2 min read

5 Trends That Lead to Greater Security in the Cloud

Featured Image

It was estimated that between 2013 and 2017, IT cloud services would grow at a compound annual growth rate of 20 to 25 percent, which equates to five times that of the entire IT industry. With this explosion in growth comes continued worries about cloud security optimization, whether for public or private clouds. Security is one of the top reasons that CIOs give for reluctance to initiate or grow cloud assets.

5 Trends That Impact Security in the Cloud for the Better

1. Native auditing and security monitoring

Unlike in-house IT infrastructures, most clouds have native auditing and security monitoring capabilities. cloud-security-164512-editedThis tightens and simplifies IT security by enabling security tools to leverage common data sets, thereby reducing the amount of time it takes to identify and respond to a data breach.  A faster response time means less impact to the organization if a data breach should occur. Access to the latest in threat monitoring tools for continual threat detection also reduces the likelihood of a data breach happening in the first place.

2. Cloud threat intelligence

The growth of cloud threat intelligence research gives cloud providers the latest information on hacker tools and techniques, attack modes, malicious IPs, and other useful information to thwart attacks. As top cloud service providers integrate threat intelligence into their service to protect their clients, safety concerns about the cloud are greatly reduced.

3. Big data security analytics  

Look for big data security analytics to come into its own as cloud providers continue to refine the points of evidence they need for security monitoring. At present, the concept of big data security analytics is still in the early stages of development.  As it grows in popularity, it will help cloud providers to know or even predict when malicious or suspicious behavior has occurred, or is going to occur. The ability to detect and uncover previously unknown indicators of a security breach are key to identifying threats, threat monitoring, and prompt response.

4. Security players get "cloud ready"

Many of the top tier security players have refined their services for the existing IT infrastructure, but are not yet really "cloud ready". To remain competitive, these players will have to refine and scale their services for the cloud, which will force continued innovation among cloud security services, to the benefit of the end user.  Cloud Application Security Brokers such as Skyhigh, NetSkope, and Addalom have invented this space, and I expect to see traditional security players layer these technologies into their offering soon, either through acquisition or product development.  Addalom was recently acquired by Microsoft.

5. Next-generation firewalls

Next-generation firewalls (NGFW) offer improved access control, reporting, and scalability over the traditional firewall. For example, Fortinet’s NGFW can help mitigate security risk by setting granular application access parameters along with built-in redundancy.  Regardless of whether you are talking traditional on-premises or cloud environments, next-generation firewalls play an important role in quarantining suspicious traffic to help prevent data breaches.

Work with Experts

When you're ready to implement a cloud solution, be sure to identify an experienced security systems integrator who understands the nuances of the technology to meet the mission-critical needs of your organization.  The best results come from working with experts who partner with top tier technology companies, to secure your network and ward off threats.