In two conference presentations, Novell experts detailed how cloud-enabling technologies like the SUSE Appliance Program, Novell Cloud Security Service and Novell Cloud Manager are helping enterprise organizations solve the complexities of cloud computing by helping them better understand and leverage the intelligent workload management market.

Novell appliance architect, Skip Paul’s presentation, “Virtual Appliances: Simplifying Application Deployment and Accelerating Your Journey to the Cloud,” discussed how software appliances can dramatically simplify application deployment, thus accelerating an organization’s shift to cloud computing. Paul also pointed out how the strategic partnership between Novell and VMware is delivering innovative appliance versions of VMware products running on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. The session ended with recommendations to software vendors to simplify delivery of software, perform appliance lifecycle management and extend applications to the cloud. End-user organizations were encouraged to reduce the time spent creating and updating core OS images by 90 percent or more. His presentation can be found here on SlideShare.

Novell’s Richard Whitehead, director of intelligent workload management, and Ben Goodman, principal strategist, teamed up for a presentation titled “IDC says, ‘Don’t Move to the Cloud,” citing that IDC recommends organizations don’t just “move” to the cloud, but “embrace” it. Without a proper identity strategy, Whitehead and Goodman say taking advantage of cloud computing is pointless. The duo discussed how Novell’s unique identity-centric approach – whereby organization’s infuse the capabilities identity management offers into their entire IT ecosystem – is central to what Novell calls “WorkloadIQ,” our differentiated approach to tackling the complexities of the intelligent workload management market, which helps organizations ensure their cloud environments are manageable, secure and compliant. Their presentation is found here on SlideShare.

We're tackling cloud security issues by building capabilities and offerings targeting the specific concerns of both the consumers of cloud technologies and the providers of cloud technologies. Ultimately, by addressing the needs of both constituents, companies can have a consistent framework for managing identities across physical, virtual and cloud deployments.

On the heels of our Novell Identity Manager 4 announcement – a cloud-ready solution for today’s enterprise – Novell today announced the general availability of Novell Cloud Security Service.  The first security solution specifically built for cloud computing providers.

At Novell, we believe cloud security is comprised of two distinct but inter-related challenges:

1. Cloud providers need tools to address security concerns like user access and managing data in the cloud.
2. Enterprises need assurance that when moving workloads to the cloud. Or, if  adopting software-as-a-service, an IT organization's  security policies should remain consistent both on-premise and in the cloud.

Solving these challenges is not as simple as it sounds.  For enterprises looking to address the cloud security challenges and extend their internal roles, identities and policies to the cloud, Novell offers the combination of Novell Identity Manager 4 and Novell Access Manager to provide seamless provisioning and access management to SaaS and other cloud applications.

For cloud service providers, Novell Cloud Security Service offers a multi-tenant identity and access management solution specifically created for cloud providers with built-in metering, billing and auditing.

We’re interested in what you have to say about cloud security too, whether via commenting on this post, or joining the Cloud Security Alliance group on LinkedIn. We also like this site for good cloud security information and discussion http://www.trusted-cloud.com/

If you didn’t attend Monday’s Enterprise Cloud Summit here at Interop, you missed an outstanding event. In the audience were around 250 enterprise IT professionals addressing a wide range of questions to the experts on stage. A common subtext to many of those questions—the elephant in the room, if you will—seemed to be: How do I get the levels of security, identity management and compliance in the cloud that my enterprise demands? I don’t believe the panelists on stage were avoiding answering the questions. They just seemed more focused on peddling their wares instead of listening to the needs of the marketplace.

Much like the baby that tries to run before it can crawl, or the army that gets ahead of its supply lines, the experts answering questions didn’t fully appreciate the foundations of network security—the building blocks that will enable SaaS or PaaS and IaaS to deserve the same level of confidence and respect as on-premises services, platforms and infrastructure.

It’s surprising to me that IT experts aren’t more concerned about helping enterprises get their Identity and Security houses in order before extolling the virtues of cloud adoption. Just as you have to crawl before you can walk, you need to secure your on-premises assets before you graduate to securing cloud-based applications and data. In other words, you need to optimize your enterprise Identity and Access Management program, then extend it into the cloud.

So, what are the primary building blocks? STANDARDS. Without standards, customization becomes prohibitively expensive. Integration becomes a problem too. And you lose whatever economies of scale you gained by going to the cloud in the first place.

There aren’t any widely recognized cloud standards yet, but fear not. Cloud service providers are looking to leverage standards that may already exist where possible. As a result Service Provisioning Markup Language (SPML) and Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) XML-based frameworks are well on their way to becoming de facto standards. In order for us to achieve the economic promise of cloud computing these standards need to evolve to become lighter-weight and more tuned to the needs of  cloud computing. The only way this will happen is for customers, product vendors and cloud service providers to work together to improve these standards.

Novell supports OASIS the creators of SPML and SAML. We’re also working closely with the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) on a vendor-neutral initiative to deliver the industry’s first cloud security certification, education and outreach program for cloud providers. With its “Trusted Cloud Initiative,” CSA will help cloud providers develop industry-recommended, secure and interoperable identity, access and compliance management configurations and practices. The goal is to put trusted standards in place to alleviate concerns about security, governance and control of enterprise data and IT assets. In other words, standards that push the elephant right out of the room.

“Depending upon whom you talk to, Cloud Computing is either an overhyped term destined for obscurity or the greatest promise for the future of Information Technology. While certainly there is a great deal of fanfare associated with the Cloud, we believe that in the long run, this hype will prove to be well deserved. For those with a mandate to develop IT strategies or protect an organization's information assets, you have an obligation to adopt Cloud Computing carefully.”

This is why you should join Novell at Interop 2010, April 25 to 29 at Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas to get a closer look at the underlying architecture of its cloud management and security solutions. Visit booth #651 for free stuff and the following:

Special Preview: Novell Cloud Manager - available later this year, Novell Cloud Manager will deliver on the promise of utility computing by giving IT organizations the ability to deploy IT services in the cloud using an on demand model. This allows organizations to pay only for the resources they consume at the service levels they expect.

Live Demo: Novell Cloud Security Service – Novell’s web-based identity and access management service helps SaaS, PaaS and IaaS providers assure their enterprise customers’ specific corporate security policies and regulatory concerns will be enforced in the cloud. Come see how Novell Cloud Security Service acts as a trusted identity broker between the enterprise and the cloud providers.

Trusted Cloud Initiative update – Novell recently announced a vendor-neutral Trusted Security Certification program with the Cloud Security Alliance to spur mainstream cloud adoption. Visit the booth to obtain a copy of the Cloud Security Alliance’s research that will serve as the baseline for the Trusted Cloud Initiative.

Interop Conference Sessions:

Preventing the Next Data Breach Through Log Management – Thursday, April 29, 10:15 am, Ben Goodman, principal strategist, Identity and Security, Novell

Building the Heterogenous Private Cloud with Microsoft and Novell – Tuesday, April 27, 2010, 12:15 PM-1:00 PM Mona Chadha, Sr. Alliance Product Marketing Manager

For more information on Novell's cloud offerings, visit www.novell.com/cloud.