Why More Tools Can Mean Less Security

By Thabani Makhanya, Cyber Security Lead: Engineering at NEC XON

In a hyper-connected business landscape, “more is better” no longer necessarily applies–especially when it comes to cybersecurity. In fact, the opposite may be true.
 
A recent Gartner survey reports that large enterprises now run, on average, 45 different cybersecurity tools. It sounds impressive—until you realise that this complex web of overlapping systems often creates more problems than it solves. Instead of strengthening digital defences, tool sprawl is quietly weakening them.

The Paradox of Plenty
What’s meant to provide protection is instead fuelling chaos. The side effects of too many tools are well known:

• Operational inefficiency: Security teams must navigate multiple dashboards, integrate conflicting technologies, and troubleshoot disjointed alerts—slowing down response times and increasing room for error.
• Wider attack surface: Disconnected tools often leave gaps between them, providing adversaries with unexpected entry points.
• Escalating costs: Licensing, support, training, and maintenance costs quickly add up—without delivering proportional value or risk reduction.

 
What we’re left with is a paradox–organisations are spending more on security but are less secure, less agile, and often non-compliant in regulatory and/or best-practice terms.
 
A Smarter Path Forward
I believe the answer isn’t to keep stacking more tools—it’s to rethink the architecture entirely.
 
Managed Security Services (MSS) focus on simplifying, consolidating, and strategically enhancing security infrastructure. It starts with a clear-eyed audit: which tools are actually providing value, and which are just adding noise?
 
From there, clients can rationalise their toolsets, removing redundancies and aligning capabilities with actual threats and compliance needs. This is followed by building scalable, integrated security architectures—because security should evolve with your business, not slow it down.
 
And at the core of this transformation? Intelligence.
 
AI is Not a Buzzword—It’s a Baseline
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are now essential, not optional. In our experience, best practice means AI-driven threat modelling and risk assessments to help organisations predict what’s coming, not just react to what’s already happened.
 
By embedding AI across MDR (Managed Detection and Response) services, we can detect, prioritise, and neutralise threats in real time—cutting mean-time-to-response and helping reduce an organisation’s overall attack surface.
 
Critically, our recommendations are vendor-agnostic. This means no bias toward any single product or brand—just solutions that are fit for purpose and fit for your business.
 
Cybersecurity for the C-Suite
This isn’t just an IT issue—it’s a boardroom conversation. CISOs and CIOs are under pressure to demonstrate ROI, stay ahead of evolving regulations, and protect digital transformation investments.
 
The approach supports executive leadership with:

• Operational efficiency: Fewer tools, smarter integration, faster decision-making.
• Cost optimisation: Strategic consolidation lowers licensing and management costs.
• Regulatory compliance: Integrated systems ensure better auditability and governance.
• Proactive risk management: AI-powered insight allows for anticipation—not just reaction.

 
Time to Consolidate, Simplify, and Strengthen
As cyber threats grow more complex and budgets remain under scrutiny, throwing more money at more tools simply won’t cut it.
 
The future of cybersecurity is not in quantity, but in quality—in strategic consolidation, intelligent architecture, and AI-powered threat management. NEC XON’s Managed Security Services help organisations shift from reactive defence to proactive resilience.
 
It’s time to cut through the clutter. The best security strategy isn’t about having the most tools—it’s about having the right ones, working together.