Tim Johnson of the Google Enterprise Team has posted a look into Google’s Web Security product today, including a video that talks about the differences between web filtering and web security. The video looks like a UPS commercial, and is easy to follow for the non-tech crowd.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O7yL8_o4Sk“As employees increase their use of the web to be more productive at work, you want to be sure that your network is protected from the web malware that is also increasing to match,” says Johnson. “That’s where Google Web Security comes in. Google Web Security uses the power of the cloud to proactively protect your network from the latest threats, without relying on outdated approaches like web filtering alone.”
In the video, he says that 70% of the malware that we encounter today is on legitimate websites. These are sites that employees are likely to visit throughout the course of any given day. He then goes on to discuss why as the Internet has grown up, the threats have to, and the web filtering that was once somewhat effective no longer works against the threats we now face.
Features of the product cited by Google include:
– No hardware to install or maintain, just a simple change to your firewall or proxy
– Proactively blocks web malware before it reaches your network
– Integrates easily with directory services for granular enforcement and reporting
– Extends to all employees wherever they are working – at home, in a hotel room, café, client premises, or Wi-Fi spot
This type of security is probably going to be necessary for a large number of businesses are they gravitate more towards cloud computing, and employees use it to do more of their daily tasks. There is an upward trend in this. “A recent IDC survey of IT executives, CIOs, and their line of business (LOB) colleagues shows that cloud services are ‘crossing the chasm’ and entering a period of widespread adoption,” says Frank Gens, senior vice president and chief analyst at IDC.
It makes sense that Google would offer the security service given that they offer a number of other in-the-cloud services. For that reason, the product is likely to gain widespread adoption itself.
