Closing the Gap Between Complexity and Performance in Today’s Hybrid IT Environments

Following Shane Buckley’s conversation with IT analyst Dana Gardner, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Dana for the next episode of his podcast, BriefingsDirect. Dana and I delved deeper into some of the concepts discussed during Shane’s conversation, dissecting the unique ways that deep observability is enabling IT teams to gain more visibility into richer and faster data-driven insights.

During our discussion, we narrow in on the gap between complexity and performance, and security requirements across the hybrid and multi-cloud continuum. Specifically, what components are needed to achieve the highest levels of security, performance, and agility? Below I’ve highlighted some key takeaways from our conversation.

(You can also listen to a recording of our conversation directly on the podcast!)

Prioritizing Security as a Common Denominator of IT Team Collaboration — from DevOps to NetOps

Traditionally in an organization’s cloud initiatives, different teams are responsible for different aspects of these programs, with minimal collaboration required. For example, DevOps teams have not always been encouraged to tap their SecOps or NetOps peers for support early on. As a result, security teams have become used to the act of playing catch-up when there are issues.

Nowadays, the increasing need for security on all fronts has fueled collaboration between teams on a regular basis. This, in turn, has spurred more proactivity from an internal IT operations perspective. Proactivity, bolstered by a unified view into traffic and communication, is a key aspect of closing the gap between cloud complexity and performance — because it starts at the IT cultural level.

Technical capabilities like deep observability can support team prioritization of detection and management on a more holistic level, addressing all aspects of IT infrastructure. With this, organizations can feel more confident in overcoming cloud-based challenges and mitigating connected cyber vulnerabilities as a collective force. An all-encompassing, proactive approach is needed to speedily detect cyber threats, respond to the corresponding activity, and enact a remediation plan.

Deep Observability Is the Key to Cost Optimization Within the Network

Within hybrid and multi-cloud environments, data and communication costs can skyrocket. The most common use cases stem from packets, which can interfere with control of and visibility into the right data. I referred to the Gigamon team’s recent conversation with Lockheed Martin about Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) 2.0 compliance.

As part of their requirements for CMMC compliance, they were tasked with inspecting their packets — even in the cloud workloads. However, in these cases, the overflow of packets combined with the multitude of tools deployed can obstruct the ability to view relevant traffic.

Thankfully, deep observability can allow customers to fine-tune from a packet perspective. This includes the types of protocols they want to see and which applications to exclude from monitoring, which helps boost efficiency and control cost.

Zero Trust Must Be Addressed as a Standard Practice for Both Private and Public Sectors

Zero Trust has been spreading across federal organization security teams for years. However, more C-Suite executives and private enterprises have started adopting this approach as well. Zero Trust assumes that there is visibility in all of the traffic in all communications that are happening across cloud environments. It’s important to note here that network safeguards will hone in on user identities and data segmentation.

Deep observability can be complementary by reducing a network’s blind spots to minimize any potential incidents that might interfere with this data access. All of this helps reduce the complexities across a team’s cloud network, making processes more secure and data easier to find. As I discussed with Dana: If you have blind spots, if you’re not looking at inspecting TLS traffic, encrypted traffic — you should be. Or if you’re not looking at East-West communications, container communications — you should be. Deep observability acts as a supporting bridge across unique cloud data challenges.

For more insight into Zero Trust and protecting your network security and visibility, you can learn more from the resources below:

• Streamline and Unify Your Infrastructure with Zero Trust
• Zero Trust in Practice
• Active Visibility for Multi-Tiered Security
• Zero Trust Keeps Financial Services Secure

If you’re interested in learning more about the Gigamon team’s outlook on deep observability and hearing more about what I discussed with Dana, you can find the full conversation here or read a transcript of the conversation here.