Public cloud security considerations

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Surveys conducted by IDC indicate that security is a top priority for IT areas in Latin America this year (IDC: Market Analysis Perspective: Worldwide big data and analytics software, 2017).

Why is security a priority?

In today’s world, that of socially responsible companies, public opinion influences their decisions in many ways. Over the past year, major companies have been victims of cyberattacks, both nationally and internationally. The truth is that, with the rise of cybercrime, when data is not properly protected it is exposed to wrongful use.

Consequently, both internal – mainly from audits – and external pressure has surfaced as a result of new international legislation or standards to protect data, such as the PCI-DSS security standards (to process credit card transactions on websites), or the HIPAA norm (to protect patient’s clinical information in healthcare systems).

Currently, the urgency to improve data security affects all industries, so it is no surprise that most CIOs have it among their main objectives.

Solving security issues is complex and costly, regardless if the company’s infrastructure is on-premises or on a public cloud, because while there are good solutions for the protection of critical information against theft, data leaks, or deletion, implementing them requires the integration of different layers, and this demands significant efforts in technology, training, and diverse know-how contracting.

The good news is that doing it on the cloud is easier, faster, and economical.

Why is it easier and faster in the cloud?

Because public clouds offer many security services that are natively integrated with the platform and are quick to implement, when executed and operated by a specialist. For example, tasks such as encrypting disk volumes on-premises usually means having to buy special disks or encryption appliances, which are subject to acquisition times, expert configuration, etc.; whereas in a public cloud it is a mere configuration flag and has no additional cost.

Why is it cheaper?

Because cloud security services, including specialist management services, are paid for actual use. They do not require initial investment nor is there any charge for unnecessary or oversized capacity. There are no facilities or hardware maintenance costs, neither is it necessary to manage physical servers or security devices.

Having high security standards in the cloud is currently possible , by deploying solutions such as:

• Cutting-edge technologies to protect the datacenter’s border from increasingly complex attacks, such as massive denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks or advanced persistent threats (APT) (perimetral security).
• Data in transit and at rest encryption, throughout its entire lifecycle.
• Events log to monitor and control security policies and incidents in real time and in automated mode (auditability and traceability).

There are a wide variety of available options but defining which are more suitable for each company’s requirements is not trivial. Constructing security on the cloud requires expert management.

In future articles we will develop reflections and premises about how to put this into practice:

1. Design principles to strengthen your cloud applications’ security.
2. Five areas to consider when designing your cloud security concept.

At Novis we have the expertise required to deploy and operate cloud security solutions. We invite you to contact us to talk about it.

Author, Patricio Renner, Technology Manager.