IBM Champions Generative AI and Automation to Safeguard Security Across AWS Environments

Rhea-AI Summary

IBM has announced Autonomous Security for Cloud (ASC), an AI-powered solution leveraging Amazon Bedrock's generative AI to automate cloud security management and decision-making in AWS environments. The solution addresses key challenges identified in IBM's 2024 Cloud Threat Landscape report, where misconfigurations and compliance failures were noted as top threats. ASC will use generative AI and automation to provide continuous monitoring, immediate adjustments, and proactive threat mitigation, while automating security control deployment and compliance management. The solution will be globally available in December 2024.

Positive

• Introduction of new AI-powered security solution (ASC) addressing critical market needs
• Partnership with AWS leveraging Amazon Bedrock technology
• Automated solution reducing manual workload and operational costs
• Addresses top security threats identified in market research
• Global availability planned for December 2024

Negative

• None.

Insights

Technology Security Analyst

IBM's new Autonomous Security for Cloud (ASC) represents a significant advancement in cloud security automation, addressing a critical market need highlighted by their 2024 Cloud Threat Landscape report. The solution's integration with Amazon Bedrock for generative AI capabilities marks a strategic shift in how enterprise-level security is managed.

The timing is particularly relevant given that 96% of organizations are pursuing cloud transformation. ASC's ability to automate security control deployment and maintain compliance could significantly reduce operational costs and human error risks. The December 2024 launch positions IBM to capture growing demand for AI-powered security solutions in the $500+ billion cloud computing market.

Key technical differentiators include RAG applications for policy understanding and autonomous monitoring capabilities. This could provide IBM a competitive edge in the rapidly growing cloud security market, particularly in highly regulated sectors where manual compliance processes are a major bottleneck.

IBM's Autonomous Security for Cloud solution to help organizations transition to cloud-based environments using Amazon Bedrock's generative artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline and automate security and compliance tasks

ARMONK, N.Y., Nov. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced Autonomous Security for Cloud (ASC), an AI-powered solution from IBM Consulting designed to automate cloud security management and decision-making to help mitigate risk for organizations accelerating their cloud journey on Amazon Web Services (AWS) environments.

Highlighted in IBM's 2024 Cloud Threat Landscape report, misconfigurations and compliance failures were identified as the top threats organizations face as they increasingly rely on cloud computing environments. Yet, in a technology landscape where security is non-negotiable, maintaining compliance and security can be complex, especially in highly regulated industries such as financial services, manufacturing and the public sector where legacy, labor-intensive compliance processes can be slow to evolve to rapidly changing cloud infrastructures and the strict regulatory standards required to protect data.

For organizations focused on cloud-based architectures, security management requires robust and specific policies and configurations to mitigate potential risks. To address those needs, IBM's ASC solution will leverage Amazon Bedrock generative AI technology to automate, evolve and enforce client-chosen security controls quickly.

"Insights from theCUBE Research shows that 96% of organizations continue to embrace cloud transformation, which intensifies the challenge of managing and securing data," said Dave Vellante, Chief Analyst and co-founder of theCUBE Research. "Generative AI-driven automation has the potential to be a game-changer, empowering companies to swiftly adapt, enforce, and control data policies."

Using generative AI, automation to alleviate cloud security management challenges
Using generative AI for autonomous decisions, ASC aims to help ease operational burdens, accelerate deployment and management and mitigate risks by offering continuous monitoring, immediate adjustments and proactive threat mitigation, all designed to minimize manual work. Augmenting traditional Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) solutions, ASC will provide a tailored approach to cloud security management by harnessing AI-powered intelligence to consider the client-chosen control framework, along with future updates. In addition, the ASC solution is designed to automate and enforce hygiene maintenance, resolve misconfigurations, and reduce and address long-term policy drift.

"IBM recognized the opportunity for our clients to better manage and enforce security policies in their cloud environments," said Dimple Ahluwalia, Global Business Information Security Officer and Senior Partner for Cybersecurity Services at IBM. "With ASC, we're utilizing AI and automation tools to help organizations better manage their data, tackle cloud migration challenges and positively impact their compliance posture, to deliver value to stakeholders across the C-suite."

As a scalable cloud solution, ASC is designed to help clients:

• Harness the power of generative AI to understand clients' security policies and standards using large language models (LLMs) and retrieval-augmented generative (RAG) applications;
• Infer AWS native technical controls that apply to an organization's workloads based on the client-chosen regulatory obligations;
• Autonomously monitor and deploy cloud security controls to mitigate misconfigurations; and,
• Address their non-compliance discrepancies using cloud-native automation.

And, for client security teams that spend months mapping security policies, aligning them with regulations and transforming them into scripts, ASC also seeks to accelerate the time spent on policy deployment using a combination of generative AI and cloud-native automation.

Accelerating Cloud Transformation with IBM and AWS
The introduction of ASC underscores IBM's commitment to helping mutual clients harness the power of AWS. By combining IBM's expertise in cloud transformation with AWS, ASC will allow clients to accelerate their cloud adoption and unlock new opportunities for business transformation and growth.

Beginning with deployment and onboarding, IBM consultants with cloud certifications and AWS expertise can assist clients utilizing ASC with tailored assessments, continuous monitoring and optimization, and proactive risk and compliance management. In addition, IBM Consulting can support ASC integration on AWS to address client's evolving cloud infrastructure needs with the goal of improving accuracy and effectiveness over time.

IBM's ASC solution will be generally available globally beginning in December 2024 and showcased during an AWS re:Invent 2024 session titled, "Harnessing AI for Autonomous Cloud Security: IBM & AWS Game-Changing Solution." For more information on IBM's Autonomous Security for Cloud solution, visit: https://www.ibm.com/services/autonomous-security-cloud.

Statements regarding IBM's future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and represent goals and objectives only.

About IBM
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. More than 4,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM's hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM's breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM's long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

Visit www.ibm.com/ for more information.

IBM Contacts:

Joel Rushing
Joel.Rushing@ibm.com 

Alex Prevor
Alexandra.Prevor@ibm.com 

 

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SOURCE IBM

FAQ

What is IBM's new Autonomous Security for Cloud (ASC) solution?

IBM's ASC is an AI-powered solution that uses Amazon Bedrock's generative AI to automate cloud security management and decision-making in AWS environments, helping organizations manage security and compliance tasks.

When will IBM's Autonomous Security for Cloud be available?

IBM's ASC solution will be generally available globally in December 2024.

What security challenges does IBM's ASC address?

According to IBM's 2024 Cloud Threat Landscape report, ASC addresses misconfigurations and compliance failures, which are identified as the top threats organizations face in cloud computing environments.

How does IBM's ASC use generative AI?

IBM's ASC uses generative AI through Amazon Bedrock to understand security policies, infer AWS technical controls, automate monitoring, and deploy cloud security controls to mitigate misconfigurations.