At its most fundamental level, the objective of network security is a simple one. Organizations need to protect their people, assets, and the data that travels across and resides within their networks. They do this by setting security policies that detail parameters like who or what is allowed to access which resources.

Over time, even small organizations can accumulate large libraries of security policies across a variety of different security products. The old processes used to create, update and audit these policies become a burden for the IT team and cause a number of problems for the organization.

Research firm Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) recently surveyed 200 IT and cybersecurity decision-makers to understand their views on network security complexity and its consequences. They examine some of the top challenges facing these organizations today in their new report