Cloud computing has swept through entire industries, making the cloud environment extremely common and cloud infrastructure one of the pillars of the internet.
However, traditional security solutions haven’t caught up. Their methods of threat detection, access management, and application security became either incomplete or obsolete. Enter cloud security managed services.
Here, we’ll discuss what these services are, how they work, and why they’re key for your business.
What Are Cloud Security Managed Services and How Do They Work?
Cloud security managed services take care of cloud security functions for their clients. They charge their clients for doing cybersecurity work on their behalf. They may strengthen their clients' operating systems and provide managed detection and response (MDR), though not all service providers offer this option.
Some of these service providers manually delegate these tasks to their staff members. The more advanced ones, however, use application programming interfaces (APIs). These APIs allow for an effortless integration, usually as part of an automated solutions package intended to scale and accelerate cloud security functions. Thus, they reduce the likelihood of a human error and minimize the employee headcount.
4 Benefits of Cloud Security Managed Services
Cloud security managed services can address recent talent shortages in cybersecurity, help your company comply with multiple cloud environments, improve your threat intelligence, and more. Let’s take a look.
1. More Opportunity to Scale
Cloud security managed services can help a business scale by automating more workflows.
BusinessWire reviewed a study from SnapLogic and the Centre for Economics and Business Research and found, "Investments in automation are directly linked to increased business revenues (up 5-7%), job growth (up 4-7%), and long-term productivity (up 15%)."
In the long run, that can help your organization keep your most valuable employees from getting burnt out. By automating their tasks, you'll be optimizing their workflows and increasing their productivity, which will ultimately help them feel better about their jobs.
With cloud security managed services, a startup could scale without worrying about hiring more people. Plus, it could automate its existing security processes.
2. Fewer Talent Shortage Concerns
The shortage of cybersecurity experts started even before the adoption of cloud security. Cloud migration, however, may have worsened this problem by introducing new complexities.
The Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) and Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) study clearly demonstrates that trend. According to a survey of cybersecurity professionals, "95% of respondents state the cybersecurity skills shortage and its associated impacts have not improved over the past few years and 44% say it has only gotten worse."
Increased Cyberattacks During the Pandemic
The challenges of cloud security talent shortages have only been amplified with the COVID-19 pandemic, which increased the importance of IT services and the number of cyberattacks. With media attention, the public has become much more aware of data protection issues. Let’s not forget, these issues have also taken place during the Great Resignation.
Thus, the need to have more experts in the security operations centers has become more apparent than ever before, demonstrated by overburdened security teams. The burnout of these overburdened teams may be one of the reasons there were so many successful pandemic-era cyberattacks.
Security monitoring, therefore, needs cloud security managed services more than ever to ease security team workloads.
3. Improved Multi-Cloud Environment Navigation
Cloud security managed services can improve multi-cloud environments to make sure they meet all compliance requirements. This is an important advantage, as the use of multiple cloud platforms by one organization is common. For instance, an organization may be using both AWS and Microsoft Azure cloud platforms at the same time. Meanwhile, its security team may not be very familiar with both platforms.
Such a situation would damage the organization's security posture because the implementation of some security best practices on one platform may be different from that on the other platform. This makes it hard to use all security best practices effectively. Furthermore, real-time remediation would be unnecessarily stymied. In short, the network security would be subpar.
On top of the above, consider regulatory compliance. It's already challenging as it is. PCI DSS, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) are already challenges worth considering. Then add cloud platforms without compliance mechanisms to this mix and you have an even bigger challenge.
However, managed services are well equipped to navigate multi-cloud environments.
4. Better Threat Intelligence
Cloud security managed services can aggregate tons of data from different organizations, making them well positioned to carry out threat intelligence missions.
Threat intelligence is essential for any effective mitigation strategy. Without knowing the enemy, it's either impossible or very difficult to stop the enemy's attack. What Sun Tzu wrote more than a thousand years ago holds true for modern cybersecurity: "Know thy enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated."
Furthermore, DDOS, ransomware, and other types of cyberattacks keep evolving. Therefore, it's imperative to have an up-to-date knowledge of the strategies used by malicious actors.
That's easier said than done when faced with labor shortages and staff burnout. Thankfully, cloud security managed services have the resources and tools to help..
What Are the Drawbacks of Managed Services?
Like any other type of managed service, managed cloud security services aren't perfect. However, there’s only one major drawback you should consider: the loss of flexibility.
Loss of flexibility is a significant drawback. Once you've signed a service level agreement (SLA), there's only so much you can expect. You can't ask the service provider to take on more duties, unless the service provider offers an expanded level of service. That's why it's important to consider your future business needs before signing an SLA.
While any managed service has its drawbacks, we find increased security, happier security teams, and easily navigating multi-cloud environments far outweigh the cons.
Cloud Security Managed Services Are Well Worth the Cost
By simplifying automation, cloud security managed services allow organizations to help with labor shortages and regulatory compliance. Furthermore, they can help create a robust zero trust access model and minimize the number of insider threats. The threat intelligence aspect of an organization can benefit as well.
In short, any security team can derive many benefits from using managed cloud security services. Even an organization without a dedicated security team can benefit from them.
ThreatKey's next-generation product offers most of these benefits at predictable prices. Plus, the integration can be easily done in only a few clicks. Give it a try to see how it can save your organization both time and money.
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