My how the tables have turned. Five years ago, critics worried about cloud security. Today, a growing number of pundits consider public clouds more secure than traditional on-premises systems.
At this week's Amazon AWS re:Invent conference in Las Vegas, security- and compliance-related announcements were impossible to miss. Some of the announcements involved AWS-based services that bolster security for end-customers. Others involve security enhancements for AWS itself. Here's a sampling of what we saw and heard:
1. Direct Connection Security: Aviatrix Systems and Megaport unveiled a Secure Remote Access AWS Direct Connect Bundle. With just a few clicks and within minutes, the companies claim, businesses can securely configure all-inclusive, scalable, private connections with dedicated user access directly on AWS.
2. Machine Learning & Security: Observable Networks believes traditional firewalls and packet inspection systems will suffer as customers and service providers encrypt more and more data. In response, Observable has built a security system that analyzes machine data. The company has achieved Advanced Technology Partner status in the AWS Partner Network (APN).
3. Network Monitoring for Security: The company's ProtectWise Grid claims to capture and analyze network traffic, delivering real time and retrospective alerting and analysis in a rich visualizer. ProtectWise achieved Advanced Tier Partner status in the AWS Partner Network (APN).
4. Cloud Security Monitoring: Threat Stack, which specializes in cloud-native security and compliance management, launched Configuration Auditing for the company's Cloud Security Platform. As a result, AWS customers can determine if their cloud configurations adhere to preferred security policies.
5. HIPAA Compliance: Databricks announced HIPAA compliance moves for its Apache Spark-based platform on AWS. Spark is an increasingly popular option for running big data applications.
6. Cloud Security: CloudPassage updated Halo, a security platform that provides "instant visibility and continuous protection for servers in any combination of data centers, private clouds and public clouds," the company claims.
7. Overall AWS Cloud Security Trends: Ahead of the conference, ESG described the growing business case for cloud-delivered security right here.
8. Bonus: Amazon itself unveiled a range of partner program and security updates. We’ll share more details soon. In the meantime read all of our AWS re:invent coverage here.
