blog
SOF Week 2023
June 2, 2023
SOF WEEK 2023 OVERVIEW
Greymatter recently had the opportunity to attend SOF Week 2023, USSOCOM and GSOF’s newly envisioned, national convention for U.S. SOF. The week-long event included a diverse slate of programs, professional development sessions, operator-driven discussions, and family-focused conversations.
POPULAR TRENDS WITHIN THE CROWD
Jim Gaspari | Solutions Architect – Jen Webster | Account Executive – Andre Brown | Sales Development Representative – Billy Miller | Solutions Architect
SOF Week 2023 had an outstanding turnout, and our team was fortunate in chatting with hundreds of attendees throughout the week. Through our interactions, we acquired valuable insights into needs and challenges faced by organizations. Leveraging this knowledge, we showcased the capabilities of Greymatter through demos and meaningful conversations, highlighting how our solutions can effectively alleviate certain pain points.
HYBRID & MULTI-CLOUD ENVIRONMENTS
Pain Points
The challenges of controlling the complexity of modern applications while implementing hybrid/multi-cloud environments are real, and the topic was heavily trending during SOF Week.
“One thing that was discussed throughout conversations was the issue of ‘vendor lock-in’, referring to when a customer becomes heavily dependent on a specific vendor they’ve brought on for cloud services, making it difficult or costly to switch to an alternative vendor.” Andre Brown, Sales Development Representative, Greymatter.io
Integrating diverse cloud platforms and ensuring security and compliance, including the challenges associated with implementing Istio as a service mesh, demand specialized expertise and robust governance. However, trade-offs emerge as large enterprises adopt cloud-native services, containers, micro-/nano-services, serverless APIs, and data sources for flexibility and scalability, further complicating the implementation and management of Istio in hybrid/multi-cloud environments.
“Configuration drift when using cloud native 2rd party platform software which includes K8s, manifest deployment models, Istio, and others within hybrid/multi-cloud environments leads to inconsistencies, and this topic was touched upon at SOF Week as some did not realize that it was an issue that could arise in their environments.”
Greymatter’s Solution
We cater to large-scale organizations, providing governance for enterprise architectures across diverse environments such as those being implemented under JWCC and C2E driven efforts. Greymatter accelerates software delivery, enhances speed to market for DevOps and PlatformOps teams, and supports government hybrid and multi-cloud strategies.
With the ability to connect and visualize applications, APIs, and data services across public, private, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments, Greymatter enables uninterrupted integration and bridging of cloud networks with on-premise networks and Kubernetes workloads. This empowers organizations to leverage the benefits of microservices, without the need for infrastructure upgrades.
“Greymatter allows you to select cloud services from different providers, avoiding vendor lock-in and gaining flexibility and choice in building your hybrid or multi-cloud environment.” Andre Brown, Sales Development Representative, Greymatter.io
For enterprises requiring more control over complexity, fine-grained security, or real-time visibility into distributed application performance, Greymatter serves as an ideal application networking platform.
“When I asked a team how they were dealing with configuration drift with the Istio files, he had to take a pause. I went into how our GSL-sync process alleviates this concern, and how they can gain more insight than with Istio alone. Coupled with the fact that you would have to glue a bunch of other tools together, he really had to rethink his approach.” Jim Gaspari, Solutions Architect, Greymatter.io
For more info, please see:
- Achieve JADC2 Multi-Cloud Mission Success
- Greymatter.io vs. Istio: What’s the Difference?
- Service Mesh Is Not Enough
- Using GSL’s Mix-In Pattern To Reduce Complexity
- Contact Us
ZERO-TRUST & NIST 800-207
Pain Points
The challenges presented with implementing Zero Trust Architecture and adhering to the NIST 800-207 framework was another common theme discussed.
The transition from traditional security models to Zero Trust involves complex reassessment of network architecture, access controls, and multifactor authentication, and attendees noted that seamless integration across systems is intricate.
“When talking with people, they mentioned their ability to complete the mission across many theaters would be a tactical challenge if consistent ways were not found to manage those logistical plans in the field. They also mentioned that the logistics for their units alone is made up of over 400 applications.” Billy Miller, Solutions Architect, Greymatter.io
Greymatter simplifies network and security policies with a centralized location and, with less than 10 lines of code, applies policies fleetwide to applications, APIs, and data services, regardless of cloud or hybrid infrastructure. Enjoy easy policy enforcement for specific stacks, segments, or the entire fleet, irrespective of K8s clusters or clouds.
Greymatter’s Solution
Rest assured, our platform meticulously provides comprehensive solutions for overcoming the challenges around compliance with NIST’s zero-trust architecture. We are certified for Impact Level 6 (IL6+)-accredited environments and Commercial Cloud Enterprise (C2E)-Ready.
“We are able to help coalesce the connectivity between those logistical application endpoints and deployments while providing the RMF and ZTA principles. Whether they reside in Data Centers or at the Tactical edge.” Billy Miller, Solutions Architect, Greymatter.io
Our platform smoothly implements and maintains zero-trust principles, enhancing access control and mitigating vulnerabilities. Organizations gain real-time visibility into user behavior and network traffic, enabling prompt threat detection and response, and our platform’s intuitive interface and coherent integration simplify implementation across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
“The Greymatter.io platform itself satisfies almost 100% of NIST 800.207 compliance, right out of the box – a major point of interest for potential customers.” Jen Webster, Account Executive
For more info, please see:
A WORD FROM GREYMATTER’S CEO
“Greymatter was conceived with intelligence community customers, so we understand hard requirements. Many companies talk about regulations and compliance and we enforce them, but we also deal with separations of concerns, least privileged user access, classification markings, and multiple clouds. We handle disconnected communications, forward deployment, and secure connectivity, including ruggedized environments. Our Greymatter platform is purpose-built with security, audit, and access models as the priority.”
Christopher Holmes, CEO, Greymatter.io
SEE THE POWER OF OUR PLATFORM
Didn’t have a chance to stop by our booth at SOF Week? No problem!
Please check out our PDF brochure to acquire a more nuanced understanding of Greymatter.io, and decide if you’d like to schedule a demo with the Greymatter team to learn how our application networking platform can help your enterprise control complexity, secure applications and see real-time operations.
