Cloud Security
Aviatrix | October 13, 2023
Aviatrix, a leading provider of secure cloud networking solutions, unveiled the results of a comprehensive technical assessment conducted by TechTarget's Enterprise Strategy Group, highlighting the efficacy of its revolutionary distributed cloud firewall in fortifying cloud-based cybersecurity. The report underscores the growing need for a simplified and comprehensive security architecture to safeguard applications on public cloud infrastructure as organizations increasingly leverage multiple cloud providers.
According to the evaluation, the Aviatrix Distributed Cloud Firewall significantly reduces the complexity of securing public cloud infrastructure, streamlining crucial aspects such as threat blocking, policy definition, enforcement, and microsegmentation. This is a significant development considering the challenges posed by traditional firewalls that struggle to adapt to the dynamic nature of cloud computing.
Alex Arcilla, Senior Validation Analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, reportedly remarked,
Many organizations are still working with traditional data center network firewalls that have been virtualized to work in the public cloud, and they're now finding that they're saddled with the same – if not more – challenges than they faced when deploying firewalls on premises.
[Source – Cision PR Newswire]
Aviatrix's innovative Distributed Cloud Firewall, a key offering within its Secure Cloud Networking suite, revolutionizes network security in the cloud by enabling distributed inspection and enforcement. This approach enhances security, scalability, and agility while substantially reducing costs. Notably, the distributed architecture allows for a cost reduction of over 30% while delivering a 14-fold increase in aggregate security throughput compared to conventional, centralized firewall architectures commonly adapted for cloud environments.
It was proven that the Aviatrix Distributed Cloud Firewall can create a zero-trust security posture in multicloud environments by protecting the current perimeter, locking down environments with policy configurations based on cloud resource attributes and tags, and filtering traffic from one service to another. These features ensure comprehensive security measures for east-west service-to-service traffic within cloud environments and internet egress traffic.
Rod Stuhlmuller, the Vice President of Solutions Marketing at Aviatrix, emphasized that the introduction of Aviatrix's Distributed Cloud Firewall earlier that year had signaled the beginning of a new era for cloud network security. He further noted that customers were rapidly embracing this solution. Additionally, he highlighted that the technical analysis by Enterprise Strategy Group underscored the value that Aviatrix was providing to enterprises struggling with contemporary cloud security challenges and associated expenses.
However, the Aviatrix Distributed Cloud Firewall, with its intricate functionalities and sophisticated network security configurations, may present a considerable obstacle for users less familiar with such intricate setups. Consequently, the successful deployment of this firewall may require the involvement of specialized experts to ensure its optimal performance. Moreover, the initial financial investment and the intricacies involved in the integration process of the Aviatrix Distributed Cloud Firewall may create barriers for smaller organizations, potentially limiting their access to the advantages it offers.
Notwithstanding these challenges, the Aviatrix Distributed Cloud Firewall effectively addresses the continually changing security requirements of modern cloud environments. It presents a seamless and cost-effective solution for establishing comprehensive cybersecurity measures within a cloud-based infrastructure, thereby enhancing the overall security posture and minimizing potential risks.
About Aviatrix
Aviatrix, a Santa Clara-based software development firm, caters to a global clientele of over 500 companies, providing secure cloud networking solutions that foster innovation and cost control. Its pioneering Aviatrix Certified Engineer (ACE) Program facilitates digital transformation for businesses. Specializing in hybrid cloud networking, VPC peering, and cloud security, Aviatrix is recognized for its expertise in simplifying and streamlining networking architectures across multiple cloud service providers.
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Cloud Deployment Models
Mirantis | September 22, 2023
Mirantis has introduced Lens AppIQ, a new tool designed to simplify Kubernetes application management. Available directly to the 50,000 organizations using Lens, Lens AppIQ offers application intelligence, making it accessible for non-Kubernetes specialists to oversee applications across multiple clusters.
Lens AppIQ aggregates information from various configuration files and sources, presenting it in a user-friendly tabbed display. This feature allows cloud-native developers to streamline the deployment and management of Kubernetes applications, offering web-based tools for viewing application details, configuring security measures, and automating deployment processes.
With a quick launch time of under a minute, Lens AppIQ swiftly identifies applications in connected clusters and maps their components. Developers can access application architecture, metadata, logs, events, and more through Lens Desktop’s new 'Applications' view or the Lens AppIQ web portal, simplifying debugging, accelerating code releases, and enhancing performance optimization.
DevOps professionals, platform engineers, and operators can utilize Lens AppIQ to define, monitor, and enforce policies related to application performance, security, and compliance. Automation features in Lens AppIQ facilitate repeatable deployments and enable effortless application migration to new Kubernetes environments.
Miska Kaipiainen, Vice President of Engineering at Mirantis, reportedly stated,
While Lens Desktop already provides an incredibly user-friendly experience for Kubernetes management, we understand that cloud-native development doesn't end there. That's why we've created Lens AppIQ. Lens AppIQ complements Lens Desktop by offering real-time intelligence and additional insights into the apps running on your Kubernetes clusters. This not only makes debugging, operation, and security easier but also opens up Kubernetes to a broader audience of developers who can benefit from streamlined processes without having to become Kubernetes experts.
[Source – Businesswire]
Lens AppIQ is available for free for small-scale and trial use, accommodating up to 10 nodes, two clusters, and two users. A Pro plan is available for larger-scale use, supporting up to 100 nodes, 10 clusters, and 50 users, priced at $35 per node monthly, inclusive of 8 hours/5-day business hours support. Enterprises can opt for a bespoke version with 24/7 support and custom pricing.
Lens AppIQ is accessible within Lens Desktop for the 50,000 organizations currently using Lens and is also available as a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution.
About Lens
With over 1 million users worldwide, Lens Desktop is a leading tool for boosting productivity in Kubernetes application development and management. This desktop application breaks down barriers for newcomers to Kubernetes while significantly enhancing the efficiency of experienced users. Lens supports all certified Kubernetes distributions on any infrastructure and seamlessly runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows. As the world's largest and most advanced Kubernetes platform, it provides real-time workload management, development, debugging, monitoring, and troubleshooting across multiple clusters. Built on open-source principles, Lens enjoys a strong community with over 20,000 stars on GitHub.
About Mirantis
Mirantis is a leading company streamlining code delivery on public and private clouds with a ZeroOps approach to Kubernetes. It serves global enterprises, enhancing developer productivity and offering secure cloud solutions. Its clients include Adobe, DocuSign, PayPal, and others across diverse industries. Mirantis contributes to open-source projects like Lens and Kubernetes, empowering businesses to tackle complex challenges.
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Cloud Storage
Business Wire | October 06, 2023
DigitalOcean Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DOCN), the cloud for startups and SMBs, today announced the launch of Scalable Storage for DigitalOcean PostgreSQL and MySQL Managed Databases, which enables small and medium-sized businesses to only pay for the data resources they need, preventing cloud underutilization and optimizing customer spend. With this new offering, DigitalOcean customers can increase the disk storage of their Managed Databases without needing to change compute and memory to meet higher data utilization demands.
As businesses continue to grow and face ever-increasing customer demands, they need a database solution that can seamlessly scale alongside them, said Megan Wood, Chief Strategy & Product Officer at DigitalOcean. DigitalOcean’s portfolio is tailored to meet the needs of startups and tech entrepreneurs, enabling them with flexible and cost-effective solutions like Scalable Storage. With this new offering, businesses can easily accommodate dynamic database storage requirements and expand their data footprint with confidence, making it easier to grow in the cloud.
Almost all businesses require a database that can scale to meet their needs, whether it’s an AI company storing voice recordings to train their large language model or an e-commerce website keeping inventory data up to date. For startups and SMBs with limited resources, the ability to have flexible and affordable storage options is also critical. Scalable Storage gives users the flexibility to add storage to MySQL and PostgreSQL Managed Databases at cost-effective prices with minimal friction and downtime. With a variety of shared and dedicated configuration plans, DigitalOcean customers can benefit from more customizable options that better fit their businesses.
Add disk storage without adding compute and memory: Through this offering, users can add disk storage in 10 GB increments each priced at $2/month to meet constantly shifting demand without needing to increase compute and memory. Customers at different user levels can make changes to their disk storage capacity through various ways of interactions, including the Cloud Console or via API, allowing for a simpler and more intuitive experience.
Greater disk storage capacity: All Managed Database plans come with a range of disk storage options beginning with a minimum amount that customers can increase from two to five times the starting amount. With storage capacity now up to 15 TB, users can future-proof their databases by helping to ensure they can handle the largest of database production workloads.
Monitoring to optimize costs: Customers can scale compute, memory, and storage when it matters most by monitoring utilization data and setting alerts. By only paying for the database compute and storage resources needed, businesses can continue to optimize costs while maintaining peak performance.
Alongside DigitalOcean Scalable Storage, DigitalOcean has been making investments in its product and infrastructure offerings to provide peace of mind, increased productivity, and more affordable solutions for SMBs and startups.
About DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean simplifies cloud computing so builders and businesses can spend more time creating software that changes the world. With its mission-critical infrastructure and fully managed offerings, DigitalOcean helps developers at startups and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) rapidly build, deploy and scale, whether creating a digital presence or building digital products. DigitalOcean combines the power of simplicity, security, community and customer support so customers can spend less time managing their infrastructure and more time building innovative applications that drive business growth. For more information, visit digitalocean.com.
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Cloud Security
PR Newswire | October 25, 2023
Lacework, the data-driven cloud security company, today announced a series of updates that expand the platform's enterprise-grade capabilities to help customers do more in the cloud, securely. Lacework is extending its platform support to new cloud providers in order to give customers more choice as they secure their multicloud environments, adding integrations into leading project management tools to increase operational efficiency around risk management, and enhancing agentless workload scanning, among other updates.
Expanded Enterprise Multicloud Support
Enterprises implement multicloud strategies for various economic, technical, and legal reasons, and Lacework is committed to supporting its customers' cloud or clouds of choice. Lacework has extended cloud security posture management to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), giving teams visibility into their OCI resources and their associated risks. Whether enterprises are using Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Azure, OCI or a combination, the unified Lacework platform gives them visibility from a single location, resulting in better context, better outcomes, and faster investigations.
We are excited that Lacework has added support for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. It gives us the opportunity to utilize Cloud Security Posture Management capabilities across our multicloud environment with a single platform, said Karen Prichard, Managing Director Group Security, Liberty Global. Our team can continue to reduce our risk and address our threats quicker with the added visibility and context provided by this new integration.
Additionally, the Lacework platform is expanding its industry-leading attack path analysis to Google Cloud and Azure. Attack path analysis from Lacework allows security teams to see their cloud environment through the eyes of an attacker, identifying targets and mapping out how each threat could be exploited to breach a cloud environment. Now Lacework customers leveraging Google Cloud or Azure can gain attack path analysis that is bespoke to each cloud's unique environment.
"My colleague already had the chance to identify configuration issues, it immediately flagged something we had to look at — giving us the opportunity to fix it," Simen Kildahl Eriksen, Security Engineer at Cognite, shares. "It provides an invaluable means of identifying potential configuration problems before they escalate into more significant security breaches."
In the cloud, organizations routinely create and tear down services and containers quickly in order to meet changing demands. Whether testing-development or running batch jobs, ephemeral workloads and containers are opportunities for bad actors to gain access. It's important that security teams do not lose sight of these short-lived instances.
To meet this growing need, Lacework agentless workload scanning has been upgraded to check customer workloads every five minutes for new instances. This granular visibility of what is running and its associated risk assures teams that they have comprehensive visibility into rapidly changing environments and gives confidence that short-lived instances are not falling through the security cracks.
Operationalized Risk Management with ServiceNow and Jira Integrations
It's not enough for an organization to have a list of vulnerabilities, they need to be able to quickly fix them. To enhance its industry-leading threat visibility tools, the Lacework platform now features integrations with ServiceNow and Jira that improve the process of mitigating vulnerabilities. Now, security and development teams have the premium vulnerability feeds with all the context Lacework is known for integrated into their ticketing system of choice. By connecting these systems to streamline response efforts, the appropriate teams can move faster when securing vulnerabilities.
"With the rise of cloud adoption and migration, securing the enterprise has never been more important for organizations," said Deepak Kolingivadi, Head of Security Products at ServiceNow. "The Lacework integration with ServiceNow Vulnerability Response enables our enterprise customers to streamline their response processes by simplifying assignment, collaboration, and remediation of critical vulnerabilities. Using business context in ServiceNow, customers can detect and report the security posture of IT and application environments within the Now Platform. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Lacework and helping mutual customers address cybersecurity threats more quickly and efficiently."
Lacework's integration with ServiceNow Vulnerability Response offerings for infrastructure and container applications is currently available in the ServiceNow marketplace. Lacework's integration to Security in Jira is in private preview.
About Lacework
Lacework keeps organizations secure in the cloud, allowing them to innovate faster with confidence. Cloud security requires a fundamentally new approach and the Lacework platform is designed to scale with the volume, variety, and velocity of cloud data across an organization's cloud environment: code, identities, containers, and multi-cloud infrastructure. Only Lacework provides Security and Development teams with a correlated and prioritized end-to-end view that pinpoints the largest risks and handful of security events that matter most. Learn more at www.lacework.com.
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