In this News Desk interview, recorded at Oracle CloudWorld last week, Aaron Back, VP/Principal Analyst at Acceleration Economy, and Mahesh Thiagarajan, Senior VP of Cloud Infrastructure at Oracle, discuss the adoption of multi-cloud platforms and important security measures within them.
Highlights
00:23 — Thiagarajan, who has been with Oracle for more than six years, introduces himself. He leads the security and developer platform for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Before joining Oracle, Thiagarajan worked for Azure to help the organization develop its cloud platform.
00:57 —Thiagarajan’s keynote at Oracle CloudWorld emphasized the importance of understanding the “when and not the if” as it relates to multi-cloud adoption. The adoption of multi-cloud platforms can often enhance fear and uncertainty for users.
02:23 — Within the cloud industry, only 30%-32% of enterprise applications “have actually really moved,” says Thiagarajan. In terms of “what is blocking people” from entering the cloud, users are fearful of losing control of their data or needing to “lower barriers” to start using the cloud. CXOs should “strongly think about” how to allow their business to be more agile while still having control of their environment.
04:04 — People are viewing cybersecurity as a “hindrance or barrier to cloud adoption.” Cybersecurity should be viewed as a business enabler because “there is that trust factor from a customer experience perspective.”
04:49 — Thiagarajan says that CXOs are interested in leveraging the cloud for the benefit of the innovation that exists within them. There are a lot of innovations available on the security side of the cloud, too. Oracle is focused on making the lives of its users “easy while leveraging the best and greatest technology.”
06:21 — Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is “unlocking more signals” that could help users be more preventative in security breaches, says Aaron.
06:48 — Oracle’s decades of experience running these systems with cybersecurity in mind is what enables the company to create and deploy specific, targeted capabilities for security to their customers.
08:05 — At Oracle CloudWorld, Oracle announced that it will invite customers and partners to build on top of Oracle’s application platform using the Redwood UX (user experience) building blocks that are available. This is empowering citizen developers to create applications for their specific business needs.
08:42 — According to Thiagarajan, Oracle is “putting the control back in the developer’s hands,” which is something that is not new for the company, which has spent a lot of time automating security and creating secure applications that do not hinder users in any way.
10:15 — Aaron says that the creativity behind the “mixing and matching of clouds” among different providers, such as Oracle and Azure, is exciting.
11:22 — Oracle is focused on meeting customers where they are. Its strategy is not based around only offering security services to those who use Oracle applications but on offering standardizing security measures across any multi-cloud platform.
14:39 — Aaron says the world is still “a long way from a standard” of governance and technicality that needs to be addressed within the realm of artificial intelligence (AI).
15:29 — Oracle is spending time trying to understand how data is being accessed by AI and what it is being used for, says Thiagarajan. The challenges boil down to understanding the bias that AI can showcase and how the collected data is being used.
18:23 — Aaron asks Thiagarajan what is next for Oracle security and what upcoming announcements he is excited about.
18:55 — Thiagarajan is excited that Oracle Cloud is entering the territory of being a complete infrastructure and applications platform that solves customer problems. As it relates to security, he is focused on simplifying the ability of customers to solve security problems themselves. He adds that Oracle will focus on privacy assurance with its customers and provide them with information about their data.
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