The Trend Micro Cloud One platform will have six services, which will roll out during 2020, and while only one, from the recent acquisition of Cloud Conformity is brand new, the other services are all being redesigned to work together natively in a multi-cloud environment.

Trend Micro has announced Trend Micro Cloud One, a new comprehensive cloud platform that is initially designed to bring together six separate cloud services. Three of them will be available on the Cloud One platform’s initial rollout, in Q1 of 2020. The other three will be available later in the year.

“This is a comprehensive offering and offers the combined potential of a total cloud security solution that the market is looking for,” said Myla Pilao, Director of Technology Marketing at Trend Micro Canada. “We have had nothing like this in the past as a cloud offering, and we have been in cloud security for over a decade. This is the first time we have looked at the entire cloud journey and offered an entire blanket around that space. Before, we provided protection for separate parts of it.”

Trend Micro Cloud One is designed to provide cloud-native support for each of the three big public clouds – AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. It reflects that most enterprises have a multi-cloud strategy, because the clouds are different and each has their own strengths on particular applications.

“In C-level conversations, we are continually being told that cloud is too complex in multi-cloud environments, and that this decreases confidence,” Pilao said. “At the same time, they know they cannot avoid that, because they have applications that apply to a specific cloud. So they need a platform that provides support for all these clouds. They also need to work with the DevOps culture of today, where there is pressure for things to work in a fast timeline. Customers realize that they don’t have supermen who can make this all work, so they are now looking for an all-in-one solution.”

Trend Micro Cloud One will provide integrated management of all the services, including a single-sign-on to all services, visibility from a single pane of glass, and a common pricing and billing model.

“This security blanket of full support and visibility applies regardless of what you are doing and whether you are in active or passive mode,” Pilao said. “It is able to give visibility whether you are uploading containers or integrating applications. It’s a first of a kind platform in this way, to ensure that security in all aspects are protected, with our unique situational threat intelligence. One of the biggest challenges in the cloud is vulnerability, but our threat intelligence has incorporated metrics and behavior to cover this. It provides threat intelligence for all six services, so that you don’ have to compartmentalize. The common threat intelligence also makes for better reporting and ability to react.”

While Trend Micro has provided some service bundles in the past, such as their hybrid cloud security having some bundles around workload management, the existing services have been redesigned.

“Bringing it all together is a major R&D investment,” Pilao indicated. “The services used to be linear. Now we have to make sure it all correlates effectively.”

Making the services all fully interoperable with all the supported clouds also takes time.

“Our strategy is to work with the hyperscalers, so we have to be strategic in how we do this, to address the challenges of working properly wherever you are, in any cloud,” Pilao added.

The core service here is Trend Micro Cloud One – Workload Security, a new version of Trend’s well-established workload security service that provides runtime protection for virtual, physical, cloud, and container workloads.

“We have also made some enhancements to improve the workstream,” Pilao said.

Trend Micro Cloud One – Workload Security will be available with the platform when it hits General Release in Q1 2020. So will two other services. Trend Micro Cloud One – Application Security supports security for serverless functions, APIs, and applications, while Trend Micro Cloud One – Network Security provides cloud network layer IPS security. Earlier versions of both of these have been sold before, but this is the first time they will be integrated into the workload offering.

One of the solutions, Trend Micro Cloud One – Conformity, is brand new, and comes from an acquisition.

“With our acquisition of Cloud Conformity last month, we are able to add our newest offering,” Pilao said. “It automates dealing with a range of cloud infrastructure configuration issues, and ensures compliance with industry regulatory standards.”  It is scheduled for availability as a stand-alone solutions in Q1 2020 and integrated into Cloud One by the end of 2020.

That same timeline also holds for the other two solutions. Trend Micro Cloud One – Container Image Security provides image scanning in the build pipeline. The DevOps solution is not new – the technology comes from Trend’s own development and the acquisition two years ago of Montreal-based Immunio – but will be enhanced for this release. Trend Micro Cloud One – File Storage Security will provide the native support for all the cloud file and object storage services. Both will be available in the platform before the end of 2020.

“From a sales motion perspective, this will give the channel a lot of flexibility to address the needs of customers regardless of where they are in their cloud migration, supported by a common pricing model,” Pilao said. “Because all of the features will be embedded in 2020, partners can have a conversation that cuts across multiple solutions, from one vendor.”