Businesses' networking and security teams often don't see eye to eye on many issues, and a significant number of professionals in each field refer to the relationship between them as dysfunctional and combative.

This is a key finding in new research from Netskope, which surveyed 2,675 IT professionals from around the world. Researchers found that while 49% of security teams and 44% of networking teams report to the same manager, 37% of global IT pros state "the security and networking teams don't really work together much." The survey also reveals that 44% of network and 45% of security professionals describe the relationship between the two teams as combative (13%), dysfunctional (9%), frosty (11%) or irrelevant (9%).

The lack of collaboration among specialist teams stops their organization from realizing the benefits of digital transformation, according to 51% of the participants (including 50% among CIOs). These projects are being pursued by both teams as 87% of research participants said they are either currently working on a digital transformation project or have just completed one.

While the divide between the two teams appears problematic, there were some commonalities in what network and security professionals identify as the priorities driving their team's activity in 2021. Respondents said that they share at least two of their top three priorities: "Supporting increased productivity for the organization as a whole" and "Improved efficiencies within my team and its processes."

The full research can be found here.