Novell enters cloud security business

Novell Inc. is introducing its Novell Cloud Security Service this week. It is designed as an enhanced service to be offered to enterprise users by software as a service and cloud infrastructure providers. 

Justin Steinman, vice president for solutions product marketing at Novell, says that while corporate IT's use of SaaS and other cloud tools is growing, "security remains the number one inhibitor of cloud adoption by enterprise IT."

He claims Novell Cloud Security Service lets enterprises run their own security protocols and processes inside a provider's infrastructure, rather than depending solely on what the SaaS or cloud computing service has on hand. The service uses a "lightweight connector" on the enterprise side that learns what protocols and processes are used.

When the enterprise then uses services in the cloud, Novell's security software creates dedicated resources with the appropriate protocols, including workflow, user roles and other policies. After the enterprise no longer needs the resources, the software releases them to be provisioned anew.

Steinman says the new service is ideal for companies that need to follow specific compliance mandates whether in their own data center or one in the cloud.

Novell expects to make the service available later this fall.