Securing India on Cloud 9

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Rajneesh De, Consulting Editor, APAC News Network

Most enterprises are today deploying multiple clouds to run their ever growing list of applications and services. However multiple clouds also translate into multiple rules, tools, processes and multiple challenges especially in security. Increasing workplace productivity, gaining a competitive edge, and enhancing data privacy and security were the key drivers of the migration to cloud for enterprises. In such a scenario, the cloud security market indeed assumes a critical

Cloud Security Market and its Catalysts

The Indian cloud security market is projected to reach $2.2 bn by the end of 2023. The market revenue is expected to subsequently show a CAGR of 41% to reach $1.8 bn by 2028. The average spend per employee by Indian enterprises in the cloud security market is projected to reach $4.4mn in end of 2023. Contrast this with the global numbers. The global cloud security market size was $39.45 Billion in 2022 and is expected to reach $ 133.44 Billion in 2032, registering revenue CAGR of 14.5% during this forecast period.

Cloud-based services and solutions are increasingly being used by different enterprises. This is a major factor driving the market revenue growth. Cloud security solutions are consequently in high demand as a result of the increasing number of cyberattacks and data breaches that are compromising sensitive data and applications residing on cloud platforms.

The requirement to abide by different laws on data privacy and security is another factor creating a high demand for cloud security solutions both in India and across the globe. To protect sensitive enterprise data, governments in different countries effect legislation such as the GDPR and the HIPAA. India has been no exception on the issue of corporate governance. As a result, enterprises are being led to use cloud security solutions that comply with these laws, which is in turn driving market revenue growth.

The demand for cloud security solutions that can offer a holistic view of the security posture of the entire enterprise across various cloud platforms is being driven by the growing usage of hybrid cloud and multi-cloud settings. What this has led to is the complete security coverage for multiple cloud platforms, such as public, private, and hybrid clouds, in the form of cloud security solutions.

The increasing adoption of IoT devices, which are linked to cloud platforms to deliver real-time data insights, is another factor creating a high demand for cloud security solutions. Enterprises are implementing cloud security solutions to safeguard their IoT devices and data they generate, since the security of these devices and the data they produce is critical for their business requirements.

There is also the necessity to defend cloud-based applications from sophisticated cyber threats including malware, ransomware, and phishing attempts. This, in turn, is driving need for cloud security solutions. The development of cloud security solutions that can offer sophisticated threat detection and response capabilities is being driven by the increasing sophistication of the threats enterprises are facing.

The growing use of AI and ML technology to improve security capabilities is another catalyst for the cloud security market revenue growth. These technologies are being used to analyze enormous volumes of data produced by IoT devices and cloud platforms to spot potential threats and vulnerabilities and take immediate appropriate action.

Dissecting the Cloud Security Market

Who are the key players in the cloud security solution market? The usual suspects dominate the show with IBM (22%) and Microsoft (21%) taking the top two spots. With Tenable (14%), Cisco (6%), Akamai (4%) and Qualys (4%) next on the market share rungs, the top 5 vendors themselves contribute to 70% of the overall cloud security market. The other players include Netscout (3%),Trellix (3%), Crowdstrike (2%), McAfee (2%) and Palo Alto Networks (2%) among others.

IBM’s SaaS security platform provides enterprises with real-time insights to detect endpoint security vulnerabilities and prevent threats. The platform helps CISOs use less infrastructure on security solutions, deploying them instead through the IBM Cloud and its cloud-computing security services.

In May 2023, IBM acquired Polar Security with the goal of integrating the company’s data security posture management (DSPM) technology within its Guardium data security products. With the integration of Polar Security’s DSPM technology, IBM Security Guardium now provides the enterprise CISO teams with a data security platform that spans all data types across all storage locations — SaaS, on premise and in public cloud infrastructure.

Microsoft Azure cloud platform provides services to IoT systems in combination with chip design through Azure Sphere, while Azure Stack allows users to have their data analyzed in real time. Microsoft is also providing a host of AI applications through Azure, including advanced data analytics, speech recognition and language translation.

Microsoft leverages its security expertise and experience to create critical cloud infrastructure protections. The company now plans to launch the Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty in December 2023, which is expected enable governments to meet their compliance, security and policy requirements while harnessing the cloud to deliver value to their citizens.

Tenable provides cybersecurity software and services that help organizations better understand and reduce cyber exposure. It provides security solutions such as vulnerability management, compliance, and file integrity monitoring, and has also turned its vulnerability management expertise toward the cloud. Tenable has multiple services on its cloud-based tenable.io platform, including web application scanning, container security and asset management. The key differentiator for tenable.io is identifying assets and vulnerabilities, giving organizations visibility into their cloud risk.

The products include Tenable.io, a cloud-based platform for managing security risk, Tenable.sc, a cloud-based Security Center for visibility and threat response, Tenable.ot for automated asset identification and classification and Tenable.cs, a unified cloud security platform that provides organizations with continuous visibility and control of their cloud infrastructure. Tenable has assessed over 72K vulnerabilities with over 147K plugins.

One of Cisco’s core cloud tools is SecureX, which connects the Cisco Security portfolio to the cloud and automates security initiatives across the infrastructure. Cisco also helps enterprises to connect and observe devices, compute and manage data, and secure and automate operations.

In September 2023, the company introduced its Cisco Secure Application module as part of its Full Stack Observability platform. Secure Application can combine data from multiple sources to generate a business risk score for applications or services that have a likelihood of exploitation and attacks. It is designed to gauge the seriousness of vulnerabilities and prioritize which are most pressing.

Akamai Technologies provides a suite of cloud computing, security and content delivery services. The Akamai Connected Cloud allows enterprises to develop, operate and secure their applications and workloads. Not just India, Akamai operates this way in more than 4,100 edge points of presence across 131 countries.

With Akamai Connected Cloud, the company takes an outside-in, distributed-first approach built on a commitment to cloud-native technologies. Many of the large enterprises are using that same platform.

Qualys is a cloud security and compliance software platform that helps enterprises identify and protect their digital assets. It provides a unified platform for security, compliance and IT operations teams to detect and respond to threats, reduce their attack surface, and ensure regulatory compliance. The Qualys cloud platform has multiple modules that enable different facets of cloud security, including compliance, vulnerability scanning, and cloud workload protection.

Cloud Security Solutions—Availability and Challenges

Identity and access management (IAM)
Identity and access management (IAM) tools and services allow enterprises to deploy policy-driven enforcement protocols for all users attempting to access both on-premises and cloud-based services. The core functionality of IAM is to create digital identities for all the enterprise users so they can be actively monitored and restricted when necessary during all enterprise interactions.
Data loss prevention (DLP)
Data loss prevention (DLP) services offer a set of tools and services designed to ensure the security of regulated cloud data. DLP solutions use a combination of remediation alerts, data encryption, and other preventative measures to protect all stored data, whether at rest or in motion.
Security information and event management (SIEM)
Security information and event management (SIEM) provides a security orchestration solution that automates threat monitoring, detection, and response in cloud-based environments. Using AI-driven technologies to correlate log data across multiple platforms and digital assets, SIEM technology gives enterprise CISO teams the ability to successfully apply their network security protocols while being able to quickly react to any potential threats.
Business continuity and disaster recovery
Regardless of the preventative measures, enterprises have in place for their on-premise and cloud-based infrastructures, data breaches and disruptive outages can still occur. Enterprises must be able to quickly react to newly discovered vulnerabilities or significant system outages as soon as possible. Disaster recovery solutions are hygiene in cloud security and provide organizations with the tools, services, and protocols necessary to expedite the recovery of lost data and resume normal business operations.
Lack of visibility
Enterprises often lose track of how the organizational data is being accessed and by whom, since many cloud services are accessed outside of corporate networks and through third parties.
Multitenancy
Public cloud environments house multiple client infrastructures under the same umbrella. Therefore, as a result, the enterprise hosted services can get compromised by malicious attackers as collateral damage when targeting other businesses.
Access management and shadow IT
While enterprises may be able to successfully manage and restrict access points across on-premises systems, administering these same levels of restrictions can be challenging in cloud environments. This can be dangerous for enterprises that do not deploy BYOD policies and allow unfiltered access to cloud services from any device or location.
Compliance
Regulatory compliance management is often a source of confusion for enterprises using public or hybrid cloud deployments. Overall accountability for data privacy and security still rests with the enterprise, and heavy reliance on third-party solutions to manage this component can lead to expensive compliance issues.
Misconfigurations
Misconfigured assets accounted for a majority of breached records, making the inadvertent insider a key issue for cloud computing environments. Misconfigurations can include leaving default administrative passwords in place, or not creating appropriate privacy settings.