CDSA

IBM Security Debuts Open Tech to Speed Response to Cloud Cyber Threats

IBM Security Nov. 20 debuted Cloud Pak for Security, an industry-first platform offering that connects with any security tool, cloud or on-premise system, without the need to move data from its original source.

The platform features open-source technology for tracking threats, automation capabilities to help speed response to cyberattacks, and the ability to run in any environment, the company said. Cloud Pak for Security can search and translate security data from a variety of sources, in an effort to bring together critical security insights from across a company’s multi-cloud IT environment.

“As businesses move mission-critical workloads to hybrid multi-cloud environments, security data is spread across different tools, clouds and IT infrastructure. This can create gaps that allow threats to be missed, leading security teams to build and maintain costly, complex integrations and manual response plans,” said Mary O’Brien, GM of IBM Security. “With Cloud Pak for Security, we’re helping to lay the foundation for a more connected security ecosystem designed for the hybrid, multi-cloud world.”

IBM Security developed the tool thanks to more cloud usage among businesses, causing apps and data to be spread across multiple private and public clouds. Previous attempts to protect this new, fragmented IT environment required security teams to undertake complex integrations, and continuously switch between different screens and point products.

Cloud Pak for Security aims to help make cloud security less a challenge, by installing easily in any environment (on premises, private cloud or public cloud), featuring software pre-integrated with the enterprise Kubernetes platform Red Hat OpenShift; by offering security insights without the need to move data (by using open standards to access IBM and third-party tools to search for threat indicators); and by respond faster to security incidents via automation (with IBM Cloud Pak for Security connecting security workflows with a unified interface).

IBM said it collaborated with dozens of clients and service providers during the design of the new offering, with it including connectors for pre-built integrations with security tools from IBM, Carbon Black, Tenable, Elastic, BigFix, Splunk, and public cloud providers including IBM Cloud, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

“Organizations have rapidly adopted new security technologies to keep up with the latest threats, but are now juggling dozens of disconnected tools which don’t always work well together,” said Jon Oltsik, senior principal analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group. “The industry needs to solve this issue for customers by shifting to more open technologies and unified platforms that can serve as the connective glue between security point tools. IBM’s approach aligns with this requirement and has the potential to bring together every layer of the security stack within a single, simplified interface.”

IBM Cloud Pak for Security is now available. For more information, click here. https://www.ibm.com/products/cloud-pak-for-security.