In the ever-evolving world of digital business operations, cloud technologies have emerged as the cornerstone for modern organizations. The shift towards a “cloud-first” strategy has revolutionized business practices, but it has also introduced an array of security challenges.
In this illuminating webinar, two distinguished experts, Anand Kumar, Chief Revenue Officer at SecureKloud Technologies and Mr. Binod Singh, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Cross Identity, delved into the topic of “Cloud First, Secure Always: An Integrated Approach for Building a Secure Cloud Foundation with a Zero Trust Framework.”
Let’s explore their insights, which revolve around the pivotal role of identity and endpoint defense in modern cloud security strategies.
A Shared Responsibility: Cloud Transformation and Security
Today, we have transitioned from the stage of questioning ‘why use cloud?’ to exploring ‘how to utilize cloud effectively?’. Organizations worldwide are racing to embrace the potential of cloud services, but managing the growing complexities of multi-cloud and hybrid environments poses significant security risks. The expansive attack surface, fueled by rapid cloud adoption, exposes enterprises to potential threats. Notably, in today’s dynamic threat landscape, security skills shortages amplify the problem, leaving data, digital infrastructure, and applications increasingly vulnerable.
Ransomware attacks, in particular, have been plaguing organizations, with cloud-based data falling victim to attacks. 47% of critical misconfigurations in the cloud are related to poor identity practices. In such a scenario, protecting assets like infrastructure, applications, and data from threats originating from human and non-human identities, as well as endpoints, becomes a paramount concern. Therefore, an “identity-first” approach is pivotal for establishing a robust zero trust security framework in the cloud.
An Integrated Approach to Successful Cloud Transformation with Identity First Zero Trust Framework
Cloud technology is not merely about migration; it’s a transformative journey that transitions from SysOps to DevOps, and ideally to NoOps via extensive automation. This integrated approach involves the strategic modernization of applications, data, and infrastructure, requiring a robust digital foundation to foster innovation, evolution, and deliver exceptional customer and partner experiences.
We help organizations achieve end-to-end security for all workloads across any cloud environments. This means irrespective of their chosen cloud environment, security can be incorporated into the workloads, offering a fundamental layer of protection through security by design, zero trust, and automation-enabled strategies. Furthermore, it sets the stage for another vital element of cloud transformation – Financial Operations (FinOps), which ensures cost visibility, allocation, and optimization in a cloud setting.
The Role of Identity in Cybersecurity: A Shift Towards Continuous and Context-Aware Controls
Cloud security, governance, and compliance hinge on identity and access management (IAM). The traditional static IAM policies no longer suffice in today’s dynamic and evolving infrastructure. These policies fail to address real-time security risks, especially in a landscape characterized by ever-changing threats.
To meet this challenge, a shift towards dynamic, context-aware, and continuous identity-based controls is imperative. The concept of “Never Trust, Always Verify” and adopting a least privilege access principle, just-in-time access, and just-enough access become paramount in modern cloud security.
Data Modernization: Overcoming Fragmentation
Modernizing an organization’s data is akin to modernizing the organization itself. The traditional incremental approach to data modernization often fails to address core issues, such as fragmented and inaccessible data locked in silos. The key is to adopt a holistic approach that connects all data, making it seamlessly accessible to data management services and end-users. This centralized data environment enhances the organization’s ability to harness the power of its data assets.
Application Modernization in the Cloud-Native Era
Application modernization involves building cloud-native applications and migrating existing applications to modern stacks using microservices and containers. While this approach offers numerous benefits, it also introduces new security challenges. Traditional perimeter-based security strategies are inadequate in a decentralized computing landscape, making identity-centric security a necessity.
Embracing Emerging Technologies
With a robust foundation in place, organizations can confidently explore emerging technologies, such as generative AI, large language models, and the metaverse. These technologies can be harnessed to drive innovation, enhance operational efficiency, and deliver unprecedented value.
Cross Identity: The Converged Identity and Access Management Solution
To address the challenges of cloud security and IAM, organizations need a converged IAM solution. As Gartner predicts, by the year 2025, 70% of new governance in access management will be facilitated through converged IAM platforms. Cross Identity, integrated with SecureKloud’s comprehensive security framework, offers a converged IAM platform that merges identity governance and administration, access management, and privileged access management for seamless IAM. The shared responsibility model in cloud security necessitates such a convergence, where traditional IAM tools fail to meet the demands of dynamic cloud environments.
Cloud Transformation with SecureKloud’s CloudEdge
Experience the power of automation and agile application deployment with CloudEdge, a prefabricated self-service cloud platform. Based on the Zero Trust Security framework, it expedites deployment by 10X using prebuilt codes, saving up to 80% on implementation costs. Powered by Cross Identity, CloudEdge manages user lifecycles 360-degrees, with rigorous authentication, authorization, and validation for optimal security.
A Path Forward for Cloud Security
The journey to digital transformation is increasingly rooted in secure, compliant cloud adoption, with an “identity-first” approach to identity and access management at its core. As digital supply chains and remote workforces grow, outdated security measures fall short. The future of cybersecurity lies in continuous, context-aware, converged IAM solutions – a cornerstone of SecureKloud’s cloud security framework.
As a top Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP), SecureKloud is reshaping the dynamic cloud security field through its partnership with Cross Identity, helping organizations navigate their cloud transformation journey successfully.
Connect with SecureKloud to explore the opportunities offered by an integrated approach to cloud security transformation.