As enterprises rapidly move mission-critical systems and applications to the cloud, security must be top-of-mind as a strategic priority. Without it, complex cloud infrastructures and remote operations are at risk of being comprimised by increasingly sophisticated cyber adversaries.
Protera’s cloud managed services include security as a central tenet threaded through every aspect of cloud migration, modernization, and ongoing management. In this guide, we’ll outline why this holistic approach to cloud security is a must for every modern enterprise, and provide real-world examples of how it’s helping Protera clients across industries operate with confidence on the cloud.
Quick Takeaways:
- Complexities around security is the top cloud-related challenge for modern enterprises.
- A robust cloud security strategy enhances brand reputation, ensures business continuity, helps with compliance, and enables greater innovation and expansion capabilities.
- Security use cases and needs vary by industry, and security strategy must be designed with the specific organization in mind.
The Rising Importance of Cloud Security in Enterprise Strategy
In the current landscape of rapid digital transformation, cybersecurity has transitioned from a technical detail to a cornerstone of strategic enterprise planning. On the cloud specifically, the impact of security spans every facet of modern business and must be prioritized accordingly.
There’s no doubt that cloud environments have transformed organizational flexibility, scalability, and operations efficiency. At the same time, however, they come with new security challenges that include a wider array of threats, more vulnerable attack services, and more sophisticated cyber adversaries.
Today, complexity around cloud security is the number one challenge organizations experience related to cloud adoption, rated even above cost and modernizing legacy systems.
To navigate this challenge effectively, enterprises must adopt a proactive and comprehensive approach to cloud security, ensuring their strategies are as dynamic and adaptable as the threats they encounter.
Robust cloud security delivers several strategic advantages:
- Brand Reputation and Trust: In an era where data breaches can rapidly erode public trust, robust cloud security is pivotal in maintaining a positive brand reputation. Demonstrating a commitment to data protection helps build customer loyalty and trust.
- Business Continuity Assurance: Effective cloud security measures are key to minimizing the risk of disruptions and ensuring continuous business operations. This aspect is critical in a landscape where even a minor breach can lead to significant operational and financial setbacks.
- Compliance and Regulatory Adherence: Stringent data protection laws make cloud security crucial in ensuring compliance. A strong security framework helps avoid legal repercussions and hefty fines associated with data breaches.
- Enabling Global Collaboration and Expansion: Secure cloud environments facilitate safer global collaboration and expansion. They provide a secure platform on which enterprises can collaborate across borders without compromising on data security, crucial for businesses aiming for international growth.
- Innovation and Competitive Advantage: A secure cloud infrastructure paves the way for innovation, allowing businesses to safely explore and adopt new technologies. This not only drives business transformation but also provides a competitive edge in an increasingly digital marketplace.
In summary, cloud security in the modern enterprise is a multi-dimensional issue, extending its impact beyond safeguarding IT assets to shaping business strategy and operations. It requires attention and strategic planning at the highest levels of organizational leadership to ensure it not only protects against current threats but also positions the business for future success.
Real-World Industry Examples: Cloud Security Use Cases from Protera Clients
While cloud security, like any business strategy, has overarching best practices and proven approaches, there are unique security needs and use cases across different industries. The case studies in this section highlight how three Protera clients in a range of industries have leveraged security services in different ways to safeguard their cloud-based operating environments.
Oil & Gas
This Protera client is a leading global provider of large offshore vessels in the energy industry, capable of transporting a wide variety of cargoes. The company operates floating services stations—barges that service remote data centers and offices. Across this infrastructure, the client has 450+ endpoints through which data flows in and out.
To keep their cloud operating environment secure without sacrificing their current levels of agility and flexibility, Protera provides the client with comprehensive security monitoring across these hundreds of endpoints in real-time, proactively mitigating threats while centralizing security-related insights
Food Manufacturing
As decentralized and remote operations become more ubiquitous in business, this challenge of endpoint management is becoming a pertinent one in every industry. This Protera client provides another example of why managing it effectively is so critical.
An importer, distributor, and marketer of top Hispanic food brands throughout North America, they also have hundreds of endpoints across their retail and distribution centers that require monitoring. Protera does this in a 24/7, comprehensive, and streamlined way, proactively remediating threats that may occur across their large and complex infrastructure.
As a result, the client can confidently leverage the cloud to scale and expand their services without the worry of elevated security vulnerabilities.
Retail
This Protera client is a global manufacturer and distributor of confectionery products. They originally partnered with Protera to migrate their enterprise applications to the public cloud, an initiative that they did successfully in 2021.
Later that year, Protera identified a ransomware threat in their network before it became malicious. We immediately alerted their team and worked with them to remove the threat, which otherwise would have impacted their supply chain and distribution centers right around Halloween, a critical time of year for the business.
Not only were they able to eliminate the threat quickly, but they also worked with Protera to bring the on-premise systems that would have been affected back up on the public cloud instead, providing access to their 2700+ employees and never experiencing a break or disruption in business operations.
While Protera wasn’t contracted for security services for the client at that time, this scenario highlighted the criticality of having a proactive monitoring and remediation strategy in place. Today, the Protera team plays a central role in executing their security and remediation activities.
The Protera Difference: Security as a Leading Priority
Entering 2024 and beyond, security must be a top priority for organizations migrating to and operating on the cloud. Complex infrastructures and continually advancing technologies (that cyber adversaries are leveraging as well) elevate the risk of operations being impacted by malware, dedicated denial of service attacks, and ransomware.
When mission-critical enterprise applications are moved to the cloud, companies must take a very direct and active approach to prioritizing security at all times. This is one of the key reasons companies look to Protera for their comprehensive cloud managed services.
Protera’s comprehensive managed services include security not just as one of many boxes to check, but a core tenet that is threaded throughout every aspect of the services we provide. It’s enhanced by our strong partnerships with top cloud hyperscalers like AWS, Microsoft, and Google, through which we deliver environment-specific services and access provider-specific expertise.
Dedicated services such as well-architected reviews and migration assessments, which thoroughly assess current landscapes and identify strategies to optimize them for the future, enable organizations to more holistically integrate cloud security with intention into their larger cloud strategies.
With Protera as your partner, you can be confident your mission-critical systems and applications will be protected, and optimized, at every stage of your cloud roadmap.
To learn more about Protera’s Comprehensive Cloud Managed Services and how we can help your organization transform on the cloud, talk to a Protera expert today.