• Home
  • Reseller
  • Distributor
  • Vendor
  • Finance and M&A
  • People moves
  • Cloud
  • Technology and trends
  • Women in channel
  • Events
  • A-list
  • Top VARs
  • Printer Supplies
  • Women in Channel
  • CRN Essential
  • Newsletters
  • Sign in
  •  
      • Newsletters
      • Account details
      • Contact support
      • Sign out
     
     
    • Please contact your account administrator for more information on your access.

  • Follow us
    • Twitter
    • LinkedIn
    • Newsletters
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
  • Register
  • CRN Essential
  • Events
    • Upcoming events
      event logo
      CRN - What the channel needs to get right in lockdown 3.0 and beyond

      In this webinar we are joined by, Jenny Hicks, head of technology at Midwich, Chris Southern, general sales manager at Enterprise Solutions, Laura Mills, segment marketing manager EMEA at Barco and Lieven Bertier segment marketing director at Barco to discuss what the channel has learnt since March and how to bridge that AV and IT Divide.

      • Date: 04 Mar 2021
      event logo
      CRN DeskFlix: The MSP Lounge

      Join CRN to gain advice on the trends that will shape MSP business during the industry’s COVID recovery and beyond.

      • Date: 11 Mar 2021
      event logo
      COVID 19: Adapting to customers changing security needs with constrained budgets

      In this webinar, our panellists will discuss the challenges of working with constrained client budgets, the impact of SASE on the way we work and how MSSPs can seize the opportunities presented by this brave new hybrid working world.

      • Date: 16 Mar 2021
      event logo
      CRN Sales & Marketing Awards 2021

      The CRN Sales & Marketing Awards recognise and reward the achievements of those individuals and teams that are responsible for making the UK IT channel truly great.

      • Date: 08 Jul 2021
      View all events
  • Whitepapers
    • LATEST WHITEPAPERS
      What are the opportunities for the channel with the growth of AI?

      Encryption, privacy, & data protection: a balancing act

      This white paper examines the risk posed by encrypted threats; considers the business, privacy, and security implications of managing that risk; and presents constructive measures for balancing security needs with employee privacy rights. In the end, the best way for IT leadership to ensure the rights of the individual employee is to protect the organization from threats and attacks.

      Download
      How do MSPs really feel the channel will shape up by 2020?

      On borrowed time?

      Cybercrime has become a huge part of our economy and it is a topic that is getting more and more attention in the news media. The cybercriminal stories making headlines involve big companies such as British Airways and Marriott etc. However, smaller companies are just as susceptible to cyber- attacks. Often these attacks are much more damaging to smaller businesses, sometimes forcing them to shut down completely. One report from Verizon claims that 43% of email attacks target SMBs.

      Download
      Find whitepapers
      Search by title or subject area
      View all whitepapers
  • A-list
  • Top VARs
  • Printer Supplies
channelweb
channelweb
  • Home
  • Reseller
  • Distributor
  • Vendor
  • Finance and M&A
  • People moves
  • Cloud
  • Technology and trends
  • Women in channel
 
    • Newsletters
    • Account details
    • Contact support
    • Sign out
 
 
  • Please contact your account administrator for more information on your access.

  • Security

SPONSORED: Legacy vs cloud security - busting the myths that prevent progress

Cloud may now seem like part of the furniture in many parts of end users' IT estates, but there are still misconceptions and misnomers that often obstruct channel players that deliver security from the cloud. We put five of the biggest to the test.

SPONSORED: Legacy vs cloud security - busting the myths that prevent progress
  • CRN staff
  • 22 August 2018
  • Tweet  
  • Facebook  
  • LinkedIn  
  • Send to  
0 Comments

Credit: j_ridley2000/CC BY-SA 2.0

Nowadays, cloud computing's adopters and advocates include governments and the world's biggest businesses, and the technology is also routinely and happily used by consumers in their daily lives.

It is tempting to believe that cloud has definitively won both the territorial and ideological battles that, just a few years ago, still raged fiercely.

But the truth is that doubts and misconceptions persist - nowhere more so than in the security space, where some familiar stumbling blocks to cloud remain in place.

Most companies now think nothing of moving their most widely used commodity productivity and communications tools into the cloud. However, when it comes to deploying technology to protect their organisation from the ever-growing array of threats they face each day, many enterprises still baulk at the idea of using a cloud-based solution.

The reasons for such reticence will be familiar to many -- they are exactly the same arguments that, when applied to other parts of an end user's IT estate, cloud providers have already succeeded in taking apart.

They are, essentially, myths. And all myths can be successfully busted if they are brought out into the light and subjected to a little scrutiny.

So, let's don our hard hats and goggles and put to the test the five biggest myths that still dog the cloud security space.

1. Making the switch is complex

Many end users are put off by the misconception that adopting cloud security is inherently more complicated than keeping everything on-premise - particularly if they are moving towards a hybrid environment. The assumption is that melding two different styles of provision must, necessarily, be a trickier proposition than sticking with legacy across the board.

The truth is that customer IT environments have never been anything other than a challenging mix of different technologies - which is why they have always required the expertise of vendor-neutral integrators. Those integrators can stitch cloud into the mix of their client's security estate just as seamlessly as they have been doing with competing manufacturers' software and hardware for decades.

Richard Archdeacon, advisory chief information security officer (CISO) at unified-access security specialist Duo Security, has this advice: "The first step is to clearly map out what services are provided by the cloud provider and relate them back to your overall security capability. This will not only ensure that there are no gaps, but will start to identify where any links need to be built, such as the provision of logs for monitoring or forensic analysis."

2. It's all or nothing

The initial cloud marketing missionary zeal purported the idea that ‘going cloud' required a completely new belief system and way of life - not to mention a total renunciation of their legacy sins of the past.

There is now more than enough evidence to demonstrate that cloud can be implemented gradually and pragmatically. Many begin their journey towards the cloud with core commodity applications offering productivity or communications tools. Some stop there, others travel much further, and a very few go all the way to what one big-name cloud vendor once termed "100% web."

Cloud security can be a starting point, a staging post, or a final destination.

3. It will cost more in the end

Cloud security - and, indeed, all forms of cloud computing - often suffer from the preconception that paying for something upfront will be a better deal than doing so in stages.

But in the case of IT, opting for the initial expense of on-premise technology is not simply a case of finding the money for a one-off payment - whereas cloud could deliver unexpected advantages.

"Perhaps the greatest benefit is time to deployment and usage," said Archdeacon. "The relative speed with which a solution can be implemented, and the enterprise risk reduced, will be an important decision factor for any CISO."

Legacy technology, meanwhile, requires significant additional resources - both time and money - to be dedicated to installation and integration. And, even when the kit has been deployed, there is the ongoing cost of maintenance. The need to keep pace with the upgrade cycles that roll around every few years is especially important in the security space where defences need to move and evolve in line with a constantly shifting threat landscape.

4. You have to relinquish control

Many IT decision makers persist in a belief that moving from on-premise to cloud security means giving up control and allowing an unseen external party to take the reins.

But cloud actually offers a greater level of autonomy than on-premise security ever has.

Companies that use cloud solutions can scale them up and down as required, as well as adding new services and tools along the way - which could be crucial when the threats they face are constantly moving, changing, growing, and multiplying. This is in stark contrast to the legacy world, in which customers are likely to be constrained by upfront cost commitments and inflexible long-term licensing contracts.

Working with a cloud provider can also allow internal security teams to operate much more strategically.

Archdeacon said: "I remember speaking to one CIO who had been asked if they feared losing control. The response was simple: the service offered by the cloud provider was more comprehensive and consistent than they could achieve with an overstretched security team. This meant that the scarce resources could now be deployed on understanding the security business requirement more fully, and thus providing much better security than before."

5. It's just not safe

Perhaps the most damaging misconception about cloud security is that it is not as safe as its on-premise counterpart.

For some, the idea seems to be that IT security is a bit like a bodyguard - who, to fulfil their duties, need to be located right alongside the person or place they are protecting.

But simply keeping something close at hand does not mean it is any safer. Locking something up in your shed is, on balance, probably not quite as secure as stowing it away in a bank vault.

Most organisations in the public and private sector only have a couple of in-house IT security experts - at most. Entrusting those few, overworked employees with sole responsibility for protecting vast amounts of sensitive data across the entire organisation is a tall order.

Cloud security, on the other hand, is built, provided, and managed by dedicated experts from companies who specialise in nothing but protecting people's assets.

Which model would you trust - or are you already delivering security from the cloud?  Join Duo at their EMEA Partner Kick-Off on Thursday 20 September and find out more about unified-access security delivered from the cloud.

Click here to join Duo at their partner kick off.

  • Tweet  
  • Facebook  
  • LinkedIn  
  • Send to  
  • Topics
  • Security
  • Services and Outsourcing
  • cloud

More on Security

Leeds-based Boxphish schools students on cybersecurity

Leeds-based firm to provide cybersecurity awareness training to 11-16 year olds

  • Security
  • 16 February 2021
UK IT asset recovery specialist teams up with global partner

Rotherham-based S2S signs deal with global ITAD Procurri

  • Services and Outsourcing
  • 08 February 2021
Schools find malware on laptops given out for home schooling

Malware appears to be contacting Russian servers, claim teachers

  • Security
  • 22 January 2021
Canalys reveals its six hottest cybersecurity solutions for 2021

Analyst believes global cybersecurity spending will rocket by 10 per cent after data breaches and ransomware attacks hit all-time high

  • Security
  • 21 January 2021
Industry Voice: New Market Opportunities for Service Providers with VMware SD-WAN

Watch this short animation to learn how VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud is solving enterprise network challenges.

  • Services and Outsourcing
  • 19 January 2021

More news

Meet the UK channel's fastest-growing, most profitable firms
  • Reseller
Meet the UK channel's fastest-growing, most profitable firms

CRN Rising Stars 2021 profiles seven MSP, resellers and consultancies that are outperforming the market on revenue growth and profits

  • 03 March 2021
Sapphire Systems snaps up SAP specialist
  • Finance and M&A
Sapphire Systems snaps up SAP specialist

Services provider achieves hat trick of acquisitions three months into 2021

  • 02 March 2021
Vendors could start assessing partners based on their sustainability credentials, channel warned
  • Technology and Trends
Vendors could start assessing partners based on their sustainability credentials, channel warned

"I think it will get to the stage where partners will probably be assessed on whether they are conforming to the social principles some of the vendors are pushing. We're not there yet, but I think it's coming," says channel veteran Phil Clark

  • 02 March 2021
Zoom rings in record year for revenue growth
  • Vendor
Zoom rings in record year for revenue growth

Video platform vendor finishes strong year with a record haul in its fourth quarter

  • 02 March 2021
blog comments powered by Disqus
Back to Top

Most read

Is Dominic Cummings launching a channel business?
Is Dominic Cummings launching a channel business?
Tech Data acquires integration specialist Finance Technology
Tech Data acquires integration specialist Finance Technology
'An era ends' - ScanSource Europe boss pays homage to staff after 23 years at distributor
'An era ends' - ScanSource Europe boss pays homage to staff after 23 years at distributor
Dell and HP go head to head in financial results
Dell and HP go head to head in financial results
'I feel like we're only just getting started' - Distology lands private equity backing
'I feel like we're only just getting started' - Distology lands private equity backing
  • Contact
  • Marketing solutions
  • About Incisive Media
  • Terms & conditions
  • Policies
  • Careers
  • Privacy Settings
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • Facebook
  • YouTube

© Incisive Business Media (IP) Limited, Published by Incisive Business Media Limited, New London House, 172 Drury Lane, London WC2B 5QR, registered in England and Wales with company registration numbers 09177174 & 09178013

Digital publisher of the year
Digital publisher of the year 2010, 2013, 2016 & 2017
Loading