Over the last couple of years, as businesses have done more and more to accommodate remote and hybrid work, they’ve been moving to the cloud in droves. They’ve often adopted a “cloud first” strategy – rather than retrofit their old IT to include cloud technologies, they’re simply designing with the cloud as their centerpiece in the first place. This has worked wonders for employees’ productivity and job satisfaction – but unfortunately, it’s also raised many serious questions regarding security fortification.
The sad truth is that ransomware is at an all-time high – and as employees adjust to a new, cloud-centric way of doing business every day, there are bound to be some growing pains where security is concerned. According to Security Intelligence, organizations need to adopt a new “zero trust” way of managing their cloud infrastructure, keeping a close watchful eye on user identities and giving no one the benefit of the doubt.
“Zero trust isn’t something you can buy or implement,” explained Koos Lodewijkx, chief information security officer at IBM. “It’s a philosophy and a strategy. And to be frank, at IBM, we wouldn’t even characterize zero trust as a security strategy. It’s an IT strategy done securely.”
So what can your business do to implement this zero-trust security strategy? It begins with using identity as an essential control point for authentication. Every time someone logs in to your cloud infrastructure, you need to have clear visibility into who they are, where they’re going, and what they’re doing. Basic elements of such a strategy include single sign-on (SSO) for all cloud applications, passwordless authentication where possible, and modern verification factors such as multi-factor authentication (MFA).
As your business seeks to grow and thrive in this cloud-first era, it will be important to build and maintain close, trusting relationships with both your employees and your customers. Cybersecurity is an important part of that trust-building process – if you have an IT infrastructure that’s free from bad actors and safe for everybody, then parties on both sides will know they can count on your organization to be rock-solid. If you have a stable, reliable environment where everyone can do their job, that’s a foundation for success.
Between IBM and Zones, we have everything it takes to help you build that environment. With IBM Security, you’ll be able to move at the speed of business, quickly implementing new security measures like SSO, MFA, and systems for threat management and incident response that are second to none. And at Zones, we’re a key strategic partner with IBM, which means we have all the knowledge and experience needed to get you up and running with IBM Security quickly.
With our help, you can truly make zero trust a reality for your organization, and you can fuel business without limits. If you’re ready to take that plunge, just connect with us. We’ll show you how it’s done.