Cory Communications

Cloud Security in the Serverless Age

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As enterprises adopt new technologies, cloud security must be adapted and revised to prevent hidden vulnerabilities.

The typical cloud security model has been one of shared responsibility between the enterprise and the cloud provider. The cloud provider secured the hardware and software of the cloud, while the enterprise was responsible for securing the data stored in the cloud. In the best scenarios, these areas were spelled out in detail, with clear parameters for securing all aspects of the technology.

As new features, software models and approaches emerged, security teams might find themselves scrambling to revise their policies and detect any potential vulnerabilities in the cloud. The variety of workloads powering open source, owned and borrowed code became more complex as new technology appeared.

The benefits offered were often offset by the new security challenges they presented. For instance, as virtual machines made way for microservices and containers, there were always cloud security issues that came up to complicate the shared responsibility over how security is handled.

The newest approach to building and developing cloud native applications is serverless, or Functions as a Service (FaaS). In this model, development teams write application code in terms of a collection of functions, and the cloud provider runs the functions. It’s an approach that frees developers to focus on coding, and the provider handles provisioning, billing and scaling of the applications.

The technology is increasingly adopted, but will require a new approach to cloud security. While the traditional model creates clear boundaries for the parties responsible for each aspect of the application, serverless shifts more responsibility back to the cloud provider. The cloud provider handles the management of the operating system, while the enterprise becomes responsible for the applications in the cloud.

While this might seem like a good thing for DevOps and for security teams, the new model of security introduces blind spots, because the enterprise no longer has visibility into the operating system. This creates a challenge around adding firewalls or workload protection tools.

Security professionals need some new guidelines for handling cloud security in the age of serverless:

Determine ownership: Don’t make assumptions about who owns each part of the shared security responsibility. Defining rules makes it easier if or when you have a breach and saves you the step of finger-pointing when the vulnerability is identified.

Gain visibility: Assume your cloud provider is only taking care of the minimum cloud security measures agreed upon, and then secure visibility into your workloads across the data center.

Begin from the ground up: Addressing security as you discover vulnerabilities will always keep you scrambling. Build in cloud security from the initial development stage of the application, working closely with your cloud provider from the beginning to prevent attacks.

To learn more about how to adapt your cloud security strategy to changing technology, contact us at Cory Communications. We can help you ensure that blind spots and vulnerabilities don’t have a place in your cloud environment.

Reasons Businesses Like Yours Are Migrating to the Cloud—And How to Do It

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Migrating to the cloud offers a predictable return on investment and allows mobile employees to work from anywhere.

Migrating to the cloud is no longer a new concept. Businesses of every size are either housing workloads in the cloud or they have plans to do so in the near future. While each enterprise has its own priorities for moving to the cloud, the overarching theme is that in many cases, the cloud solution is superior to the on-site, legacy system. Consider these common reasons for migrating to the cloud:

Remote access: No matter where an employee is working, as long as they have a valid log-in and connectivity, they have access to systems. Cloud solutions make it easier for an increasingly mobile workforce to work productively and collaborate with team members, no matter their location.

Maturity: The cloud is a matured technology. It’s no longer a risky move to place workloads in the cloud, because it is tested and has proven to be effective and even provide a strategic advantage in areas like agility, flexibility and innovation.

Cost: Initial discussions of cloud migration focused heavily on cost, but it turns out that while cost savings are important, they pale in comparison to the disruptive nature of the advantages that cloud solutions offer. While cost is now rarely the main priority in a cloud move, cloud does offer lower maintenance costs, the ability to pay for only the number of users needed, and the advantage of categorizing monthly subscription fees as operating expenses rather than a single capital investment.

These are just a few of the main reasons enterprises are migrating to the cloud. There are also some variations in the “how” of cloud migration:

Lift and shift: This method of moving to the cloud simply picks up a workload and places it in the cloud, without making any major changes to the code or otherwise. In many enterprises, the first cloud migration is to a cloud data center, and a lift-and-shift is usually done in a Software as a Service arrangement, in which the management of the solution is handled by a cloud provider.

Lift and refit: This model of cloud migration takes the on-site solution and moves it to the cloud, making adjustments to code and infrastructure to support optimal performance as needed.

Cloud native: Your enterprise may choose to stop using a legacy system and instead move to a cloud native solution that has been designed specifically for use in the cloud. These solutions are designed to integrate seamlessly with other cloud technology and may offer a good option to companies that have a legacy system that will no longer be supported or one that no longer fits their needs.

As your enterprise considers a move to the cloud, it’s important to remember that, while cloud solutions tend to be highly secure, they do present a different set of security vulnerabilities than those present in a legacy system. The security plane is broadened, there are more endpoints, and you may not have as much visibility or control over your data. You’ll need a comprehensive business continuity and security strategy in place as you migrate to the cloud.

Before you embark on a cloud migration, contact us at Cory Communications. We will help you evaluate your requirements for a cloud solution and work with you throughout selection, testing and implementation to ensure you have a seamless transition to the cloud.

New Trends in Big Data

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Big data is being managed in structured solutions that mobilize information for reaching business goals.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that all data is big data, and enterprises that haven’t done anything to structure their data for analysis and application may soon be too late. Big data management is commonly the differentiator for companies that are able to pull ahead of their competition, and the management of that information is getting even smarter.

There are some new trends emerging in big data that may signal its impending maturation in the IT marketplace. Consider these changes in big data and how they might affect your own enterprise and plans for big data management:

Structuring data: There appears to be a push-and-pull between structured data and the concept of enterprise data warehouses that store data in a massive lake of information. While some continue to lump data all together for potential future access, there’s a lot of attention on accessing structured data for real-time business intelligence. It’s expected that newer big data platforms will outpace the legacy enterprise data warehouses.

Machine learning: Machine learning is evolving from being a science fiction-like future reality, and is being effectively applied to solve challenges. From anticipating customer behaviors in order to suggest a next step to creating processes in manufacturing that eliminate inefficiencies, machine learning is currently adding value to businesses. Machine learning makes it possible for customers to access an automated assistant in customer service that could be more helpful at assisting them because they have the benefit of data informing the conversation.

For instance, when a customer with an invoicing problem calls, the automated system can tell from the phone number that this is the third time the customer has called about invoicing issues, and direct the conversation accordingly.

Desktop HPC: After all the momentum moving to cloud solutions over the last few years, the pendulum may eventually swing back a bit. There are new solutions available with low-cost, powerful computing nodes that stack right on a desk. They are about the size of old disc storage enclosures and are designed to run distributed software.

It may seem surprising with all the benefits of cloud solutions that enterprises might consider going back to housing big data solutions, but considering the proliferation of smartphones, it’s clear that small, affordable and powerful compute is attainable.

The solutions around big data management are still maturing and there are likely to be more new trends that emerge around mobilizing data for enterprise management. Enterprises that embrace the potential for using data to better understand customers and fine-tune business processes will outpace their competitors.

If you’re one of the enterprises that has waited to implement big data solutions, it’s time to get started. Or maybe you’re well-versed in big data structuring, but you’ve recognized that your systems aren’t serving your objectives to their full capacity. Contact us at Cory Communications to discuss the possibilities for better structuring and use of your big data.

The Two Sides of SD-WAN Benefits

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Never be complacent with cyber security measures – being proactive can save you downtime.

You may have wondered what the buzz about software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) is all about. SD-WAN connects public cloud services to a company’s virtual private network (VPN), providing cost savings for those relying on internet protocol (IP) plus multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) lines. For smaller companies for whom MPLS is out of reach, SD-WAN helps level the playing field.

As SD-WAN emerges as beneficial to enterprises seeking a network upgrade, the market has been flooded with providers. How can you determine which provider is right for you? There are two major approaches that may help you distinguish a provider that’s a good fit.

The cost benefit: This is the factor that often ignites a conversation around implementing SD-WAN. It can effectively replace some or all of an enterprise’s MPLS lines, and because it is organized for subscription-based invoicing, your investment is categorized as an operating expense billed monthly, rather than a one-time capital investment. Finally, SD-WAN is easily scalable, so you’re never paying for extra licenses that you’re not using.

The drawback to approaching SD-WAN as a cost-saving measure is that the technology becomes at risk for being commoditized. The price of SD-WAN will be driven down deeper and deeper, eliminating all potential for innovation.

The service benefit: Instead of focusing on cost, the service focus offers a way for SD-WAN to escape commoditization by introducing opportunities for network optimization and innovation both at the provider level and within the enterprise. SD-WAN controls connectivity for the enterprise network, so it can apply identity-based policies to prioritize or block traffic.

With a high level of visibility in the centralized, virtual overlay of the physical network, network engineers access zero-touch provisioning and troubleshooting. The ability to segment out network traffic based on application or device type means that if a laptop is forgotten in an airport, that vulnerability can be identified and segmented, protecting the rest of the network from any potential breach.

It’s important to note that not all SD-WAN providers offer this level of segmentation and network optimization potential in their solutions. When evaluating SD-WAN providers, be sure that the goals you have for your network match what the provider can offer.

It’s possible that both approaches to SD-WAN will be necessary for making the technology available to all. Smaller companies are implementing it for the cost savings, while larger enterprises see the potential in creating a network-driven business growth plan.

To learn more about the important considerations you should include when choosing a provider for any technology solution, contact us at Cory Communications. We can partner with you to optimize your network, enhancing performance and eliminating downtime for solid, 24/7 connectivity.

Digital Transformation: Avoiding the Pain Points

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Plan for updating your security processes during your digital transformation implementation.

The pace of technological evolution is astounding, and for many organizations it can be challenging to keep up with the constant changes. However, for a successful digital transformation to occur, embracing new technology is critical. Part of the transformation must also include rethinking your processes, because a successful transitions is about more than just hardware and software.

Updated Security

Maintaining or improving security during a digital transformation requires first examining your current processes. Without a well-rounded picture of how your IT services operate, you won’t have a very good handle on how to proceed.

For example, your data is likely moving to the cloud at a rapid rate, which means your IT infrastructure is becoming more complex. You need to be able to see into those complexities so there are no surprises and complications with implementation.

Many enterprises are entrenched in the Internet of Things (IoT) as employees increasingly are bringing in endpoint machines and mobile devices. You have to know all the pieces of the puzzle that are connected to your system if security is going to be improved or maintained through a digital transformation. You then need to make the necessary adjustments in your security strategy to protect your data as you move forward.

Know Your Goals

If you haven’t already embraced automation in one form or another, the digital transformation will familiarize you with it. Integrating automation comes with a lot of planning and prioritizing, because the type of automation you bring in should be teamed with the right environments and applications.

It’s not just the chief information officer that is in charge of this process. Representatives from throughout the organization need to take the lead and assist in getting everyone on board. This brings greater visibility and sets the tone for establishing the goals you want to achieve.
The best cloud strategy for your organization must also be considered. If your goal is to remain adaptable and scalable, you have to have the right IT architecture, and that will involve key cloud solutions.

At Cory Communications, we have assisted many clients in eliminating the confusion of telecom hardware by offering support from the first call through implementation. If you’ve been dreading the process of digital transformation, contact us today and let us assist in taking the pain out of the project.

How Disaster Recovery Efforts Improve Different Aspects of Your Business

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Don’t let data loss sink your company; invest in disaster recovery solutions today.

Depending on what your duties are within your organization, your view on disaster recovery may be different from those in other positions. For example, leadership often takes disaster recovery and business continuity and rolls them both into a single process for stronger business, while an IT manager might be solely focused on the ability to duplicate data. Regardless of your perspective, disaster recovery is often a more comprehensive business tool than most know.

When creating a disaster recovery plan, every department has a role, which means knowledge is gained in the process of building a solid plan. New learning allows organizations to see where they can improve what they offer customers. With so many applications and business processes going to the cloud, the practice of migrating data to a secure cloud environment reveals other opportunities that can benefit the entire organization.

Improving Reliability and Accountability

Many organizations are blindsided by hackers that break into their systems and compromise their data. However, by carefully planning your disaster recovery strategy, the hit you take could be minimal compared to companies that haven’t invested time and energy into a good plan. Faster recovery from a cyber threat gives you an advantage.

Fast recovery is often the hallmark of an organization that has practiced what they will do once they discover a hacker has gotten into their system. Everyone jumps to their designated role and the damage is limited. They know what to do because they’ve gone through “fire drills” to prepare for this day.

Customer First

Most companies today rely to some degree on e-commerce as part of their business model. Therefore, to cover their bases, they know through a business impact analysis what a disruption will cost them. It’s not uncommon for organizations to begin losing customers within seconds of going down during a cyber attack.

While the business impact analysis is carried out to reveal the losses the company will take in an attack, it also underscores the importance of each and every customer, motivating the company to take further measures to not only minimize the risk of losing them, but to improve business processes so the customer experience is enhanced.

At Cory Communications, we help our clients cut through the telecom noise by taking care of their technology needs. We know that nearly three-quarters of businesses that suffer a major data loss will not make it beyond two years following the incident, which is why we’ve created disaster recovery and online backup solutions that will protect your organization. Find out more about what we can offer you by contacting us today.

Cloud Security Tips to Protect Your Data

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When it comes to cloud security, your data is your responsibility.

While a cloud provider will put safeguards in place to secure infrastructure, the responsibility for protecting data lies solely in the hands of the organization that owns the data. Cloud security cannot be taken for granted, and organizations must hold themselves accountable for the safety of their data.

It’s estimated that in just a few short years, almost 95% of cloud security failures will be because of something the customer has done, most likely in failing to manage controls built to protect data. We’ve seen around 80% of organizations having already been impacted by a security event, so the dangers are real.

The Great Protection Myth

Despite much evidence to the contrary, many organizations hold on to the belief that your cloud provider is protecting your data. They do offer safeguards for the infrastructure, but when you are moving your data to the cloud, it is up to you to make a plan for cloud security.

The vendor is responsible for the software, computer, storage, database, networking, regions, availability zones and edge locations. The customer must create cloud security for operating systems, firewall configuration, applications, identity and access management, encryption, networking traffic and anything else that has to do with protecting the integrity of the data. This should be made clear in any contract you have with your cloud provider.

Losing Control of Your Data

When you partner with a cloud vendor, you must be sure they always know where your data is going. In many cases, as you send your data to the cloud, the vendor will move it, often for disaster recovery purposes, to unknown locations. If this presents a compliance issue for you, you must consider a vendor that has more insight into the location of your data.

While you can request from your vendor various actions such as the deletion of your data, they aren’t necessarily required to comply. Again, if your vendor can’t give you what you want, keep searching for one that will.

At Cory Communications, our cloud-based telecom solutions ensure that our clients are secure. However, we also offer services that help our clients move their business to the right cloud strategy. If you’re looking to remain competitive, you have to have a scalable network and IT architecture, and we can help you with that. Contact us today and let’s discuss all your telecom and IT needs.

Discovering More About Threats and Cloud Security

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Identifying weaknesses is a great start to better cloud security practices.

Most organizations that have embraced cloud-based solutions will rave about the efficiencies the cloud offers, including the ability to scale without much effort in either direction. Cost savings and flexibility are also big perks, but what about cloud security? Is it lacking?

You don’t have to look far to see how hackers have established themselves as serious threats to what would otherwise be a normal day at the office. Data breaches have become an unfortunate part of the business climate. Here’s what your organization can do to protect itself.

The Threats

The most prominent threat looming in the background is a data breach through which sensitive company and client information gets out to where it’s not supposed to be. This could be intellectual property, health records, social security numbers, passwords, credit card numbers and more.  All of these can be hacked, and the ripple effect can be quite damaging.

One way to help avoid these data breaches is to keep your software updated and patched with security solutions, such as a two-factor authentication process to get into the system. This can help ensure your information stays safe.

Limiting Access

Most organizations strive for an efficient workflow, which is something cloud-based solutions can offer. However, it’s not always a good idea to allow everyone access to everything. A little access management goes a long way in offering you more cloud security.

You need to fully evaluate what type of information you’re dealing with, categorize it, and decide who absolutely must have access to it. Set permissions to restrict access to that information, making sure the only people who see it are those who couldn’t do their daily tasks otherwise.

Identifying Vulnerabilities

If you’re not looking for weak areas in your system, you can bet there are people outside of your organization who are doing that right now. When they find it, they’re going to sneak in, perhaps leaving no indication, and gain access to everything you have.

If you’ve got bugs in your code, they will likely be exploited at some point – so find them before hackers do and fix your issues to close up your vulnerabilities. Cloud security solutions include installing all patches in a timely manner and never pushing off updates as they become available. It’s tempting to put it off when you’ve got a heavy workload in front of you, but make it company policy to immediately install updates.

At Cory Communications, our cloud solutions help clients move in the direction of the right cloud strategy. If your goal is to maintain an adaptable and scalable network and IT architecture, our solutions, including cloud security, will be of interest to you, so contact us today and let’s talk about how we can customize a solution for you.

Closing the Cloud Security Talent Gap

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Have the right tools in place when cloud security talent is in short supply.

The pace of change in IT is currently measured in terms of cloud migration. Both in government and in the corporate sphere, business plans are largely centered around digital transformation. While the migrations result in better productivity, improved end-user experiences and cost savings, there is often a gap in cloud security talent.

Cybersecurity’s complexity and changing nature might lead government offices to outsource their security monitoring to a managed services provider, but cloud security talent and training are in short supply in the private sector as well. Covering cloud security, in many cases, should be addressed from a tools approach when talent is not available.

Common challenges: While there are a variety of difficulties that can come with trying to cover cloud security concerns, many of the challenges fall within a few categories:

  • Aging on-premise security monitoring tools that are not equipped to handle the monitoring of cloud solutions
  • Point solutions that are designed for handling on-premise applications or cloud applications, but are unable to handle both
  • Gaps in monitoring and the synchronization of data when elastic assets are introduced or eliminated
  • Managing a variety of consoles across different types of environments
  • DevOps challenges related to culture and technology that accompany a move to the cloud

Trusting the tools: Monitoring applications can help close the gap when government entities struggle to find the right talent, but it’s important to evaluate those tools to be sure they can be trusted. There are several questions that should be asked of your applications:

  • Can unified monitoring and management be achieved across both cloud and on-premise systems using a single set of controls?
  • Is the solution able to support the on-boarding or off-boarding of nodes as you need to access them, so that you have continuous security coverage?
  • Are you able to evaluate whether cloud solutions meet your internal security policies?
  • Does your monitoring application function well in an infrastructure that supports virtual, physical, private and public cloud environments?

These questions can help you assess whether you have the right applications in place for monitoring, or if current cloud security concerns require you to evaluate a new solution.

Managing the shortage in cloud security talent doesn’t require that digital transformation strategies be delayed or that government institutions train employees at the expense of other priorities. With the right monitoring tools in place, government IT can cover cloud security and move forward.

The first step is evaluating your monitoring tools to determine whether you have a cloud security vulnerability. Contact us at Cory Communications for an assessment of your current tools and, if necessary, the opportunity to close the gap.

Using Big Data to Drive Behaviors

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Having access to big data requires enterprises to take the next steps to not only analysis, but prescriptive analytics.

The Internet of Things (IoT), cloud technology and analytics have created a setting in which big data can play a major role in enterprise strategy. The determination to take data and use it to shape business policies is one of the driving factors that is allowing some enterprises to pull ahead of the competition.

It’s not enough to just analyze the data. Smart companies are using it to fuel their business strategy. There are four basic types of big data analytics:

Descriptive analytics: These types of data reports answer the question, “what happened?” They may provide micro-details that help the recipient of the data understand a full picture of events. After the event, the analytics can be investigated to determine the order of events and details about each of the components.

Diagnostic analytics: This analysis answers the question, “why did it happen?” It can be helpful in a situation where there’s equipment failure, or it can help marketers understand why visitors to their website leave after arriving at a particular landing page. Diagnostic analytics help businesses arrive at conclusions about why these events occur.

Predictive analytics: This area of big data assists those that would like to know, “what is going to happen?” It can be helpful, because monitoring data can help a company make changes when they notice a pattern in which a non-desirable behavior keeps occurring, such as a potential customer leaving the website. It can also help companies predict equipment-related events, such as when a vibration on a certain part of a piece of equipment means that the part is about to fail.

Prescriptive analytics: Instead of predicting what will happen, prescriptive analytics allows you to get a certain behavior to occur. Prescriptive analytics won’t just tell you that the way you are routing your products through departments is likely to create a bottleneck; it will prescribe the ideal way to route your products to improve efficiency.

Prescriptive analytics is the critical stop for big data. Many companies take data far enough to understand what happened and what will happen in the future, but what sets leaders in each industry apart is their ability to use data to prescribe behaviors. This not only applies to telling a line worker how best to pack a box, but also to suggest to a customer what they might like to purchase before they know what they want.

To learn more about creating a business strategy around the potential of big data, contact us at Cory Communications. We look forward to talking with you about technology solutions that can help you harness big data to meet your current and future business goals.

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Cory Communications, Inc.
200 Haddonfield Berlin Road,
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Gibbsboro, NJ 08026

Phone: 856-795-2223

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