Cloud Security Outlook 2023: Navigating Through Economic Uncertainty
Solutions Review’s Expert Insights Series is a collection of contributed articles written by industry experts in enterprise software categories. Subhalakshmi Ganapathy of ManageEngine takes us through a quick outlook of cloud security as we reach the halfway point in 2023.
The cloud’s complex architecture and perimeter-less nature can make it difficult for security teams to devise an effective cloud security strategy. Adding fuel to the fire, the pandemic has accelerated the lift-and-shift approach to the cloud. This has led to increased cloud misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and extended attack surfaces.
Today’s economy is forcing organizations to be prudent with their investments. As security teams look for solutions to their existing problems, the last thing they need is a reduced IT budget due to the economic crunch. As any security specialist knows, ensuring security without having the proper tools can be extremely challenging.
Despite the challenges, organizations can navigate through cloud security selection while being prudent with their investments.
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Cloud Security and Economic Uncertainty in 2023
Cloud Security Must Remain the Top Priority
One of the biggest challenges that organizations face when it comes to cloud security is a lack of visibility in their cloud environments. According to a recent ManageEngine survey, 83 percent of IT professionals in the United States consider cloud visibility and security their top priority while setting security goals. However, today’s security market boasts such an array of feature-specific tools that it’s hard to find any one solution that offers the necessary coverage.
For instance, there are extended detection and response (XDR) solutions, which collect threat data from different security tools and compile it to facilitate threat investigation and mitigation. Then there are network detection and response (NDR) solutions, which utilize AI, ML, and data analytics to identify potential cyber threats within corporate networks. With all of these options, the challenge security teams face is mapping the right solution to meet their requirements.
Choosing more than one vendor is an option, but deploying and toggling between multiple tools to meet security requirements would be a logistical challenge—and costly. For this reason, IT professionals seek multi-functional solutions but struggle to identify the best investments for their needs and budgets.
Assessing the Traits of a Cloud Security Solution
The economic downturn has created a perfect storm for cyber-criminals. As cloud-based attacks continue to evolve in sophistication, security teams must stay on top of their game while assessing potential security solutions.
Here are five things security teams must consider while assessing a cloud security solution:
- Nature of deployment: One of the first things to check while evaluating a cloud security solution is to decide whether the solution should be cloud-based or cloud-native based.
- Cloud-based: Cloud-based solutions are deployed in a private cloud environment.
- Cloud-native: Cloud-native solutions are built natively in the cloud and are designed to run as a service.
- Threat detection and incident response: A key requirement for a cloud solution is threat detection and incident response. Further, the solution should have customizable policies to meet the security requirements of the organization.
- Flexibility: The solution must be flexible enough to be integrated with other security tools and platforms in the environment, such as threat intelligence feeds, vulnerability scanners, and incident response tools.
- Behavior Analytics: A comprehensive solution should have behavior analytics capabilities that can help the organization identify malicious insiders.
- Compliance management: Compliance management is one of the core requirements of any organization, and ensuring compliance manually can be a Herculean task. The solution should be able to provide out-of-the-box reports to meet the organization’s compliance requirements.
Consolidation is the Way Forward
Given the current economic instability and the evolving security market, we can certainly say that a consolidated approach to cybersecurity is what every organization needs. Having a solution that can be integrated with other security tools and threat feeds can help organizations cut down costs and focus on enhancing their existing tools. And for the security admin, getting relevant data in a single console can help them make quicker decisions.
So as cloud attacks become more sophisticated and the economic crunch continues, organizations need to identify an ideal and budget-friendly solution that meets their cloud security needs. This has forced organizations to turn their attention to integrations that can enhance their current security systems. SIEM acts as the platform where cloud solutions can be integrated, affording organizations a comprehensive security solution. This trend is sure to be the preferred approach to cybersecurity for years to come.
Subhalakshmi Ganapathy
Subhalakshmi Ganapathy has an extensive background in cybersecurity and product management. She understands the acute needs of enterprises and helps improve their security posture, resolving the technological challenges in the cybersecurity space. Subhalakshmi contributes to the community by guiding enterprises to adopt best practices in incident detection, threat hunting, attack mitigation, and compliance with regulatory mandates. She currently serves as the Product Evangelist of IT security at ManageEngine, where she has worked for over 10 years.
