Why Cloud Security Posture Assessments Are So Important — and Beneficial

Reduce your cybersecurity risk while addressing compliance requirements.

During Cybersecurity Awareness Month, assess your cloud security posture to understand your risk and improve your visibility.

Business isn't slowing down for risk, and neither should you. Taking control of security and risk management starts with getting clear about your security and risk management posture.

As organizations move away from data centers and physical servers, current methods and processes — including multiple microservices, containers, distributed cloud environments and more — introduce security gaps.

If you’re worried about cybersecurity risk, you’re not alone. According to our 2022 survey of global IT professionals, more than half (59%) of IT leaders cite cybersecurity as the top business concern in the C-suite, yet only 43% say they’re protecting critical data and assets from threat.

Even though bad actors dominate cybersecurity headlines, the leading causes of breaches are far less nefarious: cloud misconfiguration and compromised credentials. Still it’s on you to ensure your organization isn’t leaving open any weak entry points for unwanted access — malicious or otherwise.

Understanding your risk

Today more companies than ever are moving to the cloud and despite economic challenges, 70% say cybersecurity budgets are increasing. Companies are allocating more people, processes and technology to address the topic.

When the inevitable breach does occur, you want trust in your company to react swiftly and in the strongest manner to protect the interests of customers and employees alike.

While there’s no guarantee that your business won't be affected, you should be able to say with certainty that the company is doing all it can to secure the updated, necessary infrastructure needed for operational (and compliant) success in the cloud.

Why do an assessment?

A comprehensive cloud security assessment is vital to understanding whether your company is sufficiently prepared to defend against a wide variety of security issues — and what it can do to improve.

It’s a practical exercise that can:

• Reduce your risk: Conduct a deeper examination into the areas where your organization is most at risk.
• Improve your visibility:  Really see what’s going on — take a proactive view and adopt a real-time posture to offset potential gaps or threats.

Two key aspects of security that any CISO can exercise control over are the organization’s cloud configuration and its Identity Access Management (IAM).

Applying the proper controls depends on a disciplined approach where you regularly upgrade policies and procedures for optimal infrastructure management.

With a holistic approach that incorporates the results of a robust cybersecurity assessment, you can apply state-of-the-art recommendations across the organization’s entire cloud presence to reduce the company’s cybersecurity risk.

It also helps to ensure consistent information security standards across your various cloud services.

The Rackspace Technology® Cloud Security Posture Assessment

With the Rackspace Technology® Cloud Security Posture Assessment we review your current infrastructure, perform an analysis, verify the integration/alignment of your cloud with security controls — to mitigate and reduce vulnerability.

During this engagement, Rackspace Technology will:

• Analyze to ensure that security controls are consistently implemented
• Check the integration of cloud native tools and technologies against IT security standards
• Review your status and make recommendations for executing plans to monitor, assess and check security controls
• Conduct a gap analysis of your current security infrastructure
• Provide a current and recommended security reference architecture in cloud

A key point: If you decide to review your security, look for a consultative partner who can also say, “Here are your next steps.”

To eliminate doubt about your cloud risk posture you want prescriptive help — a strategy to take specific action to remediate your environment.

Too many advisors only give you a “good” or a “bad risk” rating. They recommend a third party and then they exit — leaving you to start over for assistance with your security and compliance posture — an additional time and money “sink” that is best avoided.

Build confidence and eliminate guesswork

Your reputation is at stake. By knowing that your people are applying the latest safeguards and controls you’ll never be blindsided.

Know without a doubt what your risks are and eliminate visibility gaps.

The Rackspace Cloud Security Posture Assessment helps you understand your current cloud security posture, maintain compliance and know with certainty that your company is up to date and applying advanced security measures.