Laura Ferguson

Author Archives: Laura Ferguson

Calico monthly roundup: August 2023

Welcome to the Calico monthly roundup: August edition! From open source news to live events, we have exciting updates to share—let’s get into it!

*NEW* The State of Calico Open Source: Usage & Adoption Report 2023

Get insights into Calico’s adoption across container and Kubernetes environments, in terms of platforms, data planes, and policies.

Read the report.

Customer case study: HanseMerkur

Using Calico, HanseMerkur was able to reduce infrastructure overhead and achieve organizational compliance. Read our new case study to find out how.

Get case study.

Open source news

Calico Live – Join the Calico community every Wednesday at 2:00 pm ET for a live discussion about learning how to leverage Calico and Kubernetes for networking and security. We will explore Kubernetes security and policy design, network flow logs and more. Join us live on LinkedIn or YouTube.
CNCF webinar – Watch the recording of our CNCF live webinar, where we talk about eBPF advantages and troubleshooting. Watch now.
Calico for Microsoft Azure – Learn technical differences between different Azure networking options for Microsoft AKS environments and tradeoff analysis. Read blog post.
Podcast – Listen to this joint podcast with Calico Big Cat, Parth Goswami, where they answer the Continue reading

New report: The state of Calico Open Source 2023

We are excited to announce the publication of our 2023 State of Calico Open Source, Usage & Adoption report! The report compiles survey results from more than 1,200 Calico Open Source users from around the world, who are actively using Calico in their container and Kubernetes environments. It sheds light on how they are using Calico across various environments, while also highlighting different aspects of Calico’s adoption in terms of platforms, data planes, and policies.

Report highlights

The report shows that Calico continues to be a pivotal part of the container and Kubernetes ecosystem, finding large-scale adoption across major Kubernetes platforms.

Calico Open Source is mainly used for Kubernetes networking and security
- 63% are using Calico as a security policy engine on top of an existing CNI
The top 3 Calico capabilities driving user adoption are its scalable networking, security policies and interoperability across different environments
Calico users are using a combination of data planes including eBPF, standard Linux and Windows
- 16% of respondents use Calico’s newer eBPF data plane
Calico policy creation and deployment is driven by the need for workload access control and secure egress access
- 85% of users need to achieve network segmentation and protect east-west traffic

Continue reading

Calico monthly roundup: July 2023

Welcome to the Calico monthly roundup: July edition! From open source news to live events, we have exciting updates to share—let’s get into it!

Customer case study: Upwork

Using Calico, Upwork was able to enforce zero-trust security for its newly migrated containerized applications on Amazon EKS. Read our new case study to find out how.

Read case study.

Container security – Self-paced workshop

This self-paced tutorial is designed to help you prevent, detect, and stop breaches in containers and Kubernetes. Learn how to secure all aspects of your containerized applications—all at your own pace!

Get started.

Open source news

Calico Live – Join the Calico community every Wednesday at 2:00 pm ET for a live discussion about learning how to leverage Calico and Kubernetes for networking and security. We will explore Kubernetes security and policy design, network flow logs and more. Join us live on Linkedin or YouTube.
CNCF webinar – Watch our CNCF on-demand webinar, Container and Kubernetes security policy design: 10 critical best practices, here.
Calico eBPF and XDP – Learn how to implement eBPF security policies and XDP to achieve better performance in your Kubernetes cluster. Hands-on lab environment available here.
Calico Wall of Continue reading

Cybernews Expert Interview with Tigera President and CEO, Ratan Tipirneni

The challenges companies face regarding private and professional data protection are more important today than ever. In the modern enterprise, cloud computing and the use of cloud-native architectures enable unmatched performance, flexibility, velocity, and innovation. However, as digitalization pushes applications and services to the cloud, cyber criminals’ intrusion techniques have become increasingly sophisticated. To stay current with advancing technologies, doubling or tripling security measures is a must.

To understand the critical need for advanced cybersecurity measures, we turned to an expert in the industry, Ratan Tipirneni, President and CEO of Tigera – a company providing active, zero-trust-based security for cloud-native applications running on containers and Kubernetes.

Q: How did the idea of Tigera originate? What has your journey been like so far?

It was over six years ago that Tigera created Project Calico, an open-source container networking and security project.

As containers and Kubernetes adoption grew and organizations started using Kubernetes at scale, Tigera recognized the industry’s need for more advanced security and observability. Tigera has since grown from the Project Calico open-source project to a container security innovator that now supports many Fortune 100 companies across the globe.

Tigera’s continued success comes from listening to customers’ needs, understanding Continue reading

Calico monthly roundup: June 2023

Welcome to the Calico monthly roundup: June edition! From open source news to live events, we have exciting updates to share—let’s get into it!

Customer case study: Box

Using Calico, Box achieved zero-trust security and policy automation at scale in a multi-cluster environment. Read our new case study to find out how.

Read case study.

Is your container environment compliant with NIST guidelines?

This assessment helps you compare your current security posture against the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and assess your readiness to detect and protect against cyberattacks.

Read the guide.

Open source news

Calico Live – Join the Calico community every Wednesday at 2:00 pm ET for a live discussion about learning how to leverage Calico and Kubernetes for networking and security. We will explore Kubernetes security and policy design, network flow logs and more. Join us live on Linkedin or YouTube.
Calico Wall of Fame – As a valued member of our Calico users community, we would like to feature you on our NEW Project Calico Wall of Fame. To participate, fill out the form here.

Connect

The next monthly Project Calico community meeting will happen on on July 9th at 9:00 am PT. Join the Zoom Continue reading

RSAC 2023 interview: Tigera talks cloud-native security on theCUBE

During RSA Conference 2023, Utpal Bhatt sat down with SiliconANGLE & theCUBE host, John Furrier, to talk cloud-native security. Watch the full interview below.

Here’s a sneak peak of what’s inside…

“Cloud-native applications have fundamentally changed how security gets done. There are a lot of challenges that cloud-native applications bring to the table, given their large attack surface. You have attack vectors in your coding, CI/CD pipeline, deployment, and runtime. And I think that’s what organizations are realizing, that hey, this is fundamentally a different kind of architecture and we need to look at it differently.” —Utpal Bhatt, CMO at Tigera

“Cloud-native applications have fundamentally changed how security gets done. And there are a lot of challenges that cloud-native applications bring to the table, which is what organizations are realizing. If you think about organizations moving into the cloud, the majority have traditionally done a lift and shift. But now they’re recognizing that in order to get the economics right, they need to start developing cloud-native technologies, which are highly distributed, ephemeral, and transient. So all your standard security tools just really don’t work in that environment because you have a really large Continue reading

Tigera has been awarded Microsoft’s 2022 Partner of the Year award for OSS on Azure

We are proud to announce that we have won the 2022 Microsoft OSS on Azure Partner of the Year award! The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards recognize Microsoft partners that have developed and delivered outstanding Microsoft-based applications, services, and devices during the past year. Awards were classified in various categories, with honorees chosen from a set of more than 3,900 submitted nominations from more than 100 countries worldwide. Tigera was recognized for providing outstanding solutions and services for open source on Azure.

Since June 2021, Tigera and Microsoft Azure together provide users with active build, deploy, and runtime security with full-stack observability for securing, monitoring, and troubleshooting containers on Azure and AKS. Tigera works closely with Microsoft to offer networking, security, and observability for containerized workloads running in Microsoft Azure.

We are very proud to be recognized as Microsoft’s Partner of the Year for OSS on Azure as it re-affirms the reach and pervasiveness of Tigera’s Calico Open Source solution for container networking and security on Azure and AKS. As enterprises standardize across Microsoft Azure, customers require a resource-efficient and scalable networking and security solution that protects the workloads in a hybrid environment extending from the cloud (Azure and Continue reading

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The post test-sc appeared first on Tigera.

The state of cloud-native security 2022 – Tigera’s new market report

We are excited to announce the publication of our first State of Cloud-Native Security market report! The report compiles survey results from more than 300 security and IT professionals worldwide (all of whom have direct container responsibilities), and explores organizations’ needs and challenges when it comes to containers and cloud-native applications, specifically in the areas of security, observability, and compliance.

Report highlights

Our survey results showcase the rise in cloud-native development, while identifying barriers and areas where organizations need support on their cloud-native journey. Some of the report’s key findings include:

Cloud-native applications gain momentum but present security, compliance, and observability issues.
- While our survey found that 75% of companies are focusing development on cloud-native applications, the increased development (and deployment) also creates the need for more advanced observability and security capabilities.
Containers require security solutions for runtime, access, and networking.
- 98% of organizations need container security, with runtime security topping the list.
Cloud-native and container compliance requirements are driving delays and challenges.
- 95% of organizations report they have compliance requirements for cloud-native applications, with 84% stating that meeting these compliance requirements is challenging.

Why read the report?

The report gives organizations a chance to benchmark themselves against the findings, Continue reading

How to secure Kubernetes at the infrastructure level: 10 best practices

Infrastructure security is something that is important to get right so that attacks can be prevented—or, in the case of a successful attack—damage can be minimized. It is especially important in a Kubernetes environment because, by default, a large number of Kubernetes configurations are not secure.

Securing Kubernetes at the infrastructure level requires a combination of host hardening, cluster hardening, and network security.

Host hardening – Secures the servers or virtual machines on which Kubernetes is hosted
Cluster hardening – Secures Kubernetes’s control plane components
Network security – Ensures secure integration of the cluster with surrounding infrastructure

Let’s dive into each of these and look at best practices for securing both self-hosted and managed Kubernetes clusters.

Host hardening

There are many techniques that can be used to ensure a secure host. Here are three best practices for host hardening.

Use a modern immutable Linux distribution

If you have the flexibility to choose an operating system (i.e. your organization doesn’t standardize on one operating system across all infrastructure), use a modern immutable Linux distribution, such as Flatcar Container Linux or Bottlerocket. This type of operating system is specifically designed for containers and offers several benefits, including:

Immutability – This type Continue reading

What a more holistic approach to cloud-native security and observability looks like

The rise of cloud native and containerization, along with the automation of the CI/CD pipeline, introduced fundamental changes to existing application development, deployment, and security paradigms. Because cloud native is so different from traditional architectures, both in how workloads are developed and how they need to be secured, there is a need to rethink our approach to security in these environments.

As stated in this article, security for cloud-native applications should take a holistic approach where security is not an isolated concern, but rather a shared responsibility. Collaboration is the name of the game here. In order to secure cloud-native deployments, the application, DevOps, and security teams need to work together to make sure security happens earlier in the development cycle and is more closely associated with the development process.

Since Kubernetes is the most popular container orchestrator and many in the industry tend to associate it with cloud native, let’s look at this holistic approach by breaking it down into a framework for securing Kubernetes-native environments.

Framework

At a high level, the framework for securing cloud-native environments consists of three stages: build, deploy, and runtime.

Build

In the build stage, developers write code and the code gets compiled, Continue reading

Why cloud native requires a holistic approach to security and observability

Like any great technology, the interest in and adoption of Kubernetes (an excellent way to orchestrate your workloads, by the way) took off as cloud native and containerization grew in popularity. With that came a lot of confusion. Everyone was using Kubernetes to move their workloads, but as they went through their journey to deployment, they weren’t thinking about security until they got to production. While this might seem like the intuitive thing to do, it doesn’t work in Kubernetes.

With Kubernetes, you can’t wait until the end when you’re ready to move workloads to production; you need to think about security early on. If security is not thought through in a system like Kubernetes, workloads are left vulnerable and you will not end up with a solution that is effective.

Why is this? What makes cloud native so different? Let’s take a look at some of the differences to understand why they warrant a more holistic approach to security and observability for cloud-native applications, whether in Kubernetes or another environment.

Cloud native: Origins, key differences, and challenges

What we’re used to (if we remove cloud native from the equation) is having a client-server architecture, where servers are running Continue reading

We’ve just published a book on container and cloud-native application security and observability

We are excited to announce the release of our O’Reilly book, Kubernetes security and observability: A holistic approach to securing containers and cloud-native applications. The book, authored by Tigera’s Brendan Creane and Amit Gupta, helps you learn how to adopt a holistic security and observability strategy for building and securing cloud-native applications running on Kubernetes.

Security practitioners are faced with a wide range of considerations when securing, observing, and troubleshooting containerized workloads on Kubernetes. These considerations range from infrastructure choices and cluster configuration to deployment controls and runtime and network security. Although securing cloud-native applications can be a daunting task, our book will give you the knowledge and confidence you’ll need to establish security and observability for your cloud-native applications.

In 11 chapters, the book covers topics relevant to containers and cloud-native applications in detail, including:

Infrastructure security
Workload deployment controls and runtime security
Network policy
Managing trust across teams
Exposing services to external clients
Encryption of data in transit
Threat defense and intrusion detection
And more…

After reading the book, you’ll have gained an understanding of key concepts behind security and observability for cloud-native applications, how to determine the best strategy, and which technology choices are available to support Continue reading

Calico is celebrating 5 years

October marks the five-year anniversary of Calico Open Source, the most widely adopted solution for container networking and security. Calico Open Source was born out of Project Calico, an open-source project with an active development and user community, and has grown to power 1.5M+ nodes daily across 166 countries.

When Calico was introduced 5 years ago, the world—and technology—was much different from what it is today. The march toward distributed applications and microservices had just begun. Today, open-source projects like Project Calico are enabling the large-scale adoption of a modern architecture that is ultimately responsible for the wholesale transition to digital transformations that we are witnessing.

As part of our celebration, we’ve compiled a few comments from people who have worked on the project over the years.

“Calico works well out of the box. It scales well, rarely has bugs, and is feature rich. Tigera does a good job supporting its customers also.” —Network engineer

“[Calico is] the industry standard [for] networking for Kubernetes.” —Platform engineer

“The support for a lot of K8s distributions (either on-prem or cloud managed) is great with Calico.” —Platform architect

“[Calico helped us learn] about network segmentation in cloud-native environments.” Continue reading

Learn from industry experts at the Kubernetes Security and Observability Summit—next week!

The Kubernetes Security and Observability Summit is only 1 week away! The industry’s first and only conference solely focused on Kubernetes security and observability will be taking place online June 3, 2021.

During the Summit, DevOps, SREs, platform architects, and security teams will enjoy the chance to network with industry experts and explore trends, strategies, and technologies for securing, observing and troubleshooting cloud-native applications.

What does security and observability mean in a cloud-native context? What challenges should Kubernetes practitioners anticipate and what opportunities should they investigate? Join us to explore these types of questions and gain valuable insight you’ll be able to take back to your teams.

Speakers & sessions

Tigera’s President & CEO, Ratan Tipirneni, will kick off the Summit with an opening keynote address. Two additional keynotes from Graeme Hay of Morgan Stanley and Keith Neilson of Discover Financial Services will follow. Attendees will then have the opportunity to attend breakout sessions organized into three tracks:

Stories from the real world
Best practices
Under the hood

During these sessions, experts from industry-leading companies like Amazon, Box, Citi, EY, Mirantis, Morgan Stanley, PayPal, Salesforce, and of course, Tigera, will share real-world stories, best practices, and technical concepts related to Continue reading

Learn from industry experts at the Kubernetes Security and Observability Summit—next week!

Speakers & sessions

Stories from the real world
Best practices
Under the hood

Why you don’t want to miss the upcoming Kubernetes Security and Observability Summit

The inaugural Kubernetes Security and Observability Summit will be a free, live, online experience full of Kubernetes-related security and observability content. On June 3, 2021, industry experts will gather under one virtual roof to discuss trends, strategies, and technologies for Kubernetes security and observability, to help you understand and navigate today’s pressing issues in the world of cloud-native applications.

Why attend?

The Summit is a great opportunity to:

Network with the industry’s best security, DevOps, and site reliability engineer (SRE) teams for cloud-native platforms
Learn how to secure, observe, and troubleshoot Kubernetes environments
Explore real-world Kubernetes security and observability use cases presented by experts from industry-leading companies like Amazon, Box, Citi, EY, Mirantis, Morgan Stanley, PayPal, Salesforce, and of course, Tigera

Who should attend?

SREs, platform architects, and DevOps and security teams will all find value in attending the Summit.

DevOps teams and SREs – Learn how to include security and observability in your CI/CD to enable security, observability, and troubleshooting
Platform architects – Learn architecture patterns and best practices to secure and troubleshoot cloud-native applications
Security teams – Learn how to holistically secure your cloud-native applications following today’s best practices

Speakers & sessions

An opening keynote address from Continue reading

Why you don’t want to miss the upcoming Kubernetes Security and Observability Summit

Why attend?

The Summit is a great opportunity to:

Network with the industry’s best security, DevOps, and site reliability engineer (SRE) teams for cloud-native platforms
Learn how to secure, observe, and troubleshoot Kubernetes environments
Explore real-world Kubernetes security and observability use cases presented by experts from industry-leading companies like Amazon, Box, Citi, EY, Mirantis, Morgan Stanley, PayPal, Salesforce, and of course, Tigera

Who should attend?

SREs, platform architects, and DevOps and security teams will all find value in attending the Summit.

DevOps teams and SREs – Learn how to include security and observability in your CI/CD to enable security, observability, and troubleshooting
Platform architects – Learn architecture patterns and best practices to secure and troubleshoot cloud-native applications
Security teams – Learn how to holistically secure your cloud-native applications following today’s best practices

Speakers & sessions

An opening keynote address from Continue reading

Don’t miss our session at SUSECON Digital 2021

Join us at SUSECON Digital 2021, taking place virtually from May 18–20. It’s free! Tigera VP Product Management & Business Development, Amit Gupta, will be leading a session on Kubernetes networking, security and observability with Rancher and Calico. Our team will also be at the Tigera booth waiting to speak with you.

Speaking session

Don’t miss our session on Kubernetes networking, security and observability with Rancher and Calico! You can add our session to your schedule here.

Session details

Title: Kubernetes Networking, Security and Observability with Rancher and Calico
Date: Tuesday, May 18 at 6:00–6:30 PM (BST)

Rancher enables enterprises to deliver Kubernetes-as-a-Service across any infrastructure, including hybrid, multi-cloud and multi-cluster environments. Kubernetes’ networking, security, and observability for such deployments are critical in preventing an organization’s exposure to a multitude of security and compliance issues.

In this session, you’ll learn about how you can leverage open-source Calico in Rancher (built-in) to secure your Kubernetes environments. You will also learn about how Calico Cloud and Calico Enterprise, built on open-source Calico, can help you address performance hotspots, troubleshoot microservice communication, and carry out anomaly detection. Lastly, you will learn how to bootstrap and configure your Rancher cluster along with sample network Continue reading

Don’t miss our session at SUSECON Digital 2021

Speaking session

Don’t miss our session on Kubernetes networking, security and observability with Rancher and Calico! You can add our session to your schedule here.

Session details

Title: Kubernetes Networking, Security and Observability with Rancher and Calico
Date: Tuesday, May 18 at 6:00–6:30 PM (BST)

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