The Truth is Out There - Debunking Myths About Unauthorized Changes
About
This content is brought to you by Evolven. Evolven Change Analytics is a unique AIOps solution that tracks and analyzes all actual changes carried out in the enterprise cloud environment. Evolven helps leading enterprises cut the number of incidents, slash troubleshoot time, and eliminate unauthorized changes. Learn more
Welcome to another episode (2) of the “IT galactic” saga of Unauthorized Change Objects (UCOs). Today, we'll be setting out on a mission to debunk the myths surrounding these elusive entities - a mission that’s sometimes trickier than explaining a UFO sighting to the United States Congress.
Myth 1: Unauthorized Changes are Mythical
Some IT folks believe that unauthorized changes, or what we have called UCOs in this themed series, are as rare or mythical as the Loch Ness Monster or unicorns. The unfortunate truth - unauthorized changes do exist and are almost inevitable given today’s IT environment. We hear all the time - “We know what is happening on our systems. We don’t have these issues” - only to run a test that shows a production server pointing to an internal QA System - as an example. SURPRISE. The fact is, this happens all the time - and at the most stringent of organizations. Unauthorized changes attack the IT infrastructure more frequently than you'd expect, subtly creating mayhem like stealthy alien invaders.
Myth 2: Only Rogue Employees Create UCOs
Many believe that unauthorized changes are exclusively the work of a disgruntled employee - you know - the rebellious ones that may have watched "Rogue One” way too many times, fancying themselves a saboteur or secret agent planting back doors. But guess what? Even an unintentional configuration change by the most loyal of employees can qualify as a UCO. Complex systems, missed steps, or fat-fingered mistakes can all lead to unauthorized changes that can lead to downtime or incidents.
Myth 3: Small Changes are Nothing to Worry About!
Remember the Butterfly Effect in chaos theory? Or how tiny, seemingly harmless events or entities can cause tremendous chaos in movies – i.e. Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors. Similarly, even minor unauthorized changes can result in significant system issues. No UCO is too small to ignore. That harmless-looking software update could be your IT version of “The Trouble With Tribbles”, my personal favorite, and a famous Star Trek episode. In many cases, it is the seemingly small, but unauthorized change that sits and festers - takes its time - hangs out, and waits to grow into a giant problem. Detecting small changes in configurations across your hybrid environment - when they happen - can be critical in the proactive prediction of future issues in stability, compliance, and security.
Myth 4: Unauthorized Changes Cause Only Temporary Disruptions
Without complete root cause analysis and complete remediation, unauthorized changes can lead to long-lasting problems, like chronic system instability or even a complete crash. Imagine - one minute everything's fine - then the next - your data is lost in the IT version of the Bermuda Triangle. Reputation, profits, customer loyalty, and productivity can all take long-term hits from each disruption.
Myth 5: Unauthorized Changes are Challenging to Detect
You may think detecting unauthorized changes or a misconfiguration is as challenging as finding a UFO in the vast expanse of the universe. Not armed with the right technology! With Evolven’s configuration risk intelligence platform, you can identify, monitor, and analyze these changes. Risk-based AI analysis also provides additional insights to ensure you focus on the immediate and most critical threats.
Conclusion
So, don’t let the misconceptions and myths fool you. Unauthorized changes or UCOs aren’t figments of a paranoid IT manager's imagination - nor are they harmless anomalies. They're as real, disruptive, and potentially dangerous as the most notorious movie aliens when it comes to your IT environment.
The question is not whether they exist - but rather, “How do you protect your IT Infrastructure from the security, compliance, and stability risks that they can introduce?”
Evolven is rallying the troops on October 31st to help everyone answer this question by unlocking the secrets of the Biggest Banks’ X-Files on the subject!
Join us as we reveal the secrets of the largest financial institutions and how they use AI to combat unauthorized changes. Don’t let UCOs and misconfigurations derail your enterprise security, compliance, or stability!
