Cisco Expands Its Multicloud Security Portfolio

The traditional corporate data center is still the hub for most enterprises, but increasingly organizations are leveraging the benefits of the multicloud world to drive operational efficiencies, scale and expand growth. While the benefits are clear, securing multicloud environments like SaaS apps, public cloud infrastructure and hybrid cloud environments is complex. Users are increasingly self-selecting which apps to use anytime and anywhere. DevOps teams have more options than ever to deploy new services on Google Cloud, AWS and Azure.

We want to ensure our customers are at the forefront of this business transformation, so Cisco has built a broad set of security solutions for the multicloud world. Today, I’m excited to share with you our expanded multicloud security portfolio.

Protecting SaaS Applications

To reduce the risk of phishing attacks, we are expanding our cloud email security to integrate with Cisco Advanced Malware Protection (AMP). Cisco Email Security already has the ability to retrospectively remove a malicious attachment and delete it from a user’s inbox even if it was originally deemed to be legitimate. In our upcoming 11.1 release, available in December 2017, Cisco Email Security will integrate with the cloud-based AMP Console to give customers a unified dashboard for all malware activity across laptops, mobile devices, firewalls, routers, web email and internet gateways. As a result, security professionals will be able to stay on top of threats and free up valuable time.

We also know that our customers want greater visibility into the cloud services their employees are using. So, in August 2016, we acquired Cloudlock, a cloud access security broker (CASB) focused on securing identities, data and applications in the cloud. Currently, Cloudlock can discover more than 300,000 OAuth connected third-party apps, but to provide visibility into on-network “Shadow IT” cloud activity we are augmenting it to include additional capabilities. The new functionality is currently in beta and will be available in early 2018.

Protecting Public Cloud Environments

Stealthwatch is the industry leading network visibility tool used to identify anomalous traffic flows in the enterprise. But as customers move to the public cloud they need visibility into AWS, Google Cloud and Azure infrastructure. So, we recently acquired Observable Networks to extend Stealthwatch to the cloud. These added capabilities allow customers to deploy Stealthwatch on premise, in the cloud, for the cloud and for huge distributed environments. Rebranded as Cisco Stealthwatch Cloud, the solution monitors public cloud infrastructure and detects threats without the need for software agents. It models traffic and behavior to understand what normal activity looks like and uses this model to detect abnormal and malicious activity in real-time. Stealthwatch Cloud also maintains records of past activity to facilitate forensic investigations at a later date.

Securing Access to the Cloud

Today’s work environment allows employees to work from any device, anywhere and anytime. As remote users work directly in cloud apps, perimeter security appliances and VPNs are no longer always going to protect devices and data. So, we continue to enhance our secure internet gateway, Cisco Umbrella, to protect users when off the network and off the VPN. Formally launched at the RSA Conference in February 2017, Cisco Umbrella now processes more than 120 billion DNS requests per day with more than 85 million daily active users. The recently announced Cisco Security Connector app for iOS enables company managed iPhones and iPads to be protected by Cisco Umbrella whether on Wi-Fi or the cellular network.

Delivering Cloud Security Advisory Services

As customers move further along in their multi-cloud journey, they want to know how they can improve their security posture and measure their effectiveness. To address these needs, Cisco is now offering a cloud security assessment service that includes strategy recommendations, cloud security architectural planning, cloud data protection and user behavioral analysis.

With this expanded portfolio, Cisco now makes it easier than ever for organizations to leverage a complete and holistic solution from a single vendor to obtain full visibility and control over SaaS and public cloud environments. We encourage you to see the simplicity and effectiveness of our cloud security portfolio for yourself. Since of all these solutions are designed for the cloud and delivered from the cloud, it only takes minutes to initiate a trial or assessment. Get started now by clicking here.