Versa study finds gap in network-security convergence

Versa has published a study highlighting a gap between enterprise plans to unify networking and security and the number that have actually done so. The survey found that 99% of senior leaders treat convergence as a strategic priority, but only 30% have implemented shared ownership.

The report is based on a survey of 525 senior IT and security decision-makers at US organisations with 1,000 or more employees. It examined how companies manage fragmented networking and security environments and the impact on costs, project delivery and cyber risk.

Among the findings, 35% of organisations said they had suffered a security breach in the past year linked to gaps between security and networking teams. Another 53% reported higher operational costs from redundant tools, while 73% said a critical project had been delayed or derailed by integration complexity.

Versa described these issues as a complexity tax across large organisations. The survey also found that 47% of respondents saw increased security risk from inconsistent policy enforcement, 45% reported delayed rollouts of new applications or services, and 36% reported slower threat detection or response times.

Vendor sprawl

The research points to a link between larger supplier estates and weaker outcomes. Organisations managing 50 or more vendors were nearly twice as likely to report delayed application rollouts as those with the leanest technology stacks, at 61% compared with 34%.

They were also more likely to report inconsistent policy enforcement, at 57% versus 40%. The figures suggest that a fragmented supplier base can contribute to both operational delays and security concerns.

Artificial intelligence emerged as a central pressure on these teams. According to the survey, 95% of leaders said AI is forcing networking and security teams to work more closely together.

One C-level executive surveyed for the report said AI projects are reshaping the boundary between technical performance and risk management. "AI tools require massive data access, cloud connectivity, APIs, and model integrations, which blur the line between network performance and security risk."

Execution gap

The survey found broad agreement on the direction of travel, but less progress on operating models. While almost all respondents said moving to a more unified security and networking platform is an organisational goal, only 30% said shared ownership of SASE strategy was in place.

Another 43% said a joint committee should own that strategy. The results suggest that many organisations support convergence in principle but have yet to resolve governance and budget questions between teams.

Budget disputes appear to be a major barrier. During the planning phase of SASE projects, 76% of organisations reported frequent or occasional budget disagreements between networking and security teams, the highest rate at any stage of the process.

Respondents also pointed to a wider set of obstacles. Some 73% cited the technical complexity of integrating new solutions, 64% cited conflicting priorities between teams, 60% cited over-reliance on legacy vendors, 55% cited budget disagreements between networking and security teams, and 48% cited poor coordination between the two groups.

The reasons given for convergence were weighted more towards risk than cost. Strengthening security posture was named as a top reason by 58% of respondents, compared with 19% who cited lowering total cost of ownership.

Kelly Ahuja, chief executive officer of Versa, said the findings reflect a long-standing structural issue made more visible by AI. "The complexity tax has been hiding in plain sight for a decade. AI made it visible, and AI is making it increasingly untenable. When one in three enterprises tells us a breach was caused or worsened by their own teams not talking to each other, that is not an inefficiency - it is a structural liability. The good news is that leaders now see the problem clearly: 99% have named convergence a strategic priority. The work ahead is to bring teams and technology together to execute."

The study covered respondents holding titles from director level upward, including C-level executives, vice presidents, directors, and network or security architects. Participants came from sectors including financial services, retail and eCommerce, energy, manufacturing, healthcare, technology, media, telecoms, government and the public sector.

Kumar Mehta, co-founder and CDO of Versa, said: "The industry has named the problem and named the answer. Organisations that unify networking and security on a single architecture will turn AI from a source of exposure into a source of competitive advantage. The rest will watch cost, risk, and breaches compound."