The first hospital in Las Vegas was a tent with two doctors. These doctors were generalists that did everything, and they did their best to meet the needs of patients. But, you essentially went to the hospital and hoped for the best.
Jump forward 100 years, Las Vegas has multiple large, highly modern hospitals. Within their walls, generalists have been replaced by specialists in every sort of medicine and the environment has been designed to minimize risks to patients and staff and maximize quality care. The path to this modern hospital required specialization, assessment of quality/accreditation, patient security/visitor access and information controls to ensure compliance and data privacy regulations.
The evolution of clouds is not unlike hospitals. While clouds will be the norm in the not too distant future, today many cloud providers are closer to the guys in the tent. They are generalists in the early stages of what will be something very different. Realizing future safe clouds requires a level of specialization in order to be successful; even the largest private companies can’t hire enough expertise to be highly confident that they’re safe.
To achieve safe clouds, the IT industry needs to enforce rigorous cloud strategies and policy around the protection of information, people and infrastructures. Symantec foresees future clouds that will be safe, agile and efficient. Companies will transition into a many clouds state as information explodes across IT networks, public and private clouds, mobile devices and other cloud-connected endpoints. These clouds will be safe enough for confidential customer and sensitive business information allowing companies to realize all that the cloud promises – scalability, affordability and availability – while users will experience greater productivity and accessibility.
But, we also know that clouds complicate things, specifically when it comes to protection, data management and control. That’s why we’re providing companies of all sizes with three cloud solutions models to break down cloud barriers. With Symantec, companies can:
- Consume or use cloud services
- Build their own private and public clouds
- Extend their IT to leverage third party clouds
Our comprehensive cloud portfolio includes new and existing solutions to help solve the challenges our customers face around creating protection polices and protecting information, identities and infrastructure in the cloud. Get to know our cloud portfolio by visiting go.symantec.com/cloud, meanwhile here are a few highlights of what’s new:
- Symantec O3 has gained momentum with enterprises to provide secure cloud access control point through single sign-on authentication to cloud applications for advanced control and protection.
- NEW – Symantec File Share Encryption, Powered by PGP Technology ensures that files saved to Dropbox remain safe while keeping them accessible across mobile devices. IT and business organizations will gain increased control of confidential information that winds up in potentially unsanctioned cloud services (shadow IT).
- Virtual Business Services is a feature of Veritas Cluster Server to ensure multi-tier applications meet the increasing service levels IT organizations are required to deliver.
- NEW – Symantec Protection Engine for Cloud Services Providers protects applications from threats caused by SMTP emails, mobile phone emails, web access, Internet downloads and files on cloud storage sites. This comprehensive protection service offers turnkey solutions for cloud service providers and companies building their own in-house cloud services.
- Symantec.cloud services include Email, Web and IM security, archiving and continuity.
- NEW – Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition 2013 simplifies information protection specifically for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMB) and offer one subscription with the choice to deploy on-premise or as a cloud-managed service. Customers get the same robust security features in a deployment that works for their individual needs. Those who wish to start with the on-premise solution can also change to the cloud-managed service later without incurring additional cost.
- Two new cloud training programs, Symantec Cloud Security Essentials Training and Symantec CloudSmart for Service Providers, help our partners and customers expand their IT expertise in order to execute cloud policies and architectures.
Today, if you required a surgical procedure, you wouldn’t elect to have surgery at home or in a tent. You’d go to the hospital where a team of six people, including a surgeon, anesthesiologist, RNs and technicians follow established procedures and processes for a safe and successful surgery. Just like today’s hospitals, the clouds of tomorrow will be built for safety and efficiency. We’re not there yet and it’s not going to happen overnight, but a “many clouds, safe clouds” future where Symantec protects all private and public clouds is in sight.