HPE Introduces The GreenLake Security Shared Responsibility Model

Update: to watch the full session on HPE GreenLake Security Shared Responsibility Model, please visit here.

The second day of HPE Discover is maybe the most fun for me. It is where HPE executives, experts, and partners go deep into the high-level vision that CEO Antonio Neri and his team layout in their keynotes.

I am particularly interested in HPE's security strategy and implementation as I've been covering it since the company launched its ProLiant Gen10 portfolio many years ago. As a result, I am tracking a lot of what HPE is doing in this area throughout Discover 2022.

The first "big" session HPE had on security today had nothing to do with technology. It had to do with how IT organizations manage their security profile in a hybrid environment. Who secures what? And how does an appropriate handshake/handoff occur between IT and the service provider?

Enter Bobby Ford, HPE CSO, and A&PS Operations Lead Simon Leech, and the HPE GreenLake Security Shared Responsibility Model (SSRM)

HPE's Bobby Ford (L) and Simon Leech (R)

SSRM is an HPE-developed framework that defines how an enterprise security profile is managed between customers and HPE when deploying infrastructure, workloads, and applications on GreenLake. The public cloud model of “on the cloud v. in the cloud” just doesn’t work.

Here’s a little setup for how HPE defines the problem – a Ponemon Institute study found that only 30% of IT executives felt they were highly effective in closing the IT security gap. There are a lot of drivers for this, but a big part of this has to do with nature of the cloud – apps and data reside and move from on-prem to the cloud(s) and can reside in many places. Because of this dynamic, it is increasingly difficult to provide full coverage. Further, the advent of shadow-IT functions such as low-code and citizen developers. And embedded DevOps functions – this challenge is exacerbated.

As mentioned, the HPE GreenLake SSRM is a framework that provides a construct for securing infrastructure, operating environments, applications, and data that are deployed and utilized with GreenLake – whether on-prem or in a colocation such as Equinix. These well-defined rules of engagement between HPE and the customer are truly unique in the market – and should be of immense value to any executive tasked with driving cyber security and cyber resilience.

HPE GreenLake Security Shared Responsibility Model

Source: HPE

I like what HPE is doing. Not because it’s unique (though it is), but because it helps organizations of all sizes simplify their security strategy and tactics. For those that have been through project management training – think of SSRM as a combination of a RACI matrix with a twist of the capabilities and maturity model (CCM) associated with SDLC management.

I will update this post when the session replay is available for watching – it’s worth the 45 minutes in your day.

Also, look for a deep dive on HPE and Shared Responsibility in the next few days.