Alert Logic: Channel Holds Key to Cloud Security

The channel will play a key role in cloud security as enterprises continue moving more of their business to Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform and other cloud services providers, according to an executive with Alert Logic, a threat intelligence vendor.

At this week’s AWS re:Inforce event in Boston, Jack Danahy, senior vice president of security at Alert Logic, told Channel Futures his company offers the kind of security capabilities that can help organizations secure their applications and data as they increasingly live both on-premises and in the cloud.

However, the world of cloud security is built on trust, and often it’s an enterprise’s channel partner that is most trusted. They already are helping customers through their complex digital transformations and migrations to the cloud, so relying on them for advice and support as they tackle the world of cloud security makes sense, Danahy said.

Alert Logic’s Jack Danahy

“To the extent that we, Alert Logic, establish a strong relationship with a partner, so they know us, they trust us, rely on us and are committed to us to provide their security tech and that team – the experts – to provide them with the security information they need, then their customers will as well,” he said, adding that the transitive nature of trust means that if the channel partner trusts the security vendor, eventually the end user will come to trust the vendor as well.

The AWS show – the inaugural re:Inforce – was focused solely on the issue of cloud security. AWS, the world’s largest public cloud service provider, offers myriad security services that span everything from data protection and identity, directory and access to detective controls and management and networking and infrastructure. Cloud security is a booming business, with Forrester Research analysts predicting that the market will grow to $12.7 billion by 2023, a jump from $5.6 billion a year ago.

Organizations often believe that once their workloads and data get into the cloud, the responsibility for security lies with the cloud provider, Danahy said. However, as AWS emphasized during the two-day event, it and other cloud providers essentially will offer security from the infrastructure to the hypervisor. What’s running on top of that becomes the customer’s responsibility to secure.

The partners that have helped enterprises and other companies make their way to the public cloud are in the best position to help them negotiate the issue of security once there. In addition, partners are in the position to help accelerate their customers’ adoption of security platforms and services, he said. Without partners such as MSPs and system integrators, the responsibility for finding, integrating and deploying security would fall to the customers themselves.

“The partner that goes in there and helps them lay down the strategy of getting AWS in the first place also helps them understand when they’re doing that why they should also make it secure, and boom, it’s done,” Danahy said. “It’s a single step and that thing is clean. You don’t want to add security after the fact, and from a partner’s perspective, that’s when you want to do it — upfront.”

Alert Logic has about 300 channel partners and almost 70% of the Houston-based company’s revenue comes through the channel. Alert Logic offers a security platform that spans both cloud and on-premises environments and touches on everything from threat monitoring and visibility to compliance, threat protection and analytics. At the same time, the 17-year-old company’s threat intelligence offering includes such features as a threat index, user-behavior anomaly detection and dark web scanning. Alert Logic also offers security experts that can act as a customer’s security operations center (SOC).

Core BTS, an Alert Logic partner, has provided network operations center (NOC) and help-desk services for 12 years, according to Robert Sensenig, senior vice president of business development and security at the consultancy and MSP. He noted that Alert Logic’s Activewatch Premier program includes dedicated security analysts who …

… work with Core BTS’ NOC to help clients respond to and recover from an incident.

Core BTS’ Robert Sensenig

“As more organizations move workloads and sensitive data to the cloud, it’s critical they constantly evaluate new technologies that provide greater visibility and control,” Sensenig told Channel Futures. “Identity and access management need to be part of their strategy when moving to a cloud environment, and solutions that leverage machine learning and [artificial intelligence] to identify anomalous behavior are critical.”

At issue is that the “digital world is changing at a pace never seen before, and the proliferation of mobile devices, [internet of things] and data sprawl creates new challenges for IT teams that are already stretched thin,” Sensenig said. “To keep pace, we’re seeing organizations supplement their teams with 24-by-7 organizations like Alert Logic.”

For many companies – especially in the midmarket – it’s difficult to manage system, workloads and devices in multiple environments, a challenge that will grow as more organizations adopt multicloud and hybrid cloud strategies. The security tools that worked in traditional on-premises environments may not deliver the same visibility and control in public clouds, so many are looking outside for help and support, he said.