As we all continue adjusting to a world full of “new normals”, one constant is the collaboration and innovation seen at VMworld 2021. This is the second year the event has been fully virtual with keynote sessions and breakout tracks focusing on what matters most to businesses worldwide such as multicloud, app modernization and security.
Raghu Raghuman took the stage for the first time as VMware CEO to set the stage for VMware’s strategy and vision. He reiterated the company’s commitment to both multicloud and security with several exciting announcements and roadmap innovations, summarized below:
- Ransomware is on the rise
Security and cyber resiliency are top of mind for most IT leaders, as ransomware attacks are estimated to cost $6 trillion annually by 2021. To ensure a more effective security posture, VMware announced a new SASE platform that provides visibility and control over app access, and data loss prevention to protect against data leaks and ensure compliance with data privacy laws. - Cloud is Everywhere
Organizations are not just using one cloud provider anymore. In fact, 75% of VMware customers use two or more public clouds, with 40 percent using three or more. To combat many challenges faced with managing multiple cloud environments,VMware announced new Cross Cloud Services which will enable customers to build, run and secure apps across any cloud with freedom and flexibility.
Lessons Learned from the Cohesity CISO
Principal Technologist Chris Colotti and Cohesity Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Brian Spanswick had an exciting live session where they dove into the role of the CISO and how to achieve the balance of protecting both the organization and customers in the event of cyber attacks in both today’s multicloud era and in the future.
Brian joined Cohesity several months ago, so it was interesting to learn what some of his biggest observations have been. He has focused on defining Cohesity’s internal security posture and identifying areas of risk. By conducting an in-depth analysis of confidential data and critical business assets, Brian was able to uncover areas of risk, set up key performance indicators (KPIs) for security controls, and develop and begin execution against a 12-month roadmap.
One important point Brian raised is that many view security to be a compliance-driven approach. To be successful, organizations need to position their security strategy at a business outcome level. Instead of only addressing the risks of today, IT leaders need to plan 6 to 12 months from now. Although this may not be a traditional approach, Brian urges organizations to move away from tactics to strategy, and understand the true business impact of a cybersecurity event.
Another interesting topic that Chris and Brian discussed was around the impact social engineering has had on various cyber attacks. There has been an increasing trend of employees receiving spoofed emails titled “Message from your CEO” or “Click here for your Bonus” which turn out to be malware that gets released across servers and networks worldwide. Brian’s guidance on this growing trend is to provide constant and consistent education and communication. Monthly training sessions on topics such as personal responsibility and the impact of such breaches will enable employees themselves to strengthen the security posture of their organization.
Missed the session? Watch it here.
But Wait, There’s More
Our principal technologists also led several other exciting breakout sessions during the event focusing on both business continuity and secure multi-tenancy.
When it comes to disasters, an outage is not a matter of “if” but of “when.” Planned outages are already difficult to manage, but when you add in cyber attacks, natural disasters and even human error, many organizations have trouble deciding even where to start. During the session “Sleep Better At Night Knowing You are Prepared for Disaster,” our experts discussed what an effective Disaster Recovery solution looks like, and how to best meet SLAs across application tiers.
For Service Providers worldwide, tenant self-service protection capabilities are still a challenge for most.
Cohesity, partnered with VMware, has one of the most complete, highly integrated self service backup and recovery options available, enabling services providers to:
- Provide control policies and visibility to tenants
- Deliver complete multi-tenancy at the backup and recovery data plane
- Learn how to monetize differently based on standard or custom policies
If you missed this session, Secure Muti-Tenancy for Service Providers with Cohesity and VMware Cloud Director, you can watch it here today.
Didn’t see Cohesity at VMworld 2021? See what you missed.
Until Next Year
2021 has been a memorable year and participation at VMworld 2021 allowed many from Cohesity to not only engage with customers who are on their cloud journey, but drive further collaboration with VMware on upcoming innovations. I am very excited to see what the next year brings!
