Big Data. No Limits.

In a world where technology is breaking barriers by the nanosecond, security matters more than ever. Here’s an inside look at how Cloudera stays ahead of the curve.

Cloudera develops the technology the world needs to live in the world of hybrid data. They believe that data can make what is impossible today possible tomorrow, and have pioneered an open, hybrid data platform that provides secure data management and portable cloud-native data analytics to help businesses manage and analyze all types of data: machine, structured, transactional, and unstructured data, located anywhere, in AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, in on-premises data centers, and at the edge where machine data originates.

The company’s cloud-native data analytics solutions cover data distribution, data engineering, data warehousing, transactional data, data science, and machine learning. Portable across different infrastructures, these solutions enable their customers to bring the right analytics to the right cloud at the right time.

Natalia Belaya

We recently spoke with Natalia Belaya, the company’s Chief Information Security Officer, whose teams are tasked with securing all Cloudera assets, including data solutions for their customers, intellectual property, technology, and people. “We are a diverse team on many levels: people, geographies, and skill sets, but we share one goal, which is to empower and secure Cloudera’s success,” she said.

Within her team, different groups are dedicated to specific areas. For example, the Product Security Team is responsible for ensuring the software and application security of the Cloudera Data Platform, while the Enterprise Security Team protects their people, offices, and their productivity. “My role is to make my team effective in protecting Cloudera assets, managing new and existing risks, and being a trusted advisor to the business in supporting the best outcomes for our organization,” she said.

An engineer herself, Belaya sees the company as an engineering marvel that provides the most flexible solution for hybrid data management. “The goal of the security program I put in place is to cover all security aspects as effectively and seamlessly as possible.”

Cloudera supports customers with managing about 25 exabytes (25 plus 18 zeros) of data. “We talk about Data Products Everywhere, in multiple clouds and on-premises in your data centers and or private clouds,” she explained. “We deliver a unique shared data experience across a hybrid cloud, providing the single pane of glass for security data governance and observability across all environments and replication to ensure that the right data is delivered to the right place.”

Her teams address multiple facets of security, including security and governance as part of their product offering. The platform must securely manage data, inherit and create classifications, create tags, provide the option to redact and hide certain data, and provide access management to certain data, and those features and requirements are constantly evolving.

The platform is secure on the code and infrastructure level, putting controls in place such as encryption in transit and at rest, continuously addressing the vulnerabilities in its components. They perform security testing on at every stage of product development, including security scanning, analysis, and activities such as threat modeling, security architecture reviews, and internal and external penetration testing at scale throughout the development life cycle.

“With big data comes significant responsibilities,” she stressed. “We need to demonstrate that we can do security at scale and prove to our customers in different industries that we have the right controls in place for their specific requirements. We are constantly working on getting better at streamlining and automating our processes and scaling across a broader scope of requirements.”

The ever-increasing speed of application development brings with it increased security risks, and DevOps must continually stay ahead of these dangerous curves. Belaya supports the “shifting security everywhere approach,” programmatically incorporating the security tools so there’s no way around them continuously throughout the software development life cycle.

“Shifting left is important, but it does not give the full picture, and new vulnerabilities can be discovered at any stage of the security life cycle,” she pointed out. Cloudera’s single pane-of-view security dashboard gives visibility into multiple security tools so her team can provide an extra level of slicing, dicing, and analyzing of security data to engineering teams based on their needs. “As a matter of fact, we let them do it,” she emphasized. “We take pride in our abilities to provide automation and visualization to address and prioritize risks in the organization.”

The company’s security champions program creates a collaborative environment with developers, training them on all things security and keeping them informed and plugged into any new services and projects Belaya’s team offers to support them. The program helps them understand how to leverage and integrate security in the best way. “I learned that every company is different in its own way, and what might work in one organization might not work in another. What works in a startup might not work in a mature enterprise. The key is to work together, understand the culture and process, and create the most straightforward path.”

Making enterprise AI work for all

Enterprise AI is creating a great deal of excitement, but along with the opportunities come challenges, including data safety, cost control, and governance. “Customers want to train their models on the data they already have and where they have it without moving it out of the environment – and it is not an easy fit,” Belaya admitted. “They want to train their models on data they trust, on data they govern, and on data with known lineage.”

Cloudera’s strategic partnerships with industry leaders including AWS, NVIDIA, IBM, and others, coupled with integrations of AI vector databases like Pinecone, position them as a vital player in the evolving data and analytics ecosystem.

Their approach, aimed at transforming the way organizations harness the power of AI to streamline operations and improve customer experiences, revolves around open communication, shared objectives, and the continuous exchange of ideas.

Businesses increasingly recognize AI solutions as critical differentiators in competitive markets and are ready to invest heavily to streamline their operations, improve customer experiences, and boost top-line growth. “That’s why we’re building an ecosystem of technology providers to make it easier, more economical, and safer for our customers to maximize the value they get from AI,” she said.

“We work closely with our partners to integrate seamlessly with their cloud database solutions, ensuring compatibility, security, and optimized performance for our shared clients,” she continued. This collaborative synergy extends beyond technical integration to include joint initiatives, such as co-marketing efforts, knowledge sharing, and joint product development.

Belaya’s team also works to ensure that their product and security stack is supported by security vendors that can keep up with their cadence and technological advances in AI. “We continuously evaluate our tools and appreciate when our vendors keep up with trends, show flexibility and forward-thinking in their approaches, and keep up with market developments. The vendors we choose meet our needs the best and are leaders in their areas of security.”

Managing 25 EB of customer data has led Cloudera into the current generation of delivering trusted AI to large enterprises. “I’ve never been more optimistic about Cloudera’s future than I am right now. We have a lot to offer and lot to do, and my security team is the integral player in all that,” she concluded. “It is a great place to be. Trust your data. Trust your AI.”