The benefits of Configuration Management for UK SMBs and public sector organisations

In today's digital landscape, businesses and public sector organisations in the UK face increasing pressure to ensure their IT systems are secure and compliant with various regulations. Configuration management is a powerful tool that can help achieve these goals. But what exactly is configuration management?

Configuration management is the process of systematically managing and maintaining the settings of IT systems. This includes everything from servers and networks to software applications. By ensuring that these configurations are consistent and up-to-date, organisations can significantly enhance their security, comply with regulations, and even reduce their cyber insurance premiums.

Owtanet have deployed, configured and maintained configuration management solutions for our clients across the UK and Europe in environments ranging from retail to warehousing, on-premises and in the cloud. In the process we’ve passed numerous audits and saved significant amounts of money, and labour, in the process.

Compliance Benefits

Compliance is a major concern for businesses and public sector organisations alike. In the UK, organisations must adhere to a variety of regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Network and Information Systems (NIS) Regulations, and industry-specific standards.

Configuration management helps organisations meet these compliance requirements by ensuring that systems are configured according to established security standards and best practices. For example, GDPR requires organisations to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data. Configuration management can help by ensuring that security settings are consistently applied across all systems, reducing the risk of data breaches.

In the public sector, compliance requirements are often even more stringent. Government agencies and public sector organizations must adhere to guidelines set by bodies such as the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). Configuration management can help these organisations demonstrate compliance by providing a clear audit trail of system configurations and changes.

Security Benefits

Security is a top priority for any organisation, but it's especially critical for SMBs and public sector organizations that often handle sensitive data as they often lack of the budgets for dedicated cyber security staff. Configuration management plays a crucial role in enhancing security by ensuring that systems are configured securely and consistently.

One of the key security benefits of configuration management is the reduction of vulnerabilities. Misconfigured systems are a common cause of security breaches. By using configuration management tools, organisations can ensure that all systems are configured according to security best practices, reducing the risk of vulnerabilities being exploited by attackers.

Moreover, configuration management helps organisations respond quickly to security threats. When a new vulnerability is discovered, configuration management tools can be used to quickly update configurations across all systems, ensuring that they are protected against the latest threats.

Cyber Insurance Benefits

Cyber insurance is becoming increasingly important for businesses of all sizes. However, obtaining cyber insurance and keeping premiums low often requires demonstrating robust security measures. Configuration management can play a key role in this.

Insurance providers are increasingly looking for evidence that organisations have implemented strong security controls. Configuration management provides this evidence by ensuring that systems are consistently configured in accordance with security best practices. This can help organisations qualify for cyber insurance policies and may even lead to lower premiums.

Furthermore, in the event of a security incident, having a robust configuration management process in place can help organisations demonstrate that they have taken reasonable steps to protect their systems. This can be crucial in the event of a claim, as insurance providers are more likely to pay out if they can see that the organisation has implemented strong security measures.

Efficiency and Cost Savings

In addition to the security and compliance benefits, configuration management can also lead to significant efficiency gains and cost savings. By automating the configuration and maintenance of IT systems, organisations can reduce the time and effort required to manage their IT infrastructure.

This automation not only saves time but also reduces the risk of human error. Misconfigurations are a common cause of IT issues, and they can be costly to fix. By using configuration management tools, organisations can ensure that configurations are applied consistently and accurately, reducing the risk of errors and the associated costs.

Moreover, configuration management can help organisations scale their IT operations more efficiently. As organisations grow, managing IT systems manually becomes increasingly complex and time-consuming. Configuration management tools allow organisations to manage large numbers of systems efficiently, making it easier to scale operations without increasing IT staff.

How we use it

We use configuration management day-in-day-out with almost all of our customers, and we’ve turned our knowledge and experience into a product - Bunraku - which is a prebuilt Puppet and Foreman AWS instance to get you up and running quickly. We also sell consultancy on implementing it if you’ve got some great ideas but are not sure how to get started.

Here’s a couple of great ways Owtanet has helped our customers:

Implementing configuration management with Puppet transformed our approach to help a customer of ours with a very busy contact centre obtain their PCI DSS compliance. By ensuring consistent configurations across all our systems, we were able to satisfy the audit team that each of the roughly 60 stations was configured with the same controls. The robust reporting in Foreman allowed us to quickly generate comprehensive compliance dashboards and reports. We were able to make the audits smoother, quicker and more efficient. This not only saved time and cost in the audit process but it reduced the disruption to the team during the audit.

One of our customers accidentally let an an TLS certificate expire that was used on their entire UK-wide estate of approximately 500 tills. They reached out for support as we used configuration management to maintain the tills. They faced the daunting task of updating hundreds of till computers manually, but our Puppet configuration management came to our rescue by enabling us to roll out the new TLS root certificate swiftly and uniformly. The ability to manage and push configurations remotely ensured that almost every system was updated without the need for manual intervention and the Foreman reporting dashboard showed the few machines that needed more manual intervention. Within a few hours, everything was back up and running, and not a single engineer had had to go out in a van to manually intervene.

Conclusion

In conclusion, configuration management offers a range of benefits for UK businesses in the SMB and public sector. From enhancing security and ensuring compliance with regulations to reducing cyber insurance premiums and improving operational efficiency, the advantages are clear.

For organisations looking to improve their security posture, meet compliance requirements, and reduce costs, implementing a robust configuration management process is a smart investment. By taking a proactive approach to managing IT configurations, organisations can protect their systems, their data, and their reputation, while also positioning themselves for future growth and success.