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Some Concepts
OPX is our abbreviation for Operational Excellence. We contend that a well maintained operating environment is inherently protected against the vast majority of security risks. The converse is also true; poor controls will compromise security. The impact of this will be felt well beyond the traditional concepts of security. The absence of good controls affects uptime, availability, scalability, and flexibility. It is our contention that security and operational excellence are not different experiences, just different views on the same set of data.
Current networks are a vast array of dependencies along several different geometries (devices, networks, operating systems, applications, and users). Though it is widely accepted that network computing is an ecosystem, contemporary practices do not enable management or control of ecosystem complexities. Current practice relies on tools that focus on "select species" or network strata within the environment and ignoring the interdependencies inherent in the system. When operating correctly, the computing ecosystem is fluid, with users, applications, and technical components changing at all times. To improve the likelihood that this ecosystem will operate in harmony, all relationships must be understood.
A single device has many different areas that can affect the security and operations of the device and more importantly, the equilibrium of the overall network computing ecosystem. A device will include hardware, operating system, applications, services, accounts, and users. Each of these has security implications that can change at any time. Each attribute, if incorrectly altered, can impinge on the operational and security posture of the entire organization.
Managing what you know is easy; the big question is, "What don't you know?" Perhaps the most challenging aspect of today's corporate IT operating environment is the rate of change experienced on enterprise networks. The rate and volume of device adds, moves, and changes makes maintaining the integrity of the network and the security of the enterprise a daunting task. Good security and effective operations start with a solid understanding of what devices are actually operating on your network. Having tight controls and procedures on 100% of known devices is not good enough.
Unauthorized devices and configurations exist on your network; you just don't know about them. They don't conform to your technology standards. Their presence may not be malicious but they will reduce your security posture. These devices are likely to have un-patched operating systems, no anti-viral protection, and run services that fall outside the prudent operating guidelines you established for the enterprise. In short, it's what you don't know that will really hurt.
OPX is predicated on a multi-dimensional asset inventory. It allows you to know everything about all devices operating on your network - every characteristic, configuration, and possible attribute. OPX is designed to tell you what you do not know on all dimensions. By operating in context, risk is reduced and efficiency is increased.
OPX is a meaning making capability. OPX automatically "connects the dots;" the IT team is not forced into expensive configuration, programming, or manual data loads. Automated collection and correlation allows OPX to quickly spot instrumentation shortfalls - telling you where the gaps are. Turning data into information with context makes resources highly efficient and effective. The yields are measurable. Simply connect OPX to all of your existing tools and let it run. OPX will then begin telling you what you do not know... The result is "time to value" in days not months.
Many tools operate on yesterday's news or a real time subset of the entire network ecosystem. OPX provides state at any particular moment, a concept we call All Time, across all network citizens and addresses. State may (and likely will) change across the day, but OPX ensures that its information always carries the dimensionality, fluidity, and context to be actionable.
Though security is the initial target for OPX, other business functions quickly find themselves leveraging the power of OPX.
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