Q&A with Jim Doherty of Certes Networks

VSM: Can you briefly explain, for those unfamiliar, what Certes Networks is all about?

JD: At Certes Networks, we protect data in motion and provide advanced data protection solutions for both physical and virtual networks that enable secure connectivity over any infrastructure without compromising performance or availability. Customers rely on us to protect data, decrease risk, and reduce the cost of compliance by enabling secure connectivity to critical infrastructures.

VSM: Let talk about your latest release, vCEP. What is it?

JD: vCEP is the first scalable network encryption solution for the cloud. It makes the cloud safe for sensitive workloads by protecting network traffic inside IaaS clouds and between customer locations.

VSM: IT departments can often become intimidated to move to off-premise cloud environments. How are you helping with this?

JD: There’s no doubt about it, the lack of security is a gating issue for companies who want to move to off-premise cloud environments. Encryption is a way to protect critical information as it moves from private clouds to public cloud-based services, yet without a way to encrypt network traffic among servers, companies can’t protect themselves from attacks. This is exactly why we developed vCEP.

VSM: How important is it that clients maintain control of their own policies and encryption keys?

JD: vCEP allows the client to maintain control of their own policies and encryption keys. At Certes Networks, we see this as an essential tool for regulatory compliance, and it protects both the data owner and the infrastructure provider. Client control of policies and keys also benefits the cloud provider by removing the potential legal burden associated with being in possession of the encryption keys.

VSM: Let’s discuss the end user benefits. What are a few ways this release will help the end user?

JD: vCEP is targeted at enterprise and government organizations, so the benefit to individual users is important but it is usually indirect because the vCEP protects the cloud network infrastructure. Sensitive end user data is increasingly being stored, processed and transmitted in the cloud, and the vCEP solution is designed to protect it there. Organizations are inexorably adopting cloud technologies and the presence of cloud compatible security solutions means that the end user data will not be compromised as businesses migrate their infrastructures to the cloud.

For example, let’s suppose your healthcare insurance provider utilized the cloud to process and transmit medical claim information for members. Typically, this information would include your name, address, employer and social security numbers – just the type of data a cyber criminal is interested in. If the back-end cloud network that processes and transmits this data was hacked, the valuable information could be retrieved and sold. However, if the data was encrypted in transit over that network with the vCEP, despite the hacker getting access to the network, there would be no way for the hacker to retrieve usable information. vCEP provides the ultimate layer of protection.