I Need Resources to Free Up My Resources

Automation sounds wonderful, but geez, who do I need to hire to make that happen?


This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our sponsored guest this week is Aaron Ansari (@theanswar), vp, Cloud One, Trend Micro.

Thanks to this week’s podcast sponsor Trend Micro

Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, helps to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Our innovative solutions for consumers, businesses, and governments provide layered security for data centers, cloud environments, networks, and endpoints. For more information, visit www.trendmicro.com.

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On this week’s episode

There’s got to be a better way to handle this

How well has the cybersecurity automation gambit played itself out? Last year, Ericka Chickowski wrote a piece on Dark Reading about the cybersecurity automation paradox. She said that “security teams find that a lack of automation expertise keeps them from getting the most out of cybersecurity automation.” According to a Ponemon study, that accounts for 56% of organizations. That’s the number one obstacle. It’s more than legacy IT challenges, lack of budget, and interoperability issues. 40% of respondents say they’ll need to hire more people to support security automation. Everyone speaks of wanting automation, but is it more of an aspiration and a marketing pitch? Has it specifically alleviated any pain over the past year. And if so, what?

What annoys a CISO?

For my co-host MIke Johnson, the annoyance is the “single panes of glass” that so many security vendors offer. Our guest, Aaron Ansari is ready to challenge Mike on his grand distaste for “the single pane of glass” as the window to your security status/infrastructure/whatever you like it to be.

“What’s Worse?!”

What’s worse, failure but honesty, or success and deception?

Please, Enough. No, More.

Topic is “cloud configuration.” What have we heard enough about with cloud configuration, and what would we like to hear a lot more?

Ummm. Maybe you shouldn’t have done that

We’re talking about vendor lock-in. It makes recurring sales for vendors super easy. But it makes exit strategies very difficult. On Quora, the question was asked, “How do huge companies like Netflix avoid vendor lock-in with a cloud computing provider?” So I ask the question to both of you, what safeguards can you setup to prevent vendor lock-in or at least make an exit from a cloud provider as painless as possible?

Creative Commons photo attribution to Alden Jewell (CC BY 2.0)

David Spark
David Spark is the founder of CISO Series where he produces and co-hosts many of the shows. Spark is a veteran tech journalist having appeared in dozens of media outlets for almost three decades.