Middleware Consulting International

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 25, 2021 — IBM Security today announced new Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) services designed to help accelerate organizations’ adoption of cloud-delivered security at the edge, closer to the users and devices that access corporate resources. The new services combine expertise and methods from IBM Security with technology from Zscaler, to help deliver a fully managed transformation to a cloud-based SASE architecture, a key element of a zero trust security posture.

According to a new commissioned study from IBM, conducted by Forrester Consulting, 78% of organizations surveyed are either interested in, or plan to, implement SASE in the next 12 months.¹ SASE helps bring together software defined networking and network security technologies into a single, cloud-based service. SASE is a new architecture model designed to address the requirements of organizations who are digitally transforming, adopting cloud and SaaS applications, and providing services to a hybrid workforce and customer base.

“Traditional approaches to network security are not as viable in a digital world where users and applications are distributed. We’re seeing this transformation happen right before our eyes as many organizations plan to operate in a hybrid model for the foreseeable future,” said Mary O’Brien, General Manager, IBM Security. “This new approach requires a shift in culture, processes and collaboration across teams alongside a new technology architecture. By focusing on business needs, our zero trust approach can help accelerate this transformation for clients thanks to the skills, methods and capabilities brought together via our alliance partnership with Zscaler.”

Announcing IBM Security Services for SASE
For many organizations, the transformation to SASE is a shift in how security is structured today. Security and IT teams are challenged with effectively implementing a SASE solution in a non-disruptive way, changing the processes and culture to accommodate the transformation and realize a quick time-to-value. IBM Security Services for SASE is designed to help organizations transform their network security, applying an approach tailored to their unique needs. This approach can help clients to support key business drivers, including hybrid workforce, seamless third-party access, merger & acquisition execution, and network transformation for the hybrid cloud, 5G, and IoT.

IBM offers a programmatic approach to SASE led by security and cloud specialists who work with clients to create SASE adoption plans while also managing the related services for clients to optimize the environment.  This is based on IBM Security’s five-step maturity model, helping clients identify a target maturity that focuses on business outcomes. IBM uses a zero trust strategy, best practices and methods to implement Zscaler’s market-leading SASE capabilities including the creation of governing processes and policies that facilitate a SASE transformation. The transformation is supported by certified deployment and integration expertise by Zscaler at a pace that suits digital business. Finally, customers can benefit from best-in class IBM Managed Security Services, the market-leading managed security services provider globally. Services can include around-the-clock security monitoring, management, and continuous improvement of the SASE solution to evolving threats.

The resulting SASE program is designed to help organizations protect their priority business drivers with a zero trust approach:

• Hybrid Workforce Access: IBM can provide a network access solution based on zero trust methods which can replace traditional VPN connectivity, help increase protection and support faster, seamless user experiences. This can provide organizations with a flexible and scalable cloud-delivered access solution that can adapt to employees alternating between working in and out of the office.
• Third-Party Access: IBM can develop a solution that allows organizations to define and extend internal workforce policies to contractor and third-party users. This includes requiring an equivalent level of authentication and offers visibility and control over who can see sensitive data and resources. Organizations can also gain the ability to set up individual policies by type of user, group, and application.
• Mergers and Acquisitions: IBM can design integrated access management using an organization’s existing identity provider solutions with the other companies involved in a merger or acquisition, which can help speed up access and transition for employees from both sides.
• Network Transformation: IBM can help organizations transform their network from a traditional model to a cloud-based framework as part of their overall SASE implementation strategy. This approach could  help provide lower latency, cost savings and is supported by a cloud-delivered network security structure.
• 5G, Edge and IoT Protection and Support: IBM can help enable edge computing to receive branch-to-cloud protection and organizations can use integrated edge computing security from the complete SASE solution, enabling additional IoT business drivers. All these items can also strategically help in cloud transformation.

“Implementing a zero trust architecture is an important step for organizations adopting SASE to effectively secure new distributed working models and safeguard mission-critical services that have now moved to the cloud,” said Jay Chaudhry, Chairman, CEO and Founder of Zscaler. “Through our expanded alliance partnership with IBM, as part of the Zscaler Zero Trust Ecosystem, customers can confidently expedite their secure digital transformation journey to support essential initiatives from ensuring secure employee productivity from anywhere to accelerating M&A transactions.”

ARMONK, N.Y., Aug. 19, 2021 — Today, IBM announced that its 21^st century apprenticeship program has earned official recognition from the American Council on Education (ACE) which, for the first time, will allow IBM apprentices to translate their 12 months of on-the-job training for up to 45 college credits, or roughly three semesters of college coursework, from participating academic institutions.

IBM’s technical apprenticeship in software engineering will allow past, current and future IBM apprentices to apply their credits at participating two and four-year institutions across the country. This offers a unique opportunity for apprentices to fast-track their progression toward an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in pursuit of their career goals.

Earlier this year, ACE launched its Apprenticeship Pathways project, in partnership with the Charles Koch Foundation, to expand the range of alternative educational experiences eligible for college credit and better leverage the impact of high-quality apprenticeships. As a result, IBM’s software engineering apprenticeship will be represented in ACE-endorsed badges and transcripts on the Credly Acclaim platform, which translates learners’ knowledge, skills, and achievements into digital credentials.

“Amid the pandemic, industry leaders nationwide are rethinking their approach towards education, skills training and hiring. Apprenticeships have become an increasingly critical element in the country’s skills portfolio because they can rapidly provide more people with access to new career opportunities, all while continuing to earn a paycheck,” said Kelli Jordan, Director of skills, career and performance at IBM. “This validation by ACE reaffirms the impact of IBM’s apprenticeship model and its ability to provide an opportunity to learn in-demand technical skills that can lead to some of technology’s fastest growing careers without taking on student debt or taking time away from the workplace.”

To date, IBM has trained nearly 1,000 apprentices across 17 states and 30 cities through its earn-while-you learn model. Their learning spans 25 apprenticeship career tracks, and the company also has made expanded access to apprenticeship a hallmark of its public policy advocacy, supporting, for example, Congressional passage of The National Apprenticeship Act.

ACE, through its Learning Evaluations program, seeks to facilitate seamless pathways for learners, schools and employers to intersect – creating economic mobility and a skilled workforce. The ACE-endorsed badges and transcripts are designed to allow learners to easily transition between work and postsecondary education while retaining a record of all their learned skills.

“We are proud to validate programs like IBM’s Software Engineering Apprenticeship, which provide opportunities for underserved student populations to improve their economic mobility through postsecondary education and professional advancement,” said Michele Spires, executive director for Learning Evaluations at ACE. “This program empowers students to further their education while helping colleges and universities grow and diversify their student body.”

According to the World Economic Forum, closing the global skills gap could add US$11.5 trillion to the global GDP by 2028, but education and training systems need to keep pace with market demands. The ACE Software Engineer Apprenticeship validation can help support this future of work by allowing learners to leverage their skills across every available channel, and help them achieve their goals.

New York and Paris, August 5, 2021 – Today, IBM and CAST, provider of software intelligence for digital leaders, announced new capabilities in CAST Highlight – the software intelligence product for rapid application analysis – to help enterprises transform and accelerate IBM Cloud adoption. Continuing its longstanding work with IBM to help organizations modernize applications and adopt a hybrid cloud approach, the new CAST Highlight capabilities include automated recommendations for IBM Cloud offerings.

Application modernization is one of the biggest challenges faced by enterprise IT departments, especially as organizations turn to hybrid cloud strategies and need to seamlessly run applications across several different platforms. When migrating critical workloads to the cloud, it becomes essential to rapidly pinpoint areas where application code needs to be changed, estimate precisely the effort required and identify services that are best suited for the applications to leverage. CAST Highlight now automatically recommends the IBM Cloud native services best suited for each application, based on its technical characteristics. For example, when CAST Highlight detects that an application is performing manipulation of persistent files, the IBM Cloud Object Storage service is recommended, along with the relevant documentation for deploying the service.

“CAST Highlight can analyze the source code of hundreds of applications in a week and automatically detect patterns that may impact the migration, whether one intends to use containers or embark on refactoring. It also specifies exactly where and how delays can be addressed,” said Marc Zablit, EVP CAST Business Development. “By optimizing the migration process, organizations can more quickly experience the unique benefits of IBM Cloud, including its leading security capabilities.”

IBM Cloud is designed with features to address security, compliance and resiliency demands of today’s enterprises. By hosting workloads on IBM Cloud, enterprises can use IBM Cloud’s confidential computing capabilities delivered with IBM Hyper Protect Crypto Services and backed by the highest level of security certification commercially available to protect mission-critical workloads. This can allow businesses to retain control of their own encryption keys, meaning clients are the only ones who can control access to their data, not even IBM can access.

IBM Global Business Services multi-disciplinary experts use CAST Highlight as part of the IBM Garage Methodology designed to help clients fast track and derisk the modernization of applications and co-create solutions.

“CAST technology has been an integral part of the IBM Garage for over a year, helping enterprises on their hybrid cloud journeys,” said Hillery Hunter, VP and CTO, IBM Cloud. “With the new CAST Highlight capabilities, organizations can accelerate their migrations to cloud and experience the benefits of IBM Cloud earlier, including its industry-leading confidential computing capabilities.”

CAST is part of IBM’s partner ecosystem, an initiative to support partners of all types — whether they build on, service or resell IBM technologies and platforms — to help clients manage and modernize workloads with Red Hat OpenShift for cloud environments, including IBM Cloud. Red Hat OpenShift is the industry’s leading enterprise Kubernetes platform. IBM Cloud is the industry’s most secure and open public cloud for business. With its security leadership, enterprise-grade capabilities and support for open source technologies, IBM Cloud is designed to differentiate and extend on hybrid cloud capabilities for enterprise workloads.

The new capabilities to help organizations migrate mission-critical applications to IBM Cloud faster are now generally available at castsoftware.com/highlight.

About CAST

CAST is the pioneer and category leader in Software Intelligence, providing insight into the structural condition of software assets. CAST technology is renowned as the most accurate “MRI for Software”, which delivers actionable insights into software composition, architectures, database structures, critical flaws, quality grades, cloud readiness levels and work effort metrics. It is used globally by thousands of forward-looking digital leaders to make objective decisions, accelerate modernization, and raise the security and resiliency of mission critical software. Visit castsoftware.com.