Perspectives Summary – What You Said

On Thursday, June 25, Trend Micro hosted our Perspectives 2-hour virtual event. As the session progressed, we asked our attendees, composed of +5000 global registrants, two key questions. This blog analyzes those answers.

First, what is your current strategy for securing the cloud?

Rely completely on native cloud platform security capabilities (AWS, Azure, Google…) 33%

Add on single-purpose security capabilities (workload protection, container security…) 13%

Add on security platform with multiple security capabilities for reduced complexity 54%

This result affirms IDC analyst Frank Dickson’s observation that most cloud customers will benefit from a suite offering a range of security capabilities covering multiple cloud environments. For the 15% to 20% of organizations that rely on one cloud provider, purchasing a security solution from that vendor may provide sufficient coverage. The quest for point products (which may be best-of-breed, as well) introduces additional complexity across multiple cloud platforms, which can obscure problems, confuse cybersecurity analysts and business users, increase costs, and reduce efficiency.  The comprehensive suite strategy compliments most organizations’ hybrid, multi-cloud approach.

Second, and this is multiple choice, how are you enabling secure digital transformation in the cloud today?

This shows that cloud users are open to many available solutions for improving cloud security. The adoption pattern follows traditional on-premise security deployment models. The most commonly cited solution, Network Security/Cloud IPS, recognizes that communication with anything in the cloud requires a trustworthy network. This is a very familiar technique, dating back in the on-premise environment to the introduction of firewalls in the early 1990s from vendors like CheckPoint and supported by academic research as found in Cheswick and Bellovin’s Firewalls and Internet Security (Addison Wesley, 1994).

The frequency of data exposure due to misconfigured cloud instances surely drives Cloud Security Posture Management, certainly aided by the ease of deployment of tools like Cloud One conformity.

The newness of containers in the production environment most likely explains the relatively lower deployment of container security today.

The good news is that organizations do not have to deploy and manage a multitude of point products addressing one problem on one environment. The suite approach simplifies today’s reality and positions the organization for tomorrow’s challenges.

Looking ahead, future growth in industrial IoT and increasing deployments of 5G-based public and non-public networks will drive further innovations, increasing the breadth of the suite approach to securing hybrid, multi-cloud environments.

What do you think? Let me know @WilliamMalikTM.

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