Looking back at the 2021 curriculum, here are the core takeaways that defined the course and why they still matter today:
In 2021, the SANS Institute officially launched SEC549: Enterprise Cloud Security Architecture
Writing and auditing secure Terraform, CloudFormation, or Ansible templates to catch misconfigurations before deployment. sans sec 549 2021
Routing traffic through next-generation virtual firewalls (e.g., Palo Alto). Section 3: Data Security and Storage Protecting data at rest and in transit, including:
SEC549 is aimed at advanced practitioners, including cybersecurity architects, cloud engineers, and security managers. Completion of the course earns and prepares students for the GIAC Cloud Security Architecture and Design (GCAD) certification, which validates an individual's ability to design defensible cloud environments. Looking back at the 2021 curriculum, here are
SEC549 is an advanced, 5-day, hands-on course officially titled "Enterprise Cloud Security Architecture." It is part of the SANS Cloud Security curriculum and is designed for security architects, engineers, and technical leaders responsible for designing cloud solutions. The course aims to equip students with a clear "mental model" of cloud threats and available controls, moving away from on-premise patterns toward cloud-native designs.
The course features the design of enterprise-scale, defensible cloud infrastructures across major providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. Completion of the course earns and prepares students
Data must be secured at rest, in transit, and during processing. SEC549 strips away the abstractions of cloud encryption.
The primary objectives of the SEC 549 course are:
The syllabus covers a comprehensive range of topics, ensuring students gain a holistic understanding of cloud security architecture:
SANS SEC549: Enterprise Cloud Security Architecture (2021 Update)