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.
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