“The security systems we will use in 2020 must therefore reduce risk and ensure the integrity of the IT systems - and data stored in those systems – regardless of whether they are real, virtual or cloud-based” -- Dwayne Melancon, Tripwire CTO
Commenting on predictions from Forrester Research’s latest CIO Forum – which say that 85% of CIOs believe that most technology will be delivered via a public cloud computing resource by the end of the decade - Tripwire says that a lot of companies will have to radically change their approach to security for this to happen.
According to Dwayne Melancon, CTO with the high-end corporate IT security specialist, most current security platforms detect intrusions at the network interface level – using a network intrusion detection system – if data stored in a cloud resource is to be properly protected, the security will have to efficiently detect changes to file system objects in real time.
“The Forrester CIO Forum predictions for where we will be on the IT front in 2020 are interesting on the cloud perspective. As a company, we have always said that - as well as detecting changes at the file system object level - effective security systems also need to exercise control over their physical AND virtual IT infrastructures,” he said.
“This will have to happen, in light of Forrester's 2020 backdrop of companies switching to heavy reliance on external as-a-service resources, with the on-premise IT systems playing a controlling role,” he added.
The Tripwire CTO went on to say that the other take-out from the Forrester event – that 90% of CIOs think that centralised IT will not exist in the future – means that on-premise IT systems will have to be slimmed down to meet this need.
Whilst this may seem far-fetched to IT security professionals working in today’s system-based environments, he says, seven years is a long time in the world of IT. Later this month (June) Apple will be celebrating the sixth anniversary of when the first iPhone was released - and you need to look, he adds, at how that small device (and the iPad which is only three years old) has changed the portable computing landscape.
“The bottom line from this fascinating set of predictions on where IT will be at the end of the decade is that the security we use today will have to adapt markedly if corporate data is to be adequately defended,” he said.
“The security systems we will use in 2020 must therefore reduce risk and ensure the integrity of the IT systems - and data stored in those systems – regardless of whether they are real, virtual or cloud-based. Our predictions are that we will see automated regulatory compliance, security configuration management and continuous monitoring sooner, rather than later,” he added