F5 Friday: Delivering On-Premises Security in the Cloud

The mere mention of security as an inhibitor to cloud adoption can often cause the experts to roll their eyes and sigh dramatically.

And while it’s true that security where cloud is concerned has come a long way, it’s still true that as far as customers are concerned, it’s still an issue.

Consider the latest survey results from North Bridge Ventures. The top cloud driver? Same it was in 2011: scalability. The top inhibitor? You guessed it, security, and it also hasn’t changed since the survey’s inception.

That could be because, gosh darn it, security concerns have been on the rise along with threats for the past four years. Breaches abound, and we’re constantly bombarded with new attacks arising from other emerging technology like the Internet of Things.

Then there’s the reality that cloud services have not all evolved at the same pace. Oh, cloud providers have done a fantastic job at providing security controls related to the resources they control and some have even introduced rudimentary application security services, but above the hypervisor it’s still caveat emptor. The customer is responsible for the app-centric services required to really secure apps, APIs, and the data they exchange with users.

Business and IT live in the now, in today’s world of complex, sophisticated attacks and heavy-handed consequences for failure. Modern businesses rely on modern security solutions. Solutions that have evolved along with the rapid pace with which threats have advanced and provide the comprehensive security capabilities required to protect todays’ apps and APIs. And not just rely on it, they’re demanding it.

Our latest State of Application Delivery revealed that one of the top security requirements organizations have for adopting cloud is parity between on-premises and cloud security services, right behind data encryption both in flight and at rest.

Which is why it’s imperative that the same security solutions upon which business and IT rely today on-premises are available in the cloud. Because business might seek the agility and efficient scalability of the cloud, but security professionals demand the ability to protect apps equally regardless where they might be deployed.

That’s why Alberta Motor Association (AMA) turned to F5 to help secure critical apps being deployed in Amazon’s cloud: to balance between the need to get apps to market faster without compromising on security. Because all of F5’s application services are available in many clouds, including AWS, and are offered with a variety of flexible consumption models designed to fit budgets along with environments.

By supporting deployment in cloud environments, along with enabling a seamless management and orchestration (MANO) environment via F5 BIG-IQ and F5 APIs, customers are able to ensure operational consistency while enjoying the benefits of cloud and DevOps agility for provisioning, scalability, and security. That operational consistency – including standardization – helps not only with ensuring security on-premises and in the cloud, but with improving the time to market so critical for business to successfully execute on app initiatives not only supportive of improved productivity but increasing profits.

You can read more about AMA’s experience in a case study highlighting their journey to a secure cloud by partnering with F5 and Amazon Web Services.