Shadow IT Series: How to Make it Work For You

IT departments are not fond of shadow IT. It causes security problems and creates weaknesses that security professionals are unaware of, and therefore cannot protect. We’ve discussed what shadow IT is and why it happens, and we’ve talked about how to assess threat levels and potential value of downloaded apps and services. Now it’s time to discuss how to make shadow IT work for your business.

Unfortunately, in today’s world of highly consumerized technology and cloud innovations, users are more and more comfortable with downloading apps and services to help them do their job at work. The only way to truly prevent it is to ensure that you have the proper systems and tools in place to ensure they don’t go looking for something else.

If you find out that an employee has turned to the shadow, you first need to find out why, but it is incredibly important that you set up a pilot IT program. As referenced in the previous article, pilot IT is when you allow employees to introduce tools into your ecosystem in a transparent way. Transparency allows you to know when employees are looking for something, and then give them options to try before committing to a vendor. Your employees will tell you what works and what doesn’t.

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Originally published at https://www.pwvconsultants.com on September 14, 2020.