SingleHop, a
private cloud and managed hosting provider based in Chicago, recently announced
the launch of Shield Plus Advanced Security, an expansion of the company's
Shield Core Security offering. To find out more about the announcement, and why
SingleHop is making a push around security, I spoke with the company's VP of
Products, Jordan Jacobs.
VMblog: Can you
start off by telling us what Shield Core Security is?
Jordan Jacobs: Shield
Core Security is the baseline level of protection that every SingleHop customer
gets automatically. The philosophy behind Shield Core Security is "always-on
and end-to-end." Specifically, customers are equipped with a comprehensive
suite of security protection including 24/7 security monitoring, data centers
backed by SSAE-16 certification and multi-factor authentication. The idea is to
provide a holistic approach to cloud security that covers the network, server
and application layers.
VMblog: OK, and what
is Shield Plus?
Jacobs: This is
where we've devoted a great deal of our recent efforts. Shield Plus is an
upgrade that allows customers to easily add automated DDoS mitigation delivered
in partnership with Radware and Arbor Networks. The service is fully managed by
SingleHop, requiring no work on the customer's end and is offered at a fraction
of the cost of hiring a third party mitigation service or buying your own gear.
In addition, Shield
Plus offers unlimited SSL certificates, OS security updates, and several other
enterprise security services."
VMblog: Can you add
a bit more on addressing the DDoS threat? It seems to be the major focus of
Shield Plus.
Jacobs:
We decided to make DDoS mitigation the cornerstone of Shield Plus because we
see this type of attack as one of the biggest nightmares facing organizations
today. Launching a DDoS attacks requires few resources and the work can easily
be outsourced through the dark web. We
also felt that there were issues with standard approaches to protection. If an
organization wants to buy and configure their own DDoS protection system on prem,
it's going to be very expensive no matter how they do it and the available virtualized
solutions have network latency problems. By handing this the responsibility off
to our team organizations address this critical threat for comparatively little
cost and without added network latency.
VMblog: So how does
what you're doing with Shield Plus tie into SingleHop's current strategy?
Jacobs: This year
we're totally focused on private cloud and security. We see these two
priorities as being highly intertwined because organizations often choose to go
with a private cloud in order to meet their complex compliance and security
needs. This program, especially the advanced options provided by Shield Plus,
is aimed at working with our customers on a case-by-case basis to establish a
security program that addresses the unique circumstances they face.
VMblog: Last we
heard from you, you shared your predictions for the cloud market in 2015. Are
you sticking to your predictions, or do you see anything differently now?
Jacobs:
I would say my prediction that interest in private cloud will outpace interest
in public cloud is holding true so far. We're seeing more and more press around
private clouds, Forrester recently conducted another Wave on private cloud and
more people are talking about private cloud and covering the technology than
ever before.
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Once again, thanks to Jordan Jacobs, VP of
Products at SingleHop, for taking time out to speak with VMblog.