A hybrid cloud combines two platforms: in-house private clouds and external public cloud services. Due to the ability of workloads to migrate between private and public clouds as computing requirements and costs vary, hybrid clouds give businesses flexible deployment choices.
What is hybrid cloud security? Protecting data, apps, and infrastructure simultaneously on-premises and in the public cloud is part of hybrid cloud security. It encompasses management across various IT environments, business processes, and workloads.
Businesses occasionally believe that their cloud provider is in charge of every element of cloud security, but this is not always the case. Cloud service providers offer security for their architecture, but it is up to businesses to safeguard their critical data and the application layer.
How to Create Your Hybrid Cloud Security Plan
You should follow the seven essential actions below to prepare your business for hybrid cloud security.
Streamline procedures
Businesses that don’t standardize their business and security procedures between their public and private clouds are laying the groundwork for human mistakes and security flaws.
Public cloud configuration mistakes led to some of the greatest data breaches in history. Many of these breaches may have been prevented if teams had employed them. For instance, to guarantee that public cloud assets are securely password-protected, the same method used to create administrator credentials on-premises should be used when creating such passwords in the public cloud.
The same procedure must follow in the public cloud if you have a procedure for ensuring that credentials from a software platform are not transferred to a manufacturing environment. Standardizing the process of moving assets across on-premises and cloud-based settings, such as virtual servers or databases.
Consistently encrypt data
Encrypt data, Both in transit and at rest, as a basic security precaution. Data encryption is a common security thing of cloud service providers. But coordinating encryption between public and private is crucial.
Establish secure cloud tools and procedures
Businesses may lessen the possibility of human mistakes and ad hoc methods by arranging security activities into automated workflows. Automated DevSecOps pipelines, for instance, may significantly improve software creation and deployment (a typical business case for hybrid cloud environments).
Security experts may use DevSecOps to integrate automated gates into the software development process, performing several security checks before approving code for promotion to production. With the help of automated tools, you can safely manage the deployment and removal of development and deployment resources, preventing the creation of unnecessary virtual machines and information copies.
Create a business continuity plan and disaster recovery strategy
Organizations must create backup plans to maintain seamless operation in situations like service interruptions or data center failures. It includes setting up automated backup copies, virtualized image-based backup systems, and, if required, a full disaster recovery site housed in a distant location or cloud area.
Manage access
Identity and Access Management (IAM) is essential for safeguarding assets in a secure hybrid cloud. Using strategies like unified directories and identity federations that use the Security Assertion Markup Standard, security teams may extend IAM across both domains (SAML).
Least-privileged accessibility should preserve in both private and public clouds using IAM. It ensures that workers, independent contractors, and other customers only have access to the information they require.
Utilize CWPP
According to Gartner, a Cloud Workload Protection Platform (CWPP) is a security solution that focuses on the workload level. It offers tailored protection for every workload in hybrid and multi-cloud settings. In a sophisticated hybrid cloud setting, CWPP can:
- Increase the visibility of workloads, configuration inconsistencies, security flaws, and incident reporting
- Identify risks and recommend remedies for certain workloads.
- Determine vulnerabilities and fix them before deployment.
- Support a DevSecOps process where security is “shifted left” to the software design lifecycle’s testing and create phases (SDLC)
Shut down the most important infrastructure
Critical systems should be separate from other systems and only be accessible to a small number of users—whether placed on public or private cloud resources. To achieve isolation, separate networks utilizing tools like Amazon’s private cloud virtualization (VPC) might be crucial.
CSPM is a new class of security products that automatically evaluates best practices and security flaws in a cloud environment, and gives the required actions to remedy them, often through automation.
Because it offers visibility and control over several remote systems. It is particularly well suited for hybrid cloud settings.
In a hybrid cloud, CSPM may assist you in completing the following security tasks:
- Analyze the size of your cloud environment and keep an eye on the addition of new buckets or instances.
- Ensure that regulations apply consistently across various cloud providers by providing visibility.
- Check to compute instances for configuration errors that might exploit
- Check buckets for setup errors that might leak private information.
- Examine cloud installations to ensure they adhere to the necessary compliance responsibilities.
- Use ISO and NIST-compliant risk assessment frameworks.
- Ensure that essential operational functions, such as key rotation, are functioning as intended.
- Automatically fix infractions from a central console
Many companies that place a high priority on cybersecurity are choosing the hybrid cloud as their preferred solution. However, like any other network type, hybrid cloud security has several challenges, some of which are more important than others.
However, you may overcome these challenges if you have qualified people, a reliable cloud provider, and strong data protection and security protocols. Furthermore, no solution fits all situations or fulfills the needs of all enterprises when dealing with complex IT systems.
Numerous major firms continue to question the viability of cloud computing as a standalone technology and if it can truly replace their whole IT infrastructure. Many companies are probably considering employing hybrid cloud infrastructure as a substitute.