The idea of getting IT services like electricity from the socket has led to the success of the cloud. Many companies do not limit themselves to using one cloud service but the multi-cloud.
Analyst companies are, therefore, increasingly dedicating themselves to this scenario. For example, Gartner’s “Guide to Cloud Security Concepts” from September 2021 offers an overview of the possibilities for securing the multi-cloud. The guide concludes that organisations should not rely on the security tools of cloud providers for the best possible protection of infrastructures and data. Instead, it is necessary to use third-party security tools.
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Multi-Cloud: Simplicity And Resiliency
The selection of suitable tools should primarily take into account two aspects:
- Simplicity: The security solution should be easy to use and cover as many of the different cloud services used as possible. Otherwise, organisations are in danger of giving away the gain in simplicity from using the cloud by implementing and managing different security tools from the respective cloud provider.
- Resilience: IT security experts have realised that a security strategy must assume that cybercriminals will eventually breach the organisation’s protective mechanisms and gain access to sensitive data. The goal for organisations must therefore be resilience against cyber attacks. This includes, on the one hand, being able to resume operations as quickly as possible after a successful attack and, on the other hand, minimising the damage caused by data loss.
Resiliency Through Encryption
One way organisations can achieve simplicity and resiliency is to encrypt data before it is sent to the cloud. Because encrypted data is worthless, cryptography meets the resilience required to keep the damage low even in a successful hacker attack.
In combination with a robust backup solution, which, for example, relies on immutable snapshots as a recovery basis and enables fast recovery, an organisation can achieve the most extraordinary possible resilience against cyber attacks.
Simple Data Encryption
Encryption, for example, with an encryption gateway, also satisfies the requirement for simplicity. The same gateway can encrypt data in a wide variety of cloud applications. The primary function of the gateway, in addition to the actual encryption, is to make the encrypted data usable for the user himself.
Disadvantages associated with conventional data encryption can be eliminated with a gateway. This allows users to search and sort encrypted data. As well as accessing the data from anywhere with all end devices and applications. And this – at least with modern gateways – without any significant losses in performance.
Support Of Applications In The Multi-Cloud
The encryption gateway must be multi-cloud capable, so encrypted data can be used flexibly and efficiently. Otherwise, a specific security solution is required for each cloud. This drives up the administration effort, and the interoperability of the cloud applications is not given. The support of just a handful of cloud services is no longer adequate in this day and age.
A modern gateway must be able to support multi-cloud, including customer-owned proprietary applications, without requiring changes to the applications. In the past, providers of security solutions provided their customers with an interface, and the customers had to use this interface themselves with great effort. Those days are over.
Data encryption is an essential building block for a resilient IT infrastructure. A gateway prevents performance and functionality losses when using cloud applications. And at the same time guarantees the protection of sensitive data via a central tool. In addition, using an encryption gateway offers the decisive advantage that data never leaves your organisation in plain text and the keys and encryption remain in your own hands. Especially in times of growing cyber threats, organisations should only trust one thing: themselves.
