Network Security & The Cloud

[PPLdude]

So there seems to big hype around moving IT services towards cloud based operations.

Is this just marketing hype? It's not like this is new technology, and moving everything cloud based means "less" control over your data, and what happens when your internet drops?

My concern is, if more businesses are moving things to "the cloud", will there be any demand for Network Security Professionals? Besides the one external link facing the way of the internet, it seems like all the security will be taking place at the Data Centers where it is all housed, in return eliminating a lot of jobs.

Am I way off course here? I'm still young and really enjoy networking (Writing CCENT on Wed) and wouldn't want to spend all my time building a path to Network Security if most jobs will be gone in 3-5 years.

 

[ToxicBunny]

So there seems to big hype around moving IT services towards cloud based operations.

Is this just marketing hype? It's not like this is new technology, and moving everything cloud based means "less" control over your data, and what happens when your internet drops?

My concern is, if more businesses are moving things to "the cloud", will there be any demand for Network Security Professionals? Besides the one external link facing the way of the internet, it seems like all the security will be taking place at the Data Centers where it is all housed, in return eliminating a lot of jobs.

Am I way off course here? I'm still young and really enjoy networking (Writing CCENT on Wed) and wouldn't want to spend all my time building a path to Network Security if most jobs will be gone in 3-5 years.

There will be even MORE demand for Network Security Professionals as the security layer becomes even more complicated.

 

[WAslayer]

a good cloud provider, such as AWS, will have various levels of compliance for a variety of their services.. this eliminates some of the leg work for security experts when audits are done, but not all of it.. as an example, AWS has the Shared Responsibility model which nicely illustrates where the Cloud Provider responsibility for security ends and where the customer responsibility starts..

There will definitely still be companies who require Network Security Professionals in future..

https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/shared-responsibility-model/

 

[PPLdude]

a good cloud provider, such as AWS, will have various levels of compliance for a variety of their services.. this eliminates some of the leg work for security experts when audits are done, but not all of it.. as an example, AWS has the Shared Responsibility model which nicely illustrates where the Cloud Provider responsibility for security ends and where the customer responsibility starts..

There will definitely still be companies who require Network Security Professionals in future..

https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/shared-responsibility-model/

Thanks for the link, not sure how I missed this.

 

[Zipkoppie]

There is currently a huge demand for security skills and it will continue to increase. Last time I read up about it there was something like a million unfilled security jobs worldwide because there simply isn't enough of us with the right skill set.

Keep in mind that servers and then the data centers that will host them is only a small part of the attack surface for any given business and currently not even the most targeted attack vector.
Even if you outsource all your usual IT infrastructure, you will still have an internal network, which is where all the good stuff is usually stored. So there is still a range of other attacks to protect against like client side attacks, social engineering and physical network security (ie. someone social engineering their way into your office building and simply plugging in to a network jack on the wall or hijacking your wifi) to name a few.

Security is complex and there are many aspects to consider that many IT staff might not even realize could be used to compromise the business, so there will always be a demand for specialist security staff.