Cloud Source

Three Challenges of a Hybrid IT Strategy

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A hybrid IT strategy comes with some great benefits that allow enterprises to introduce new innovations that optimize productivity and performance. While a hybrid IT strategy harnesses the benefits of both private and public cloud solutions, it also creates some new, complex challenges in three areas of management: IT operations, developers, and line of business executives (LOBs).

A research report summarizes the results of a survey conducted by IDC, entitled “The Future of Hybrid IT Made Simple.” The survey included IT professionals as well as LOBs from Fortune 100 companies.

Challenges for IT operations: A hybrid IT environment creates more complexity for IT operations when compared to an on-site legacy system. The lack of automation with a hybrid cloud solution means that deploying resources that are in silos requires separate management. IT operations managers also find it challenging to create integration and promote interoperability as well as manage the overall complexity of the hybrid environment.

Overall, the role of IT operations is changing, with the department no longer serving solely back-office functions, but instead driving competitive differentiation while also offering support for legacy systems and processes.

Challenges for application developers: Developer services, such as application programming interfaces (APIs) and automation tools, are not consistently available across cloud platforms. There’s also little in the way of unified provision tools, so service delivery is serialized, which leads to bottlenecks.

A hybrid IT plan is certainly perceived to be more difficult for application developers because it is more complex and slows down the timeline to roll out new services for platforms. Developers also mention the learning curve that comes with managing cloud services.

LOB challenges: For LOB executives, the concern is the slow progress when requesting new private cloud services. While public cloud deployment might be faster, LOB executives question whether data is safe in the public cloud. They also have concerns related to vendor lock-in and overall adherence to service level agreements (SLAs), transparency, performance and cost. Their challenges often center on data accessibility versus data security.

Reducing complexity for each of these areas of management requires that your enterprise develop a comprehensive hybrid IT strategy. There are tools available that can mitigate common challenges with software-defined infrastructure and hybrid cloud solutions that allow for automation and streamlining as well as faster deployment of services.

If your enterprise is facing new challenges with hybrid IT and you’re recognizing the need for solutions that allow for automation and faster service delivery, contact us at Cloud Source. We leverage tools like multi-cloud management software and other resources to simplify the management of your hybrid IT environment.

Evaluating Security During a Migration to the Cloud

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With hackers making headlines on a regular basis, you may be questioning your recent decisions to move data storage to the cloud. Your on-site system may not be the most efficient solution, but you felt comfortable that your data was safe behind your firewalls. How can you be sure that cloud providers are just as diligent as you are in protecting the data of your enterprise?

It’s essential to look at each provider’s backup policies to decide which best fits your needs. Each cloud provider includes a page on their website for describing the tools they have in place for securing your data in the cloud, with the priority of promoting security transparency. Here are a few of the features you’ll be looking for in your provider:

Encryption: Your cloud provider should offer encryption on at least three basic levels: going to and coming from the cloud, and while data is at rest in the cloud. They should provide a relatively detailed description of how your data is secure and why you should trust that it is. The providers will explain their encryption methods that prevent hackers from reading your data without the proper key. The provider holds the key.

If you’d like another layer of protection for your data, you can add a safeguard by encrypting your data prior to backing it up. For this backup, only you would hold the key, providing double protection for your data.

Upgrade to VPN: Many providers offer a virtual private network (VPN) as an added security measure. Acting as a sort of armored truck for your data as it travels through the ether, this option will increase your costs for cloud services. You’ll either pay for minutes of VPN connection or the provider will set up a virtual private cloud account that is segmented off from the public cloud. You can opt to set up your own VPN, but this can escalate costs further because now you have a VPN to manage.

While VPN is an option, its inclusion in this list is not meant to imply that the cloud is not a safe option for data storage unless you purchase additional security measures. Cloud providers employ several layers of security protection.

Access management: It’s important to consider the firewalls in place by the provider, but some of the most critical security measures for protecting data in the cloud are those from within the organization. Identity and access management utilize a set of policies that use authentication in a variety of ways to ensure that only those that require sensitive information to do their jobs can access it. This might include several levels of password authentication, as well as a personal security question and management granting only minimal access privilege so that the most sensitive data is available to the least possible number of individuals in the enterprise.

Security is just one of the concerns you may have about choosing the right cloud provider. Contact us at Cloud Source for more information about the considerations you should include in your search for the right cloud solution.

Tips on Developing a Better Cloud Security Strategy

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Cloud security is a hotly contested topic. For those who believe the cloud partner is solely responsible for securing data, they’re in for a rude awakening. In truth, partners are responsible for some cloud security issues, but there is a shared responsibility between the partner and the customer.

The Ponemon Institute looked into the issue in 2017 and found that 32% of those surveyed said they follow the shared responsibility aspect of cloud security, while 34% were evenly divided on the topic.

Sharing Responsibilities

There are a few different cloud service models that allow for a shared responsibility. These include Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS).

When implementing an IaaS model, the partner will manage the facilities and data center(s). They will also be involved in managing processing and interfaces. However, the customer will have the responsibility of managing virtual networks, operating systems, data, middleware, applications, and virtual machines.

In the PaaS model, the partner is responsible for virtual networks, middleware, virtual machines, and operating systems. The customer is limited to managing data, applications, and interfaces.

In the SaaS model, the partner takes on all management responsibilities except data and interfaces.

As you can see, data is the responsibility of the client — always. Cloud security strategies must include backup plans, disaster recovery, and business continuity solutions. This is often tied to compliance issues, which spell out ways in which data, particularly that related to sensitive client information, must be protected.

Define Who’s Accountable for What

When you evaluate your partners, look at the various risk factors and how those risks are mitigated. Every security feature must be fleshed out and your clients need to know how to use them. Also, break down how responsibilities are divvied up in regard to cloud security protocols. Documenting all your internal controls can also help monitor your risks.

Before choosing a partner, you must be able to define exactly what your requirements are in regard to security, and prioritize each need. Also, if you’re going to migrate data to the cloud, you’ll need to know how that’s going to impact your policies.

Everyone’s role needs to be clearly defined before a contract is signed. This is the best way to ensure accountability.

To connect with a partner that you can trust, contact Cloud Source today. We’re focused on connecting our clients with the right technologies including those that provide clear and concise cloud security solutions. Don’t struggle to find the technology that fits your business needs — let us assist you.

The Many Faces of UCaaS

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As cloud solutions have become more familiar in discussions about software solutions, both IT and line-of-business managers are becoming more informed about what the cloud is and what it is not. For instance, so many organizations have found the perfect balance in a hybrid or multi-cloud solution that a total either-or migration to the cloud or on-premise solution is no longer the center of the discussion. When it comes to Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), those steps in between total cloud migration and on-premise legacy system are becoming common.

A large enterprise that is considering UCaaS doesn’t need to worry about the lost investment in hardware from a legacy private branch exchange (PBX), for instance. UCaaS can be integrated gradually, with a plan to use existing hardware to save on costs.

Reasons for keeping an on-site solution: There are a variety of reasons that a company may prefer to stick with a solution that’s housed on their premises, and it often has nothing to do with leadership that won’t embrace change or that resists new technology. In many cases, it makes sense to choose an on-site solution because expected adoption rates are better or because it seems like a safer or more secure option.

Often, the choice simply isn’t as black-and-white as choosing between cloud and on-premise. There are many steps along the way, and many companies don’t see the benefit of tossing their PBX systems and beginning from scratch with UCaaS if their current approach is working. They may see certain tools available through UCaaS that they’d like to implement while still utilizing PBX systems, so they choose a smaller step toward UCaaS:

  • Multi-Tenanted Public UCaaS
  • Hybrid Cloud (some on-premise, some cloud)
  • Dedicated Instance UCaaS
  • Virtualized options in VMware or Hyper-V

These options offer varying degrees of cloud involvement and give enterprises a high level of control over how quickly they move communications into the cloud. A startup may embrace a move to the cloud, and smaller companies in general may be interested in UCaaS features that allow them to handle phone calls like a big corporation with digital receptionists and call forwarding. For many bigger companies, the shift to a full cloud migration is not so simple.

There’s no need to embrace the big-bang approach if a larger organization is reluctant to make a full switch to UCaaS. Hybrid cloud systems and the easy integration between applications allow enterprises to create a customized path to cloud adoption for communications.

To begin on the path of a cloud migration to UCaaS designed specifically for your enterprise, contact us at Cloud Source. We can help you determine the benefits that a UCaaS system can deliver to your organization, while also keeping in mind the various stepping stones that deliver benefits while still meeting your needs for some on-site functionality.

Cloud Security: Assessing Risk and Building Strategies

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Has your organization been inundated with serverless apps? The ones that are built to use just the minimum amount of computing resources yet still function? You use them for a task and quickly forget about them. When it comes to cloud security, are you putting yourself at risk by using them?

There is also a type of bundled app referred to as “containers,” which many cybersecurity experts are still trying to figure out. Many of these containers run in a virtual machine, which makes them a more flexible type of application to deploy.

The advantage that containers have over serverless apps is that they have some room for security software, which includes malware protection. The serverless app is in a situation where developers take little part in providing any cybersecurity or cloud security, and they instead hope that their infrastructure providers are doing something to keep everyone safe.

For some organizations, going with a serverless architecture makes total sense because there is a cost reduction factor. However, this is before you include the various risks associated with the cybersecurity unknowns that currently exist.

Addressing Experience Deficits

One of the biggest things holding back cybersecurity protocols is that there is a lack of expertise in regard to serverless security. Technical prowess in cloud security at the micro-services level is certainly not sufficient. Furthermore, most organizations haven’t established teams for keeping track of cloud security issues in relation to assessing various risk environments.

The fact is, there isn’t a lot of data regarding the amount of risk an organization assumes when using a container or serverless app. Security vendors have been quiet on the issue so far. Therefore, if your organization is moving toward containers or serverless apps, it can be difficult to assess your return on investment.

Calling in a Third Party

At Cloud Source, our approach to client services takes a full assessment of various risk factors and how cloud security can be improved to ensure there will be no disruption of services.

We’ve established a disaster recovery solution that will help you avoid a negative impact on your bottom line. We know that each minute a network is down, time and money are lost. However, securing your network against natural disasters is where we excel, so contact us today and let’s talk about how our cloud security solutions will fit your organization’s needs.

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328 S. Jefferson St. Suite 603
Chicago, IL 60661
Ph: 312.753.7880
E: info@CloudSourceServices.com

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