Tackling the Cloud First Security Challenge

You may recall that last year we conducted our first ever State of Application Delivery survey, culminating in a report and a series of webinars in which we explored the market’s view on  life, the universe, and application services.

Okay, maybe just that last one, but still, it was full of insights on application services and the trends (Cloud, SDN, DevOps,Security) impacting organizations. We also said we’d do it again this year.

And we have.

So for the past week or so I’ve been heads down, drowning in data from all parts of the globe. One of the things that jumped out at me immediately was the significant (dramatic, actually, if you want the truth) increase in organizations with a “Cloud First” strategy. That increase, however, isn’t all that’s standing out. There’s plenty of security concerns related to cloud adoption and the inevitable hybrid cloud architecture that the majority of organizations are rapidly approaching. Look for more on that as we begin to roll out our 2nd Annual State of Application Delivery report later this year. 

The results are a big part of the reason I’m excited to be a part of a new series led by security catalyst Michael Santarcangelo over at CSO called “Leading Security Change: The Way to a Secure Cloud.” Michael has put together a great panel that will be exploring (live) the topic of cloud and security on July 21st @ 2PM ET. 

There are a wide variety of concerns from figuring out what security providers should – and do – provide to what security remains the sole responsibility of the organization. Standards and compliance are on the radar based on our research and you can bet the topic will come up in our panel discussion and I’m almost certain to reiterate the importance of approaching cloud security from a declarative perspective (what) instead of our traditional, imperative (how) mode. 

Additionally, each of the panelists have offered up some thoughts on the topic, which Michael has graciously posted online (you can find mine here – be sure to follow the “next post” to the next panelists thoughts).

If you haven’t signed up yet, go ahead and get onboard. Cloud may be a foregone conclusion at this point, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still rife with challenges that need to be addressed, particularly as organizations continue to migrate more apps with increasingly critical and complex security needs.