I’ve always been a fan of integrating applications with all (or some) of the other tools and services I use. It is like a superpower that, when activated, creates something greater than the sum of its parts. Now, instead of one tool that does one thing well, it’s a collection of tools that all work together to solve problems faster, easier and more transparently – like a digital Swiss Army knife.
When it comes to cloud security, these benefits are especially clear, as the amount of overhead required to manage a cloud native organization’s security is already extremely high. As a cloud native company, you are inherently trusting companies with potentially complex configuration systems that could have a security incident with just one errant stroke.
Cloud security tools that integrate into your technology ecosystem allow you to manage your security in a more automated way while simplifying the process and keeping you informed – all within the context of a single pane of glass.
Increased Productivity
One of the most obvious benefits of using technology integration in your cloud security practice is increased productivity through automation. For example, automatic improvement is the process of automatically fixing security issues as they are detected. In the context of a single-purpose security tool, this is already valuable.
Get vulnerable? Patch it. Simple enough, right?
Now, consider automatic remediation in the context of a fully integrated cloud security solution. Instead of only being able to fix one problem, you now have the ability to automatically fix issues that exist outside the scope of a single tool. This could be as simple as automatically applying security policies to AWS S3 buckets or as complex as automatically applying specific network settings to instances in your cloud infrastructure.
Reduced Cognitive Load
Almost as important as productivity, however, is usability. While you can probably manage the security of all your cloud platforms in a single tool, this can quickly become overwhelming. Instead, looking for a tool that meets you where you already are can lower the barrier to entry while creating a single pane of glass to manage the security of your cloud infrastructure.
Looking again at our example above, while you can manage the security of your S3 buckets directly within AWS, it helps you and your team to be able to handle it within a single security tool to configure language and create a consistent design that you and your team can rely on. The advantage of this usability language is that as your ecosystem grows or changes, you don’t need to understand how to manage it.
Just as a well-designed code framework abstracts away unnecessary complexities, fully integrated cloud security tools can strip away the nuances of each of the tools you use and instead give you one consistent pattern for securing them. . This consistency eases management and reduces onboarding of new staff as well as the overall cognitive load of maintaining multiple tools.
Enhanced Awareness
Being able to automate and manage your technology ecosystem through an integrated cloud security platform is valuable, but it’s an incomplete solution without data. Like managing the security of all your tools, it’s more efficient in a single pane of glass, it’s also easier to understand their current security status within a single program.
While there are several different solutions for aggregating logs and other statistics in one place, a fully integrated solution takes those analytics and makes them immediately actionable. Now, instead of knowing that you have misconfigured S3 buckets, you might be able to review the ones that have been auto-enhanced and then manage those auto-enhancement rules directly.
This transparency and control over all your cloud tools will not only help you do your job more efficiently, but it will also help inform the way you think about your cloud security. The tools you use and how they interact with each other will be an important part of the decision making process. And, as the infrastructure that powers our technology ecosystems grows more complex, it’s increasingly important to look at security through a holistic lens. A security solution that cannot be considered as a whole is worthless.
Conclusion: Leveraging Technology Integrations to Improve Cloud Security Management
By integrating cloud security tools into a company’s technology system, a range of benefits can be achieved, including improved efficiency through automation, reduced cognitive strain and improved awareness. A unified interface to manage security across all cloud platforms allows for more streamlined infrastructure protection and simplifies the process of onboarding new employees. In addition, fully integrated cloud security solutions provide actionable analytics and transparency, enabling users to review and manage security status and rules within a single interface. Using integrated cloud security tools can help companies effectively and efficiently secure their data and assets in the cloud.
Orca Security’s comprehensive cloud security platform offers a range of features including API security, vulnerability management and left shift security. To learn more about Orca’s offerings and how they can benefit your organization, sign up for a complimentary cloud risk assessment or request a demo. Take the next step in securing your cloud environment.
Further Reading
