PCMAN – The world is currently shifting to a mobile-first, cloud-first world, thanks to Microsoft. Businesses have finally realized the benefits they could get by using Cloud computing, thus they slowly migrate their business to the particular platform. However, there are still customers ho have doubts on Cloud adoption, especially when they have sensitive data within their system. Many still asked, “Can I trust Cloud computing to protect my data?”, “Can I meet my business’ compliance requirements in Cloud?”
It’s quite normal for business who aren’t familiar with Cloud computing to ask those questions. However, Microsoft, as one of the biggest Cloud computing provider, has released dozens of new capabilities to ensure customer security meets its requirements. These features would enable Microsoft’s customer to move to the Cloud with confidence.
Data Protection. To ensure that Microsoft supports the best-in-class encryption, by default, Azure uses industry-leading capabilities to encrypt content flowing over the Internet, between the customer and the Azure service. The capabilities include recent enhancements to TLS/SSL cipher suites and Perfect Forward Secrecy. Microsoft also expanded encryption capabilities to provide a wider range of options for securing data.
Threat Defense. Microsoft has equipped Azure with intrusion detection and prevention systems, denial of service attack prevention, regular penetration testing, and data analytics and machine learning tools to help identify and mitigate threats to the platform. Customers are also ensured to have the right protection by having Microsoft Antimalware available for Virtual Machines and Cloud Services, along with other solutions from Symantec, Trend Micro, and McAfee.
Network Security. Microsoft has made several enhancements on their network security to provide their customers with private networks in the Cloud and to securely connect on-premises datacenters with Azure. In addition, ExpressRoute is now available to enable customers establish a private connection to Azure datacenters, keeping their traffic off the Internet. Microsoft also released support for site-to-site forced tunneling, which gives IT increased network control and enabling a host of network security appliances from partners like Citrix and Riverbed.
Identity and Access. Customers can control who can access and administer Cloud resources by using Azure Active Directory and enable Multi-Factor Authentication for administrators. To help detect suspicious access, Azure Active Directory offers reports that alert customers to anomalous activity, such as a user logging in from an unknown device. These enhancements will surely make Azure customer feel safer while moving to the Cloud.
