Azure Security Information – What We’ve Done, Where We’re Going

imageLast year (2015) was a big year for Azure Security. We released a number of new security capabilities such as Azure Disk Encryption, Azure Key Vault, SQL Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) and Column Level Encryption (CLE), Storage Client-side Encryption, and more. On the product/service side we introduced the public preview of Azure Security Center. The year passed like a whirlwind and the pace of change in Azure kept us all on our toes.

It’s hard to keep up with these changes, and with new information coming in all the time, it’s even more difficult to find the new information. The Azure Security Team blog is here to help you with finding the information you need. Let’s take a look at what the Azure Security team together with our partners have published last year to help you keep up to date.

White Papers and Articles

Azure security is a BIG topic. We had to decide where to start, so we spent some time trying to figure out what was the most important to you. Then we created new Azure Security content to meet your needs, or update existing content based on your demand to fresh information.

Here’s what you got:

This is just the beginning of our Azure security content push. We’ve got a lot more in store for you in 2016, which we’ll go over at the end of this post.

Azure Security Center Docs

Azure Security Center is our pride and joy. This service went into public preview in November 2015 and continues to evolve functionality and features. Of course, in order for you to get the most out of your Azure Security Center experience, you need to have some good docs to support you.

Here’s what we provided you (and more to come):

Azure Security Community and Support

Community is a really big deal for us and we want to make sure we know what you need to be successful with security in Azure. We’ll work hard to try and answer every question you have, as well as listen to your ideas about changes in existing features and new features. Here’s where you can go to ask questions and provide input:

  • Azure Security Team blog – that’s where you are now! You can use the comments box at the bottom of each article. We get an email notification when you ask a question – and we’ll answer it ASAP.
  • Azure Security Center MSDN forum – you can ask questions about problems you have with Azure Security Center, or just start a discussion on the forum. The Azure Security Engineering team is watching this forum and we’ll do our best to get you the answers you need
  • Azure Disk Encryption MSDN forum – similar to the Azure Security Center forum, in this forum you can do the same for issues and ideas you have with Azure Disk Encryption.
  • Azure Key Vault MSDN forum – again, ask your questions and start a conversation about Azure Key Vault.
  •  Microsoft MVP Program – Azure Security is now integrated with the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) program, with a new contribution area of Azure Security. We work with MVPs to help them help others answer questions on Azure Security.

clip_image002

Azure Security Team Blog

We picked up the pace in the last half of 2015 and published an impressive pile of blog posts to help you keep up with Azure Security. Here’s the list:

What’s Next

While prediction is difficult, especially about the future, that doesn’t prevent us from making plans. Of course, with cloud security, things change quickly, so we don’t want to plan too far in advance because we want to be ready to respond to what you need as quickly as possible. That said, here’s what we thinking about in the near term:

  • Updating the Azure Network Security White Paper
  • Creating a new paper on what you can do to reduce your DDoS risk
  • Creating a new paper on how machine learning is used to help secure your Azure deployments
  • Creating a new location on Azure.com that is dedicated to Azure security information so that you can quickly find the information you need to optimize your security posture
  • Updating a number of current white papers so that they accurately reflect Azure’s current security features and capabilities
  • Transferring a number of white papers that are currently only available in Word or PDF format to Azure.com so that they are easily scan-able and accessible over the web
  • Creating a Channel 9 Azure Security site where we can share videos on all things that are Azure Security and give you video demonstrations of the security technologies we share with you on this blog.

MOST IMPORANT OF ALL – we want to know what you need to be successful with Azure Security. We won’t know unless you tell us, so let us know! Just post your request at the bottom of this blog post. Or, if you want to keep it private, just email me.

Thanks!

Tom
Tom Shinder
Program Manager, Azure Security
@tshinder | Facebook | LinkedIn | Email | Web | Bing me! | GOOG me!

image