Simplify And Win, Cloud Services

Updated: 19 May 2024

The true discovery of the journey does not consist in seeking new paths, but in having new eyes. The expert of Essential Network Technologies, with this initial message, proposes the trip to the cloud as a strategy to contribute to the growth, increased competitiveness, and business continuity of our company.

Some key factors and benefits that an SME can acquire through hiring cloud services are:

Cost reduction: usually, we work under a pay-per-use model, without the need to acquire or maintain our own infrastructure and hardware.
Better security – Cloud providers usually offer advanced and cutting-edge security solutions, such as data encryption, malware protection,…
More innovation and agility: “renew or die” It is difficult to resist the adoption of this technology because it is the most efficient and competitive way available to SMEs to test new technologies and applications more efficiently and with fewer risks.
Flexibility: by allowing the cloud services contract to be increased or decreased depending on the needs of our business.
Global access: from any device connected to the Internet our employees will be able to access company data and applications.
Automatic updates: carried out by the cloud service provider, this workload will be eliminated and the company will also be guaranteed to have the latest versions and updates.
Backups and data recovery: both backup copies will be made automatically and different data recovery options.
Better collaboration between teams: cloud solutions promote the sharing of documents and improve communication and internal efficiency.

To make good use of them, it is necessary to ask yourself a series of questions related to security:

Is the company prepared to hire cloud services?

To contract cloud services, a company must meet at least the following requirements:

You must have identified what your needs and objectives are to be met through the adoption of cloud services.
Evaluate the compatibility of current technological infrastructure with the adoption of cloud services.
Compliance with European and national regulations on data protection.
Implement a security master plan.
The company’s Information Technology team or staff must know how to manage cloud services. If not, training must be provided.
The company culture must be flexible and willing to address changes.

In this blog, we list these principles as a rigorous starting point to evaluate and select the most appropriate and secure cloud provider for the needs of each company:

Principle 1: Protection of data in transit

How will data be protected from manipulation or espionage as it “travels” through internal and external networks to the cloud? This information must be protected by a combination of:

Encryption
Service authentication
Network level protections

Principle 2: Data protection and resilience

How will all data (credentials, configuration data, derived metadata, and logs) and the assets storing this data be protected from physical manipulation, loss, damage, or theft? The protections must at least:

Comply with legal data protection regulations
Consider the physical location, its security, resilience
Include data protection measures such as encryption, secure deletion, and availability.

Principle 3: Separation between clients

Are effective security limits guaranteed for each client? The provider must guarantee at least effective security limits for both:

In the way you run the code
Store data
Manage the network

Principle 4: Governance Framework

What is the security governance framework that oversees cloud service management? This principle will give us confidence in which controls are effective during the useful life cycle of the service. It will ensure that procedural, personnel, physical, and technical controls continue to operate throughout the life of the service. As well as responding to changes in the service, new technological developments, and new threats. Through a documented framework to:

The security government
Risk management
With policies governing key aspects of information security relevant to the service

Principle 5: Operational security

Will the cloud service allow you to prevent, detect, and prevent attacks? It should not be through complex, bureaucratic, slow, or expensive processes. The aspects to consider are:

Vulnerability management
Protection Monitoring
Incident Management
Service configuration and change management

Principle 6: Security personnel

How to audit and restrict the actions of supplier personnel? Where vendor personnel have access to company data and systems, sufficient confidence in the technical measures implemented by the vendor will be necessary to minimize the likelihood and impact of accidental or malicious compromise by vendor personnel.

Principle 7: Secure development

What are the security measures used for secure design, development, and implementation? Security in software development must be considered to avoid vulnerabilities, and security breaches or it can even be the gateway to malicious activities.

Principle 8: Supply Chain Security

Does the supplier’s supply chain meet the same security standards that the supplier sets for itself? Cloud services also depend on third parties at both the product and service levels. Thus, if you do not have this principle implemented, your supply chain may affect the security of your service.

Principle 9: Secure User Management

Does the provider include tools to securely manage the use of cloud services, preventing unauthorized access and ensuring non-alteration of resources, applications, and data? The access management model must allow at least:

A single, well-defined user account model to authorize access to data and services;
Granular access control, by the ‘principle of least privilege’ and easy to manage at scale;
Access control is based on individual permissions applied to the human identity or a machine, as in role-based access control.

Principle 10: Identity and authentication

Are all service interfaces limited through securely authorized and authenticated identity? Services and data should only be accessible to an authenticated and authorized identity, which can be a user or a service identity. Keep in mind that authentication must always be through secure channels with: