Page 21 - FCW, July 2020

The route to secure, fast
cloud adoption
By taking a cloud-centric approach to security, agencies can shift their focus to mission outcomes
Rajiv Gupta
Senior Vice President, Cloud Security Business Unit, McAfee
Learn more at Carah.io/McAfee-FedRAMP-FCW
AS MORE USERS, DEVICES AND DATA
operate outside the traditional network, security must
move to the cloud as well. In other words, whenever agency leaders have a security challenge to solve, their primary thought should be, “Can the solution be delivered from the cloud?”
The secure access service edge (SASE) and cloud-native application protection (CNAP) models that Gartner defined are frameworks for enabling secure, fast cloud adoption. They can function as an example of true north — an ideal for government agencies to aspire to as they expand their use of cloud technology.
The transition will likely be a gradual one for many agencies,
some of which will need to add security controls they didn’t think about when applications were running inside the network. But traditional perimeter-based controls are no longer relevant in a cloud-based environment.
The value of a robust, cloud-native platform
SASE and CNAP pull together a number of different technologies and categories. But those are point-in-time definitions. Technologies evolve and their functions change over time, so rather than think about what category of product they need, agencies should focus on what they’re trying to accomplish and the business outcomes they want to achieve.
Agencies should look for a platform that was built natively
in the cloud. It should apply persistent protection to sensitive information no matter where it goes; offer complete visibility into data, context and user behavior across the entire environment; and take real-time action to correct policy violations and stop security threats.
Having such a platform is critical for agencies to meet their portion of the security responsibilities they share with cloud providers.
Security as an enabler of productivity
As agencies adapt to changing security needs, they must remember that employee productivity is paramount. If we make it difficult for employees to be productive, they will find a way around security policies. Instead, we need to create environments in which employees do not have to choose between security and convenience. In essence, security should be an enabler of productivity.
Agencies should also pay attention to developers as an increasingly important class of employees they want to attract because developers can help transform an organization into one that is more agile, efficient, competitive and ultimately more successful.
The unprecedented time we’re going through is causing a significant uptick in the use of cloud, and that use will only continue to grow. By applying a cloud-centric mindset to security challenges, agencies can keep pace with those changes.
Rajiv Gupta is senior vice president of the cloud security business unit at McAfee.
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