In the past, companies have been hesitant to use the cloud due to security concerns. However, trust in cloud technologies has grown in the last decade, and it has grown significantly. Today the big players in the market have paved the way for a lot of small companies and startups to adopt cloud technologies for their business. One of the biggest reasons for this change is the various IT security solutions that are offered and continuously optimized by public cloud providers.
The success of Amazon Web Services has been talked about much in the last few years. With more than 40 per cent market share, Amazon is, at this moment, the biggest cloud service provider, almost three times the size of its immediate pursuer Microsoft Azure. AWS provides businesses with a cost-effective cloud computing infrastructure for deploying applications in a variety of deployment scenarios but raises legitimate security concerns.
When does the data on the cloud become unsafe?
The applications and data in a public cloud sit in an exposed position. Unauthorized access to these resources can not only take place from the Internet and other instances via the network but can also be done using hijacked API keys or even separate identities.
The good thing is, to minimize the risks, AWS has acquired various certifications and taken some sturdy measures relating to its skills for securely managing the data and applications of its users.
AWS security tools
AWS IAM
One of the most important AWS security tools is free of charge for all AWS customers: AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). With this service, you can fine-tune users or resources with different authorizations. Password rules and strong authentication mechanisms can be activated for the users themselves via AWS Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). In general, the login data of the root user who initially created the AWS account mustn’t be used in everyday business.
AWS Shield
Another security service is the AWS Shield, which protects websites and applications from DDoS attacks. AWS Shield doesn’t charge its users anything for the standard version. Network security can be significantly increased by using Virtual Private Clouds (VPC). This is further refined through the use of network segmentation and DMZ.
AWS Certificate Manager
The AWS Certificate Manager is also free of charge and can be used to purchase and manage SSL certificates for the AWS environment. The SSL certificates themselves are also free of charge.
Other paid AWS security tools
- AWS CloudTrail: With AWS CloudTrail, all API accesses can be logged. If inexplicable changes occur in the account, the last accesses can be checked via CloudTrail.
- CloudWatch: With CloudWatch, alarms can be set up for certain scenarios (CPU utilization of EC2 instances), and thus the error-free functioning of the cloud resources can be monitored.Â
- WAF (Web Application Firewall): With the Amazon WAF, the data traffic of the web application can be controlled directly and unwanted traffic can be blocked using individual security rules. A very simple example of this is SQL injections, where attackers try to spy out data through forms.
- Amazon Inspector: Amazon Inspector automatically scans applications for vulnerabilities and creates a detailed report.
Why companies trust AWS?
The cloud is attractive and the services offered by the CSPs are beneficial to a huge extent. However, with a good team of experts and the AWS platform, you can ensure that your cloud experience doesn’t turn out to be a scary one.
AWS makes security its priority to help businesses all over the world rely on it. To make this claim stronger, here’s an excerpt from the AWS website, which also provides its cloud services to the intelligence agency in the US.
AWS proudly supports the unique needs of the U.S. Intelligence Community through improved security, increased mission impact, and cost savings. (1)
The infrastructure of the AWS has been designed, keeping security at the core. This explains why the best military organizations and banks are opting to shift their data on the AWS cloud. Apart from this, AWS also has a security team for you, which remains available for you and constantly monitors and learns the platform.
Bottomline
AWS is secure when you have everything planned out and are working with a well-versed team. In fact, it is among one of those few platforms which subjects its services to third-party service providers to ensure safety and compliance. The best practices of AWS security services are still unclear to most of the companies, which becomes one of the biggest reasons that deviates them from reaping the benefits of AWS.
If you are still thinking of migrating your business to the cloud, how about you get in touch with a team of experts first. A safe and successful business awaits you on the other side!
