Around the world, organizations across all industry segments and markets are faced with the task of adopting digital technologies. Business leaders realize they must begin their digital transformation journey now, or risk fundamental business disruption and, potentially, business obsolescence.

Unfortunately, many organizations are missing out because they lack a comprehensive and effective security strategy. Recent research shows that concern about security can cause organizations to either delay or stop digital initiatives, which puts them at a competitive disadvantage. Those that excel embrace security as an enabler of innovation and growth.

According to a Cisco research study titled "Cybersecurity as a Growth Advantage":

• 64% of senior business leaders recognize that cybersecurity is a vital foundation for their digital growth strategies, citing it as a "significant" driver of success for digital products, services, and business models.
• 71% said that concerns over cybersecurity are impeding innovation in their organizations.
• 39% said that their organizations had halted a mission-critical initiative due to cybersecurity fears.

Organizations that lack adequate security capabilities will experience slower adoption of digital technologies, resulting in smaller realization of their intended business benefits.

This is why we've introduced Security Advisory Services specifically focused on helping organizations navigate the security aspects of their digital transformation journey.  Our new Security Services for Digital Transformation helps our customers develop and implement a customized digitization strategy with security as the foundation, optimized for their industry, and designed to balance their organization's appetite for risk with its desire for innovation and growth. These services are delivered as a customized engagement, tailored to each specific organization's needs and desired outcomes.

An engagement may include services in the following categories:

• Business strategy and advisory
  Our security experts help organizations assess their current and desired states within the security services lifecycle. Using a framework for planning digital transformation, we'll work together to construct a roadmap to achieve the desired organizational outcomes.
• Design, build and remediate
  Leveraging vertical specific architectures such as those found within Cisco SAFE, Cisco Digital Healthcare Architecture, and Cisco CPwE (Converged Plant-wide Ethernet), we'll help organizations design and implement integrated architectures to achieve their security objectives for digitization. Services may include preparing a threat management strategy; assessing and deploying secure applications; securing mobile and cloud technologies; and meeting regulatory and industry compliance requirements.
• Maintain, optimize and operate
  We'll help ensure continuous security across the organization to enable full value capture from a client's digitization strategy. Services may include 24