There’s no question that the future is in the Cloud: it not only saves organizations money, but it gives them a more agile and flexible infrastructure. However, it’s always a mistake to underestimate the security concerns that go along with cloud migration. As the Cloud becomes more advanced, so do cybercriminals. Building security into the Cloud infrastructure is essential to sustainable growth.
Shared responsibility model
Security and Compliance falls under the shared responsibility model between AWS and the customer. Under this model, AWS takes on some of the customer’s operational burden by operating, managing and controlling certain system components as well as the physical security of the facilities in which the service operates. Meanwhile the customer is responsible for the guest operating system, other associated application software as well as the configuration of the AWS provided security group firewall. This model helps share the load while providing flexibility and customer control.
Under the shared responsibility model, AWS is responsible for the security “of the cloud”, protecting the infrastructure including the hardware, software, databases, networking, and facilities that run AWS Cloud services. The customer is charged with security “in the cloud”, and their responsibility will be determined by the AWS Cloud services they select, which impacts the amount of configuration work they must perform. Their remit includes data protection, identity and access management (IAM), OS configuration, network security and encryption.
Top security considerations
Here are some of the top security challenges to keep in mind when migrating to the cloud:
- Regulatory and compliance requirements: The cloud environment must meet regulatory requirements and compliance requirements. AWS will have their regulatory requirements covered, but under the shared responsibility model the customer must ensure that they meet privacy requirements on their end, especially concerning sensitive information and access. They may also need specialized controls to meet certain industry requirements.
- Visibility and monitoring: Cloud environments like AWS are large and complex, and contain a wide array of settings to monitor. Security teams may struggle to understand what is going on in cloud environments, especially because cloud migrations imply dynamic change. Provisioning and decommissioning cloud assets rapidly and technical complexities can make security difficult to manage. Gaining visibility is key to identifying dark data and handling data privacy. It’s important to employ industry best practices for initial risk assessment, configuration and security, followed by careful monitoring.
- Managing DevOps: The DevOps team includes developers and infrastructure specialists who manage the DevOps pipeline: coding, building, validation and deployment. When migrating to the cloud, they are responsible for integrating security tools and addressing security issues. They also have to protect against threats when workloads and applications go live.
- Governance standards: Governance workflows and alignments need to become more agile in the Cloud, involving a wider variety of stakeholders. Establishing a set of security standards and baselines in collaboration with the governance team is key. A cloud governance committee can ensure cohesion across teams.
- Protecting network traffic: Just like traditional environments, cloud-based environments can be targets for malware, bots and data breaches. It is essential to control data privacy and protect against cyber threats while securely connecting the cloud to on-premises networks. Information security should be employed to maintain network security parameters.
The way forward
While it’s important to always carefully account for security considerations, it should still be a no-brainer to go ahead and migrate to the cloud. After all, it’s the new normal for enterprise IT operations. Working with a consulting partner like Cloudar, companies can create a migration roadmap suited to their specific organization. This of course includes all the particulars of their industry and configuration needs. Not only will this make cloud migration more efficient and advantageous, it allows companies to benefit from Cloud Best Practices including security.
As a Premier Consulting partner, Cloudar has a proven track record of migrating applications and infrastructure to the Cloud. Want to know more about how we execute secure migrations from start to finish? Reach out to us today.
