FEATURE : CLOUD SECURITY

In today ’ s environment where cyberattacks are likely , it is crucial to review and update your security and identity management systems before it is too late . Denis Dorval ,

Vice President , International

( EMEA & APAC ) at JumpCloud , discusses the impact of cloud and hybrid environments on managing identities and the common difficulties of adopting an identitydriven security posture .

The rate of cloud adoption shows no signs of relenting . Gartner forecasts worldwide public cloud end-user spending to reach nearly US $ 600 billion in 2023 . This growth presents a multitude of opportunities , but the compounded cyber-risk that comes with a widening digital footprint presents IT and security teams with an immense challenge .

IT teams now need to manage and secure a domain of on-premises and cloud resources , corporate-owned and personal devices , and employees working across various operating systems such as Windows , iOS and Linux . This ‘ tool sprawl ’ necessitates a step-change in security strategies to manage an organisation ’ s entire estate of devices . However , the natural next step is to instead focus on identities rather than devices ; this ‘ identity transformation ’ is the natural next step in meeting modern challenges with a comprehensive , centralised approach .

A robust approach to identity management

Despite large-scale cyberattacks filling the headlines and the growing emphasis on security in the boardroom , instilling good cyber hygiene into an organisation ’ s culture remains challenging . As organisations increasingly rely on digital technology to manage day-to-day operations and take advantage of working on cloud and hybrid environments , IT admins handle a number of users , devices and applications . The doors for data and systems to exist anywhere and allow organisations to adopt work-from-anywhere practices also leads to cracks appearing and creating security risks for businesses .

Employees demand flexibility , operational efficiency from their IT stack and robust security . Despite being widely accepted among CISOs and IT admins as the best threat mitigation strategy , the Zero Trust framework is rarely implemented with this in mind . The patchwork of point solutions and MFA applications used in many modern businesses creates a headache of fragmented identities that IT admins struggle to manage centrally . The core ethos of ‘ never trust , always verify ’ only adds friction to a user ’ s day-to-day workload .

As we advance , organisations should put identities at the heart of their IT security strategies , leading to IT departments moving from patchwork solutions and on-premises Active Directory environments . A robust Identity and Access Management ( IAM ) strategy is the most effective way to protect organisations ’ wider attack surfaces .

Changing the definition of identity

Contextual access policies go further than the traditional definition of an ‘ identity ’, combining the

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