How new network security demands are spurring 'observability' in LatAm

With the increase in automation, IoT and AI, and increasingly blurred lines between operation technologies (OT) and information technologies (IT) at companies, network and security vendors are upping their ante on so-called observability.

In network security, observability has become a buzzword, with vendors claiming it goes beyond monitoring by delving deeper into system component interactions and data collected by sensors to find the root cause of problems, thus improving threat detection and response.

US-based firm Tenable is one of the players increasing its investments in this segment, including in Latin America. The security firm claims to be a leader in the exposure management field, which encompasses observability.

“We have great business prospects. We've seen a lot of recent attacks across multiple types of verticals, but critical infrastructure in general is an area that receives a lot of attention now,” Alexandre Rodrigues, head of OT for Latin America at Tenable, told BNamericas.

IDC's 2023 Worldwide Device Vulnerability Management report ranked Tenable first in this segment for the fifth consecutive year. IDC estimated this market to be valued at over US$2.1bn in 2022, up 11.7% compared with 2021.

In April, through its Telefónica Tech arm, Telefónica announced a global contract with Tenable, which also covers Latin America, to improve its global Vulnerability Management service. Telefónica's goal is to create a solution that manages the entire attack surface of companies to anticipate threats and prevent future attacks, it said at the time.

The service is based on the Tenable One exposure management platform to identify all exposed assets in organizations by covering risks associated with IT equipment, cloud, containers, web applications and identity platforms.

According to Rodrigues, an average of 50% of enterprises' OT assets – the machinery for their business operations – are now IT. This means that half of the industrial assets are connected, automated and integrated with management, network and security systems.

Last October, Tenable closed the acquisition of cybersecurity company Ermetic, a cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) provider, to ramp up both its Tenable One Exposure Management Platform and its Tenable Cloud Security solution to assess both on-premise and cloud risks, according to the company.

Meanwhile, the company is investing in new machine learning and AI capabilities, including generative AI, to enhance its portfolio, said Rodrigues. He also noted that, despite the hype, AI will also make attacks on companies more common and more sophisticated.

In addition to Telefónica, Tenable has projects underway with other operators in the region, he said, but did not provide any further details.

Other sectors with which the company has been working in the region are the automotive, energy and steel sectors, as well as consumer goods and distribution and logistics centers, according to Rodrigues.

Worldwide, Tenable claims to have over 40,000 companies and government organizations relying on its exposure management solutions.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts-based monitoring software group Dynatrace, which is also focused on observability, is expanding its presence and sales in Latin America amid corporate cloud requirements and as enterprises seek AI-enabled software visualization platforms.

Dynatrace has been growing at around 35-40% annually in Latin America in recent years.

“Brazil, Peru, Chile and even Argentina are markets where we’ve been growing quite strongly in the region. We're hiring in Argentina to meet demand for projects from clients despite the complicated local scenario,” Roberto Carvalho, head of Brazil & Southern Latin America at Dynatrace, told BNamericas in an interview last August.

Cisco, one of the world's leading network and security equipment vendors, also has its eyes on observability, according to the company’s head for Latin America, Láercio Albuquerque.

Observability was the talk of the recent Cisco Engage event in São Paulo to mark the company's 30th anniversary in the country. “What has mainly boosted our sales and what got us here was the cybersecurity embedded in the solutions we offer," Albuquerque told journalists regarding the company's chief drivers in the country. 

In February, Cisco announced several new solutions and features in its Cisco Observability Platform, one of which is generative AI.

Customers will be able to use conversational dialogues instead of structured query language to perform common tasks during troubleshooting, thereby increasing productivity, according to the company.

"Customers increasingly want efficient and secure solutions and Cisco has the security layer built in," Albuquerque added.