It seems we messed up, and last week’s Summary never made it out of draft. So I doubled up and apologize for the spam, but since I already put in all the time, here you go…

Rich here,

As you can tell we are deep in the post-RSA Conference/pre-Summer marsh. I always think I’ll get a little time off, but it never really works out. All of us here at Securosis have been traveling a ton and are swamped with projects. Although some of them are home-related, as we batten down the hatches for the impending summer heat wave here in Phoenix.

Two things really struck me recently as I looked at the portfolio of projects in front of me. First, that large enterprises continue to adopt public cloud computing faster than even my optimistic expectations. Second, they are adopting DevOps almost as quickly.

In both cases adoption is primarily project-based for companies that have been around a while. That makes excellent sense once you spend time with the technologies and processes, because retrofitting existing systems often requires a complete redesign to get the full benefit. You can do it, but preferably as a planned transition.

It looks like even big, slow movers see the potential benefits of agility, resiliency, and economics to be gained by these moves. In my book it all comes down to competitiveness: you simply can’t compete without cloud and DevOps anymore. Not for long.

Nearly all my work these days is focused on them, and they are keeping me busier than any other coverage area in my career (which might say something about my career which I don’t want to think about). Most of it is either end-user focused, or working with vendors and service providers on internal stuff – not the normal analyst product and marketing advice.

I am finding that while it’s intimidating on the surface, there really are only so many ways to skin a cat. I see consistent design patterns emerging among those seeing successes, and a big chunk of what I spend time on these days is adapting them for others who are wandering through the same wilderness. The patterns change and evolve, but once you get them down it’s like that first time you make it from top to bottom on your snowboard. You’re over the learning curve, and get to start having fun.

Although it sure helps if you actually like snowboarding. Or just snow. I meet plenty of people in tech who are just in it for the paycheck, and don’t actually like technology. That’s like being a chef who only drinks Soylent at home. Odds are they won’t get the Michelin Star any time soon. And they probably need to medicate themselves to sleep.

But if you love technology? Oh, man – there’s never been a better time to roll up our sleeves, have some fun, and make a little cash in the process. On that note, I need to go reset some demos, evaluate a client’s new cloud security controls, and finish off a proposal to help someone else integrate security testing into their DevOps process. There are, most definitely, worse ways to spend my day.

On to the Summary:

Webcasts, Podcasts, Outside Writing, and Conferences

Favorite Securosis Posts

  • Mike Rothman: Network-based Threat Detection: Prioritizing with Context: Prioritization is still the bane of most security folks’ existence. We’re making slow but steady progress.
  • Rich: Incite 5/6/2015: Just Be. I keep picking on Mike because I’m the one from Hippieville (Boulder), but figuring out what grounds you is insanely important, and the only way to really enjoy life. For me it’s moving meditation (crashing my bike or getting my face smashed by a friend). Mike is on a much healthier path.

Other Securosis Posts

Favorite Outside Posts

  • Mike Rothman: Google moves its corporate applications to the Internet: This is big. Not the first time we’re seeing it, but the first at this scale. Editor’s note: one of my recent cloud clients has done the same thing. They assume the LAN is completely hostile.
  • Rich: CrowdStrike’s VENOM vulnerability writeup. It’s pretty clear and at the right tech level for most people (unless you are a vulnerability researcher working on a PoC). Although I am really tired of everyone naming vulnerabilities – eventually we’ll need to ask George Lucas’ kids to make up names for us.

Research Reports and Presentations

Top News and Posts

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