IBM: Generative AI and automation to protect security in AWS environments

In IBM’s “Cloud Threat Landscape 2024” report, misconfiguration and compliance breaches are cited as the biggest threats to organizations increasingly relying on cloud IT environments. However, in a technology landscape where security is a sine qua non, 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 adapt to rapidly changing cloud infrastructures and stringent regulatory standards for protecting data.

Security management for organizations focused on cloud-based architectures requires robust and specific policies and configurations to mitigate potential risks. To address these requirements, IBM’s ASC solution will leverage Amazon Bedrock’s generative AI technology to rapidly automate, evolve and enforce client-selected security controls.

“TheCUBE Research findings show that 96% of organizations continue to embrace cloud transformation, increasing the challenges around 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 by enabling organizations to quickly adapt, enforce and control data policies.”

Meeting Cloud Security Management Challenges with Generative AI and Automation

By using generative AI to make autonomous decisions, ASC aims to help reduce operational burdens, accelerate deployment and management, and minimize risk by providing continuous monitoring, instant adjustments, and proactive threat mitigation designed to minimize manual work. As a complement to traditional Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) solutions, ASC offers a customized approach to cloud security management by leveraging AI-powered intelligence to account for the customer’s chosen control scheme as well as future updates. In addition, the ASC solution is designed to automate and enforce hygiene compliance, remediate misconfigurations, and reduce and resolve long-term policy deviations.

“IBM recognizes 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. “As part of ASC, we are leveraging AI and automation tools to help organizations better manage their data, overcome cloud migration challenges and positively impact their compliance to deliver value to stakeholders across the executive suite.”

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

• Harness the power of generative AI to understand customers’ security policies and standards using large language models (LLMs) and retrieval augmented generative (RAG) applications;
• derive AWS-native technical controls that apply to an organization’s workloads based on the customer’s chosen regulatory obligations;
• autonomously monitor and deploy cloud security controls to prevent misconfigurations; and
• resolve compliance deviations using cloud-native automation.
  ASC also aims to reduce the time it takes to deploy policies by using a combination of generative AI and cloud-native automation. This is especially beneficial for clients’ security teams who spend months gathering security policies, matching them to regulations and turning them into scripts.

Accelerating Cloud Transformation with IBM and AWS

The launch of ASC underscores IBM’s commitment to helping joint customers realize the full power of AWS. By combining IBM’s expertise in cloud transformation with AWS, ASC will enable clients to accelerate cloud adoption and unlock new opportunities for business transformation and growth.

From deployment to go-live, IBM consultants with cloud certifications and AWS expertise can use ASC to support clients through tailored assessments, continuous monitoring and optimization, and proactive risk and compliance management. In addition, IBM Consulting can support the integration of ASC into AWS to meet clients’ evolving cloud infrastructure needs, with the goal of continuously improving accuracy and effectiveness over time.

IBM’s ASC solution will be generally available globally in December 2024 and will be demonstrated during an AWS re:Invent 2024 session titled “Harnessing AI for Autonomous Cloud Security: IBM & AWS Game-Changing Solution”: Groundbreaking Solution from IBM and AWS).

Statements about IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and represent goals and intentions only.

Information about IBM

IBM is a global leader in hybrid cloud, AI and consulting. We help clients in more than 175 countries gain insights from their data, optimize business processes, reduce costs and gain competitive advantage in their industries. More than 4,000 government and enterprise organizations in critical infrastructure sectors such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to make their digital transformations fast, efficient and secure. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting provide our clients with open and flexible options. All of this is underpinned by IBM’s long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, accountability, inclusivity and service.

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Further links

👉 www.ibm.com 
👉 www.ibm.com/services/autonomous-security-cloud 
👉 Report “Cloud Threat Landscape 2024” by IBM

Photo: IBM