Layer 7 Launches Cloud Security, Connectivity Management 
Layer 7 Technologies has unveiled new CloudSpan products to address three critical barriers to reliable cloud ROI -- connectivity, security and failsafe support for end-to-end linkage between cloud providers and clients, partners and third-parties.
Layer 7 Technologies has unveiled three new CloudSpan products to address the critical connectivity, security and delivery needs of enterprises and providers of cloud services. At least one analyst says Layer 7’s latest offerings will help redefine the ‘cloud broker’ category.
The Layer 7 CloudSpan “cloud broker” products aim to make it easier for enterprises and providers to access cloud services, run applications securely in the cloud or even publish APIs and programmatic services to third-parties (including clients, partners and developers), according to Phil Walston, Layer 7’s vice president of development and product management.
“The cloud offers abundant opportunities for both providers and users of services, but concerns about connectivity, security and control often outweigh the benefits,” Walston said in a statement. Layer 7’s latest CloudSpan suite addresses these critical cloud issues.
Layer 7’s latest CloudSpan products include:
- CloudConnect -- A gateway that enables organization’s securely move to the cloud. Using access control, secure integration and aggregated usage tracking, Layer 7 CloudConnect lets enterprises create a secure channel to SaaS (software-as-a-service) providers.
- CloudProtect -- To provide security in the cloud, Layer 7 CloudProtect enables enterprises to create secure perimeters around each cloud application (virtual private applications), so they can isolate their data and have central policy control.
- CloudControl -- A product to allow service providers manage and control the way their cloud services get published to clients, partners and developers. </LI>
“As with service-oriented architecture [SOA] before it, cloud computing promotes the idea of continuous proliferation of services (in this case, cloud services),” said Daryl Plummer, a Gartner analyst, in a statement. Using services created by others and making sure they’ll work separately, as well as together, is complicated by several issues, he added, including data integration, data integrity and the need for relationship management.
Due to these challenges, Plummer added that is his view “the future of cloud computing will be permeated with the notion of brokers negotiating relationships between providers of cloud services and the service consumers.”
