Blogs

To explore user perspectives around SASE solutions and elastic cloud gateway architectures, ESG recently completed a research study on the convergence of network security tools through a consolidated, cloud-delivered platform. The study explored pain points with current approaches and tools, interest in and important elements of an ECG approach, and what organizations expect to gain from implementing an ECG architecture. To explore some of the research, I invited my colleague Jon Oltsik to discuss the findings and what they mean.

My colleague Dave Gruber is such a great guest that I invited him back for an unparalleled SOAPA video part 3. In our final installment, Dave and I talk about:

In this episode of Data Protection Conversations, I catch up with Justin Augat from iLand.

First came the traditional enterprise data warehouse (EDW). Structured data is integrated into an EDW from external data sources using ETLs (check out my recent blog post on this). The data can then be queried by end-users for BI and reporting. EDWs were purpose built for BI and reporting. But with the growing desire to incorporate more data, of different types, from different sources, of different change rates, the traditional EDW has fallen short. It does not support unstructured data (i.e., video, audio, unstructured text, etc.), streaming is for the most part out of the question, there is no data science or machine learning that can be done directly on the data, and because of their closed/proprietary nature, costs quickly skyrocket as organizations scale their deployments. Modern, cloud-based EDWs have looked to address several of these challenges and done a good job of it, but some challenges still remain, with the obvious being lack of unstructured data support.

The recent research ESG conducted on the impact of COVID-19 on knowledge workers and on IT spending intentions revealed a few interesting findings that directly affect data protection. Backup and recovery is hot!  While some organizations are cutting their IT budgets, not every one is and some specific technologies are actually doing better than others. Among the top 3 technologies least likely to be reduced: cybersecurity, remote/telework solutions...and data protection! 26% of our IT executive respondents said their data protection budget is actually going increase, and 54% will keep it steady. Cloud technologies and services fare very well across the board as one could have guessed in the current climate.  

In part 2 of our SOAPA video, I welcome back my astute colleague, Dave Gruber. The conversation turns to XDR, a market segment that Dave and I collaborate on. I ask Dave about:

• The definition of XDR. It’s a nebulous industry term but Dave nails it by explaining that XDR is a method for bringing controls together to improve security telemetry collection, correlation, contextualization, and analytics. There’s also an operational side of XDR to help coordinate response and remediation across multiple controls simultaneously.

Back in March, I heard from several CISOs about how COVID-19 was disrupting their cybersecurity programs and changing their priorities. A few weeks later, I connected with some CISO friends, and got an update on phase 2 of their pandemic journeys.

While no one knows when the coronavirus impact will end, we are getting a good perspective on what the new normal will look like. Here are ten changes I anticipate (in no particular order):

The SOAPA video series has featured a series of prolific industry beacons representing leading security operations technology vendors. That will continue, but I thought I’d shake up the format a bit by inviting my colleague and friend, Dave Gruber, to participate. 

John shares some great perspective on VDI solutions and how remote work has inspired the future of work. We also discuss the pros and cons of VPN and how VDI helps overcome some of the traditional challenges of VPN. The other topic we hit on is deployment choice and how businesses may choose on-prem or off-prem VDI deployment models.

VeeamON used to have 2000 attendees. That was in the “old” world from a few months ago. The “new normal” has made the company pivot its popular event to digital, as is happening around the industry, with more or less success and execution prowess. 

Veeam nailed it.

One interesting thing happened: it “democratized” the event, making it available to 20 times more people than the physical event could. So out of a “bad” thing, a good thing happened. Veeam will also hold localized versions of this in various parts of the world in the next few weeks, like Europe. However, it was pretty clear that many did not want to wait and joined the event despite the time difference. 

Data integration is hard. Over the years, of all the technologies and processes that are part of an organization’s analytics stack/lifecycle, data integration continuously has been cited as a challenge. In fact, according to recent ESG research, more than 1 in 3 (36%) organizations say data integration is one of their top challenges with data analytics processes and technologies. The data silo problem is very real, but it’s about so much more than having data in a bunch of locations and needing to consolidate. It’s becoming more about the need to merge data of different types and change rates; the need to leverage metadata to understand where the data came from, who owns it, and how it’s relevant to the business; the need to properly govern data as more folks ask for access; and the need to ensure trust in data because if there isn’t trust in the data, how can you trust the outcomes derived from it?

This week, Dell Technologies announced the release of its new PowerScale storage platform for unstructured (file and object) data. Despite the new name, PowerScale leverages the same OneFS technology that was the backbone of the Isilon brand for so many years.

Why isn’t it just called Isilon? Multiple reasons, Dell looks to be consolidating the naming for its infrastructure portfolio all under “Power” brands, such as PowerMax, PowerStore, PowerOne, and now PowerScale. Also, there is a lot more in this launch than just a new appliance.

The data protection space relies on a very diverse and complex ecosystem of channel players. How has the COVID-19 crisis affected the channel? I discuss this important topic in a new video with resident expert and lead of ESG's channel practice Kevin Rhone.

It's always a pleasure to speak with Carisa as she shares her enthusiasm for the market and the variety of experiences Citrix customers are working through today. We also touch on the potential importance of user experience monitoring and how it may play into future remote work decisions.

Listen to hear how Citrix is helping customers and the unique position that Citrix holds in the market with its ability to deliver a variety of work-from-home solutions. Vishal also shares how important the cloud consumption model has been during these times and some potential maneuvers he sees as customers think through what's next.

Brad shares some great perspective from a customer point of view and what he is seeing with Workspot customers during the COVID-19 pandemic. We chat through the varying degrees of success businesses are having, the work at home kit, and the different measures businesses may take to rebound back to a mix of remote work and office work.

The recent announcement from IBM to withdraw from all research, development, and offerings of facial recognition will not stop facial recognition from being used by law enforcement or government entities. There. I said it. Facial recognition will continue on its gray area trajectory with or without IBM. But what IBM has done, specifically Arvind Krishna, is bringing attention to a growing concern that needs far more national and global attention. The use of facial recognition needs to be scrutinized for bias and privacy concerns. It needs oversight. It needs guardrails. Usage, especially from law enforcement and governing entities, needs to be transparent. And frankly, the technology needs to be better for it to work the way people envision.

Sachin and I think through how to dispel the executive myth about remote work and the important role of VDI & DaaS. We even make the bold prediction that THIS IS the year of VDI.

As we all work through the various impacts of the novel coronavirus – from the depressing and the serious to the merely inconvenient – it's vital that as much industry and business as is safe and possible continues. When thousands are dying, it can seem trite to even consider this, but it is not only important in terms of us having a vibrant post-virus world; IT is an important contributor to sustaining our lives and communications today, and also a vital element to finding ways to overcome the virus.

It’s great to be back with the SOAPA video series, albeit in a remote format. Nevertheless, I was excited to interview Hugh Njemanze, CEO of Anomali, a leading threat intelligence platform (TIP). In part 2 of our video, Hugh and I yak about:

It’s not surprising that IT is getting more complicated. Digital transformation initiatives are proliferating across industries, and building out hybrid and multi-cloud environments is gaining traction. The need for speed is essential—especially when it comes to networking.

With this in mind, Cisco and Google recently announced their joint turnkey networking solution—Cisco SD-WAN Hub with Google Cloud. Google Cloud is providing hybrid and multi-cloud services, connectivity and security solutions, and Cisco SD-WAN solutions are offering single pane-of-glass SD-WAN management and secure connectivity to the cloud, streamlining operations by automating routine tasks.

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely hindered our ability, whether as analysts or as IT vendors, to engage with our peers, partners, and customers. And few places represent this shift in the rules of customer engagement more than the current hiatus of large, in-person customer and partner events.

The big events are gone--so too are the spectacle of the keynotes, the famous speakers, the meet and greets, the live demos, and the tchotchkes. Those poor, poor tchotchkes. Will no one think of the tchotchkes?

ESG Research recently validated that more than half of current VDI and DaaS users are recognizing both time and cost savings of more than 15% compared to traditional desktop delivery models. Sachin and I talk through why this matters in the current state of the market and how these savings (and security) may factor into long term investments.

Yesterday, NetApp announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Spot. While acquisitions are difficult to evaluate since the hard work really doesn’t begin until after the integration work is complete, I am finding it difficult to contain my excitement.

Spot is one of the more interesting young innovators in IT and its technology addresses a massive need in the industry. The firm has several different offerings but, in essence, Spot’s technology is about enabling its customers to achieve an application-driven infrastructure, where the technology provides tools that understand workload patterns, then provide visibility into those patterns, enabling more efficient use of infrastructure and automation. Spot understands how your applications leverage infrastructure including public cloud infrastructure, so you don’t have to.

Pandemic? What pandemic? Last week, Pure Storage announced their first quarter fiscal 2020 financial results boasting a 12% revenue increase over last year. This revenue jump offered one of the few bright spots in a week that saw a flurry of less than positive financial news about multiple IT technology providers. Pure’s results also offer a reminder that business must go on even when a pandemic limits how and where businesses can operate.

The SOAPA video series is back! In this global pandemic edition, I speak with Hugh Njemanze, CEO of Anomali, a leading threat intelligence platform (TIP). In part 1 of my chat with Hugh, we discuss:

• Security operations difficulties. ESG research indicates that 63% of organizations claim that security operations are more difficult than they were 2 years ago. Hugh agrees and believes these difficulties are related to the breadth of tools and practices that are creating visibility and process gaps.

In addition to reporting very strong growth in its fiscal third quarter, Zscaler announced the completed acquisition of Edgewise Networks last week. At a price tag of $31 million, this won’t be a deal that turns many heads, but maybe it should. We’ve seen much of the industry shift to a cloud-delivered network security approach over the last 10 months, something ESG calls elastic cloud gateways (ECGs). In many ways, this is the logical evolution of the approach Zscaler introduced more than 10 years ago. However, the Edgewise Networks deal, along with the recent acquisition of cloud security posture management (CSPM) vendor Cloudneeti show that Zscaler is beginning to think beyond just user access and toward a broader approach to cloud security overall. Specifically, the addition of Edgewise Networks strengthens Zscaler’s zero-trust capabilities to address not only the workforce, but also applications and workloads.

Over the last several months, automation has seen a jump in interest. Operational efficiency has been a top priority for years, but as of late, it’s an even greater priority. For businesses, tasks or processes that used to be viewed as manageable but inefficient are now being scrutinized. The inefficiency aspect is being amplified and organizations don’t have a choice but to act. And one of those actions is to look into a trendy buzzword that is proving to be so much more: robotic process automation (RPA).