Four Ways to Improve Cloud Security and Compliance

The cloud requires a new way of approaching security. Traditional data center and endpoint security technologies and methodologies are not adequate to protect the highly connected architecture of the cloud. Without a modern, cloud-first approach, security will be compromised because of a variety of factors.

The inherent risk-related challenges can be addressed by employing a security platform built for the cloud that leverages automation to provide continuous monitoring, analysis, prevention, and remediation for cloud security and achieving compliance.

This is a new model that provides comprehensive protection in the cloud. As organizations continue to rely on public cloud to drive day-to-day business activities as well as innovation, they must reduce security risks and simplify the processes involved in ensuring protection and compliance. Continuous security and compliance present a new opportunity to maximize the value of the public cloud while minimizing risk. Security experts seek innovative, but usable technologies, and say it is important to focus on four key elements to achieve continuous and automated cloud security and compliance, as follows:

• Rapid discovery to keep up with the fast pace of change in the cloud: With the enormity of deployments in the cloud, it isn’t unusual for organizations to have millions of data points (such as user or application behavior and configuration settings for cloud services) that need to be evaluated. You need a platform that can handle all the data in real time and rapidly isolate any security variation or deviation from known states.
• A “single pane of glass” to view your entire cloud environment: When teams are very large, communication can falter. With each team using different tools to gain a different view of the environment, information becomes siloed and difficult for other teams to understand. Your platform should let teams own their own security while also providing a “big picture” view to security operations teams and corporate management. The platform must be able to evaluate security data in isolation, as part of the global customer base or across time and geography, to warn about potential issues before they occur.
• Automated response: Organizations need to automate not only monitoring and analysis, but also remediation to fix permission or configuration errors. They should have flexibility in determining the course of automated response, with the ability to inform human administrators if there is any other action that may be required.
• Robust reporting: Teams need to be able to measure and demonstrate security and compliance progress daily, not just during the yearly audit. With the right platform, you can show your security and compliance posture at the push of a button.

Read “How to Secure Your Business in a Multi-Cloud World” for more on an innovative security approach that eliminates the wide range of cloud risks that can cause breaches while enabling your organization to achieve consistent, frictionless protection for all your cloud environments.