Hybrid cloud and multi-cloud security is becoming top of mind for organisations – but many still persist with best of breed tools for both systems rather than combining into one ‘best of suite’ offering.
That is the key finding following a report from Santa Clara-based Cavirin Systems. The report, which polled more than 350 IT admins, IT decision makers and C-suite executives, found 81% of organisations currently deploy a hybrid or multi-cloud strategy, with 11% only going on-premise and 8% with one cloud provider.
For those who have two or more, Azure, cited by almost half of those polled, was most popular, ahead of IBM (45.8%), Oracle (34.7%), Amazon Web Services (32.3%), and Alibaba (20.7%). 46% said their setup was on-premise with VMs, while the same number cited on-premise with private cloud management.
When it came to what hybrid cloud security meant for those polled, more than two thirds (68.9%) said it meant verification their public account was secure and confirmation that workloads in the cloud, such as VMs and container instances, were secure. More than half (52.6%) said it meant ensuring all sensitive data was out of the cloud.
The most popular form of hybrid cloud security architecture is separate best of breed tools for both on-premise and cloud, cited by more than 60% of respondents. More than half (51.4%) said they used a best in suite tool – in other words a single tool spanning on-premise and cloud. More than a third (36.7%) said they use a cloud access security broker (CASB) tool for their hybrid security management, while one in five are using a dedicated container security tool.
When looking at the overall state of health, only one respondent was brave enough to admit their cybersecurity posture needed ‘immediate help.’ More than half (53.4%) said their outlook was healthy, with 22% saying their posture was impenetrable.
According to separate research from ESG, more than four in five enterprises are adopting a hybrid cloud approach, yet only 30% were using unified security tools spanning both on-premise and cloud. “The fact that this will grow to 70% over the next two years speaks well of Cavirin’s hybrid cloud approach, helping address a key barrier to hybrid cloud adoption – security and visibility,” said Doug Cahill, ESG lead cybersecurity and cloud analyst.
Naturally, Cavirin has a solution to this problem. The newest product, CyperPosture Intelligence, aims to ‘deliver risk, cybersecurity and compliance management by providing visibility and actionable intelligence to the CISO and other stakeholders across hybrid environments’, in the company’s words.