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Integrating Security and Compliance Teams to Curb Modern Risks

Colin Fallwell
Sumo Logic

As the world's technology rapidly evolved and threats skyrocketed in the cloud, the need for security and compliance teams to come together to protect organizations and their customers has never been more important. Unfortunately, this hasn't happened yet.


In partnership with Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), we polled 204 technology and business leaders in North America from more than ten industry verticals to investigate this theme. The research found that most organizations recognize the importance of managing both compliance and security functions in-house. Nearly 83% of respondents said that a corporate employee was responsible for information security and 88% said that IT audit and compliance functions are also handled internally.

Yet, while most organizations run internal compliance and security teams, their status is not weighted equally. Compliance imperatives typically drive security priorities. However, organizations' combined security and compliance postures will be better served when both teams work together, and budgets and investments should reflect that equal importance.

Key takeaways from the research include:

Security and compliance ownership and budgets are splintered

Security and compliance ownership and budgets are splintered. They often operate with different teams, budgets and investment levels, but they need to work together to better protect the organization's posture instead.

■ 47% said that IT owns the security budget, while 11% noted that compliance is the security budget owner.

■ In the future, 86% of those surveyed plan to make a significant investment in compliance solutions and data privacy, while just over half (52%) will make a significant investment in a security management suite.

Compliance challenges amplified by rapidly growing IT environments

Compliance challenges are amplified by rapidly growing and global IT environments with different regulatory climates.

■ 39% of respondents said having multiple IT environments with different requirements is their primary compliance challenge.

■ 40% of organizations have postponed security projects to address regulatory compliance concerns.

■ 68% believe their regulatory compliance programs are a competitive differentiator.

■ 75% said that they are using existing tools or evaluating new tools to address data privacy.

compliance needs driving cybersecurity priorities

Organizations' compliance needs are driving cybersecurity priorities, causing teams to alter security strategies to align with requirements.

■ 67% said that data privacy regulations like GDPR, CCPA or changing data controls were their biggest compliance challenges.

■ 38% said that data security and privacy was the greatest security challenge in their organization

■ 25% stated that information security projects are dependent on compliance projects

■ 76% said that compliance has completely or significantly shifted their security strategy

Compliance and security teams must work together

Compliance and security teams must work together to best manage a mature and robust program, while maintaining numerous attestations and controls globally.

■ 89% indicated that the priorities of the security and compliance teams were aligned.

■ 85% stated that the security tools used adequately address compliance considerations.

■ 59% indicated that data privacy regulations have impacted their approach to security.

Integrated Security and Compliance Solutions

This survey also signaled the growing demand for integrated security and compliance solutions that increase visibility while mitigating emerging threats and privacy regulations. When organizations prioritize DevSecOps, they can better maintain compliance, especially as they are expected to comply with multiple standards, including PCI, HIPAA, PII, SOC and GDPR, in highly regulated industries.

It is undeniable that all organizations will benefit from incorporating a security-centric culture and fostering better collaboration between security and compliance teams. Organizations must adopt solutions that provide real-time monitoring for continuous compliance and help maintain system security.

Colin Fallwell is Field CTO of Sumo Logic

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Integrating Security and Compliance Teams to Curb Modern Risks

Colin Fallwell
Sumo Logic

As the world's technology rapidly evolved and threats skyrocketed in the cloud, the need for security and compliance teams to come together to protect organizations and their customers has never been more important. Unfortunately, this hasn't happened yet.


In partnership with Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), we polled 204 technology and business leaders in North America from more than ten industry verticals to investigate this theme. The research found that most organizations recognize the importance of managing both compliance and security functions in-house. Nearly 83% of respondents said that a corporate employee was responsible for information security and 88% said that IT audit and compliance functions are also handled internally.

Yet, while most organizations run internal compliance and security teams, their status is not weighted equally. Compliance imperatives typically drive security priorities. However, organizations' combined security and compliance postures will be better served when both teams work together, and budgets and investments should reflect that equal importance.

Key takeaways from the research include:

Security and compliance ownership and budgets are splintered

Security and compliance ownership and budgets are splintered. They often operate with different teams, budgets and investment levels, but they need to work together to better protect the organization's posture instead.

■ 47% said that IT owns the security budget, while 11% noted that compliance is the security budget owner.

■ In the future, 86% of those surveyed plan to make a significant investment in compliance solutions and data privacy, while just over half (52%) will make a significant investment in a security management suite.

Compliance challenges amplified by rapidly growing IT environments

Compliance challenges are amplified by rapidly growing and global IT environments with different regulatory climates.

■ 39% of respondents said having multiple IT environments with different requirements is their primary compliance challenge.

■ 40% of organizations have postponed security projects to address regulatory compliance concerns.

■ 68% believe their regulatory compliance programs are a competitive differentiator.

■ 75% said that they are using existing tools or evaluating new tools to address data privacy.

compliance needs driving cybersecurity priorities

Organizations' compliance needs are driving cybersecurity priorities, causing teams to alter security strategies to align with requirements.

■ 67% said that data privacy regulations like GDPR, CCPA or changing data controls were their biggest compliance challenges.

■ 38% said that data security and privacy was the greatest security challenge in their organization

■ 25% stated that information security projects are dependent on compliance projects

■ 76% said that compliance has completely or significantly shifted their security strategy

Compliance and security teams must work together

Compliance and security teams must work together to best manage a mature and robust program, while maintaining numerous attestations and controls globally.

■ 89% indicated that the priorities of the security and compliance teams were aligned.

■ 85% stated that the security tools used adequately address compliance considerations.

■ 59% indicated that data privacy regulations have impacted their approach to security.

Integrated Security and Compliance Solutions

This survey also signaled the growing demand for integrated security and compliance solutions that increase visibility while mitigating emerging threats and privacy regulations. When organizations prioritize DevSecOps, they can better maintain compliance, especially as they are expected to comply with multiple standards, including PCI, HIPAA, PII, SOC and GDPR, in highly regulated industries.

It is undeniable that all organizations will benefit from incorporating a security-centric culture and fostering better collaboration between security and compliance teams. Organizations must adopt solutions that provide real-time monitoring for continuous compliance and help maintain system security.

Colin Fallwell is Field CTO of Sumo Logic

Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

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In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

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