Tag Archives: cloud security

News

Node4’s Report Reveals Five Reasons Why UK Businesses Are Removing Workloads From Public Cloud Platforms

Cloud-led digital transformation Managed Services Provider (MSP) Node4, has released its Future of Hybrid Cloud report. Based on independent research, it finds UK IT managers have a generally positive view of public cloud platforms. They identified improved security posture, a greener and more sustainable IT infrastructure, more efficient IT team operations and less downtime as principal advantages. However, half of respondents said that, despite these benefits, they have had to migrate a workload back off a public cloud platform — and called out several potential shortcomings that could be behind this trend:

 

  • 56% said their public cloud environment was more expensive to operate than initially forecast.

  • 22% identified service issues or capacity constraints

  • 21% reported a lack of control around usage and access

  • 21% cited performance issues

  • 17% experienced workload incompatibility

 

The report’s findings suggest that these factors are also contributing to the retention or increase in non-cloud IT infrastructure. Indeed, 41% of UK organisations using public cloud still have applications and workloads running on company-owned hardware — and 37% rely on a platform provided by a hosting company.

 

Looking to the future, the country’s IT managers think they will still be running applications on company-owned hardware (44%) and using a platform provided by a hosting company (42%) in three years. Just 12% of respondents expect to host more than 75% of applications and workloads in a public cloud environment. This makes a more formalised long-term hybrid cloud usage strategy a likely scenario for most UK businesses.

 

When asked why they’re considering a hybrid cloud strategy, nearly half (46%) of respondents said it was to retain existing infrastructure and assets. The same number (46%) said they would adopt hybrid cloud to support applications that don’t suit public cloud. Over a third said it would help them tackle latency, edge, and performance issues they’d experienced with public cloud. Respondents do, however, have a few concerns about hybrid cloud adoption, citing the need to support multiple platforms (39%) and the complexity of integrating multiple platforms (36%).

 

Commenting on the report and its findings, Andrew Slater, Practice Director – Cloud at Node4, says: “Our research underscores that many UK organisations have encountered challenges in getting the final 20-30% of their production workloads into public cloud environments. This is probably not what they envisaged when they began their public cloud adoption journey. IT departments were working on a vision where all workloads sat neatly within a public cloud environment, delivering significant cost savings — and that all security, compliance, monitoring, updates, backup, and disaster recovery could be centrally managed. But as our research demonstrates, things don’t always work out exactly as anticipated for many organisations.”

 

Andrew continues: “We have seen the emergence of a new hybrid cloud model where organisations bring the public cloud providers’ software into their controlled IT environments. Tools such as Azure Stack HCI and Azure Arc meet the core challenges of operating a hybrid cloud model head-on, providing centralised management, compliance, and security alongside the ability to run PaaS services outside of the public cloud.  While respondents identified potential barriers to longer-term hybrid cloud adoption, we’re confident that these can be overcome with developing hybrid cloud technologies. This would deliver a cost-effective, long-term strategy for UK businesses to manage their IT infrastructure without worrying about migrating incompatible or inappropriate workloads to public cloud environments.”

 

To download a full copy of the report, please visit www.node4.co.uk/resource/hybrid-cloud-report.

News

Check Point Software Technologies Acquires Avanan, the fastest growing cloud email and collaboration security company, to redefine security for cloud email

With email threat landscape becoming wider every year, the integrated Check Point Software and Avanan offering will deliver best-of-breed cloud e-mail malware protection and expand security to SaaS collaboration suites

Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHKP), a leading provider of cyber security solutions to corporate enterprises and governments globally, today announced the acquisition of Avanan, the fastest growing cloud email security company. Avanan technology provides the highest level of security for emails and SaaS collaboration suites. Avanan will integrate into the Check Point Infinity consolidated architecture to deliver the world’s most secure email security offering. Utilizing patented technology designed and built for cloud email environments, this will be the only unified solution in the market to protect remote workforce from malicious files, URLs and Phishing across email, collaboration suites, web, network, and endpoint.

Email technologies have evolved and transitioned from on premise solutions to the cloud. With 95% of cyber-attacks targeting enterprise networks are caused by successful spear phishing, the cloud email threat landscape has never been wider. The amount of phishing attacks doubled in 2020, with every Microsoft Office 365 user in the world attacked at least once.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the move to remote work continue to fuel the adoption of cloud office systems and the use of other collaboration suites beyond email (e.g. Teams, Slack, OneDrive), expanding users’ exposure to cyber-attacks even more. This expanded threat landscape requires a new approach to email security since conventional solutions built for on-premises email have failed to adapt for the cloud. Legacy email solutions (SEG) impair native security tools, are blind to cloud threats, and cannot protect collaboration suites.

Avanan, founded in 2015, is the world’s fastest growing cloud-email security vendor. The company developed a patented application-programming interface (API) solution to stop email threats before arriving to the inbox (inline), for both internal and external emails using AI based engines. With over 100 employees, it protects more than 5000 customers and over 2.5 million inboxes. The solution deploys in minutes like an app and is configured in a few clicks.

“More and more businesses are moving to cloud-email platforms and with email becoming a major channel to launch devastating cyber-attacks, this acquisition represents a huge potential as organizations are looking for a new approach to email and collaboration suite security,” said Dr. Dorit Dor, Check Point’s Chief Product Officer. “By integrating Avanan into Check Point Infinity, organizations will be able to modernize legacy solutions with email security as-a-service and protect cloud email and collaboration suites from the most sophisticated attacks.  We’ve been using the Avanan technology as an OEM for the last 3 years and I am confident that with this new addition, customers will enjoy the best email security with the best cyber security capabilities.”

“Avanan’s journey to reinvent email security is starting a whole new chapter. By merging with Check Point Software, we are combining Avanan’s best in class A.I. that catches the sophisticated email-borne attacks everyone else misses, with Check Point Software’s unparalleled security capabilities and threat intelligence,” says Gil Friedrich, CEO and co-founder of Avanan. “With Check Point Software’s global organization, we plan to bring our joint solution to all organizations, of all sizes and geographies, to anyone that needs better security for their email and collaboration suite”.

Check Point Software entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Avanan and the transaction is expected to close imminently.

Check Point Infinity is the industry’s first consolidated security architecture, providing the highest level of threat prevention against both known and unknown cyber-threats. The integration of Avanan technology into the Check Point Infinity architecture is set-to deliver the highest level of security to remote workforces worldwide, providing the only unified solution that will protect from malicious files, URLs and phishing across email, collaborations apps, web, network, and endpoint. The unified solution will allow organizations to:

  • Modernize legacy solutions (SEG) with email security as a service and protect cloud email in less than 5 minutes.
  • Stop 30% more infected emails than any conventional email security solution with best of breed malware protection and no impact in productivity: preventing phishing attacks and malicious files from landing in the inbox, eliminate hazardous clicks on emails with click time URL protection and prevent attack expansion before any damage is evident with automatic post attack remediation.
  • Protect email data loss (internal and external) with the most secure and flexible solution: security admins have multiple response actions to protect data before it leaves the organization.
  • Protect SAAS collaboration suites such as OneDrive, Google Drive, Teams, Share Point, Slack, Box and more, from Malicious URLs, infected files, and data loss prevention (DLP).

 

About Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (www.checkpoint.com) is a leading provider of cyber security solutions to corporate enterprises and governments globally.  Check Point Infinity´s portfolio of solutions protects enterprises and public organizations from 5th generation cyber-attacks with an industry leading catch rate of malware, ransomware and other threats. Infinity comprises three core pillars delivering uncompromised security and generation V threat prevention across enterprise environments: Check Point Harmony, for remote users; Check Point CloudGuard, to automatically secure clouds; and Check Point Quantum, to protect network perimeters and datacenters, all controlled by the industry’s most comprehensive, intuitive unified security management. Check Point protects over 100,000 organizations of all sizes.

 

About Avanan

Avanan has defined the cutting edge of email security with its patented inline protection and innovative machine learning since its founding in 2015. Avanan is committed to continuous innovation and to define the future of email and collaboration security. Over 5,000 customers use Avanan technology. Industry reviews like Gartner, position Avanan a leader in email security.