Zero-Trust for Cloud Explained

A robust cybersecurity architecture is a must in these data- and technology-driven times. One way of ensuring that is by deploying a zero-trust architecture where trust is never implicitly granted regardless of whether users or devices are within the enterprise perimeter or outside of it.

Hybrid cloud and multi-cloud can help businesses grow, compete effectively and transform operations. But all the advantages of hybrid cloud require a modernised, reimagined focus on enterprise security — with an emphasis on a zero-trust approach.  Zero-Trust technologies and controls bring together context, collaboration and visibility to help organisations secure their cloud environments.

Protecting the hybrid cloud with zero-trust allows security to become a business enabler by dynamically adapting to users, datasets and workloads throughout the business. Zero-Trust architecture is deployed to identify every single asset with access to an organisation’s cloud environment, whether public, private or hybrid, to establish the proper access and protection controls.


Source: Protect the Hybrid Cloud with Zero Trust: IBM Security Solution Blueprint
 
With cloud adoption ever-increasing across industries today, it makes even more sense for organisations to deploy a zero-trust architecture for the cloud. The “2021 Cost of Data Breach” report from IBM and Ponemon Institute finds that a public cloud breach on average costs USD $4.80 Million, while a private cloud breach costs USD $4.55 Million on average. A hybrid cloud breach, on the other hand, costs USD $3.61 Million on average—over 20% less compared to either public or private cloud breaches but significant, nonetheless.

The findings also lay out the steps that organisations can take to protect their cloud-hosted databases including using data classification schemes and retention programs, vulnerability scanning, penetration testing and red teaming, to name a few.

To put zero-trust into action to protect the hybrid cloud, IBM Security Solution Blueprint has been created to help organisations map hybrid cloud-specific security challenges to zero-trust capabilities.

Alternatively, organisations can deploy the pioneering IBM Cloud Pak®, a Security-as-a-Service platform that makes it simpler to deploy an enterprise-wide zero-trust architecture that is perfect for securing hybrid or multi-cloud environments. IBM Cloud Pak also automates a range of tasks and data enrichment to better detect threats and risks, gain valuable insights from them and keep an organisation’s cloud infrastructure safe and secure. 

For a hands-on experience on how zero-trust principles are applied for securing hybrid cloud environment access this interactive demo of IBM Cloud Pak for Security. In minutes, you can:

• See how a Security Leader, Security Analysts and Incident Responders can benefit from the platform.

• See how the platform can help identify, investigate, respond to security incidents.

• Learn how IBM Cloud Pak for Security can break down silos between security operations teams and connect security workflows.