What is Cloud Security?

What is cloud security?

Cloud security is no singular entity—it’s an entire ecosystem of IT administrators, cloud processes and policies, and security solutions that protect the data and applications that live in the cloud. These cloud security measures are put in place to not just protect the data, but also support regulatory compliance, ensure customers’ privacy, set authentication rules, and more. 

In this way, cloud security is fully customizable to meet the unique needs of a business. Not to mention, configuration and authentication rules can be altered and managed from one spot, so if a business has a reliable cloud security strategy in place, they don’t have to spend precious time on managing their cloud environment.

Because sensitive customer and business data is stored in the cloud—and because more organizations are moving to the cloud overall—introducing a cloud security strategy has become imperative. Throughout the years, security criminals have evolved, launching more sophisticated, harder-to-detect attacks on organizations. Regardless of an organization’s cloud of choice, attackers have wisened up to ensure they breach even the biggest companies’ clouds. 

Types of cloud security

An organization’s cloud strategy should include multiple layers of protection for data, applications, and infrastructure. The main types of cloud security include:

• Data Security - This involves encrypting data at rest and in transit, as well as implementing strong access controls to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information.

• Network Security - Measures such as firewalls, virtual private networks (VPNs), and intrusion detection systems help secure the flow of data across cloud networks and protect against cyber threats.

• Identity and Access Management (IAM) - IAM ensures that only authorized users have access to specific cloud resources. It includes tools like multi-factor authentication (MFA), single sign-on (SSO), and role-based access control (RBAC).

• Compliance and Governance - These tools help organizations adhere to industry regulations and standards such as GDPR, HIPAA, and ISO 27001, ensuring accountability and data integrity.

• Threat Detection and Monitoring - Real-time monitoring systems and automated alerts allow businesses to detect suspicious activity quickly and respond to potential threats before they escalate. 

Why is cloud security important?

Data and application security is critical for any organization. When it comes to cloud environments, security should be a top priority. The popularity of the cloud is only going to continue to increase, and going “cloud-first” is quickly becoming a priority for many of the most successful businesses that have embraced digital transformation.

The cloud holds a lot of promise for large and small businesses across every industry and geographical location. With the right cloud security tools and solutions, your organization can realize those promises and become more agile, flexible, responsive to customers, and cost-effective. By securing your cloud environments in the best ways you can, you can enjoy all the advantages the cloud has to offer and maintain peace of mind that your data and applications are protected.

In addition to leveraging the advantages of the cloud, cloud security allows you to:

• Reduce the risk of a data breach

• Empower your employees to work remotely 

• Strengthens disaster recovery strategies

• Keeps you compliant with industry and governmental regulations

• Reduces vulnerabilities and provides users with appropriate levels of access

Why have a cloud security strategy? 

No cloud model is immune to threats, not even on-premises infrastructures that were once considered the gold standard in manageability and security. As cyberattacks become more sophisticated, relying solely on traditional IT security is no longer enough. Businesses need a comprehensive, proactive cloud security strategy to defend against data theft, corruption, leakage, and deletion.

In the past, human-managed IT security could meet most organizational needs. But with limited budgets and the demand for 24/7 vigilance, manual processes can lead to costly gaps. Cloud security solutions address these challenges by automating protection, reducing human error, and meeting modern privacy and compliance requirements—while still delivering the same control and oversight businesses expect.

Without a proper cloud security strategy in place, companies are more likely to face serious security issues in their cloud computing architecture. Some of the most common security threats and risks include: 

1. Sensitive data loss - Much of the data that’s stored in the cloud is sensitive, private, or includes intellectual property. If a company’s cloud service is breached, cyber attackers can easily gain access to this data. But even without an attack, certain services can pose a risk if their terms and conditions claim ownership of the data uploaded to them.
2. Loss of end-user control - Without proper visibility and control, a company’s end users can unknowingly, or even willfully, put the organization at risk. Here’s an example: A salesperson who is about to resign from their current business decides to download a report of their customer contacts and upload that data to a personal cloud storage service. Once they’re hired by a competitor organization, they can leverage that data.
   
3. Malware - Cloud services are prime targets for data exfiltration or the process where a cyber attacker carries out an unauthorized data transfer from their computer. Unfortunately, these cybercriminals have come up with new, harder-to-detect data exfiltration methods, including both open and concealed methods.
   
4. Contractual breaches - When business parties sign a contract, this often restricts how data is used and who has access to it. However if an employee moves restricted data into the cloud without authorization, the contract could be violated, leading to potential legal retaliation.
   
5. Damaged reputation among customers - When your data is breached, inevitably, your customers are less likely to trust your organization. Without adequate trust, your organization may have to deal with revenue loss. Sadly, one of the most well-known card data breaches occurred with Target. When cyber attackers stole over 40 million customer credit and debit cards, one of the results was a loss of trust. Not to mention, a common result of lost customer trust is a phenomenon called “customer churn,” wherein customers decide to take their business elsewhere—even if they were happy, loyal consumers of the organization before the breach.
   
6. Revenue loss - Ultimately, this is one of the most damaging consequences a company can and will face following a data breach. When a company’s customers lose trust in their ability to safeguard their sensitive financial information, their loyalties move elsewhere, costing the breached company massive amounts of money. Not to mention, the average cost of a data breach is around $4 million, a fee many organizations simply can’t afford.
   

Four benefits of cloud security

As more companies turn to the cloud, ensuring cloud security measures are in place is non-negotiable. Because the consequences of a security breach are high, the value of a reliable cloud security plan is monumental. There are several reasons why an organization should choose cloud security:

1. Centralized security

   Much like how the cloud can centralize all your applications and data, cloud security can centralize all your protective forces. Cloud-based networks contain numerous devices and endpoints, and they enhance traffic analysis and filtering. Businesses are less involved in the monitoring process, with automated cloud security services navigating possible threats without human intervention. Plus, since all protection policies are managed in one place, disaster recovery plans can also be implemented and actioned easily.

2. Reduced costs

   By using a cloud-based storage and security solution, businesses can cut down—if not entirely eliminate—the amount of dedicated hardware they use. This can reduce your capital expenditure and reduce the amount of administrative overheads. Cloud security lets IT teams focus on more high-value projects rather than 24/7 security monitoring.

3. Reduced administration

   One of the many joys of cloud security is its ability to eliminate manual security configurations and frequent security updates. In a traditional environment, these tasks are time-consuming and can drain a business’s resources. By moving to cloud computing, all security administration happens in one place and is fully managed without any oversight.

4. Reliability

   Whereas an all-human cloud monitoring strategy may catch most of the threats that come your way, cloud security eliminates any chance of human error. Delivering ultimate dependability, the right cloud security measures ensure users can safely access data and applications from the cloud no matter where they are and no matter which device they’re using.

Pillars of robust cloud security

Regardless of whether you use a private or public cloud – or a mix of both – there are some common cloud security pillars to consider when looking for a security solution or designing your organization’s proprietary security features.

• Access management is critical - Ensure that only authorized users access your cloud data and applications. Identity Access Management solutions can help a lot.
• Go “Zero Trust” for maximum control - Isolate parts of your cloud system. With zero trust principles, your systems are less likely to be infiltrated by attackers. 
  • Be sure to institute stringent security policies and keep sensitive workloads segregated from more public data.
• Ensure compliance with change management - Change management tools typically include auditing features that allow you to identify any suspicious behavior or users who deviate from standard protocols.
• Keep an eye on traffic with a WAF - With a web application firewall (WAF), you can gain visibility into all traffic that goes into and out of your servers and applications. 
• Encrypt data everywhere - You can beef up data security by encrypting it at every transport layer. Also implement security protocols for sharing files, using any communication applications, and anywhere else in your systems where data is stored, accessed, or sent.
• Monitor, monitor, monitor - Continued monitoring allows you to stay on top of what’s happening in your cloud environments.
  • Some cloud security solutions allow you to compare your cloud-native logs with logs from your other security solutions such as asset management, vulnerability scanners, change management, and even external insights into threats.

Cloud models, security, and best practices

Private cloud

Organizations often choose private clouds to better control and secure sensitive data. However, private cloud security can suffer from limited physical protection due to cost or resource constraints.

Security considerations: 

Organizations may lack the IT skillsets to manage security effectively. Physical infrastructure may not be as well protected.

Best practices:

• Use encryption for data in transit (VPN, SSL)
• Implement access control and multifactor authentication
• Patch and update software regularly
• Monitor cloud activity (log management)
• Make regular off-cloud backups

Public Cloud

Public cloud is multitenant and accessible via the internet. Physical security and some infrastructure protections are managed by the provider.

Security considerations:

Security responsibilities are shared. Provider secures the platform; the organization must secure data, access, and usage.

Best practices:

• Understand the shared responsibility model
• Gain full visibility into public cloud environments
• Implement continuous monitoring and automation
• Use security solutions that cover all environments (e.g., production, QA, dev)

Hybrid cloud

Combines public, private, and on-prem infrastructure. Requires integration of different environments under a unified security approach.

Security considerations: 

Security solutions often lack cross-environment compatibility, creating silos and gaps.

Best practices:

• Choose security solutions built for hybrid environments
• Ensure visibility across all systems
• Centralize and automate security operations
• Control access and traffic between data centers
• Monitor consistently and audit regularly
• Apply zero-trust and least-privilege principles
• Use open, tool-agnostic technologies
• Maintain current backups

Multicloud

Uses multiple cloud providers. Offers flexibility and scalability but increases complexity.

Security considerations: 

Higher potential for visibility gaps and operational costs. Security risk grows with complexity.

Best practices:

• Ensure a “single pane of glass” visibility across clouds
• Employ cloud-dedicated specialists where needed
• Automate security processes
• Monitor constantly to reduce human error
• Use cost-effective, scalable security solutions

Cloud security and Nutanix

As a leading provider of hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) and an expert in hybrid and multicloud, Nutanix has a range of solutions designed to give you world-class protection and security for all of your computing environments. We understand the fact that security needs to be a top priority in today’s cloud-focused world and that security considerations need to be part of an organization’s strategy from the very beginning.

Nutanix security solutions, such as our hybrid cloud security solution, start with a strong software foundation designed specifically for hybrid cloud environments. We use security features and protocols that help increase your defense against attacks and other security threats – as well as helping to prevent data loss and keep business operations running.

With Nutanix, you can enjoy defense at every level, from your platforms, to applications and networks, to your strategies for SecOps, compliance, and audits. We provide a multi-layered approach, or “defense in depth,” that helps you quickly detect and recover from attacks as well as prevent many other types of attacks.

Benefits of Nutanix cloud security solutions include:

Protect data and prevent breaches

• Encrypt data-at-rest

• Control and restrict access to sensitive data through fine-grained role-based access control (RBAC)

• Analyze and audit security configurations, detect configuration drift

• Secure your hybrid clouds with a unified control plane for policy enforcement

• Detect and respond to ransomware attacks

Segment and secure networks

• Deploy microsegmentation and network inspection in minutes

• Separate regulated environments with automated software controls

Simplify regulatory and compliance efforts

• Automate platform security baseline configurations

• Validate compliance with regulatory policies (HIPAA, PCI, NIST, etc.)