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How The Next-Generation Security Platform Contributes to GDPR Compliance
2 min. read
As data center managers face a burgeoning population of mobile users, the distributed workforce – with multiple endpoints and cloud applications – is forcing organizations to evolve both their in-house and cloud cybersecurity infrastructures. The traditional approach of backhauling traffic to the corporate network or using multiple point products to extend security to remote networks and mobile users proves difficult to manage, costly, and prone to introducing inconsistencies in security policies and protections.
When hundreds or thousands of devices must be delivered, deployed and maintained across all remote locations, the result is too often a limited security solution with a heavy footprint and gaps in security that expose organizations to breaches and cyberattacks. The topic is further complicated by various environments in cloud computing and storage, including public, private, and hybrid cloud adoption scenarios, each of which pose unique opportunities, challenges, and risks.
Cloud and Platform as a Service
For these reasons, cloud providers and organizations have found it effective to implement a next-generation security platform approach for comprehensive data security in the cloud, with shared, on-demand, ubiquitous, and convenient access to local SAN and NAS. Platform as a service, or PaaS, is a category of cloud computing services that provides customers with an integrated system in which to store, develop, run, back up, and manage applications and data, but avoids the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure typically associated with developing and launching apps.
PaaS is delivered as a public cloud service from a provider, where the consumer controls software deployment with minimal configuration options, and the provider provides the infrastructure – the networks, servers, storage, operating systems and middleware. The organization creates and deploys applications onto the cloud service provider’s platform using the cloud service provider’s programming tools and services. The cloud service provider controls the underlying infrastructure and operating system, but doesn't manage the applications.
By extending and enforcing existing enterprise security tools and encryption policies across the cloud, including authentication, encryption and other prevention strategies, companies can mitigate risk, ensure compliance and avoid data exposure.
Infrastructure as a Service – The Public Cloud
IaaS, also called the public cloud, is the most impactful computing paradigm to emerge since the internet boom of the early 2000s and the increase in software as a service, or SaaS, technology resources. Just as the nascent days of the internet boom changed the way we do business, so too has the public cloud.
According to IDC® Research, of the more than 11,000 enterprises that participated in the firm’s CloudView survey, 80 percent are embracing or moving toward AWS®, Microsoft® Azure® or some other public cloud platform. The size and type of projects these organizations are migrating are equally significant. This shows how the public cloud is no longer an “exploration exercise.” Full production workloads are being moved, with some organizations stating that more than 50 percent of their workloads will be public-cloud-based within the next five years. Others are making bold statements that they will no longer have any data centers within five years.
The move to the public cloud is driven strongly by the business groups, and the velocity is such that security becomes a secondary consideration in some cases, solely because security moves in a purposeful manner while cloud environments move at light speed. However, no one would dispute the fact that applications and data in the private cloud, the public cloud or accessed through a cloud storage service need to be protected with as much diligence as private networks and on-premises software, hardware, applications, and data.
Comprehensive, Scalable Cloud Security with Flexible Licensing Options
In response to concerns about cloud security risks, including data loss and intrusion, Palo Alto Networks® GlobalProtect™ cloud service makes next-generation security infrastructure available to customers in a cloud-based offering with cloud storage and preventive capabilities, including safe enablement of applications, threat prevention, URL filtering, and WildFire® threat analysis service. This complete cloud system delivers powerful security services that secure remote networks and mobile users, helping widely distributed and global organizations reduce the management complexity of costly, time-consuming cloud deployments.
Palo Alto Networks provides a multi-tenant, cloud-based security infrastructure at a predictable cost, with a pay-as-you-go subscription model and pay-per-use licensing options. This allows managers to quickly and easily add or remove remote locations and users, as well as create or adjust security policies. With this flexible, on-demand cloud security service, data centers of any size have scalable options to accommodate growth demands and achieve consistent security throughout their computing environments, regardless of users’ locations or devices.
Cloud Security Service, Storage and Technology FAQs
SECaaS is a cloud-based security model that offers organizations advanced and comprehensive protection by outsourcing cybersecurity services. It enables businesses to access cutting-edge security solutions without the need for in-house expertise or infrastructure.
Key components of SECaaS include threat intelligence, vulnerability scanning, intrusion detection and prevention, data loss prevention, and encryption. By leveraging a subscription-based model, organizations can scale security measures as needed, reduce costs, and maintain compliance with industry regulations. Additionally, SECaaS providers ensure up-to-date protection against emerging threats, allowing IT teams to focus on core business tasks.
Public cloud storage is a service model in which data is stored on shared infrastructure owned and operated by a third-party provider. These providers offer scalable storage solutions accessible via the internet, typically on a pay-as-you-go basis. Customers benefit from the flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and ease of use offered by public cloud storage services.
While security measures are provided by the cloud provider, the shared nature of the infrastructure may pose potential risks for sensitive data.
Private cloud storage refers to a dedicated storage infrastructure designed exclusively for a single organization. It offers greater control over data security and privacy, as well as customization options tailored to the organization's specific requirements. Private clouds can be hosted on-premises or externally by a third-party provider, but the underlying infrastructure isn’t shared with other customers.
While private cloud storage typically incurs higher upfront costs compared to public cloud storage, it provides increased flexibility, scalability, and security, making it suitable for organizations with strict data privacy and compliance requirements.
Hybrid cloud storage is a combination of public and private cloud solutions, designed to optimize the benefits of both approaches. Organizations can store sensitive data and mission-critical applications on a private cloud, while leveraging the cost-effectiveness and elasticity of public cloud storage for less sensitive data and workloads. The hybrid approach enables businesses to maintain control over their data, comply with regulatory requirements, and achieve cost savings by strategically distributing workloads across both environments.
Multicloud storage allows organizations to leverage the unique features, services, and pricing models of each provider, enabling them to create a tailored solution that meets their specific needs. Successful multicloud storage implementation requires robust data management, seamless integration, and effective monitoring to ensure consistent performance and security across all platforms.
Object storage is a scalable data storage architecture that manages data as discrete units called objects. Each object comprises data, metadata, and a unique identifier, enabling efficient and flexible storage and retrieval. Unlike file or block storage, object storage doesn't use hierarchical file systems or fixed-size blocks, making it ideal for handling large volumes of unstructured data. With built-in redundancy and the ability to distribute data across multiple geographic locations, object storage ensures high availability and durability.
File storage is a data storage method that organizes and stores data in a hierarchical file system using folders and files. It's suitable for storing structured data and allows users to easily navigate, search, and retrieve files based on their file paths. File storage is commonly used in network-attached storage (NAS) systems, enabling multiple users to access and share files over a network. Although less scalable than object storage, file storage is user-friendly and well-suited for collaboration and document management.
Block storage is a data storage approach that divides data into fixed-sized blocks, each with a unique address. It's designed for low-latency, high-performance storage and is commonly used in storage area networks (SANs) and cloud-based block storage services.
Block storage excels in handling structured data, such as databases and virtual machine file systems, where consistent and fast access to data is crucial. It may require more management overhead compared to file or object storage, but block storage offers high performance and granular data control.
Data redundancy refers to the process of duplicating and storing data across multiple locations or systems to ensure its availability and integrity. By creating multiple copies of data, organizations can safeguard against data loss due to hardware failures, human error, or other unforeseen events.
Data redundancy can be achieved through various techniques, such as RAID configurations, erasure coding, and backups. Implementing data redundancy is essential for maintaining business continuity, minimizing downtime, and ensuring data reliability.
Data replication is the process of copying and synchronizing data across multiple storage systems or locations to ensure data consistency, availability, and fault tolerance. It enables organizations to distribute data to geographically dispersed sites, reducing latency and improving user experience.
Data replication can be synchronous, where data is written simultaneously to the primary and secondary storage systems, or asynchronous, where data is written to secondary systems after a short delay.
Storage as a Service (STaaS) is a cloud-based storage model that enables organizations to rent storage capacity from a third-party provider on a subscription basis. STaaS providers manage the underlying infrastructure, ensuring scalability, reliability, and performance for their customers. Organizations benefit from reduced expenditure, decreased management overhead, and on-demand storage provisioning.
