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Skydio & Lumos
Using Artificial Intelligence to Bring SaaS and Permission Sprawl under Control.
Summary
Skydio built its business from the ground up on three things: innovation, craftsmanship, and trust. This recipe for success made Skydio grow exponentially as a company. Employees started using more and more apps to stay productive and build an amazing product. However, that led quickly to a SaaS and permission sprawl within the company. So when it was time to find innovative ways to get better visibility and control over their SaaS apps, Skydio turned to Lumos.
“What apps are we using? It’s an issue from a security lens to know where sensitive data is being held. And, from a business perspective, we had two completely redundant tools used by different teams. Lumos has a completely novel approach to build an app inventory. We use Lumos as our source of truth.”
Company Overview
Skydio is an American company that manufactures the world’s most advanced autonomous small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS) for use by consumers, enterprises, defense, and civilian agencies.
The Challenge
Skydio struggled to manage SaaS app spending and Shadow IT. The Skydio IT team needed to figure out what apps their employees are using for two reasons. First, from a security perspective, it was critical for Skydio IT to understand where sensitive data was held. Second, from a business perspective, the IT team needed to manage SaaS app spending and find redundant apps.
The Solution
Lumos’ AI-powered App Discovery system helped Skydio create a source of truth for identities and entitlements. For example, Skydio uses Lumos to prioritize the apps that to be added to their SSO provider. With Lumos, Skydio can figure out which apps didn’t have SSO enabled, how many users are using each app and which tools have a lot of unused licenses. Skydio found in Lumos its solution to manage all their SaaS apps — within one platform.
“I have used similar tools. And I would say that a lot of those tools are very, very manual and they're built on top of usually IT teams that are doing asset inventory or application inventories in spreadsheets. And so those tools don't really work if you're having visibility problems within the organization.”
Key Benefits
Security + Compliance
With the Lumos AI-based AppManager and Discovery Dashboard, Skydio now has an app inventory, where they can see which apps they’re using and which apps meet their security controls. Skydio uses the Lumos platform to feed their SIEM, which helps them manage governance, risk, and compliance.
Also, the Skydio Legal team uses Lumos for third-party risk management. It allows the Skydio IT team to communicate broadly to the organization to say, “these are the apps that we've approved, and these are the apps that people are using.”
Cost Savings
Skydio also has a way to detect Shadow IT app purchases. The moment someone purchases an app and then tries to sign in through Google or Okta, the Skydio team is notified and can take quick action. Jeff uses Lumos to prevent redundant app purchases and security reviews for apps that may not meet their security requirements.
Also, Skydio found dozens of unused licenses that they were able to reclaim. Lumos is going to pay for itself in the first year.
Productivity
Lumos is more than just SaaS Management. With Lumos, Skydio has also the capability to automate access requests. With its Company AppStore, Skydio can create a one-stop shop where people can request access, get the right approvals and automate provisioning. No work for IT. And, a thorough approval audit log for security.