabling companies to save a lot of costs otherwise spent in nurturing full-time or contractual resources.

Increased Productivity

Increased productivity is one of the most significant and earliest advantages of IT process automation. Automation expedites many tasks, which can take time when handled manually. Besides, when many tasks are automated, companies can have their professionals and experts focus on the more strategic aspects of IT and add more value to the vertical through better and more specific strategies.

Reduced Human Error Risk

To error is human. Often, manually handled tasks result in errors, which cost companies time and money. But IT or business process automation is programmed to perform tasks based on agreed workflows that lead to the optimal value for the company. Thus, the chances of errors are almost eliminated from the system.

Better Control over IT Operations

It is a myth that automation takes over the control of your IT department and leaves you with little or no control over operations. On the contrary, automation operates the way you want it to. You can add human checkpoints across various workflow points if you want to while automating your IT processes. You can receive valuable insights across these checkpoints, thus paving the way to making more informed decisions. Thus, while automating processes, you can exercise complete control and reap the expected results.

Improved Proactivity

Proactivity holds immense value in the contemporary context, where potential down waves could hurt your environment. Automation fosters proactivity, which in turn helps companies prepare for unforeseen situations serious enough to cause severe damage. Instances like outages, staff changes, etc., can be correctly addressed through service automation. Although you cannot rule out situations like outages or breakdowns, automation helps you prepare for and prevent them significantly.

Partner with CMS IT Services should you be looking for custom IT process automation or business process automation solutions. Our unparalleled expertise and extensive experience in IT managed service help you leverage factors like automation optimally. We review your needs carefully and invest considerable thought, time, and effort in crafting IT or business process automation solutions specific to your needs.

Please email us at inquiry@cmsitservices.com to learn more about our IT process automation and business process automation solutions.

May 27, 2023June 15, 2023 admin Blog, IT

Use Observability to Improve IT Operations

The contemporary IT environment and operations are a set of several intricate and intertwined applications, systems, and processes. Managing them and fostering continuous improvements requires companies to adopt the right measures and adhere to practices that help them achieve their IT objectives. Observability has emerged to be one. It can benefit companies significantly by helping them enhance their IT operations.

But what is observability and how can it improve IT operations? While understanding the concept, CMS IT Services, an expert in hybrid IT operations and business process automation, overviews some ways in which observability can benefit IT environments.

What is Observability?

Observability involves measuring the internal state of a system or application through the assessment of data collected through them. It helps deliver better performance and stability insights that pave the way to proactive detection and resolving issues in a highly complex contemporary environment.

Now, is observability similar to conventional monitoring? No. Observability could be termed a step ahead of its traditional counterparts. While gathering data, observability also helps analyze it and helps companies drive practically useful insights.

For modern IT operations that rely heavily on data and insights for better functioning, observability proves very useful. Accordingly, observability and IT operations have been closely associated. Let’s look at how observability and help enhance IT operations.

4 Ways Observability is Key to Improving IT Operations

As experts in hybrid IT operations and business process automation, we believe, seamless IT operations require a proactive approach, rather than a reactive one. Observability is part of a company’s proactive mechanisms that keep a constant watch on its IT environment and analyze data to run it smoothly. These four ways make it evident why observability should form an essential part of modern IT operations.

Proactive Issue Detection: Issues could swell and become sore if not addressed in time. It is even better if you detect them proactively and resolve much before they surface. Observability helps you identify trends and understand system behavior, thus enabling you to detect issues before they hit.
Actionable Insights: Often, companies look to improve their IT operations. But they lack real-time visibility into the system. They do not know where to start and how to go about it. While gathering data, Observability analyzes it, and helps companies get a clear picture of the areas that require improvement.
Continuous Infrastructure Monitoring: Monitoring your infrastructure constantly through observability enables you to reduce mean time to identify and remediate issues, optimize resource use, and detect cloud latency issues.
Increased Security: Developing apps designed to be observed allows DevSecOps teams to use the insights acquired to automate testing and CI/CD processes.

Improving Hybrid IT Operations and Business Process Automation Efficiency and Effectiveness with Observability

Observability is known to foster collaborations if you create efficient and effective operational processes. It doesn’t work in isolation. Observability serves purposes like monitoring or incident investigations. Integrating centralized log management solutions with advanced ticketing platforms can help build business process automation that helps improve operational processes to detect, examine and solve issues quicker.

Leverage Observability with Hybrid IT Operations Experts!

Achieving IT excellence via flawless functioning isn’t a myth but a reality. You can leverage phenomena like observability to accomplish your IT goals.

CMS IT Services, leading hybrid IT operation and business process automation experts, can help you. Our highly customized and compliant IT services help you optimize observability and help you gain actionable insights. Our experts help you drive improvement across critical areas of your IT environment and keep it perpetually in the best of its health. Click to contact us to learn more about our IT services.

May 19, 2023May 31, 2023 admin Artificial Intelligence

The Role Of Artificial Intelligence

The results of Red Teaming were promising for Advanced Defence Systems. ADS had vastly improved their defensive posture.

But in Nilay’s (CEO of ADS) mind, advanced cyber security was not just necessary to maintain the defensive posture of the firm, it was necessary to gain competitive advantage in the marketplace. He turned to Seema, ADS CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) on what could be done next.

Seema suggested deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) in security operations centre (SOC) to transform the way they could thwart cyber threats. She explained to Nilay that;

AI has the potential to help automate many of the processes involved in security operations.
AI in SOC would use machine learning (ML) algorithms to “analyze” vast amounts of data and detect anomalies that may indicate a cyber threat.
It can carry out vulnerability assessment (VA) and detect threats in real time, providing SOC analysts with the information they need to respond quickly and effectively to mitigate the impact of a security incident.

Over time, ADS began to implement a range of AI-powered solutions in their SOC. They used machine learning algorithms and leveraged natural language processing (NLP) to better understand the content of emails and other communications.

The results that started coming in immediately post implementation were not fully accurate. There were some false positives and false negatives that needed to be addressed.

But Seema was sure that the AI package they had deployed in their SOC would start using ML algorithms to analyse vast amounts of data to detect anomalies that may indicate a cyber-attack. In a few months’ time ADS started reaping the benefits of their latest cyber defence intervention. AI helped them detect threats in real time, providing SOC analysts with the information they need to respond quickly and effectively to mitigate the impact of a security incident.

As time progressed, the AI solution in ADS’ SOC was able to learn from past incidents and improve its accuracy. ADS’ SOC had thus become more effective at detecting and preventing attacks as time went on.

Nilay was happy on two fronts – his organisation’s defensive posture was state-of-the-art. This helped them develop defence technologies under the shroud of secrecy they wanted. Secondly, a strong cyber defense posture provided huge competitive advantage to ADS in the marketplace. The trust that their customers placed in them far outranked ADS’ competitors. ADS had to spend much less time dealing with attacks, therefore they could focus more on their business & customers.

What are you focused on? Customers, or cyber defence?

If you have queries related to 𝘾𝙮𝙗𝙚𝙧 𝙎𝙚𝙘𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙮, reach out to our in-house Cyber Security experts. They are happy to hear from you info@cmsitservices.com. You could also reach out to us on our website https://www.cmsitservices.com/contact-us/.

May 2, 2023May 31, 2023 admin Blog, Security

Next Generation Security Operations Centre – 10 primary components

The Security Operations Centre (SOC) is an essential part of an organization’s cybersecurity strategy. As cyber threats continue to evolve, the SOC must also evolve to keep pace with these changes.

Here are ten characteristics of the next generation SOC:

Real-time threat detection: The next generation SOC must be able to detect threats in real-time to respond quickly to cyber incidents.
Automation and orchestration: The SOC should leverage automation and orchestration to streamline its operations, allowing analysts to focus on high-level tasks.
Integration with other security technologies: The next generation SOC should integrate with other security technologies such as endpoint protection, firewalls, and threat intelligence platforms to provide a more comprehensive defense.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: AI and ML can help automate routine tasks, identify patterns, and improve the accuracy and speed of threat detection.
Cloud-native: The next generation SOC should be cloud-native, allowing for better scalability and flexibility.
Integrated Incident Response: The SOC should have an integrated incident response plan, enabling analysts to respond to security incidents quickly and effectively.
DevSecOps: The next generation SOC should embrace DevSecOps practices, ensuring that security is integrated throughout the development process.
Proactive threat hunting: The SOC should proactively search for threats, rather than just responding to alerts, to identify potential threats before they become an issue.
User and Entity Behavior Analytics: The SOC should use analytics to understand user and entity behavior, identifying abnormal activity that may indicate a security breach.
Continuous improvement: The next generation SOC must be committed to continuous improvement, regularly evaluating its performance, and making changes to improve its effectiveness.

In summary, the next generation SOC should be agile, automated, and integrated with other security technologies. It should leverage AI and ML to improve threat detection and have an integrated incident response plan. The SOC should be cloud-native and embrace DevSecOps practices, proactively search for threats, use analytics to understand user and entity behavior, and be committed to continuous improvement.

April 25, 2023May 19, 2023 admin Cyber Security

Red Teaming – Creating A Response To Attacks, Creating A Prevention Layer

Nilay, the CEO of Advanced Defence Systems, a defence products manufacturing firm prided himself on two things. The technologically advanced defence products they were manufacturing for Indian armed forces, and the cybersecurity measures they had in place to protect their own systems – firewalls, antivirus software, data protection, just to name a few. To ensure that they stay ahead of the curve, ADS had hired external consultants to conduct regular penetration tests to ensure they had data security.

ADS’s products were gaining market share. Their continued success, however, brought its own challenges. When everything appeared hunky dory, Seema Singh, ADS’ CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) reported to Nilay a major data breach that compromised the database security, endpoint security and posed other cyber threats.

Anyone could have been their adversary – venomous terrorists, malicious subversives, agenda-chasing political criminals, surreptitious state-backed foreign intelligence services, curious computer hackers, evil commercial competitors, dishonest insiders, disgruntled staff, trusted but careless business partners, or rogue administrators.

Nilay knew that he could not allow this to be repeated. In a review of their defensive posture with Seema, She suggested that it was time to go for Red teaming – a simulated cyber-attack, designed to test an organization’s security defenses to identify vulnerabilities that an attacker could exploit to gain unauthorized access to an organization’s systems or data. Nilay made up his mind and wanted to give it a try. Seema brought together a team of ethical hackers and other IT professionals.

The team proposed its plan. It involved the following important steps:

Planning and Scoping: The first step in red teaming was to define the scope of the exercise and plan the attack. This involved identifying the assets that need to be protected and developing a strategy for the attack.
Reconnaissance: They conducted reconnaissance to gather information about the organization’s systems and networks. This involved scanning for vulnerabilities and identifying potential targets.
Weaponization: Once the reconnaissance was completed, the red team developed the attack tools and techniques that will be used to exploit vulnerabilities in the organization’s defenses.
Delivery: The red team delivered the attack. They used social engineering techniques to gain access to the organization’s systems or networks.
Exploitation: The red team exploited vulnerabilities in the organization to gain access to sensitive data and systems.
Post-Exploitation: Now the red team just had to maintain access to the organization’s systems and networks – installed backdoor and other malicious software.
Reporting: The red team documented the results and provided a report to the management. It had recommendations for improving the organization’s security defenses.

By simulating a real-world cyber-attack, ADS was able to identify weaknesses that could be exploited by real-world attackers. Technology is not static. It keeps on evolving. As defensive postures evolve, so do attacks and attackers.

Nilay agreed with Seema’s suggestion to carry our red teaming regularly and stay ahead of the curve by maintaining effectiveness of ADS’ security defences and keeping them state of the art.

How about you? Is your cyber defence up to date?

Previous page 1 … 14 15 16 17 18 … 23 Next page

IT Infrastructure Services in Bangalore, India

Author Archives: admin