Information security continues to be a hot topic and 2015 is gearing up to be no exception. According to CRN.com, the annual RSA Conference grew to be so big in 2014, they had to pack it in to two separate halls at the massive Moscone Center in San Francisco. I believe 2015 will be the most disruptive year yet. The disruption I see in the security field is mostly around the use of streaming analytics. The state of the art for Big Data has been advancing rapidly toward Fast Data—the use of streaming data from connected devices and sensors of all types, web activity, streaming log information, social media information, and so on. There are a lot of packaged applications in the security field, but lots of firms are using custom-designed streaming analytics and event-based rules systems to correlate internal and external events to detect important areas to focus on.
For example, we’ve seen a lot of streaming analytics monitor click streams to identify suspicious patterns like a real-time rise in search activity on a site, but then correlate that with internal business data, such as customer call center activity and also social media traffic. Correlating multiple streams of data is something most applications don’t do, but IT can do it if they use an event-driven architecture, event processing, streaming analytics, and live data marts designed for streaming data.
And, we’ve seen an associated rise in the need to automate actions based on the patterns detected on Fast Data. For instance, when an abnormal activity pattern is detected within streams of data, integration with a case management system is critical to manage the prioritization and workflow around exploration. Along with integration with interactive analytics tools, this provides the ability to detect, investigate, and act on potential security problems, in real time during the day.
For instance, at TIBCO, this architecture is enabled by tools such as BusinessEvents for event-driven rules, StreamBase for streaming analytics, BusinessWorks for Fast Data integration, AMX BPM for workflow and case management, TIBCO’s R (TERR) for predictive analytics, Hadoop or Spark for Big Data management, and Spotfire for interactive analytics. Lots of other tools exist in each of those market spaces, but that’s the heart of the Fast Data architecture we’re seeing more and more in today’s market.
I am certain that streaming analytics and Fast Data (IoT, streaming mobile and log data…) are the disruptive force that’s changing the security space in 2015.
Check out streaming analytics for yourself in this 30-minute on-demand webinar where TIBCO Event Processing CTO Richard Tibbetts explains what sets StreamBase event processing apart and presents real-world examples of its use in capital markets, telecommunications, and e-commerce.
