Not long ago, when ZStack and Dahe Yunlian jointly released the "world's first hybrid cloud + SDN private line integration" product, I wrote this sentence: "ZStack has grown rapidly this year." The head of the ZStack market talked about it. She asked me why I felt this way. I said that two of the three goals set a year ago were achieved in just one year, which is not too fast.
Zhang Xin, founder and CEO of ZStack
At the beginning of 2017, it was the first time to interview Zhang Xin, founder and CEO of ZStack. The opportunity at that time was Alibaba Cloud's strategic investment in ZStack. Zhang Xin expressed his three views in that interview. 1. Proprietary cloud shift from project-based to project-based Product type; 2. Hybrid cloud is the future trend; 3. The future infrastructure must be application-oriented. And these three points are also the direction of ZStack's efforts. It's been a little over a year now, the first two have been basically realized, and the third is under active deployment.
The above is the first proof that I judge that ZStack is growing fast, and there is a second one below, and there are more and more examples. The cooperation between ZStack and Dahe Yunlian began at the launch of ZStack’s hybrid cloud products. At that time, Pang Junying, the founder and CEO of Dahe Yunlian, was also sitting in the audience. set the tone. That is to say, ZStack is very clear about the evolution direction of its own products. It knows exactly what it needs to do and where it needs to be strengthened. It is always ready for this goal.
Cloud application security, users need a better way
With this premise, it is not difficult to understand why ZStack has brought another big news just over a month after the last release. On April 26, the 2018 Yunqi Conference and Nanjing Summit were held as scheduled. At the meeting, ZStack and Alibaba Cloud officially released the "ZStack Cloud Platform + Alibaba Cloud Cloud Shield Knight" integrated product.
ZStack co-founder & COO You Yongkang released products
Following the web, this time it's security. What is safe? App security.
After hearing this news, I also deliberately compared the products of the same type of manufacturers, and found that it is very rare to achieve this step. As Zhang Xin said, there are many cloud platform vendors doing a good job in network security, but few vendors are involved in application security, especially in the form of cloud native and productized.
Moving in a direction that most vendors have not yet entered, how does ZStack think about it? Before answering this question, some background is given.
1. What is application security? A simple understanding is that they are responsible for software security. All kinds of firewalls and antivirus software are generally installed on the computers, mobile phones, and Pads that everyone uses. Application security refers to this layer. As for why we should invest in application security, there must be no need to explain it, it is indispensable.
The question is coming, since it is a must-answer question, how to solve it becomes the key? The difference is nothing more than that the cloud platform itself has this capability, or it is to find a third-party application security solution provider for integration. The former is done by ZStack, and the latter is currently seen by most cloud platform vendors.
Two, two paths, which is better? At first glance, there may be no essential difference, and in the end, the goal can be achieved. Actually? Here is a question, readers and friends, ask and answer them: Is the integrated delivery of products better, or is it better to put things together temporarily? Including product compatibility, stability, price, after-sales service and other dimensions can be considered.
I believe that after thinking, you will have your own judgment. It cannot be said that all integrated products are dominant, but at least in most aspects, it is stronger than patchwork. This can also explain why in recent years there are more and more integrated products delivered in the IT industry. Whether it is hardware or software solutions, it is not the wishful thinking of manufacturers, but driven by user needs. Of course, there is a very important prerequisite for this, that is, the product must be excellent.
Productization concept once again achieves ZStack
After understanding these, the answer is clear, ZStack's strengthening of application security capabilities is a matter of course.
One user needs this capability, and it is best obtained through better means. Zhang Xin said in an interview that with the continuous improvement of ZStack's capabilities at the IaaS level, many customers hope to obtain more cloud-native capabilities, and they have been thinking about how to provide customers with capabilities other than IaaS. Application security is a kind of A very basic ability has become a direction they set a long time ago, and now it has landed.
It is worth mentioning that Alibaba Cloud Cloud Shield is the product on the cloud security side of this cooperation. Cloud Shield is born with the security attributes of cloud. It is a product accumulated by Alibaba, Taobao and Alipay in the past ten years of security experience. Looking at a set of numbers, Xiao Li, general manager of Alibaba Cloud Security Division, revealed that Alibaba Cloud helps 40% of websites in China successfully defend against 1.6 billion attacks every day. In 2017, it helped users fix 6.13 million vulnerabilities and successfully completed 79 high-risk vulnerabilities. emergency. In other words, Yundun meets the premise of "excellent product" mentioned above.
Second, ZStack is one of the few that has the ability to do this. Why do you say that? Because ZStack adheres to the concept of productization. Productization means standardization, and only standardization can facilitate the addition of corresponding functional modules. For customized products, the situation of each customer will be slightly different. At this time, if you want to add functional modules, you need to customize the development separately, which consumes a lot of manpower, material resources, and financial resources, and it may not be worth the gain.
Schematic diagram of the native integrated solution
Returning to the "ZStack Cloud Platform + Alibaba Cloud Shield Knight" integrated product released this time, there are two core characteristics, one is easy to use, and one UI interface is used to safely manage all cloud hosts, install and update batch operations, If you are not a security professional, you are not afraid; the second product is updated quickly, the Alibaba Cloud cloud shield product is updated, and the security capability of the ZStack cloud platform can be updated, and the latest library can be updated as soon as possible to ensure application security to the greatest extent.
According to Zhang Xin, some customers are already using this function and the feedback is good. On the one hand, the integrated product greatly reduces the threshold for cloud security. Some things that had to be done by professionals before can now be done by yourself, saving trouble and effort and saving money; It can be carried out in batches, and the security management of cloud hosts becomes simple; third, cloud shield is very trustworthy. It is believed that more users will benefit soon, especially some users with relatively weak technical capabilities.
As for the division of labor between the two parties when serving customers, as Xiao Li said, ZStack is our partner, and Alibaba Cloud will continue to provide ZStack with security capabilities, including providing ZStack with suggestions for improving its own security functions of cloud products, and providing SaaS-based security products , security integration solutions and security operation services, etc., help ZStack fully meet the requirements of the third-level guarantee.
Postscript: ZStack can also be faster
In fact, the release of the "ZStack Cloud Platform + Alibaba Cloud Shield Knight" integrated product is just one of many examples that prove the rapid development of ZStack. During the interview, when I asked what kind of product plans there are for this year, Zhang Xin did not reveal the specifics, but only said that there will be many similar products released.
However, Xiao Li also said that Alibaba Cloud will have a deeper integration with ZStack. It is expected that more security capabilities of Alibaba Cloud Cloud Shield will be delivered to ZStack in September this year to achieve default security.
It can be seen that the dividends of the development of ZStack's productization concept are being released faster. In terms of product, whether it is cooperation with Alibaba Cloud or a third party, there is more and more experience, fewer bottlenecks, and faster integration; from the user's perspective, the continuous improvement of products and the continuous increase of user satisfaction. With these two guarantees, the future of ZStack will not be bad.
Finally, it seems inappropriate to describe the development of ZStack as fast, it should be faster.