Rethink network security to simplify cloud transformation
Earlier this week, I attended Evanta CIO summit in southern California. It's a community built for CIOs sharing challenges and opportunities they face in their organizations. A key CIO concern that ran through the event revolved around cybersecurity. In Evanta's survey, cybersecurity was the #1 concern that would impact the role of the CIO, followed by digital transformation. This theme was further echoed by Evanta's keynote during the governing body dinner (made up of CIOs), where they shared how companies are still inundated with threats and security incidents despite the increase in security spending and the proliferation of tools.
It's a fact. Major companies are moving their applications to SaaS and public clouds and the workforce is accessing applications directly to the internet. CIOs need to rethink network security. An example of this is Kelly Services, a global leader in workforce solutions. I had the pleasure of presenting alongside Robb Wilber, Director of Global Networks & Telecom from Kelly Services at the Summit. He shared how their growth, through acquisitions, increased their architecture complexity---managing several data centers, email systems, VPN solutions, and MPLS providers across the globe. Their CIO set on a path to network simplification by moving into the cloud while architecting for global security posture. As a result, they were able to consolidate 17 MPLS providers down to one, reduced MPLS footprint from 900 locations to down to 30, and securing local breakouts across 900 locations for all users---delivering a secure, fast, reliable access to any application from any device or location.
Kelly Services are one of many large enterprises where IT organizations are embracing a new world of a cloud-ready network. It needs to be well thought out and leaders need to consider how this move towards cloud can effect network traffic patterns, local internet access, as well as security requirements while empowering their entire organization to harness the power of this new cloud world.
Feel free to message me if you are interested in discussing this further.
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Hastings Direct
6 年Andy Brown?(to quote Andy)? - there is nothing more resilient than the internet,,,, I think that dates back to the lessons learnt from 911 (a pain and social burden we all continue to carry).... anyway its important we all continue to advocate security at the endpoint... or should I say "source" . Jay Chaudhry?and Craig Hinkley...? you are both leading companies that just simply get it.. as I would call it, we need need to make things secure at the start of the journey and stop "blaming" the network?