What it Might Look Like to ‘Disk Defrag’ Your Security & Ops

A few months ago, an internal Slack discussion about our Runecast platform user experience (UX) – between our Customer Experience Lead Jakub Prá?ek , CTO Aylin Sali , DACH and Southern Europe Sales Director Vural Aybar and me – led to points around further 'cleaning up' data visualizations and, eventually, to the idea that Runecast takes all your dirty misconfiguration, vulnerability, and non-compliance data, cleans it, and presents it to you like fresh clean data... which somehow led my mind to being able to 'disk-defrag' IT security and operations.

So what would it look like to ‘disk defrag’ your security and operations?

Centralized Automation Capabilities

Just as a disk defrag consolidates fragmented files on a hard drive to make it faster, more reliable, and more efficient, centralizing your security and operational reporting and automation capabilities offers a unified view and control over your ever-more-complex IT resources for that same end goal.

Runecast takes this approach, to enable better assessment and management, reducing the complexity of handling multiple tools and interfaces. Earlier this year, an industry analyst called Runecast "a Swiss Army Knife" and said, "You [Runecast] guys can consolidate Wiz and Qualys!" – reinforcing our own perspective of what we are doing to help IT SysAdmins, Security and Compliance teams, CISOs and CIOs.

Best Practice and Compliance Auditing

Implementing continuous compliance monitoring is akin to the automated process of identifying and rectifying fragmented files during defragmentation.

Runecast’s automated auditing continuously scans your 'fragmented' IT environment, discovering and providing remediation steps for vulnerabilities and any non-compliance issues with regulatory standards and vendor best practices. This proactive approach saves time and resources that would otherwise be spent on time-consuming – and typically reactive – manual audits.

In the ITOM realm, Runecast provides proactive checks against configuration drift, Hardware Compatibility, vendor best practices, KB articles, system logs, and more.

On the Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) side of things, Runecast scans and prioritizes vulnerabilities (as one information source, CISA's KEV Catalog is built-in) and reveals non-compliance with more than a dozen common security regulations and frameworks (such as BSI IT-Grundschutz, CIS Benchmarks, DISA STIGs, GDPR, ISO 27001, NIST, PCI DSS, and others – see full list here).

Configuration Management

Preventing drift in system configurations is crucial for maintaining security and compliance standards. Just as disk defragmentation ensures that data is organized efficiently, Runecast’s configuration management capabilities keep track of changes in your system configurations between points in time. This ensures that systems remain aligned with best practices and security standards, reducing the risk of unexpected issues.

Tailored Remediation

Much like disk defragmentation optimizes the order of data, tailored remediation scripts or automated workflows can be added to the mix to fix discovered security and operational issues. Runecast provides remediation scripts to help streamline the remediation process, optimizing the time and effort required for manual intervention – just another way to minimize potential disruptions to your IT environment.

Historical Comparisons

Similar to how disk defragging provides before-and-after snapshots for comparison of the progress made, Runecast shows changes in your IT environment for historical comparison. This historical perspective is invaluable for analyzing trends, identifying patterns, and assessing the effectiveness of security and operational measures over time. Built-in reporting options are many (Runecast is 'built by Admins for Admins', a mantra we proudly lay claim to).

Cross-Platform Integration

Ever-complex IT environments make seamless integration across various disjointed platforms essential. Just as a disk defrag optimizes data placement, Runecast’s cross-platform integration works harmoniously between the environments that it protects – including VMware, Operating Systems, Cloud, and Containers.

Rapid Deployment

Quick implementation of changes or new features is essential for keeping up with the ever-evolving IT landscape. Similar to how disk defragging improves system speed, Runecast’s rapid deployment (seriously, about 15-30 minutes to deploy and review your first scan results) ensures that your systems are always up-to-date, agile, and responsive to changing operational, security, and regulatory requirements – and a continuously changing team to run it all.

Proactive Vulnerability Identification

As a disk defrag aims to prevent future issues by optimizing data layout to reduce potential errors and inefficiencies, the Runecast platform’s proactive security measures identify and help to optimize (i.e. mitigate) risks and vulnerabilities before they can disrupt mission-critical operations, lead to non-compliance penalties, or worse. This proactive approach involves risk-based vulnerability assessment, priority reports, and remediation steps to stay ahead of threats and vulnerabilities.

Continuous Monitoring

Keeping a close eye on system health, performance metrics, and compliance posture is crucial for optimal operation. Continuous monitoring by Runecast provides near-real-time insights into your IT environment, allowing you to proactively address issues, maintain peak performance, and ensure continuous compliance.

Gone are the days of slow performance prompting us to troubleshoot what might be wrong, and Disk Defrag being on that list of manual steps to take. Enter the era of automation.

What's Next

By adopting the Runecast platform’s proactive approach to your IT operations, security, and compliance management, you can achieve greater efficiency, greatly reduced risk, and optimal security and compliance verification.

Just as disk defragging optimizes a hard drive for better performance, leveraging Runecast for optimizing your security and operational processes ensures that your IT environment operates efficiently and effectively, minimizing risks and maximizing productivity (our customers regularly report between 75-90% time savings in the areas of troubleshooting, upgrade planning, and preparing for audits).

For a more streamlined, secure, and compliant IT infrastructure, ‘disk defrag’ your security and operations with Runecast.