Why Use Cloud Security Managed Services to Protect Your Business

The more business that is conducted online, the more important cloud security managed services become when it comes to keeping your business safe and secure.

This is more than likely something you know first hand, if you happen to work in an organization that operates in and out of the cloud. If you are, then you probably have a rough idea of what happens when you’re subject to a cloud-based security breach.

Spoiler alert:

It isn’t pretty – especially if you haven’t taken the time to set up the appropriate protocols well in advance.

This is probably how you ended up here, reading one of blogs detailing the benefits of using cloud security managed services to keep your organization free of rain when it’s high up there in the clouds.

No matter the reason, we here at TLR are on hand to help.

The information we provide in this post will help you fully understand the benefits of cloud security managed services, alongside a range of additional insight.

Our goal here is to be as clinical as possible, while highlighting the benefits of cloud security managed solutions.

What Is Cloud Security?

Otherwise known as cloud computing security, cloud security is the processes and measures taken to protect an organization’s cloud-based infrastructure, applications, and data; important safeguards that keep everything secure.

Cloud security typically differs based on the category of cloud computing used. You might know this already, but there are four main categories of cloud computing, each as different as the last.

Here are the four categories in question:

• Public Cloud Services: As operated by a public cloud provider, these include software-as-s-service (SaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS), and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS).
• Private Cloud Services (Public): As operated by a public cloud provider, these services provide a computing environment focused on one customer, as operated by a third party.
• Private Cloud Services (Internal): Operated internally, these services are an evolution of the traditional data center, where internal staff operate a separate virtual space they control.
• Hybrid Cloud Services: Both private and public cloud computing configurations can be combined, linking both internal staff and external parties.

Not all of these categories will speak to you, based on how you engage with the cloud, but all are worth knowing about if you’re interested in how beneficial cloud security managed solutions are across the board.

Common Cloud Security Challenges

It should come as no surprise that, with data being stored by a third party and accessed over the internet, several challenges can arise.

Understanding these challenges will go a long way in helping you and your understanding of cloud security managed services, period. Which is why we’ve dedicated an entire section to go over cloud security challenges only.

Visibility of Cloud Data

A lot of the time, cloud services are accessed outside of your corporate network and from devices not managed by IT. This means that your IT team needs the ability to see into the cloud service directly in order to see the data.

Access to Cloud Data

User access can be from any location or device – which includes bring-your-own-device (BYOD) technology. This makes accessing controls based on the transitional data center network perimeter not as effective.

There’s also privileged access that applies to specific cloud provider personnel which has the power to bypass your own security controls. Not having control over this poses a challenge in and of itself.

Compliance

Like with anything cyber security based, organisations will need to comply with the respective regulatory bodies and their requirements. HIPAA, PCI, and Sarbanes-Oxley, as well as any requirements from internal teams, partners, and customers will need to be met.

Regulations are constantly in a state of flux, meaning you need to keep on top of these changes when setting up cloud security protocols and safeguards.

Native Breaches of the Cloud

We should point out that data breaches in the cloud aren’t anything like on-premises breaches. Data theft typically occurs using native functions of the cloud.

A native cloud breach is a series of actions, performed by an actor, where they complete their attack by exploiting errors or vulnerabilities in a cloud deployment, without the use of malware.

From there they expand their access through poorly configured or protected interfaces, allowing them to locate valuable data, and exfiltrate said data to their own storage location.

Internal Threats

A disgruntled employee is capable of causing a lot of damage using cloud services to expose an organization to a cybersecurity breach, and we have the stat to prove it!

According to a recent study, McAfee Cloud and Risk Report, revealed that irregular activity, indicative of insider threat in organisations, is as high as 85%.

Why an employee of yours would want to do this is anyone’s guess. Some do it for hacktivism, others do it simply because they want to.

EIther way, you need to take the necessary steps to ensure that you’re covered in case something like this does happen, which is where our cloud security managed solutions enter the picture.

This brings us to the final cloud security challenge we’d like to bring your attention to.

Incident Recovery

How you bounce back from a cloud security breach is very important. Your organization needs to put a plan in place to ensure that it can recover quickly and efficiently. The continuity of your operations depends on it.

Your recovery plan needs to account for all of the following in order for it to be as effective as possible:

• Policies
• Actions
• Tools
• Information

This is very broad, which is purposeful on our part, given how many cloud-based cyber attacks your organisation can fall under. As long as you have these core recovery steps accounted for, you should have no trouble in getting your organisation back on track.

5 Benefits to Cloud Security Managed Services

Okay, now that we’ve outlined what cloud security is and what challenges you typically face, are you ready to shift gears and look at the benefits of partnering with a cloud security managed services provider?

These benefits are a direct response to some of the cloud security challenges mentioned above. All of them highlight a different aspect of working with someone like us here at TLR Global, a dedicated managed services professional.

Let’s get into it.

Not Everyone is as Equipped to Handle Cloud Security

Cloud security is a completely different ballgame when it comes to cybersecurity. Many organisations lack the expertise required to handle these threats – threats that are ever-evolving, and are constantly finding new ways to cause harm.

Gaps in your team’s security knowledge leaves you wide open, which is why seeking the help of a managed cloud security provider is key.

These providers are always one-step-ahead, having honed their skills through years and years of relevant experience. Sure, you can train security personnel to reach that level, but this could take a while.

Seeking the help of someone like TLR unlocks instant access to our expertise and our extensive cybersecurity skillset.

Extensive Protocols Bring you Back Online Much Quicker

A managed cloud service provider is a critical component of business continuity and disaster recovery planning. Like we mentioned above, your recovery plan needs to be as extensive as humanly possible for it to bring your organization back online.

Dedicated cloud security service providers can help you set up these incident response protocols, and do it in a way that is as comprehensive as it is understandable.

Unfortunately, cloud security attacks do happen, but rather than lay on the ground to the count of 10, it’s up to you to get up and keep going. Who you have in your corner to help you get up matters.

The longer your cloud security remains compromised, the more money you will lose. If that doesn’t stress the importance of cloud security managed solutions, nothing will.

You Gain Access to Extensive DDoS Protection

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are a lot more common nowadays. They put a lot of organisations on edge in knowing that attacks could happen at any moment, shutting them down, and therefore, costing them money.

Again, one of the great things about partnering with a cloud security provider is that they take this into account when putting together cloud-based cybersecurity for you.

Having effective cloud security helps track, identify, and analyze these attacks. What’s more, they can also alert your team of any potential attacks, encouraging them to prepare your security for what’s to come.

This is another one of the main benefits of working with a dedicated partner in that they help strengthen your team.

If you’d like to learn more about DDoS attacks and what you can do to combat it, check out our post here.

Allows You to Focus Your Efforts Elsewhere

Knowing that your cloud security is handled by a dedicated managed service provider will give you quite the boost to your confidence, trust us.

Spending time and resources on cloud infrastructure and security can and will pull your focus away from other aspects of the business. We all know what you’d rather be doing, so why not do something about it?

By working with a managed service provider to handle cloud infrastructure and security, you free up more time elsewhere to focus on what you do best! We’ve helped countless partners do just that, and can help you too, if you’ll let us.

Managed Services Help in Accelerating Innovation

This is an underrated benefit of working with a cloud security managed service provider, that being:

They help you make your organisation a lot more agile, as you have greater access to elastic scalability, shared resources, and self-servicing. How agile your organization is can result in easier deployments and accelerated time to market for new products and updates!

It also links back to what we were just saying about how seeking external help allows you to focus your efforts elsewhere. The more time you have to think about the big picture, the longer you’ll have to fully execute your plans.

In other words, how does accelerated growth for your organisation sound?

Why Use Cloud Security Managed Services to Protect Your Business

At this point, the reasons why you need cloud security managed services should be clear; clear enough for you to begin taking the next steps in strengthening your cyber security posture.

We understand that some of this can be a little complicated to grasp, which is one of the benefits of seeking the help of a cloud security managed services provider, in that you don’t have to worry about understanding it fully, as organizations like TLR do all of that for you.

By partnering with us, you ensure that your cloud security is more than capable of handling bouts of wet weather. We’re your cyber security umbrella, capable of keeping your organization high and dry!

Our managed security services are highly extensive, covering you completely should you be subject to cloud security trouble. Check out Cavalry or our SETH solutions for more information.

Or go a step further and get in touch directly. We’d be more than happy to answer any cloud security based questions you might have.