Jones Lang LaSalle cuts cybersecurity spending by 20 percent by consolidating vendors and using Tanium and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

Additionally, JLL had been using Microsoft for years, and it wanted to use the advanced security features of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint to protect its estate. “We looked at a few different companies and evaluated their cybersecurity solutions,” says Joe Silva, Chief Information Security Officer at JLL. “Ultimately, Defender for Endpoint came out on top.” By using both Tanium and Microsoft, JLL has reduced its cybersecurity spending while closing security gaps. 

Simplifying cybersecurity to streamline and elevate operations

The JLL team is composed of cybersecurity industry veterans, and it acts on a strategic vision to position the business for sustained success. “We’re on the cusp of a wave of consolidation,” says Silva. “So, we wanted to position ourselves to work with a smaller number of vendors who will keep pace with the threats we’re facing.” JLL had already worked with Tanium for years, and it had a good experience using the Microsoft partner’s converged endpoint management offering. Drawing on that history, JLL set out to standardize and streamline its security posture by using Tanium to help implement Defender for Endpoint. 

A compelling insight lies behind JLL’s security simplification strategy. For years, the company had pursued best-in-class capabilities. However, this left the cybersecurity team saddled with a suite of disparate tools that were difficult to oversee and expensive. “The cost of any security technology is not just the cost that you pay for the technology—it’s the cost of the team that implements that technology,” says Silva. “We had to recruit talent specific to each technology, which drove up costs and prevented us from having as small and nimble a team as possible.” 

The service JLL had previously used for security became particularly difficult to manage. “CrowdStrike, while mostly effective for us, had to be augmented with outside support from our team, a lot of customization, a lot of enhanced detections, and a lot of processes to compensate for gaps,” says Silva. Given these issues, JLL didn’t feel confident that its previous solution would help it meet future cybersecurity needs.

Rather than continue along the same path, JLL wanted to combine best-of-breed and best-in-suite approaches. “By using a best-in-suite approach with Tanium and Microsoft, we have made orchestration and automation more seamless,” says Dane Thomas, Head of Global Security Engineering at JLL. 

Accelerating security solution development using Tanium

JLL has achieved significant benefits with Tanium and Microsoft. Using Tanium gives the team visibility into security events across its vast technology estate. It also has unlocked threat-hunting capabilities that shift operations from being reactive to being proactive. “As opposed to operating technologies and just installing them, we can be preemptive in our threat hunting,” says Silva. With the time saved by consolidating its cybersecurity solutions with Defender for Endpoint, JLL has bolstered its defenses by evolving preventive measures and new capabilities.

JLL initially expected that the migration from its heterogeneous cybersecurity framework to its new, consolidated framework would be complex. The company has more than 60,000 laptops, and it wanted to verify that it had zero gaps in its protective posture as it made the switch. The insight that Tanium offered proved critical during that process. “While we transitioned, Tanium gave us visibility into any threat activity, and it told us what our deployment posture would be in near real time,” says Silva. In total, JLL estimates that using Tanium halved the timeline of its migration.

Saving $5 million annually through cyber innovation with Microsoft 365 E5

The time savings that JLL has achieved by consolidating its cybersecurity framework has resulted in significant business value. The company’s direct spending on security has fallen about 20 percent with the new framework in place—which translates to $5 million in cost savings. But cost efficiency has not come at the price of performance. JLL now has a more secure system in place than it did before the migration. “In our new framework, we couple the unparalleled visibility and control of Tanium with the world-class security capabilities of Microsoft,” says Silva. “That’s something that no other vendor can offer us.”

After seeing the rich joint road map for development between Microsoft and Tanium, JLL decided to use other Microsoft solutions. The company implemented Microsoft 365 E5 across its global operations to use Microsoft productivity apps as well as advanced security capabilities. “We’ve been very aggressive about practicing an intelligence-driven approach and having close relationships with technology vendors that help us understand where their road maps are going and figuring out how those align with us,” says Silva.

Future-proofing a complex enterprise with Tanium and Microsoft

With the company’s migration complete and a more agile cyber organization in place, JLL is set to drive modern solutions across the enterprise for years to come. And while cybersecurity is challenging, the team is confident that it can continue delivering the robust security protections that the business requires. “We sleep much more soundly knowing that Microsoft and Tanium are closely partnered to provide us with assurance on both the depth and quality of our security controls across our technology estate,” says Silva.