Mohammed NaserHybrid cloud security is crucial while building such a cloud for organizations. Here are some best practices that can help organizations.
Hybrid cloud security is crucial while building such a cloud for organizations. They encounter numerous challenges as they develop and implement it, such as dealing with different components and various hybrid frameworks. It is challenging to secure a cloud environment, but it is even more complicated when dealing with a hybrid cloud environment. Hybrid cloud has many complexities, so enterprises must build a security strategy that works for a blend of on-premises and cloud systems.
The hybrid cloud model is widely accepted because organizations gain flexibility, scalability, cost optimization, and availability while maintaining infrastructure control. Unfortunately, combining two different environments creates a new wave of security issues. Hybrid clouds are challenging to secure for many reasons:
- Physical security
- Complex nature
- Multiple components
- Varying frameworks
Hybrid Cloud Security Best Practices
Since hybrid cloud security and types vary, best practices for each type of architecture will also differ. However, some best practices can be followed. They are:
1. Implementing Least Privilege
In hybrid clouds, resources of public and private clouds or infrastructure interact constantly. Those interactions should have limitations to achieve operational goals to mitigate security risks -- this practice is known as least privilege. Organizations should prevent data stored in the public cloud from being accessed by applications or services hosted in a private component of a hybrid cloud unnecessarily.
2. Establish Continuous Audits
Typically, teams learn about risks as they come. Setting up continuous audits can provide that real-time visibility. IT teams should choose third-party monitoring and observability tools to ensure hybrid cloud security. These tools can reveal threats in any cloud environment or configuration.
3. Adhere to Zero-Trust Principle
Enterprises using hybrid clouds should follow the zero trust principle, meaning that new resources shouldn't interact with the environment until they are secure and legitimate. In the hybrid cloud, this is ensured by not allowing new local servers to join the infrastructure until the vetting process has been completed.
4. Choose Open Source Technology
As a norm, hybrid clouds are easier to manage and observe based on open technologies. Such technologies are typically infrastructure- and tool-agnostic and give enterprises the flexibility to choose from various security monitoring and remediation tools.
5. Data Backups
Data backups are critical to safeguard against attacks. Resources that run in a hybrid cloud must not access backups, regardless of their position. Keeping them in the exact location increases the attack risk and can destroy the backup data.
6. Automation and AI Adoption
Automation & AI tools can help discover risks in complex hybrid cloud security. Cloud data loss prevention tools automatically finding sensitive data is an example. This data may stay within the hybrid environment in places usually not checked manually.
7. Uniform Security Management
Establishing a uniform set of standards in security and using tools that you can apply across the hybrid environment is helpful. Standardization can lead to fewer oversights and simplify tasks and operations.
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