Akamai Technologies, a leader in cloud computing, has recently announced an exciting expansion of its Akamai Guardicore Segmentation solution. This advancement now extends its capabilities to hybrid cloud environments, offering a significant improvement in tackling cloud-native workload threats and enhancing network security.
Reducing Attack Surfaces in Hybrid Clouds
The integration of Akamai Guardicore Segmentation into hybrid cloud infrastructures is a game-changer for network security. This move is primarily aimed at diminishing attack surfaces, a critical concern in cloud security. By implementing this solution, businesses can effectively contain attacks that specifically target cloud-native workloads.
Streamlined Management and Deployment
One of the key benefits of Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is its ability to simplify and streamline network security management. Security professionals can now effortlessly manage their public cloud environments with features like:
- Faster Policy Deployment: Implement security measures more rapidly across your network.
- Unified Network Governance: Achieve consistent security governance across different data centers.
- Simplified Management: Reduce the complexity of managing diverse cloud environments.
All these functionalities are accessible through a singular, user-friendly interface. Initially, Akamai Guardicore Segmentation will be available for Microsoft Azure deployments via Azure Marketplace, with plans to extend to Akamai Connected Cloud later this year.
The Growing Demand for Cloud Security
A recent survey by Akamai and ClearPath Strategies highlights a critical trend: 33% of IT decision-makers are planning to increase their use of distributed cloud services for better security and reliability. However, 48% reported a gap in adequate security tools for these distributed cloud environments. This disparity underlines the pressing need for advanced security solutions like Akamai Guardicore Segmentation.
Addressing Cloud Strategy Challenges
As organizations large and small adopt public cloud strategies for innovation and efficiency, they face several obstacles, including:
- Lack of Visibility: Difficulty in monitoring application behavior in cloud environments.
- Policy Management: The challenge of implementing consistent policies across various cloud providers.
- Governance Issues: Bridging the gap between Development Operations (DevOps) and Security Operations (SecOps) teams.
Akamai Guardicore Segmentation addresses these issues by offering enhanced visibility and control over cloud operations.
Insights from Pavel Gurvich, Akamai
Pavel Gurvich, Senior VP and GM of Enterprise Security at Akamai, emphasizes the importance of visibility and control in cloud environments. He advocates for the use of microsegmentation policies in the cloud to achieve comprehensive visibility and control across all environments. This approach is instrumental in securing business-critical applications, irrespective of their location – be it on-premises, in the cloud, or on legacy servers.
Key Benefits of Akamai Guardicore Segmentation
Akamai Guardicore Segmentation brings several pivotal advantages to cloud security:
- Agentless Cloud-Native Visibility and Enforcement: Administrators gain a real-time overview of network flows and application dependencies, aligning DevOps and SecOps in cloud network security governance.
- Hybrid Enforcement Engine: A flexible policy engine that automatically decides the most effective enforcement points, balancing agent-based and agentless methods.
- Integrated Threat Intelligence: Advanced firewall capabilities with threat intelligence and reputation analysis for quicker detection and response in breach scenarios.
- Scalability and Security: The solution scales automatically within the cloud environment, ensuring data security and integrity.
Conclusion
Akamai’s expansion of the Guardicore Segmentation to hybrid cloud environments marks a significant step in advancing cloud security. This solution offers streamlined management, comprehensive visibility, and robust control, catering to the evolving needs of modern businesses in securing their cloud infrastructure.
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Image Source: Akamai
