CAMPBELL, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Skyhigh Networks, the leading cloud access security broker (CASB) company, today unveiled the industry’s first cloud security reference architecture. This detailed blueprint helps IT and security teams accelerate the deployment of cloud security solutions, enabling them to embrace cloud services while meeting their security, compliance, and governance requirements. The Skyhigh Cloud Security Reference Architecture provides specific guidance on best practices to address different use cases, pros and cons of various deployment modes, and recommendations on integrating with cloud service providers (CSPs) and existing security and infrastructure solutions.
“As the CISO of a health care company, securing corporate data is my number one priority whether it resides inside the network, in the cloud, or on mobile devices,” said Dr. Alissa Johnson, chief information security officer for Stryker. “This reference architecture and Skyhigh’s CASB platform piece together the security puzzle for corporate data stored outside the organization so that we can leverage the power of cloud computing without compromising our security.”
Over the last three years, the increased demand for cloud services spurred the growth of the CASB market. In the recent Q4 2015 Cloud Adoption and Risk report, Skyhigh found the average organization uses 1,154 cloud services, a 112 percent increase from 2013. However, in this rapidly growing CASB market where a multitude of different approaches are proposed and degrees of functionality offered, organizations struggle to understand how to leverage CASBs to maximize the benefits of cloud services and investment in other security technologies.
“Developing a strong ecosystem of security partners like Skyhigh is key as businesses turn to Box for centralizing and securing content in the cloud," said Niall Wall, senior vice-president of business development and international expansion of Box. “By creating a new cloud security reference architecture, Skyhigh is providing a roadmap to help with the transition to an IT security environment in the cloud that is based on open standards.”
According to the Gartner Market Guide for Cloud Access Security Brokers by Craig Lawson, Neil MacDonald and Brian Lowans, published in October 2015, “By 2020, 85 percent of large enterprises will use a cloud access security broker product for their cloud services, which is up from fewer than 5 percent today.” The report goes on to say that “cloud access security brokers (CASBs) address gaps in security resulting from the significant increases in cloud service and mobile usage. They deliver capabilities that are differentiated and generally unavailable today in security controls such as Web application firewalls (WAFs), secure Web gateways (SWGs) and enterprise firewalls. CASBs provide a single point of control over multiple cloud services concurrently, for any user or device.”
The Skyhigh Cloud Security Reference Architecture recognizes the complexity of today’s modern enterprises, where users are mobile and work from a variety of locations, both on premises and remote, using a variety of devices, both managed and unmanaged, to access thousands of cloud services, both IT sanctioned and unsanctioned. It also advises on which use cases and environments are best suited for the most common CASB deployment modes (forward proxy, reverse proxy, and API).
“As the first CASB player in the market with the most number, scale, breadth, and maturity of CASB deployments, Skyhigh continues its quest to help organizations securely adopt cloud services,” said Rajiv Gupta, CEO of Skyhigh Networks. “We hope the reference architecture helps organizations cut through the noise so they can leverage the power of cloud services using the most advanced security technologies on the market, both existing and new.”
A summary of the Skyhigh Cloud Security Reference Architecture is available for download at http://bit.ly/1TNsGbQ
About Skyhigh
Skyhigh Networks, the cloud security and enablement company, allows enterprises to safely adopt cloud services while meeting their security, compliance, and governance requirements. Over 500 enterprises including Aetna, DIRECTV, General Mills, HP, and Western Union use Skyhigh to gain visibility, manage threats, ensure compliance and protect corporate data across shadow and sanctioned cloud services. Headquartered in Campbell, Calif., Skyhigh Networks is backed by Greylock Partners, Sequoia, and Salesforce.com.
