What is NIS2?
NIS2 is the updated EU framework for organisations that deliver essential and important services. It raises the baseline for how cybersecurity is governed, demonstrated and trusted across Europe. Formally it is Directive (EU) 2022/2555, designed to create a high common level of cybersecurity maturity and resilience.
NIS2 is in force. Member States had to transpose the directive into national law by 17 October 2024. From 18 October 2024 it replaced the original NIS directive. That change matters. It moves expectations from intention to accountability. Organisations are now expected to show how they control risk, how they detect incidents, and how they protect critical services in a disciplined and repeatable way.
NIS2 also broadens scope. More sectors. More entities. More dependencies that must be understood and governed. It reaches into supply chains, managed services, cloud platforms and the partners your business relies on every single day. The directive is not meant to create fear. It is meant to create clarity.
The Effect of NIS2 and Why it's a Game-Changer.
For leadership, NIS2 is not only about avoiding penalties. It is about resilience, trust and the ability to keep essential services running when something goes wrong. It expects organisations to know which services are critical, what assets they depend on, who owns responsibility and how risks are managed across both technology and people.
That sounds simple. It rarely is.
Many organisations discover that what they have is not a clear picture but fragments. Spreadsheets that act as truth. Systems that do not align. CMDB structures that do not reflect how the business actually operates. Policies that exist in documents but not in practice. NIS2 makes those gaps visible, because the directive expects control that is real, documented and possible to prove.
This is the real turning point. NIS2 is not only regulation. It is a maturity test.
Where IT Asset Management becomes critical for NIS2
NIS2 becomes operational when an organisation can answer a few very direct questions with confidence.
Which assets support the critical services. Who owns them. How critical they are. Which suppliers and contracts they depend on. How they are patched, protected and monitored. How they are retired securely when they are no longer needed.
If the only place those answers exist is in scattered lists, NIS2 becomes stressful.
If they live in governed IT asset and configuration data, NIS2 becomes manageable.
A disciplined IT Asset Management capability changes the foundation. It provides a living inventory instead of a static document. It connects CMDB, infrastructure, security, procurement and operations. It creates visibility into suppliers and technical dependencies. It anchors controls inside platforms where work already happens so evidence is created continuously, not just when an auditor asks for it.
With that in place, cyber risk management becomes something leadership can actually see and explain.
NIS2 becomes less about compliance pressure and more about running an organisation that is capable, documented and resilient.
That is where real confidence comes from.