Hybrid cloud environments offer the best of both worlds—you have your private cloud setup, which is like your personal fortress, and then you have the public cloud, which is like renting space in a high-tech apartment complex.
The best feature of the hybrid cloud is the ability to move data between these two configurations. Several businesses are embracing this trend as it provides them with additional choices. They can choose from a variety of cloud providers—they are not limited to just one.
Although the hybrid cloud is incredible, there are risks involved.
You have to be compliant and keep an eye out for insider risks and data breaches.
How, then, do you keep everything safe? Here are the steps to take to layer your security.
1. Standardize Your Processes
This hybrid cloud space isn’t just about combining public and private cloud services and calling it a day. You have to standardize your processes lest trouble arise.
Many companies treat their public and private clouds like they are two different beasts, which is a big mistake.
For instance, if you have a specific way of setting up admin passwords for your on-premises systems, why not use the same method for your public cloud? It’s like locking your front door but leaving your back door wide open.
If you have a process to ensure your development environment credentials don’t end up in production, you must do the same thing in your public cloud. No exceptions.
Treat your whole hybrid cloud setup like one big, happy family. Use the same rules, processes, and security measures across the board.
2. Encryption
According to reports by the Ponemon Institute, businesses can save an average of $1.4 million for every cyber attack if they use encryption.
Your digital armor is encryption, therefore you need to make sure it is impenetrable. Throughout your hybrid setup, you must ensure that your encryption game is solid. Observe closely the data that is transferred between your public and private clouds.
Note that in the world of hybrid clouds, the security of your data depends on how strong your weakest link is. Thus, ensure your encryption is robust and consistent and covers every configuration aspect. There’s no such thing as being too vigilant regarding data security.
3. Managed Access for Hybrid Cloud Environments
In a hybrid cloud environment, you cannot simply let anyone access your data as they please.
Adopt the idea of “zero trust” and don’t trust anyone who accesses your data. The goal is to give people the absolute minimum of access necessary to perform their duties.
Because data is moving across several clouds in hybrid environments, ensuring that no one is where they shouldn’t be is critical. This is why the “least privileged access” notion is so important.
Use multi-factor authentication (MFA) and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to ensure your team gets access based on their job.
Because paranoia is common in the realm of hybrid clouds, assume everyone is trying to obtain your data and adjust your access restrictions appropriately.
4. Disaster Preparedness
For successful hybrid cloud management, you must be ready for things not to go as planned sometimes. You need a detailed plan and protocols that your team can follow to recover your data.
Plan for human error because humans are about as reliable as a chocolate teapot when it comes to security, so you need to invest in advanced threat protection.
In a hybrid cloud setup, everything’s connected, and one wrong move can bring everything down. So, you have to let your team understand that security is not just the IT department’s responsibility. It’s everyone’s responsibility, and they all need to be on high alert.
Remember, in hybrid cloud environments, disaster doesn’t send a save-the-date. It just shows up uninvited, and your job is to ensure you are ready to kick it out the door.
Stay prepared and stay paranoid, and you will make it through the next digital apocalypse unscathed.
5. Regular Vulnerability Assessment
You have to find the weak links in your hybrid cloud infrastructure before the hackers do. You must think like a hacker and poke and prod at your system. This is what is called vulnerability assessments and penetration testing.
Vulnerability assessments are like giving your hybrid cloud a full body scan. You are searching for any holes, any small gaps that could allow hackers to get in. Perhaps a misconfigured server or an out-of-date piece of software is at blame.
You must locate it before hackers find it.
During penetration testing, you can use ethical hackers to try to breach your system. To see whether they can get in, ask them to employ every trick in the book. Cybercriminals can gain access if ethical hackers can, so you need to address any vulnerabilities quickly.
The digital landscape and cybercriminals’ tactics are always changing. You need to run these tests regularly.
Find your weak spots, plug them up, and then proceed with malware detection. Remember, the only thing worse than finding a vulnerability is not finding it before someone else does.
Secure Your Hybrid Cloud Environment Like a Pro
Hybrid cloud environments combine the best features of cloud providers and on-premises systems. However, compared to operating everything on a single cloud, it also presents more security risks.
Fortunately, the advantages of a hybrid cloud configuration may well outweigh the extra expenses needed to safeguard the system as a whole.
Nonetheless, it’s critical to include specialists in general security and networking and engineers with expertise in each of the cloud providers that were considered for the system’s design.
To effectively protect hybrid cloud environments, organizations need a hybrid cloud security approach that combines vendor-neutral and vendor-specific knowledge. Without favoring any one cloud provider over another, they must study broad cloud security practices, technologies, frameworks, and concepts.