By EDD K. USMAN, SDN, Twitter @edd1819
(SDN) — MIGRATING to the cloud could be a risky proposition, fraught with uncertainties as cyber bad guys are always on the lookout for vulnerabilities to exploit.
On the other hand, the world today demands digital transformation (DX), or businesses risk being left behind to eat digital dust.
Thus, the IT industry has lots of big name companies who offer cloud computing, each one touting itself as the better path for a journey to the cloud.
Needless to say, organizations, private sector and even government agencies included, are caught in a web of mind game: which cloud provider to trust to safe-keep their data, or assets.
Comes Palo Alto Networks with its Prisma Suite.
On July 9 in Makati City, touted as “the global cybersecurity leader,” the American tech company launched in the Philippines a new cloud security platform dubbed Prisma Suite, which is “designed to help its customers lead a more secure digital life.”
Prisma comes with four key components: Prisma Access, Prisma Public Cloud, Prisma SaaS, and VM-Series.
At the launch event held at Makati Shangri-La Hotel, Palo Alto executives Oscar Visaya, country manager, Philippines, and Orcun Tezel, senior director for Systems Engineering, Asia Pacific (APAC), discussed before members of the media the attributes of Prisma that separates it from other companies’ cloud products.
Palo Alto Networks Philippines Country Manager Oscar Visaya. (Photo: SDN)
How to simplify and remove complexity in cloud security
Simplicity is embedded into Prisma, complexity is out, said Visaya.
Tezel said with Prisma they have transformed cloud security from “inhibitor” to “enabler.”
Saying that Palo Alto has over 9,000 enterprise customers in the country, Visaya said many of their customers when migrating their data or assets to the cloud that they always ask about security. They also want the migration to be quick.
He acknowledged that moving to the cloud, aside from being complex, is fraught with problems about security.
But it need not be complex, he emphasized, saying Prisma is simplicity itself; It is not complex.
“So, simplicity is very important in digital transformation, specifically when moving to the cloud,” Visaya pointed out.
In order to simplify the migration, he said there is a need to have visibility; minimum of controls to manage, in short integration of all the products; and use of analytics.
Visaya said cybercriminals use tools to break into networks, such as analytics, in their attacks.
Thus, he said, cloud providers like Palo Alto must also use analytics to defend. “We use analytics to predict the future, future attacks.
“We have to join them (customers) in their cloud journey; that is the reason we are offering this (Prisma) in the Philippines,” said Visaya.
Terzel assured that with Prisma, “we bring that (simplicity). Security as inhibitor, we will turn it into enabler. We will remove complexity.”
In his presentation, the Turkish national from Ismir, who has been living in Singapore for 15 years, quoted Gartner that said through the year 2022, 95 percent of cloud security failures will be the fault of customers.
He attributed this to a trio of major challenges, such as lack of visibility, fragmentation of tools, and non-agile operations.
Terzel suggested that organizations should not attach price to security, apparently indicating that security gives peace of mind and will give back in terms of ROI (return of investments).
Palo Alto Networks executives Orcun Terzel (left) and Oscar Visaya field questions from members of the media during launch in the Philippines of Prisma Suite. (Photo: SDN)
Delivering top security
Visaya assured that with Palo Alto’s Prisma, there is a way to be secure (in the journey to the cloud).
“You have a clear step by step journey,” added Terzel.
The company assured that Prisma is “the new benchmark in cloud security, transforming the cloud journey by simplifying access, data protection, and application of security.”
It said Prisma builds on the company’s “tremendous success” of its cloud security products as it delivers new experiences only possible with Prisma suite.”
Palo Alto’s Prisma is now considered “the largest cloud security business in the world.”
In a statement provided to SDN — Science and Digital News, the chief product officer of Palo Alto Networks, Lee Klarich, cited what makes the company’s cloud security different from the rest.
“Our approach to cloud security is aimed at delivering the best security while embracing the unique needs of the cloud. We provide customers complete visibility as well as recommended configurations across their entire cloud environment to ensure a strong security posture from the start and consistently prevent attacks.
“With Prisma, organizations can securely connect office branches and mobile users to the cloud, confidently embrace the use of SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) applications, and rapidly develop and deploy cloud applications,” Klarich said.
Visaya said Prisma Access, Prisma Cloud, Prisma SaaS, and the VM-Series are now in the market, including in the Philippines.
It can be recalled that Palo Alto Networks introduced Prisma Cloud Security Suite worldwide in the last week of May 2019. (SDN)
Featured cloud computing image courtesy of Tumisu on Pixabay.