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Chanson Peevy is an experienced leader and expert in modern network architectures and security. As a Senior Solutions Architect with over 20 years of experience, his technological prowess has evolved  to focus on best practices around Integrated Security and enabling automation strategies using Software Defined Networking (SDN).  

Chanson has been responsible for the successful migration and adoption of next generation technologies  through multiple Fortune 1000 deliveries, resulting in increased organizational efficiency, decreased release risk, and faster time to market. He has brought server virtualization into data centers around the globe as well as performed migrations from physical to virtual computing solutions.  

Chanson has also architected and implemented global datacenter security strategies, which allowed for datacenter consolidation, standardized security processes, and Day 2 Sec-Ops planning, among other business-facing initiatives. 

Chanson continues to lead the way by designing and innovating on current best practices, while keeping his team ahead of industry trends and at the forefront of transformation. 

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Xentaurs: What is your philosophy on Integrated Security? 

Chanson Peevy: As the digital landscape changes, there is a shift in business demands. Applications need to be available anywhere. Whether that’s on-premise, in the cloud or hybrid. the top requirement for that demand is Cybersecurity. Application availability is the top priority of any organization, and securing those applications is a parallel priority. We have seen in the very recent past, organizations have lost in the upwards of billions due to breaches of their security perimeters, directly affecting application availability. This happens when a breach penetrates traditional security models, allowing them to spread east and west across massive attack surfaces, causing rapid spread. Older security practices are no longer applicable now that applications must live and be available in many different environments. Your security strategy must follow those applications and be agile. Now that we have systems that can analyze massive amounts of security transactions, we can now make educated decisions regarding security access. Lastly, we can now automate those decisions, which returns the agility to our security posturing. 

What is the most misunderstood aspect of this technology? 

“Securing the Edge stop breaches” is one of the most misunderstood aspects of any security strategy. We know most of our data movement is east and west between internal assets. This is the most volatile segment of our digital landscape: communication between our applications. Add cloud connectivity, and now we are moving sensitive data outside of the datacenter. Security posturing must start much closer to our endpoints and workloads. Security needs to be present at many layers across the digital landscape, and we must be able to identify people, devices, networks, and locations. Once those are identified with the proper authentications, we can grant access accordingly. 

Who benefits from this technology and how? 

If your security posture is strong, it’s a win-win for everyone. Service providers win because they can assure the proper SLAs to their customers/users. The business benefits from the peace of mind of having a secure digital landscape. Providers can keep up with demand and scale if a solid security model is in place that proactively identifies vulnerabilities and heads them off before the business is affected. 

Name one outstanding fact that should blow your mind regarding this technology. 

Developing a sound security model is not complex, contrary to popular opinion. Security posture has only two main goals: The first is to prevent breaches, and the second is, if the first goal was unsuccessful, is to prevent the breach from spreading. These goals should be applicable on multiple security layers in the digital landscape. Any Security group that can check off these boxes will be enormously successful.