Access Control in the New Mobile, Hybrid World
There is a brave new world dawning for the corporate world. There are many “new norms” – and a gold rush of new opportunities, but also new challenges with which they come – streaking like lightning throughout organizations. The workforce of today and into the future is, and will continue to be mobile. Consider that according to analyst IDC, 37 percent of the worldwide workforce will be mobile by the end of 2015. That’s about 1.3 billion mobile workers, worldwide – not to mention there will be two or more times as many mobile devices as mobile workers! – by the end of this calendar year! Then, consider this: According to Orange Business Services, 55 percent of worldwide business IP traffic will be mobile business Internet traffic by 2018. Mobility is here, and it’s here to stay. (In the Asia Pacific region, IDC anticipates the bring your own device (BYOD) market will continue its robust growth. There were an estimated 155 million smartphones and over 4 million tablets in use supporting BYOD initiatives across the region last year (2014), with year-on-year growth of 40.4 percent and 62.7 percent, respectively. And, that’s not even considering the burgeoning area of wearable devices, either.) As the mobile workforce accelerates like a rocket into the stratosphere, cascading torrents of smartphones, tablets, and wearables across organizations in its wake, the number of cloud- and SaaS-based applications used within organizations is also skyrocketing at a breakneck pace. According to a recent study sponsored by SkyHigh Networks, there are on average 759 cloud services in use by today’s organizations. The most puzzling piece isn’t the magnitude of in use cloud apps and services. Instead, its that, according to a Cloud Security Alliance study, most organization IT teams believe they have fewer than 50 cloud-based apps in use. That means that over 700 cloud apps and services on average are in use within enterprises – but no one (but the user) has control over those apps and services, and any corporate information shared with them! The problem is, you cannot defend what you don’t know about! Finally, the last piece of the “new norm” puzzle for organizations is the hybrid network, an eclectic mix of data center and cloud-based apps and data, with a stew of hosted private, public and cloud infrastructures. According to analyst Gartner, “while actual hybrid cloud computing deployments are rare, nearly three-fourths of large enterprises expect to have hybrid deployments by 2015.” Consider that a mobile workforce will drive infrastructure changes, needed to address a more diverse device ecosystem. Then consider that infrastructure addressing mobility requires greater investment in cloud-based apps and services to support that expanding device ecosystem. So, as you can see, the future of the network fabric for the foreseeable future will be hybrid. So, with a “new norm” of mobility, cloud, and hybrid networks, how can organizations address network, application, and data accessibility? With so many new devices that are mobile and are under limited corporate control, and applications and data scattered about the network and in various clouds and SaaS deployments, how can an enterprise be assured of fast, appropriate, authenticated and authorized access? With so many variables, there is one constant that remains: Identity. The user – and their identity – is, arguably, the “new perimeter” for the enterprise, today and onward. As the traditional network perimeter has been broken, fragmented, and in many instances shattered into many pieces, identity has become the new perimeter. As applications, data, and even networks move faster toward the cloud, and the user-controlled, BYOD-driven mobile ecosystem expands exponentially, corporate control has become more difficult, dispersed, and dependent on others – and many times, that’s the security uninformed and apathetic user. User identity, though, never changes. And, backed by authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA), identity is now the first line of defense for secure corporate access. But, identity is just the tip of the spear for controlling the new parameters of access. The context of a user’s access request, and their environment at the time of access request, follow identity; inarguably, they have as much to do with securing appropriate access as identity. The ability to address the 5 w’s and 1 h (who, what, when, where, why, and how) assures, enhances, and differentiates secure access to networks, clouds, applications and data – wherever they may reside and however they are comprised. Insuring user identity is efficiently, securely shared between networks, clouds, applications, and data – wherever they live – is now a necessity. Yet, there are challenges: Identity silos, on-premise identity with cloud- and SaaS-based apps and data, and user password fatigue leading to weak user names and passwords – which are easily compromised. That’s where building an identity bridge comes in. Federation builds a trusted chain of user identity between two entities – networks, clouds, applications, etc. – through industry standards, such as SAML. The cumbersome duplication and insertion of identity directories becomes unnecessary. Identity and access is controlled by an enterprise, with authentication occurring between the enterprise, and cloud and SaaS providers. Instant user authentication and its termination is centralized and under enterprise control. Identity federation delivers access visibility and control together. Leveraging identity for access control, and building identity bridges are now imperative for organizations, as applications move outside the enterprise domain, the workforce and their devices are more mobile and leave the enterprises in droves, and the enterprise domain, too, has moved. It’s the “new norm”.
Happy F5 Day! #iamf5
Happy F5 Day! #iamf5 It’s been a big year for us since last F5 day, so we have a lot of celebrate! Cue the cake and ice cream (seriously, we’ve got them in all of our offices around the globe today). Our entrance into the cloud services delivery space with Silverline was met with rave reviews; Silverline DDoS mitigation was named “Product of the Week” by Network World. We continued to build on our existing strengths, recognized as “Leader” in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for ADCs for the eight consecutive year and earning a “Recommended” status for our BIG-IP ASM from NSS Labs. Our partner ecosystem continued to flourish, and F5 became a VCE Technology partner, with our ADCs achieving Vblock Ready certification to enable orchestrated service capabilities across converged IT systems. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of what we accomplished this year! Of course, F5 Day is not just about celebrating our successes, it’s also about celebrating and thanking all the people of F5! We’re extremely proud of what we’ve achieved together, and even more proud that we’ve done it while keeping our F5 team spirit. Those of us in the company can feel this day in and day out, but it was still nice to have it validated this year by Glassdoor, who honored F5 as a Best Place to Work based on employee reviews – #4 among all large companies in the US. And today we celebrate our communities as well: F5 teams around the world are taking time out today give back to society and contribute to charity and community organizations. Once again, Happy F5 Day! Here’s to another great year ahead!What’s new in 2015: consumer hyperawareness, public services going digital, and a shift in the way we view clouds
Like all of us here at F5, I love technology and how it shapes virtually every aspect of the world today – creating opportunities, advancing knowledge, and connecting people. In 2014 alone, we’ve seen wearables transition from novelty to mainstream technology, the market for drones take off, big data make big strides from hype to reality, smartphones prices drop as low as US$50, new eCommerce records set in China on singles day and in the US on Black Friday, and much, much more. We’ve also seen some negative superlatives as well, with unprecedented zero-day vulnerabilities like Heartbleed and Shellshock, ever more sophisticated hacks and attacks, and DDoS attacks of a scale and complexity never seen before. It’s been a fascinating year for geeks and technologists like us (and probably you!). Now we’re into the final month of the year, it’s time look forward all that awaits us in 2015. After lots of lively debate and discussion here in the F5 offices, we’ve identified these major trends that we predict will have a huge impact on technology, business, and government – as well as end-users, consumers, and citizens – in the coming year. Let us know what you think! The rise of‘consumer hyperawareness' Understanding what drives their customers has become a given for any organization interested in success, and in 2015 it will become more critical than ever as businesses fight for competitive advantage with more data about consumers and increased abilities to draw insights from them. We call this new level of customer knowledge ‘consumer hyperawareness,’ and it will change how organizations deliver and tailor products, services, and support, allowing them to identify and meet consumer needs with previously unimagined precision – creating benefits for businesses and consumers alike. The timing is perfect: network ubiquity, processing power and analytics solutions are now capable of making it happen. And the social media revolution has made people more comfortable than ever about volunteering information and enjoying a rich mix of benefits for doing so. A tipping point for digital delivery of public services Citizens are becoming increasingly connected and tech-savvy at exponential rates, and they’re starting to demand from their governments the same level of convenience and speed they get from businesses’ online service. In response, we expect to see governments move quickly from dipping their toes into providing public services digitally to diving in full force! The shift may be helped by increased comfort of people to share information and handle transactions, even sensitive ones, online.After all, if people are already sharing what they are eating on Facebook, perhaps they’d be equally quick to, for example, complete a government survey on the subject, which may well help health authorities take steps to improve nutrition or reduce obesity. The benefits will even extend to schools as governments are able to better personalize education based on data garnered from students and their work. Of course, security will still remain and big issue with this shift in mind, and identity theft will be a key area to protect against as people extend their presences online as citizens and consumers. Not all clouds are created equal For years, the IT industry has been on fire with the idea of getting businesses to move their technology into the cloud – replacing, and in many cases replicating, existing physical data centers with a cloud-based equivalent. However, there has been less focus on efficiency, which can leave some enterprises with OPEX bills as big, or bigger, than the CAPEX they are trying to eliminate. In the coming year, expect to see increased interest in cloud optimization and more enterprises adopting a “Cloud First” strategy in many business-technology decisions. In emerging markets in particular, we anticipate rapid and opportunistic adoption of exciting and powerful new technologies and business models that leap frog generations and drive innovation.
Evaluating Your Tech Needs
In our increasingly digitised world, consumption habits are changing – both at a consumer and enterprise level – which in turn will significantly impact the way the C-Suite assesses their company’s technology needs. Consumers and employees are demanding access to information from any device, anywhere, at any time. This places additional pressure on existing technology infrastructure to essentially deliver more with shrinking IT budgets, without compromising security or performance. What’s more, as businesses continue to recover in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, many are still dealing with cutbacks in IT investment and a shift in purchasing decision makers from the IT manager to business division heads, and the C-suite. With the increasing ability to implement critical technology services via software, businesses will demand the flexibility to grow based on their requirements, simply by adding additional software resources on their servers. This shift from Capital Expenditure (CapEx) to Operational Expenditure (OpEx) will mean that IT is viewed more as a utility in the coming years, opening up huge cost saving opportunities for businesses. Ultimately, services available on-demand through flexible licensing models will become a well-trodden path – given the reported benefits are to address increasing demand on delivering services. By having access to flexible billing options, executives will be able to scale the services up (or down) as needed, without a major upfront investment. Another trend that set to cause a series of technology shifts for businesses is the proliferation of new device adoption such as mobile phones, tablets, and ultra-mobile PCs, along with social technologies and The Internet of Things. In fact, with the cost of smartphones predicted by Gartner to come down to below the US$50 mark, it will open up mobile technology to more people than ever before. Inevitably, businesses need to consider more intelligent ways to serve customers online and on-the-go. As consumer mobile devices become ‘corporatised’, end-users will expect secure access to services from any device, and with web applications under increasing attack, security will also need to be top of mind. Ultimately, whether it’s for security, mobility, performance or ensuring availability, IT infrastructure will need to align with new innovations and changing user demands. The velocity of non-traditional enterprise applications being used in business will open up risks and require organisations to consider the security implications. Gen Y and Z employees will continue to demand a socialised environment; blurring the lines between personal-social and business-social applications. From malware to data leakage, organisations will find themselves at risk if they don’t adequately manage the social element of their organisations. C-level executives will need to start thinking about introducing policies and ensuring their IT infrastructure is prepared to cater to this new breed of employees, in order to stay competitive. Regardless of how they access corporate information through applications, these users have come to expect equivalent or better performance on a mobile or tablet than that achieved on a typical desktop computer. What businesses need is a backend infrastructure that can help deliver image-heavy content, prioritise traffic to overcome mobile network latency, and offer visibility into application performance. Furthermore, as cyber crime becomes more complex, with attacks from multiple angles on different devices, single-purpose security machines will be phased out in favour of sophisticated multi-purpose machines. This convergence will also happen in the context of performance, as businesses come to expect fast, reliable user experience on any device.Success in an app-defined world
We live in an app-defined world. Businesses run on applications and it is critical that applications are accessible on any device, everywhere in the world. At F5, we recognise the importance of this. This is why we are delighted that F5 has been named Application Delivery Controller Vendor of the Year by Frost & Sullivan, for the sixth consecutive year. I’m glad F5 has continued to exceed expectations of our users and partners. This award is a testimony of our promise to them to invest in R&D and undertake continuous development. As it grows, the application environment is becoming more complex. Aside from residing in a data centre, applications exist in the cloud and on mobile devices. Today, millions of apps define the way we work and play. The ability to deliver these applications smoothly to users —both on premise as well as mobile users — greatly impacts employee productivity as well as customer experience. This evolving environment demands increasingly intelligent solutions. And this is where F5 fits in. Having been a player in the application delivery field for decades, F5 understands the complexities of managing and securing applications. In fact, F5 delivers enterprise apps for numerous Fortune 500 companies. Last year, F5 announced its new architectural vision, F5 Synthesis, which promotes the delivery and orchestration of software defined application throughout data center, cloud, and hybrid environments. Powered by a high performance intelligent fabric, F5 Synthesis promises customers rapid and cost effective delivery of application services at any time. The world runs on applications. And apps should just work. In other words, they should always be available, accessible from anywhere and any device, protected from security threats and perform without fail. F5 promises to leave no application behind.Security concerns over cloud: Are they unfounded?
The advantages for organisations adopting the cloud are undeniably many: cost savings, business agility and better productivity amongst employees who use a multitude of computing devices. According to IDC’s 5th annual survey of end-users, regional CIOs in Asia Pacific increased their spending on public cloud services and technologies in 2013 by 50 percent to US$7.5B. They are also more specific about which types of cloud models they will use and the workload that will run on the cloud. IDC notes in their recent Vendor Spotlight paper, this move adds level of complexity especially the management of applications – where should the myriad of apps reside, do they have skill sets to ensure adequate level of security and growing network. Despite the significant number of ‘pros’, all it takes is one deadly and encompassing ‘con’ to deter enterprises from moving to the cloud; and it is one that many organisations globally and in Asia place top priority on: Security! Most will think that the cloud is less secure than the traditional data center, or that there aren’t fantastic solutions designed to address specific security concerns such as data leaks. It’s not true. It is the loss of control that hinders the end-user’s peace of mind. Despite the hesitation about cloud computing however, it in fact, consists of more layers of security than traditional data centers. Cloud service providers are motivated to offer the best security as their own business as their reputation is at stake. They often invest in specific technology and employ dedicated professionals, to ensure the highest ability to mitigate security breaches. There are also increasing amounts of cloud security and compliance data protection laws to help assuage organisations should unforeseeable attacks happen. Still, when CIOs choose to move applications from their own data centres out to the cloud, they are relinquishing part of their control over their entire data protection.This is why, apart from having faith in having chosen a good cloud service provider, CIOs need to enhance their security where they can — within the application layer. This is where F5 excels, helping organisations to consolidate security and access policies at the application layer using Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) to exchange authentication and authorization data between parties. Afterwhich, they can consistently enforce policies and ensure vital services are available to users — across applications and environments – making cloud-based deployments simpler and inherently more secure.
The state of the APAC cloud – Part 5
This post is the fifth and final part of a series exploring the cloud in Asia Pacific. It covers the current cloud situation across the region, how is the cloud being used, what is holding back further adoption, and how the cloud can be used for innovation. It will also examine the cloud in the FSI sector. In previous posts we’ve looked the cloud environment in APAC (here), barriers holding back widespread adoption (here) and the cloud strategy being adopted (insert link). It also looked specifically at the FSI industry (hereand here). In this post we will look at how the cloud can and should be being used for innovation. Innovation has become a strategic consideration for many. In the past, operational effectiveness has been the main focus for large businesses. However with IT flattening the playing field, innovation has become the key focus. Clouds can be great engines of innovation. Clouds automate deployment In a constantly evolving organization, deployment can be a serious drain on resources. A cloud solution that uses of pre-packaged integration, standards-based application programming interfaces and unique application delivery templates can alleviate this headache. The result: Higher efficiency and lower risks because CIOs no longer have to orchestrate these complex operational processes. Vendors like F5 Networks have taken a step beyond by integrating network management capabilities to server virtualization. This reduces deployment complexity and increases efficiency and productivity. Clouds remove administration burden With clouds onboard, CIOs can look to further reduce their operational burden by outsourcing part of their infrastructure. Some organizations have even outsourced their entire infrastructure, alleviating worries about talent shortage or managing the infrastructure. All CIOs have to do is manage these outsourcing relationships, so that they are constantly aligned with your business goals. This unshackles their IT teams from administration tasks, allowing them to focus on enabling innovation. Clouds enables collaboration Innovation often is a result of collaboration. According to the Forbes Insight survey, a majority of cloud proponents have experienced great opportunities for innovation due to better collaboration. By enabling collaboration across various devices and locations, clouds improve innovation by several folds. Clouds blurs the line between CIO and other CXOs By democratizing IT, clouds have allowed the IT burden to be shared among different departments. CIOs are no longer the only IT experts, with CMOs and COOs now able to subscribe to new cloud services. This has changed the way CXOs work with CIOs, and has enabled IT innovation to occur across the organization. It has also allowed CIOs to become forward-thinking IT strategists who focus on core processes and competitive differentiators that align with long-term business goals. --- The private cloud has so far seen the most adoption in APAC and these initial moves to the cloud have started to make Asian CIOs more strategic in their IT investments. But there is even greater opportunity for CIOs and the IT team by looking at the public cloud for existing and new workloads and applications - it has the potential to reduce the resource allocated for day-to-day management. Going strategic offers the right direction. After all, IT are uniquely placed to offer technology advice as businesses increasingly rely on IT innovation to leapfrog their rivals. But they need to find a way to rid their thankless tasks of deploying, maintaining and streamlining the business architecture so that they can transform into engines of innovation. The answer can be found in clouds.F5 Agility Singapore 2015
Every year, our Agility conferences travel the world to showcase how F5 and partners empower organizations to harness the latest technologies to overcome business challenges. The flagship series also serve as a forum for industry experts to network and discuss disruptive IT trends. This year, Agility 2015 in Singapore focused on how businesses can innovate new paths to success, expand through barriers to growth, and deliver the applications that are critical in today’s mobile driven world. The power of cloud, data centers, hybrid systems, and as-a-Service were key topics that dominated conversations, with F5 executives and partners sharing perspectives on IT approaches to achieve application availability, security, programmability, and software defined networking (SDN) for 2015 and beyond Fuelling the conversation as well was the recent release of the New Language of Cloud Computing whitepaper from F5 and Frost & Sullivan, based on findings from a survey of decision-makers in Asia Pacific. Key insights included the fact that 58.6% of organization decision-makers identify cloud computing as their #1 priority in the next 12 months, and 91% of enterprises either already use cloud services or are currently in the planning or implementing stage. Held in Singapore at the Ritz-Carlton on 5 May, Agility Singapore 2015 saw a great turnout of attendees which consisted of C-suite decision makers, executives from senior IT management and industry experts.
