How to leverage the benefits of cloud security

Many organizations aren’t fully aware of what they need to do in order to keep their cloud secure. They think that they can keep track of their cloud security by themselves, but even the most intricate systems don’t always scale well across multiple clouds.

Additionally, company-created tools might not be able to capture the entirety of the cloud environment, like centralized visibility across their entire estate of workloads and clouds.

In the past decade, we’ve seen a massive number of organizations making the migration from data centers to the cloud — and many organizations think they can translate data center security to cloud security. But managing cloud security is very different, as there’s a shared responsibility between the customer and the cloud platform, which necessitates continuous monitoring, full visibility into changes and a new understanding of identity and access. This is where having a good approach to cloud security posture management (CSPM) will be key for organizations wanting to stay on top of their expanding cloud footprint. But CSPM isn’t just the technology you implement. Teams also need to have a CSPM mindset and recognize that security no longer belongs to one department but to everyone who shares in the responsibility of delivering software via the cloud.

1. Prioritize cloud-native services and applications.

As organizations scale their cloud presence, one of the bigger trends is the increase in the adoption of cloud-native services and cloud container services.

This can be done through CSPM tools or cloud assist management solutions that help give a bird’s-eye view of all assets and applications in real time to understand the entire cloud footprint and detect drifts.

2. Upskill employees across the organization.

The responsibility of cloud security no longer falls to just one department but must be the priority of multiple teams, including DevOps and senior leadership. Broader awareness of how each team affects cloud security and needing to understand the ever-evolving cloud landscape means a new focus: education and upskilling.

3. Calibrate your approach between cloud and DevOps

Cloud security shouldn’t just focus on monitoring assets post-deployment, and today there’s more of an understanding of “shifting left” into the pipeline to implement encryption and other security measures in development. Make sure applications are secured across the lifecycle, whether in the development pipeline or the runtime environment — and know which approach to use when.

4. Expand scope beyond the public cloud.

As organizations see the benefits security tools and insights can bring to other workstreams, we’re quickly seeing tools “shift left” to provide real-time insights to DevOps teams, enabling them to secure their projects before deployment. But these tools can also help secure the configurations in other software and applications, developer tools, SaaS platforms and applications in the operations environment. Tools like CSPM solutions can expand to become the foundation upon which to build a digitally-enabled enterprise.

5. Ensure multicloud coverage.

Teams need to monitor and address not just one cloud environment but multiple, and ensure that all assets across all cloud environments are secured and in compliance.