Secure networking starts (and ends) at the endpoint

One step behind

The final decade has been difficult for the cyber business. Attackers all the time appear to have the higher hand whereas defenders play catch up. It’s frequent to level to the ever-accelerating frequency and class of assaults, siloed safety that creates gaps, and a scarcity of expert cyber professionals as rationale for this lagging place. All are true however none symbolize the core motive for our present state of affairs. 

The rationale we’re the place we’re is due to cloud computing. Don’t get me unsuitable, cloud computing has been and continues to be profoundly useful. It enabled digital transformation that reshaped how we do enterprise. However additionally it is an enormous disruptor that turned conventional, centralized computing and knowledge networking fashions on their head, forcing carriers and community suppliers alike to innovate and adapt or threat obsolescence. And as networking fashions shifted, from centralized to distributed, so too did safety, however all the time at a lagging tempo. 

With cloud computing, distributed networking, and cloud-based safety changing into normal, organizations should reassess their cybersecurity strategy. It’s crucial that they undertake complete end-to-end options that align with the evolving panorama of cloud computing and connectivity to handle their cyber challenges. 

Cloud computing’s cascading impact

It’s all the time been about knowledge – the place knowledge lives and the way it’s accessed by customers. Shifts in knowledge residency and entry have triggered a sequence of occasions, starting with:

Our introduction to the cloud

• Server virtualization and cloud compute infrastructure, ceaselessly known as infrastructure as a service (IaaS), ushered in low value, versatile, and useful resource environment friendly computing through digital machines (VMs)
• Progress in cloud computing shifted focus to new ways in which enabled customers, whether or not in places of work (websites) or at residence (distant customers), to entry the info required to carry out their job duties

Cloud adoption led to new networking fashions

• Networks have been re-architected to align with shifting knowledge residency, from centralized knowledge facilities to distributed cloud infrastructure
• This transition included shifting from MPLS/datacenter designs to SD-WAN with Web breakouts and hybrid or multi-cloud options 

Community safety transformation lagged

• As knowledge networking fashions developed so too did community safety, however at a lagging tempo
• Over time, the enlargement of cloud-delivered safety options helped organizations to align and optimize community safety inside this new cloud and networking setting

However this new knowledge and networking paradigm requires consideration past community safety 

• Endpoint safety has change into extra essential to contemplate on this new age of cloud computing and community connectivity the place the main focus is now squarely on enabling customers on laptops, desktops, and cellular units (endpoints) to entry knowledge on cloud servers and VMs (additionally endpoints)
• Endpoints bookend this continuum of customers accessing knowledge on cloud workloads, and as an important a part of the communications circulate, they should be thought of when designing an end-to-end safety resolution

Doubling down on the cloud

We’ve come a good distance from the preliminary cloud use case of check/dev. We’ve since moved to working production-grade functions within the cloud and at the moment are coming into the subsequent section of cloud software improvement – microservices and containerization. Because the cloud turns into more and more foundational to your group, it’s essential to prioritize strong safety for all cloud workloads. This consists of making certain top-performing endpoint safety not just for VMs but in addition for cloud containers.

Key concerns

As you intend your future within the cloud, hold these key concerns in thoughts:

Communications continuum: The brand new communications continuum consists of customers on workstations and cellular units accessing and using knowledge residing within the cloud, inside workloads (servers/VMs/containers).

Endpoint significance: Endpoints bookend this continuum in order you contemplate community safety in your trendy community and cloud setting, don’t go away endpoint safety to likelihood.

Analysis and procurement: Assess and procure high performing endpoint safety options, whereas making certain they excel not solely on Home windows endpoints but in addition on Linux, provided that cloud workloads function on each Home windows and Linux working programs. Bear in mind that some options might lack characteristic parity and efficiency on Linux in comparison with Home windows.

Container safety assurance: Along with strong efficiency on Linux endpoints, verify that your chosen endpoint safety options present an agent for Kubernetes clusters to safe your cloud containers as effectively.