Virtualization and Cloud executives share their predictions for 2017. Read them in this 9th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Contributed by Ofer Amitai, CEO, Portnox
Securing VDIs, the Mobile Workforce and Cloud
When it comes to securing a
workforce, there's been a consistent growth in new risk factors
including more remote employees, work-from-home options, and BYOD
policies. Let's look at how these trends will translate into 2017, and
how securing against potential threats will evolve.
There will be an increased move towards virtual desktop infrastructure
(VDI), which allow users to access their desktops, documents, programs
and more regardless of computer or location, essentially creating a
mobile workforce. With VDIs, employees can log onto a different computer
mid-project and resume where they left off. As we can expect VDIs to
become more common in 2017, public and private cloud infrastructures
will play a larger role and be leveraged to host these environments.
Cloud-based infrastructures and mobile workforces will offer the perfect
foundation for enterprises embracing BYOD. With increased flexibility
for both the employees and IT departments, IT will be able to address
fast provisioning, easy patch deployment, and troubleshooting. Though
the benefits are clear, this virtual workforce also brings the challenge
of securing from the cloud.
Security issues arise when members of a mobile workforce access their
devices on a non-managed network because personal devices don't have the
enterprise-level security and become more vulnerable to data leakage or
attack.
In 2017, enterprises need to implement effective security technologies
to verify security health of the machines accessing the VDI, along with
the contextual information like user, location, and time, prior to
allowing access to the enterprise. These security technologies allow
enterprise IT managers and CISOs to monitor and prevent security
incidents in real time.
Another challenge IT managers face is continuously monitoring mobile
workforce workstations. When devices are constantly in motion, it's
difficult to predict when they'll become part of a managed network. One
solution to this is securing from the cloud rather than on-prem, because
a cloud solution can actively monitor endpoints continuously, even when
they're in motion.
While 2017 is sure to see more security risks and breaches, it will be
crucial for companies to understand security risks associated prior to
implementing a VDI cloud-based strategy, and how to manage these risks,
in order to get the most out of their solution.
As we move into 2017, IT managers should embrace the move towards a
mobile workforce, but only with the understanding of associated security
risks and a willingness to implement a cloud-based security solution.
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About the Author
Ofer Amitai, CEO and Co-Founder
As CEO and co-founder of Portnox, Ofer is responsible for the day-to-day
operations and setting the strategic direction at Portnox. Ofer has
over 20 years experience in network security, from establishing the
first IT security team in the Israeli Air-force, managing the security
division at Xpert Integrated Systems to being Microsoft Regional
Director of Security, Ofer is a proven innovator and thought leader in
network security. Mr. Amitai holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science.
