What is Cloud Native Security?
Cloud native security has become a topic of growing interest, as more organizations rely on cloud-based applications and services to store, manage and analyze their data. Cloud native security refers to the approach used to secure applications and services that are built and run in cloud computing environments such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure.
Cloud security platforms take into account the unique characteristics and challenges of the cloud, such as the distributed nature of cloud architectures and the need to support rapid deployment and scalability.
What Does Cloud-Native Mean?
“Cloud native” refers to the architecture, design, and development of applications and services that are built specifically to run in a cloud computing environment. This typically involves leveraging the scalability, reliability, and other features provided by the cloud platform.
Cloud native security offers a set of automated tools designed to detect threats against all types of applications within an organization’s cloud data infrastructure. Cloud native applications are designed and built with the assumption that they will be running in a distributed and dynamic environment.
A cloud native approach also emphasizes automation— enabling faster development, deployment, and scaling of applications, all of which can help organizations respond more quickly to changing business needs and market conditions.
What are the 4 C’s of Cloud Native Security?
There are four pillars that form the foundation of modern software delivery models and are crucial to securing your applications in the cloud:
- Cloud: The security of this layer largely depends on the underlying infrastructure, whether it’s a cloud-based environment, co-located servers, or a corporate data center. If this infrastructure is not secure or is configured in an insecure manner, it can compromise the security of the entire cluster.
- Clusters: A cluster refers to a group of computing resources that work together to run applications and services. These resources are often managed by a cluster orchestration system like Kubernetes. Securing the cluster involves ensuring that the underlying infrastructure is properly configured and that security controls are in place, as well as continuously monitoring for potential security issues.
- Containers: The security of a containerized environment includes all aspects related to the container, container image or container runtime. This means that when developing and deploying applications within containers, it is important to take into account all potential vulnerabilities and attack surfaces.
- Code: This specific layer focuses on the application code, the practices of the development team, and the way the codebase is written and managed. The best practices vary depending on the programming language used, whether it’s Golang, Rust, Python, JavaScript or others.
Cloud Native Security Challenges
Integration with legacy systems: As organizations move to cloud native environments, they often need to integrate their existing legacy systems with new cloud-native systems. This can present security challenges, as legacy systems aren’t always designed with cloud security in mind and may not be able to take full advantage of cloud security features. Integrating these systems can also be complex and time-consuming, and may require significant re-architecting.
Lack of visibility into infrastructure and application usage patterns: Cloud native environments are highly dynamic and distributed, making it difficult to get a comprehensive view of how resources are being used. This lack of visibility can make it difficult to identify and respond to security issues, such as unauthorized access or data breaches. Additionally, it can make it difficult to monitor compliance with security policies and detect misconfigurations that could lead to vulnerabilities.
Inability to efficiently assess risk at runtime: Cloud native environments are constantly changing and evolving, with new resources and services being deployed and scaled on a regular basis. This makes it difficult to assess risk in real-time, as the attack surface is constantly shifting. Additionally, it can be challenging to automate risk assessments and apply security controls in a way that doesn’t hinder application performance. This can make it challenging to identify and respond to security threats in a timely manner, increasing the risk of a successful attack.
What’s Ahead for Cloud Native Security Platforms (CNSPs)
As cloud native infrastructure becomes more and more critical to enterprise IT, it’s important to understand how these new security solutions can help you manage, secure and protect your cloud data assets.
In 2023, you’ll see CNSPs will offer end-to-end visibility into your entire organization—whether that’s AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This will be an essential feature for monitoring all of your organization’s sensitive cloud data and tracing the source of potential attacks.
A centralized dashboard where you can get a bird’s eye view of threats across your entire organization without having to search through multiple sources for information about vulnerabilities or breaches. Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) will be the backbone of automation, saving IT teams hundreds of manual hours.
CNSPs will significantly reduce time spent investigating incidents and improve response time with features like data breach mitigation and regulatory coverage.
SmallID’s Approach to Cloud Native Security
When it comes to intuitive, efficient, and trustworthy cloud native security platforms, SmallID is leading the class. The platform provides cloud native data discovery and protection with data security posture management.
Automatically find, classify, and protect your enterprise’s most valuable data—on demand and at scale without the chance of human error. Advanced AI and ML provide deep insight and context into your cloud data in all of its stored forms, whether structured, semi-structured, or unstructured.
SmallID provides unparalleled native coverage for data across cloud service providers like AWS, Azure, GCP and SaaS apps like Salesforce, ServiceNow, Slack, GitHub, and GDrive. Scan data across all of your sources for a centralized view and gain visibility into vulnerable blind spots across your entire data landscape.
Get a 1:1 demo and try SmallID for free today.
