Katie Norton Takes on Research Director, Cloud Security Role at IDC

IDC has appointed Katie Norton as Research Director, Cloud Security, expanding her research focus as cloud, application, and AI security increasingly converge.

Katie shared the career move on LinkedIn, describing the new role as a natural next step following five years of research across DevSecOps, application security, software supply chain security, and the impact of AI on software development and security.

Expanding Her Cloud Security Research Focus

As Research Director, Cloud Security, Katie will focus on the evolving security challenges surrounding cloud environments and their intersection with modern application development.

She highlighted how organizations are increasingly building cloud-native applications, managing identities and infrastructure, and operating AI-driven workloads across connected technology environments.

This convergence is making it increasingly difficult to treat cloud security and application security as separate disciplines, creating a need for a broader view of how modern software and cloud environments are secured.

Connecting Cloud, Application and AI Security

Katie's previous research experience provides a strong foundation for examining these overlapping areas.

Her work across DevSecOps, application security, and software supply chain security has given her insight into how security practices are changing as organizations adopt cloud-native development and AI-enabled technologies.

She noted that securing modern, AI-enabled software and securing the cloud are increasingly becoming two sides of the same conversation.

Her new role will allow her to explore that intersection in greater depth and examine how organizations can approach security across increasingly interconnected environments.

Joining IDC's Security Research Team

Katie thanked Chris Kissel for the opportunity to join his team and highlighted the opportunity to work more closely with Frank Dickson and IDC's broader Security, Sustainability & Trust analyst team.

Having collaborated with many members of the team throughout her career, Katie said the transition feels like a natural progression.

She also credited Jim Mercer, Stephen Elliot, and Matt Eastwood for their support and encouragement throughout her professional development.

Looking Ahead

As enterprises continue moving workloads to the cloud while adopting AI-driven applications and development practices, the boundaries between different areas of cybersecurity are becoming increasingly blurred.

Katie's expanded research focus will place her at the intersection of these trends, examining the challenges and opportunities emerging as cloud infrastructure, applications, identities, and AI workloads become more closely connected.

About IDC

IDC is a global market intelligence and advisory services firm providing research, data, and analysis across information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. Its analysts cover areas including cloud, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, data, infrastructure, and enterprise technology.