Hybrid Cloud Security: Architecture, Best Practices & DR

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What is Hybrid Cloud Security?

Hybrid cloud security refers to the set of procedures, technologies and policies that are implemented to protect data in a hybrid cloud environment. Essentially, this means securing data that is hosted on-prem and in the private cloud.

To achieve hybrid cloud security, companies need a comprehensive architecture approach that includes identity management, encryption protocols and access controls. This will help ensure data protection as it moves between different environments. 

Many organizations employ other security tools such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems to prevent unauthorized access or malicious attacks on their networks. Another key component of effective hybrid cloud security is regular testing and monitoring for vulnerabilities or breaches in the system. 

Hybrid cloud security is essential for protecting critical business applications and preventing costly downtime due to cyber-attacks or other threats. With proper planning and implementation strategies in place, companies can effectively manage risk while still taking advantage of all the benefits offered by hybrid computing solutions. 

Standardized policy & guardrails  

Creating consistent policies and establishing guardrails are necessary for a strong defense against threats. For example, with Infrastructure as Code (IaC), an organization can automate portions of their cloud infrastructure instead of doing it manually, saving time and providing uniformity. This approach is even more useful when an organization implements golden baselines, configurations that technically meet baseline security standards, because they are a great reference for compliance. 

Enforce least-privilege & MFA 

Enforcing a least-privilege model ensures that users only have access to the resources necessary for their roles, effectively minimizing potential attack surfaces. This granular control not only reduces risk but also embraces accountability among team members.  

Risk is also mitigated through the use of MFA, or multifactor authentication. MFA entails the use of more than one password to access information, so unauthorized users are locked out. With passwords, mobile devices, and even biometrics required to gain access, unauthorized users will find it exceedingly difficult to breach the system undetected.  

Secrets such as API Keys, passwords, and encryption keys, when not separated and not regularly changed, will present a risk to any cloud system. With exposed confidential information, the risk of long-term damage is pronounced when these secrets are not changed regularly. When segregation is used, secrets become trapped in specific operational environments which reduces the risk of damage and exposure. 

Encrypt and manage keys centrally; customer-managed keys where required 

Organizations can use strong key management solutions to simplify security access controls, maintain compliance, and improve the organization’s security posture. 

Not all data can be managed using the same techniques. Organizations that deal with very sensitive data or those that function within the boundaries of regulated industries may need extra control with customer-managed keys. This provides the business with the authority to control how their encryption keys are created, accessed, and stored. This also means that critical assets won’t be overlooked by third-party services. 

Suppose your business has sensitive customer data or proprietary research. This means you get to control the keys and access decryption. This means you are protecting the data and controlling access to decryption to only those permitted. 

Segmented networks 

Segmentation is critical when designing a hybrid cloud environment. It’s like designing a city with distinct neighborhoods, each with unique access controls and protection layers. Organizations can reduce exposure and control vulnerabilities with North-South (data center in/out flow) and East-West (data center inter-server) splits. 

Traffic flow North-South needs stringent filtering to ensure only verified requests access to sensitive resources. This is when web application firewalls (WAFs) come in to stop threats like SQL injections and cross-site scripting attacks. East-West traffic is also a problem; internal channels can introduce serious risks. 

Continuous posture management  

Organizations risk configuration drift when moving workloads to different clouds and on-premises systems. Here is where advanced drift detection systems become critical. 

Think of the CSPM/CNAPP approach where every resource is tracked, and their digital ecosystem is monitored. These tools evaluate configurations at all levels, all the time, against the set security policies and best practices, providing a moving target shield against vulnerabilities due to unintentional drift, malicious actors, or a combination of the two. Active systems with real-time visibility can identify compliance or security standard drift and alert sys admins to issues before they become real threats. 

Backup/DR with immutable snapshots; test failover regularly 

In the evolving landscape of hybrid cloud security, NFINA stands out with its innovative approach to Backup and Disaster Recovery (DR) through immutable snapshots. These snapshots serve as unalterable copies of data that ensure your critical information remains intact in the face of cyber threats or accidental deletions. By employing a strategy where these backups are rigorously protected against alterations, organizations can rest easy knowing their data is secure and retrievable. 
 
But having robust backup solutions isn’t enough; regular failover testing is vital to verify that systems can recover without a hitch when disaster strikes. NFINA specializes in orchestrating seamless failover tests that mimic real-world scenarios, ensuring your team is not only familiar with the recovery process but also confident in its effectiveness. This proactive approach minimizes downtime and enhances operational resilience, allowing businesses to maintain continuity even under adverse conditions. 

Centralized monitoring across clouds; automate response (SOAR) 

By automating routine responses to identified threat, such as isolating compromised instances or deploying patches, you not only reduce response times but also free up valuable human resources for more strategic initiatives. The beauty lies in the synergy: as alerts trigger automated workflows, organizations can mitigate risks before they escalate into breaches.  

Imagine automating threat intelligence feeds to instantly adapt your defenses against emerging attacks while maintaining compliance with regulatory frameworks; all without manual intervention! In this dynamic landscape where speed is crucial, leveraging AI-driven insights alongside centralized monitoring becomes not just an advantage but a necessity for resilient hybrid cloud architectures 

Map to NIST CSF / CIS Controls 

Aligning with established frameworks such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) and the CIS Controls can serve as a reliable compass. The NIST CSF offers a flexible structure that identifies critical areas: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover. Each domain provides foundational insights tailored for hybrid environments where data flows seamlessly across on-premises and cloud infrastructures. 
 
In tandem with this framework are the CIS Controls, practical guidelines designed to bolster an organization’s defenses against common cyber threats. By mapping the CSF’s core functions to specific CIS controls, organizations can create a robust security posture that is both comprehensive and adaptable. For example, implementing asset management practices from CIS Control 1 supports identification efforts in the NIST framework while simultaneously ensuring proper visibility into all endpoints within your hybrid architecture. 

Align with PAN/F5/FTN 

Aligning with established frameworks like PAN (Prisma Access Network), F5 (Application Delivery Networking), and FTN (Firewall Threat Nexus) is essential for creating a robust security posture. However, what sets Nfina apart in this competitive arena is its unique combination of high-performance storage solutions and integrated data management capabilities.  
 
While PAN provides industry-leading visibility into network traffic and F5 optimizes application delivery across various environments, Nfina enhances these functionalities by offering seamless scalability and resilience tailored for hybrid infrastructures. With its innovative approach to data locality; ensuring that sensitive information resides where it’s most secure. Nfina addresses compliance challenges head-on while facilitating rapid recovery during disruptions. 
 
Moreover, Nfina’s emphasis on simplicity through automation allows organizations to swiftly adapt their security strategies without compromising performance or user experience. This fluid integration not only strengthens alignment with existing frameworks but also empowers enterprises to leverage their unique edge in today’s complex cybersecurity landscape 

Why is Hybrid Cloud Security Important?

Hybrid cloud data security is paramount for businesses that operate in the modern digital landscape. The hybrid cloud model brings together on-prem and private clouds to provide a seamless environment for data storage, access, and management. However, this also introduces new challenges when it comes to securing sensitive information.

Hybrid cloud security solutions are crucial because many organizations have compliance requirements. Different industries and the government are subject to varying regulations aimed at protecting consumer data privacy and confidentiality. Failing to comply with these standards could attract hefty penalties or even legal action.  

In addition, maintaining proper hybrid cloud data protection helps build trust with customers by demonstrating a commitment towards safeguarding their personal information. It can give your organization an edge over competitors as consumers become more conscious about how their data is being handled. 

Nfina’s data protection services provide an effective means of security through a zero-trust approach. Our solutions support fast, regular backups that don’t marginalize your bandwidth usage. Our Copy-on-Write technology stores immutable snapshots to keep track of changes, meaning less cloud resources (computation and storage) are needed in comparison to traditional image backups, enabling more frequent backups to be performed and more restore points available. Our Nfina-View™ management tool makes controlling and monitoring your devices’ health and restore functions far easier than a collection of applications that might not work to recover your data.

The threat posed by ransomware highlights the necessity of off-site backup storage with immutable snapshots proving ideal; they can be sent off-site quickly and with minimal pressure on your network while also avoiding the need for afterhours back up times.

Nfina gives you the choice to plan your data protection approach through continual improvements, responsive engineering, and automation. By streamlining how you protect virtual machines, Nfina-Store’s immutable snapshots increase backup performance, reduce costs, simplify management, and reduce data loss risks. By using snapshots, you can simplify backups with minimal impact on your virtual machines.

What Are Some Common Hybrid Cloud Data Protection Threats?

Hybrid cloud threats can be classified into two categories: external and internal threats. External threats come from outside the organization, while internal threats originate from within the organization. Identifying these risks is important to ensure the safety of your data.

External hybrid cloud computing threats may include cyber-attacks, such as phishing scams or ransomware attacks. These attacks are designed to gain access to your confidential information and can result in significant financial losses. Additionally, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks can disrupt business operations by overwhelming servers with traffic.

Internal hybrid cloud threats often come from employees who have authorized access to company data but misuse it intentionally or unintentionally. This could include sharing login credentials or copying sensitive files onto personal devices that lack adequate protection against cyber-attacks. Another potential threat is third-party vendors who have access to your systems for maintenance or support purposes. If their systems are not secure enough, they may inadvertently expose your system vulnerabilities, putting you at risk of a data breach.

Proactively identifying common hybrid cloud security risks helps reduce exposure and mitigate potential damage caused by these types of incidents.

Understanding the Importance of Hybrid Cloud Security Changes for IT Infrastructure

As businesses increasingly rely on cloud computing services for their IT infrastructure, the importance of security for hybrid cloud cannot be understated. Hybrid cloud environments, which combine public and private cloud environments, offer many benefits like increased flexibility, scalability, and cost savings. However, with these benefits comes a significant risk to data security.

In today’s digital landscape where cyber-attacks are becoming more sophisticated and frequent, protecting sensitive data is crucial. This is especially true for organizations that handle highly confidential information such as financial data or personally identifiable information (PII) of customers that are required to have several layers of security.  

One of the greatest challenges faced by IT professionals in a hybrid cloud environment is ensuring the security of data that resides in both public and private cloud environments. With traditional on-premises systems, businesses have complete control over all aspects of their infrastructure and can implement robust security measures to protect their data. However, this level of security control becomes more complicated in a hybrid cloud setting where multiple service providers are involved. 

The shared responsibility model applies to hybrid cloud environments where the responsibility for securing infrastructure between service providers and clients is divided. The provider is responsible for securing the underlying infrastructure while the client must secure its applications and data security within the environment. 

This division of responsibility highlights the need for strong internal governance policies to effectively manage and protect sensitive data across multiple platforms. Organizations must carefully consider access management protocols, encryption standards, vulnerability management practices, and incident response procedures when implementing a hybrid cloud strategy. 

Additionally, maintaining compliance with industry-specific regulations such as HIPAA or GDPR becomes more challenging in a hybrid cloud setting. Organizations must take extra precautions to ensure that their data is always in compliance with these regulations, regardless of where it resides. 

Moreover, the use of multiple hybrid cloud providers introduces security risks such as data breaches, service outages, or unauthorized access. These risks can lead to financial losses, damage to brand reputation, and legal consequences for non-compliance. To mitigate these risks and strengthen hybrid cloud, businesses should implement a comprehensive approach that includes the following elements: 

Cloud Security Risk Assessment & Management | As with any IT infrastructure, it is essential to conduct a thorough risk assessment to identify potential vulnerabilities in a hybrid cloud environment. This process involves evaluating the security measures of each service provider and understanding how data flows between them. Based on this assessment, organizations can develop robust risk management strategies to address any weaknesses and protect their data from potential threats in a hybrid cloud environment.  

Identity & Access Management | IAM plays a crucial role in securing hybrid cloud infrastructures by controlling user access to sensitive data across different platforms. By implementing strong authentication protocols such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) and role-based access control (RBAC), organizations can prevent unauthorized access to critical systems.

Data Encryption | Data encryption is essential for protecting sensitive information in transit and at rest in a hybrid cloud environment. Organizations should ensure that all data is encrypted using strong algorithms and encryption keys to prevent unauthorized access.

Cloud Network Security & Endpoint Security | Network and endpoint security measures such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems (IDS), and anti-malware software are essential in a hybrid cloud environment. These tools can help detect and prevent cyber-attacks on both network infrastructure and end-user devices. 

Cloud Monitoring & Security Auditing |

Proactive monitoring of a hybrid cloud infrastructure can help identify unusual activities, potential security breaches, or compliance violations. Regular auditing of security controls can also ensure that the organization reaches hybrid cloud compliance guidelines. 

Security Incident Response Plan | In the event of a security breach or incident, organizations must have an established incident response plan in place to minimize the damage and recover quickly. This plan should include protocols for communication, containment, eradication, and recovery.

Nfina’s Hybrid Cloud Features

Nfina’s hybrid cloud platform is a fully managed IaaS and DRaaS solution designed to protect your business from ransomware. With Nfina’s hybrid multi cloud solution, copies of critical data are maintained on-site and off-site. This ensures your IT infrastructure is always available for recovery and downtime is kept to a minimum. 

Nfina becomes your single point of contact, making storage, compute, backup, disaster recovery, and system monitoring easy.

An Entry Level Hybrid Cloud Architecture

The hybrid cloud architecture below includes:
1 4408T-E Tower Server, 16 Cores, 3 Windows VMs w/ HA, 96GB RAM, 3TB SSD Storage, Nfina-View Management Software, Plus Geo-Redundant Cloud Storage Backup & DR

Complete End-to-End Solution Includes Hybrid Cloud Managed Services

Nfina’s hybrid cloud services offer peace of mind with geo-redundant backup and disaster recovery, enhanced performance, reduced and predictable cost. A team of qualified engineers with decades of experience eliminates concerns related to staff expertise or workload.

Our monthly service combines on-site compute in your private cloud with backup and disaster recovery in the public cloud. Nfina’s Hybrid Cloud Managed Services enable businesses to offload IT operations to us, so they can focus on their business goals. We are able to customize a hybrid multi cloud solution to fit each client’s individual architecture requirements.

Managed Hybrid Cloud Completes Your Disaster Recovery Plan

Don’t waste your time thinking about how you will recover from a natural disaster or how long it will take to resume business after a cyberattack. Nfina provides built-in backup and disaster recovery capabilities to keep your platform running smoothly and efficiently. Our team is prepared to handle any unexpected event quickly and efficiently. 

Nfina’s hybrid cloud data protection combines on-site virtual machines (VMs) with off-site storage for backup and disaster recovery. Cluster-to-cluster replication ensures that data is always available and up-to-date. Nfina engineers will work with your stakeholders in the development of your IT infrastructure including IT policies, standards, processes, systems, measurements, and maintenance. This enables your company to manage risk, cost, control, IT governance, compliance, and business performance objectives.

FAQ

How does shared responsibility work?

We take care of the physical infrastructure and network security, while you are responsible for managing access controls, encryption, and backups. By working together, we ensure the highest level of protection for your data in the cloud. Our team is always available to guide and support you in understanding your roles and responsibilities within our shared responsibility model. Trust us to keep your data safe and secure with our advanced technology, while also empowering yourself by actively managing your own data protection measures. 

Hybrid vs multi-cloud security?

With Nina’s hybrid Cloud, you no longer have to choose between hybrid and multi-cloud security. Our innovative platform seamlessly integrates both approaches, providing a comprehensive and robust security system for your data. We understand the importance of protecting sensitive information in today’s digital landscape, which is why we offer the best of both worlds to ensure maximum security for our end users. Whether you prefer the flexibility of a multi-cloud environment or the control of a hybrid setup, Nina’s hybrid Cloud has got you covered. 

What controls are essential?

When it comes to cloud computing, security and control are of utmost importance. That’s why Nina’s hybrid Cloud offers a comprehensive set of controls for endusers. With our platform, you can easily manage your data, access levels, and user permissions to ensure that your sensitive information is secure. We also provide advanced monitoring and auditing features, giving you full visibility and control over your cloud environment. Rest assured that with Nina’s hybrid Cloud, your data is in safe hands. 

How do immutable snapshots support DR?

These snapshots are read-only copies of your data that cannot be altered or deleted, providing an extra layer of protection against any potential disasters. In the event of a system failure or data loss, these snapshots can be easily accessed and restored to ensure minimal downtime and maximum data recovery. With Nina’s hybrid Cloud’s immutable snapshots, you can confidently continue with your daily operations knowing that your valuable data is securely backed up and protected. 

How often should I test DR failover?

With Nina’s hybrid Cloud, we recommend conducting a DR failover test at least once a month. This ensures that your data and applications are protected in the case of a disaster or system failure. However, for more critical systems or industries with strict compliance regulations, we suggest testing quarterly or even bi-weekly to ensure maximum protection and peace of mind. Our advanced monitoring systems also provide real-time alerts for any potential issues, so you can rest assured that your data is always safe and secure. Trust in Nina’s hybrid Cloud for reliable and customizable disaster recovery solutions. 

At Nfina, our Eco-Friendly Solutions make it easy for our customers to achieve a lower carbon footprint and play a positive role in bringing about a sustainable future. We design technologies and products to help people understand their impact and actions better.

Nfina’s Hybrid Cloud and Hyperconverged solutions provide energy efficiency by using high-density, lower-power VMs enabling our customers to scale their digital transformations sustainably by optimizing space, reducing power consumption, and lowering cooling and maintenance costs. Nfina is taking a leadership role in doing what it takes to tackle climate change.

Nfina has been carbon neutral for our operations since opening in 2012.