Network Security Solutions may change dramatically with the advent of TPU Chips
Network security solutions that include firewalls, switching, hardware appliances, etc., could use a huge upgrade in their capabilities in my opinion. Although WatchGuard’s Gateway-AV and other ongoing technology has been helping, a more advanced “sniffing” or intelligence would boost the ability to secure your small business network from bad things like ransomware.
After reading about Google new AI chips on PC World, I thought about how a TPU chip (Tensor Processing Unit) that works more like a human brain then your standard very linear CPU or GPU – may seriously advance security in other areas like even small business technology.
How would a TPU Chip help a future network security solution for your small business?
Imagine if your firewall could do a much better job at learning the “normalcy” of your users, software in action, data at rest, and your business overall. Let’s say you are a business that primarily works in Minnesota, but suddenly has a flood of traffic overseas? It would be nice to be notified – like your bank does on a suspect transaction.
With Network Medics’ private cloud (VitalVM), lets say our redundant rack of Cisco networking equipment had more “artificial intelligence” – it may remove the need for IPS or other current technology that helps prevent a denial of service attack, odd traffic flow, or even issues with networking in general. From email to files-at-rest, security would be improved to a currently unattainable level.
A few questions that got me excited to think about were:
- Maybe you just talk to your firewall and tell it what to do?
- Maybe you just talk to Cortana to safely log into your PC?
- Maybe this is the next step in our Robot Overlords taking over the world?
Jokes aside, with hacking getting worse and more news-worthy in recent years, I am optimistic that the large technology think tanks we have in this country will get us through to a safer tomorrow.
Living on screens or living in a VR-enhanced world is already here, so making sure your personal, business, and the world’s information is secure in the information age. This will take new overall network security solutions, and I am hoping something like Google AI / TPU chips may help get new technology to market faster.
Written by:
Kevin Calgren
Partner of Network Medics
Minnesota Business IT Consultant
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