How To Attain Security With Azure

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How To Attain Security With Azure

As Microsoft Azure becomes more common as an enterprise-level cloud platform, organizations are keen to understand the advantages that accrue on their cybersecurity practices from this migration.

Microsoft Azure is robust when it comes to built-in security controls allowing firms to leverage its platform to significantly bring down their cybersecurity-related costs. These tools are aided by Microsoft services who provide it with intelligence on vulnerabilities and potential problems as they draw data from trillions of different points integrated within them.

This has made firms move to the cloud using Azure at a much rapid more rapid pace than ever before. These firms can now use their internal security mechanisms in tandem with Azure’s own security controls to build a powerful cybersecurity framework. This has been made possible because of Microsoft’s commitment towards extending its partnership with related solution providers to add compatibility with its own platform-specific tools. Microsoft’s efforts to make Azure even more secure are currently ongoing with the development of newer features led by a team of dedicated cybersecurity personnel which currently numbers in the thousands.

Firms which are planning to migrate their services and data to Azure or have already done so, need to understand the different capabilities of Azure related to cybersecurity protection in order to extend the security net over their own resources placed in the cloud:

Eliminate Passwords With Microsoft Authenticator

Azure AD connected apps have now been augmented with a new feature referred to as the Microsoft Authenticator. This feature has been developed by the Ignite team that’s responsible for managing multiple facets related to Azure in order to make sign-ins more comfortable and reduce the cumbersome nature of typing in passwords. You can replace password verification with either face, PIN or fingerprint and get connected to your Azure resources. This feature uses the more secure multi-factor or device-centric approach to provide security to your Azure log-ins.

Leveraging Confidential Computing

While most firms know that encryption capabilities protect data when it's in the cloud as well as when it is being transported, the biggest problem with regards to data security faced by them was ensuring that their data remains confidential while it is being used or processed.

Azure has solved this issue by using Microsoft’s confidential computing feature to create Trusted execution environments, wherein the data cannot be accessed from outside no matter what’s the case.

This feature is highly unique but even more resourceful since firms who have a large data bank on the cloud, need the capability to safely and securely run their processing and analysis of data there. The availability of TEEs facilitates this process by allowing firms to leverage cybersecurity-related safe environments and run through their analysis tasks faster.

Azure SQL For Data Protection

Most data stored by firms in the cloud is highly sensitive so its important that it remains structured and discoverable. Azure has integrated SQL which you can use to achieve exactly this end. From labeling to protecting, Azure SQL will help you with every aspect of your data management in a streamlined manner. On top of this, with the emergence of the SQL Information Protection Policy, you can customize your own security policies and manage your data from the Azure Security Center.

Constant Monitoring Of The Security State Of Your Resources

The security of your resources on the cloud depends majorly on how you can source updates regarding their current risk and security level. The Azure Security Center does exactly does by allowing you to know how secure your workloads are on Azure and if there is a threat penetration, you will immediately get information regarding it.

But it won’t its feedback to just identifying threats, it will also provide actionable recommendations that help streamline the task of protecting against threats and improves your reaction time. All of this data will now be available in a new tool called the Secure Score.

Leveraging AI and Analytics For Threat Detection

More important than threat protection is threat detection because if a threat passes through your protective walls, you need immediate information related to the threat and where it has penetrated in order to start remedial action and stop the threat from wreaking any havoc.

Azure’s machine learning and AI threat detection mechanisms allow you to accomplish exactly that through the Security center. So whether the threat is affecting your Azure storage data or your Linux code, the threat detection will allow you to know about it, take preventive measures and find out exactly from which endpoint it emanated.

Azure Certifications

While a diverse set of new tools, features and mechanisms are being constantly pushed out by Azure, the need for personnel who can handle and operate these security resources efficiently remains a big issue. But now, through Azure’s certification paths, firms can invest in addressing the learning gaps of their on-premise resources with regards to such platform-specific security tech.

The Azure security certification is a core course dealing exactly with this need, teaching individuals about security infrastructure management on Azure through Security center and other tools. One can easily start out on the Azure security certification path by undergoing the Azure Fundamentals certification and progressing on to the more advanced level certifications from there.

Conclusion

Azure is one of the biggest cloud providers in today’s business environment, with it just being second to AWS when it comes to market share. The platform offers scalability and cost-effectiveness as a cloud resource but its biggest USP has been the immense amount of research that it has put in recent times to ensure that its platform is as safe and secure for firms as possible. The aforementioned features are just some of the more important security resources that are available on the platform that you can leverage to improve your firm’s cloud security drastically.

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