Research indicates that security is the top challenge for IT decision-makers when moving to the cloud. Developing a security plan before your migration begins can help your organization tackle this challenge, prevent stalled migrations, and make the transition easier.
Cloud security is different from on-premise security. Concepts may be similar, but many unique attack vectors exist and specialized tools are available to combat them effectively. These differences must be understood and planned for from the very beginning as organizations move to the cloud.
There are a variety of key performance indicators (KPIs) to gauge your success when migrating to the cloud. These KPIs should align with your business objectives and may include cost and time savings, financial metrics, performance, and user experience. Implementing security from the onset can help with all these, but let’s focus on a few security-specific measurements.
💡 The success of your cloud migration goes beyond KPIs; don’t forget about your people! Teams should be aligned with purpose and strategy.
Threats are constantly evolving, so staying on top of emerging threats and risk vectors in the cloud is imperative. If you stay up to date on current threats, have a plan in place, and proper precautions are taken, the likelihood of running afoul of these risks is severely reduced.
Despite these concerns, a successful cloud migration with appropriate security measures in place can increase your organization’s security capabilities.
For example, According to an AWS whitepaper, 45% fewer security-related incidents occurred on average after a well-planned and properly executed migration to AWS.
According to Gartner, through 2025, 99% of cloud security failures will be the customer’s fault. To combat these risks, security should be at the core of your cloud migration strategy and integrated into every step of the process. Planning ahead to include guardrails and automation will provide peace of mind.
Depending on your company’s compliance requirements (HIPAA, SOC 2, PCI, etc.), using cloud-native tools can allow you to build controls into your environment that provide proactive security and configuration measures. This decreases the likelihood of breaches and generally makes audits easier, saving time and money in the long run. A security-minded cloud migration will vastly reduce security incidents, and having the proper plan and framework in place to build a robust security infrastructure will pay off later.
The cloud can be more secure than an on-premise workload if configured correctly. This is partly due to the cloud service provider taking on some of the burden. That said, not all responsibility is transferred, and you are still responsible for securing your data in the cloud. Understanding where the distinction in responsibilities lies and which belongs to your organization is crucial.
An easy way to break this down is that the provider is responsible for the security of the cloud, while you are responsible for security in the cloud. An example of the AWS Shared Responsibility model can be seen here:
Before migrating to the cloud, a holistic security policy that will be implemented across all workloads should be created or adopted. This policy will be the backbone of your security infrastructure. CIS, NIST, or ISO frameworks can be used to simplify this process.
Take a look at your current workloads. Get to know the architectures, data, and how security is currently implemented. This will help you understand what may need to be adapted to best take advantage of cloud security capabilities.
Depending on the kind of data each workload has, there may be different compliance requirements. Ensure that any legal or regulatory requirements your data is subject to are planned for before you start your migration.
The tools and processes that you currently use in an on-premise environment aren’t always going to be applicable to a cloud environment. Remember your end goal and try not to implement tools you’ll only use for migration purposes with plans to upgrade or change them later. These are often never upgraded and are not the best tools for continuous usage. Successful implementation of cloud security requires constant integration of security into all aspects of your migration and continued cloud usage. From design through operations, baking security into your process should be the goal.
Implementing a DevSecOps model and configuring a zero-trust access model are high-level examples of how this can be done. In addition, utilizing cloud-native tools often leads to easier integration and a more seamless experience. Here are lists of security and identity tools for AWS and GCP.
The cloud migration process (and coinciding security measures) can seem daunting. You may find yourself wondering, “Where do I start?” and “What security framework is best?”
From implementation to upkeep, partnering with a cloud security expert can be helpful. At ScaleSec, we solve complex cloud security and compliance challenges with manageable, frictionless solutions. From our security assessments to hands-on execution, we’re here to equip you with security solutions that help your team move faster. Get in touch to learn more!