The Future of Cloud Security is a Cloud-Powered One

In my view, the future of IT security is all about cloud-powered security—security delivered from the cloud. It’s really a convergence of three things coming together: cloud security, data protection and behavioral analytics, all being delivered in a unified way from the cloud.

The enterprise perimeter continues to evolve. In the early 2000’s, security efforts still focused on building walls. In the last 10 years or so, virtualization gave rise to the public cloud industry and sparked big data. Beyond introducing cloud capabilities to companies, this shift highlighted the importance of protecting critical electronic assets. Today, users and data are everywhere. It’s created a challenging reality for CISOs: you need to secure users and data anywhere, at any time on any device.

While enterprise perimeter centers around the network and cloud, people as the next perimeter is becoming the new reality. It’s about protecting users and data in a distributed and diverse environment, one that bridges traditional on-premises infrastructures, including the home office, to multi-cloud and multi-SaaS ones. Our current situation forced a rapid shift toward supporting large groups of remote workers. It’s a change that’s ushered in a new way of working. And that’s placed even more importance on protecting users and data in hybrid IT environments.

Moving forward requires a change in how we deliver network and cloud security as an industry. Gartner’s Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is an architecture that aims to do just that. It’s an approach that promises direct-to-app connectivity and security for cloud-first and hybrid enterprises. At Forcepoint, it means delivering Dynamic Edge Protection on top of a converged security platform.

The Journey Towards SASE

Companies large and small are at different points in their security journey. Many have moved on from a traditional on-premises environment, where all data resides in company data centers, to a hybrid environment that connects on-prem infrastructure to cloud infrastructure. While companies will continue to make this transition at their own pace, velocity has clearly increased.

Getting to a cloud-powered future hinges on three main things:

• Convergence = What used to be a product is now often a feature; to us, convergence means merging web security, network security and securing cloud or SaaS applications. All contained and protected by a holistic data security approach.
• Deliver Security-as-a-Service = Securing the cloud from the cloud. Getting to this requires a shift from thinking about things only from an on-prem perspective or a cloud-only one. The end goal is unifying all security management, policies and reporting in the cloud, wherever the enforcement device sits or the endpoint is located.
• Provide cloud-native, hybrid enforced security and data protection = Connecting cloud and on-premises resources and protecting them holistically. This last piece is critical because the transition is different for every industry, vertical or company. 

At Forcepoint, we understand the transformation our customers currently face. Getting to a cloud-based security reality is a journey. And it’s one we’re committed to helping them make.

For those of you wanting to learn more, tune into my recent Voice of the CTO webcast by clicking the link or by clicking Watch the Webinar button on the top right. In it, I go deeper on SASE and the promise it’s poised to deliver, and also talk more about some of the concepts beyond technology that come into play.