Rethinking Cybersecurity in a Platform World

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January 26, 2026    

For more than a decade, enterprise cybersecurity has relied on point solutions. Companies invested in separate tools – endpoint detection, firewalls, cloud security, and identity and access management – each designed to address a specific threat or compliance requirement. But that approach is starting to break down.

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One big reason? Scale. Most large enterprises juggle 40 to 70 different security tools. In a fast-moving business environment, that’s not just overwhelming – it’s becoming a real barrier to effective risk management.

Workflow orchestration giant ServiceNow’s plan to acquire cyber exposure management vendor Armis is a good example of what’s happening: Cybersecurity is being reorganized around platforms that consolidate visibility, prioritization and response in one place – rather than scattering them across dozens of tools.

From Security Stacks to Security Layers

To understand what’s changing, it helps to stop thinking in product categories and start looking at cybersecurity in layers – the way risk is managed within companies. Let’s break it down.

The first layer covers infrastructure and control planes, including cloud platforms, identity systems and enterprise workflow engines – the tools closest to day-to-day business operations. Consider widely used orchestration platforms like ServiceNow or cloud platforms like AWS, Microsoft and Google. These systems collect vast amounts of data and can automatically take action: Open a ticket, isolate a compromised device or escalate an issue.

The second layer is detection, prevention and enforcement. This is where established players such as Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, Fortinet and Check Point still dominate. These tools – now offered as all-in-one security platforms – generate alerts, enforce policies and block or contain threats. Their strength lies in depth: extensive threat intelligence and proven reliability.

The third layer is visibility, posture and governance. This layer has grown rapidly in recent years, with specialized tools that address cloud-native application protection, identity and access management, data security posture management and exposure assessment. The goal of these platforms is simple: Identify where enterprise risk actually lies.

Over the past few years, these layers have begun collapsing into each another. Features that once required separate products are now bundled into single platforms. The lines are blurring, and that’s changing how security decisions are made.

Why Platforms Make More Sense

Nearly every platform vendor is now trying to absorb capabilities that once belonged to the visibility and governance layer. Why? Because detection alone doesn’t cut it. How quickly you respond matters just as much as detection.

The average time to identify and contain a breach is still measured in months, not days. That delay between recognizing something’s wrong and fixing it turns incidents into disasters. Companies often spot the problem early but struggle to act quickly enough.

Platforms are trying to close that gap by shortening the time between insight and action. Instead of piling on another tool, they weave security context directly into existing workflows.

ServiceNow’s acquisition of Armis and Google’s acquisition of Mandiant (and its impending buy of cloud security and CNAPP leader Wiz) are perfect examples. Armis provides continuous visibility into hard-to-monitor environments, such as operational technology and IoT systems. Google integrated Mandiant’s threat intelligence and incident response capabilities into its cloud ecosystem. Both acquisitions aim to embed security more deeply into the platform.

Structural Shifts in the Visibility Layer

The visibility layer is where the pressure to consolidate is felt most acutely. Most enterprises today run multi-cloud or hybrid environments, and cloud misconfigurations are a major cause of security incidents. Posture management tools help, but cloud providers and platforms are gaining ground by embedding those insights directly into their consoles.

That doesn’t eliminate the need for specialized tools, but it does change how they’re evaluated. Visibility is no longer a standalone product. It’s expected as part of the platform.

What This Means for Incumbent Security Vendors

As platforms expand into security, it’s fair to ask: Are hyperscalers and workflow vendors encroaching on the core business of traditional security vendors? It looks more like a rebalancing than a takeover.

Incumbents still own the specialized domains. Functions such as endpoint runtime protection, advanced network enforcement and sophisticated threat detection are difficult to replicate at scale. Large enterprises with complex attack surfaces still rely on these tools for defense-in-depth.

On the other hand, for organizations with lower risk profiles or tighter budgets, native cloud security services and integrated dashboards are often sufficient.

It’s no surprise, then, that traditional security vendors are consolidating their portfolios, promoting their own platform narratives and expanding into adjacent markets.

The CISO-CIO Perspective: Authority Is Shifting Upstream

For CISOs and CIOs, the key takeaway isn’t vendor competition. It’s how decision-making authority is shifting across the security stack. As more cybersecurity intelligence is built into enterprise platforms such as ITSM and cloud management tools, security decisions are moving upstream.

For CISOs, it means conversations with vendors need go beyond dashboards to focus on business impact, audit readiness and executive oversight. Fully realizing the benefits will require tighter collaboration with CIOs, operations teams and risk officers.

And CIOs must recognize that choosing a platform is no longer just an IT efficiency play. Long-term, the platform decision could affect compliance, incident response and operational resilience.