Cloud-Based Security Is Gaining Momentum

Sourcefire recently announced the release of its FireAMP software, which harnesses the power of the cloud to provide malware protection to businesses. The release is one more example of the rise of cloud-based security, which uses the massive computing power of the cloud to provide solutions that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

Sourcefire and FireAMP

When you think of the cloud and security, it's only natural to think about how the elastic, public cloud inherently makes your data less secure, even if only a little bit. However, there are a few companies out there looking to change how people associate security and the cloud.

Sourcefire, a cybersecurity solutions provider, recently announced its FireAMP malware protections software. As detailed in this CIO article, the extremely lightweight software package will monitor your network traffic and search for malware by checking file signatures and behavior. The software is able to analyze massive amounts of data in a short period of time because it connects to FireCLOUD, where the serious data crunching is done.

According to this PC World article, the software also tracks your file movement and behavior, so that once a threat is discovered, you can easily determine where and how the threat made it onto your system. This feature can be a huge help in targeting employees who may be ignoring policies and placing your systems at risk. On top of that, the system can also track how the malware moved through your system, making the task of finding out which machines you need to fix much easier.

Sourcefire isn't the only company looking into these types of security solutions, and generally, it needs to be paired with additional security services, like anti-virus protection, to truly secure a network. Cybera and FireEye both also harness cloud computing to keep networks secure, and a number of major players, like IBM and HP, offer robust solutions using the cloud as well.

The Future of Security

The cloud allows massive data centers to harness and process ridiculous amounts of information at once, since they really aren't constrained by available physical resources. Over the past few years, the cloud has been used to transform a wide variety of IT tasks and now most of a company's raw computing power can be outsourced to cloud providers, allowing for better flexibility, support and cost effectiveness.

On top of all this, as companies are now learning, the cloud also provides an excellent starting point for a security solution, since one central database can be used to service all customers. As new threats emerge, clients no longer have to wait for their software to update since the cloud will update the solution for all customers at once. Using this method, a threat discovered in a single company's system can quickly have its damage mitigated in all the companies that are connected through the cloud. This collaborative solution is one of the main reasons why a cloud-based solution makes so much sense when it comes to targeting and preventing malware.

Large enterprises may have already had similar security capabilities, but the cloud allows small and midsize businesses access to computing and data analysis that would have been out of reach just a few years ago. As the cloud becomes ubiquitous with IT over the next few years, expect even more cloud-based security solutions to become available.