CCSK Success Stories: From the Vice President of Strategic Alliances

This is part of a blog series interviewing cybersecurity professionals who have earned their Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge (CCSK). In these blogs we invite individuals to share some of the challenges they face in managing security for cloud computing and how they were able to leverage knowledge from the CCSK in their current roles. In this blog, we'll be interviewing Terence Siau, Vice President of Strategic Alliances, ABPGroup.

1. Can you tell us about what your job involves in your current role as Vice President of Strategic Alliances at ABPGroup?

I am responsible for the strategy, go-to-market tactics and engagement model for a portfolio of alliance partners.

2. Can you share with us some complexities in managing cloud computing projects?

The various options (such as IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) offered by various Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) can be quite confusing. You need to clearly understand the various options and the different standards/certifications attained by CSPs. Different industries need to comply with different regulations and standards (in their respective countries of operation as well).

3. In managing (outsourced) cloud projects, what are useful tips you could share with IT professionals to avoid common pitfalls?

Manage the Service Level Agreement (SLA) contract with CSPs to ensure all the responsibilities are clearly defined. There should be clear accountability of roles and responsibilities between customer and CSP.

4. What made you decide to earn your CCSK? What part of the material from the CCSK has been the most relevant in your work and why?

I started my cybersecurity journey in 2003. The cybersecurity domain has expanded so much during the past years (and it is still expanding). Traditional cybersecurity is quite mature. But cloud security is a very new domain, it is not easy to learn and understand. The CCSK gives me a very good basic and important understanding of cloud security. With the CCSK, my clients are confident in my knowledge on cloud security, and I also understand their use cases and problem statements easily.

5. How does the CCM help communicate with customers?

The CCM helps me understand the different cloud security controls (recommended best practices) with which I can advise my customers. It is also a good standard which I suggest to my customers.

6. What’s the value in a vendor-neutral certificate like the CCSK or CCSP versus getting certified by AWS? In what scenario are the different certificates important?

Vendor-based certificates will be useful when you have decided to “focus” and want to be the subject matter expert. Before the “focus” decision, a vendor-neutral certificate will be useful in giving you a basic and yet important understanding of the domain (in this case, cloud security).

7. Would you encourage your staff and/or colleagues to obtain the CCSK or other CSA qualifications? Why?

Yes, for a cloud security-related qualification, do go with CSA. It is a globally recognized alliance for the cloud security domain.

8. What is the best advice you will give to IT professionals in order for them to scale new heights in their careers?

Always be hungry for knowledge. To avoid obsolescence in your field, continue to learn and upgrade. Attain the necessary training and certification(s) throughout your career journey and apply them to your career.