Skyrocketing inflation and recession fears currently roiling the economy tend to make the headlines in stark personal terms; we hear about the rising costs for consumers at the gas pump, at the grocery store, at restaurants, and for airline tickets. Just as significant, but much more complex, are the impacts on enterprises as they struggle to adjust to lean budget scenarios and shifting demand for their products. 

Companies that lived through the 2008 financial crisis already know what it’s like to suffer through deep budget cuts and sinking demand. More recently came the tremendously disruptive early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizations that survived it all have become painfully familiar with the need to rationalize investments, cope with insufficient staff resources, and adjust to unanticipated shifts in demand and supply because of the economic upheaval.

While not as drastic, some of these pressures are now returning with the rise of inflation and the prospect of a recession. Fortunately, the growing sophistication of cyber asset management capabilities is providing companies with new muscle to weather the economic shocks. In particular, let’s look at four key cyber asset management strategies that can help enterprises cope, and even thrive, amid today’s tough economic conditions.

• Discovery and rationalization to limit and prioritize IT investments:  A robust discovery process as part of the cyber asset management playbook can help rationalize which systems are highly important and interconnected with other business functions and which are not. This process will also help weed out costly redundant systems, or software that may be nearing end-of-life and should be dropped to avoid unnecessary licensing costs and support gaps.

• Provisioning flexibility: Especially in cases where the pandemic forced companies to modernize quickly, and the fast track for doing so involved one-stop-shopping with major service providers, organizations that mature their cyber asset management capabilities are in a position to revisit those monolithic contracts and find cost-effective alternatives. The more you have asset visibility and control at the granular level, the more self-sufficient you become in choosing from a wider range of cost-efficient provisioning partners and customizing those services to your enterprise needs.

• Enhanced automation: Inflation is hitting on top of the ongoing Great Resignation. With both money and human capital now in short supply, automation has become more critical than ever. Automation supported by strong cyber asset management protocols around data standards and asset tagging is more easily federated and scaled up in the enterprise. This allows for significant cost saving automation around workflows, processes, data security, compliance reporting, and more.

• Supply chain resilience: By definition, inflation is when demand outpaces supply, so supply chain integrity is an obvious way to help restore the balance. Cyber asset management can help here. Granular asset management can support enhanced visibility, operational modeling, and traceability across supply chain networks. Such modernization steps are only possible if cyber assets are configured correctly and securely.  

These four cyber asset management strategies will go a surprisingly long way toward shoring up recession resilience. And as I shared in a previous article, there are cybersecurity benefits throughout – protections that become even more critical as attack surfaces and threats continue to expand, even if corporate budgets do not. Every breach and every loss are cutting into margins that are already thinner because of inflation and recession.

So, the upshot for enterprises is clear: When it comes to the current rise of inflation and the specter of recession, cyber asset management can give the critical advantage for businesses especially in times when the economy is struggling.