How To Work With A Cloud Hosting Provider To Achieve Optimal Security

In the modern IT environment, security and privacy are of critical importance to cloud vendors and their clients. Security is a partnership in any infrastructure hosting scenario: both the vendor and the client must do their part to keep data safe. Where exactly the division of responsibility lies depends in large part on the cloud vendor and the services they offer. Mainstream enterprise cloud vendors like AWS and Azure do little to help ordinary businesses build secure systems: the underlying infrastructure may be secure, but given the complexity of infrastructure hosting it’s all too easy for a cloud user to make a mistake that exposes them to unnecessary risk.

Steadfast Simplicity Clouds are secure by default, hosted in world-class SSAE-16-certified data centers with rigorous physical, network, and server security. But the defining difference between Steadfast Simplicity Clouds and competing platforms is the range of managed services available to business users: our Steadfast Sentinel Managed Security services include the Core Security Bundle, which provides a range of security services such as standard firewalls and web application firewalls, vulnerability scanning, disk encryption and key management, identity and access management, network monitoring, and configuration change management.

Steadfast Sentinel Managed Security also offers bundles for HIPAA, PCI DSS, and FISMA compliance, making it much easier for cloud users to deploy compliant applications on flexible public or private cloud platforms.

The Cloud User’s Responsibility

Although Steadfast’s Simplicity Clouds and Sentinel Managed Services simplify the creation of secure applications and services, cloud users have a responsibility to follow common-sense security best practices.

Updates and patch management: The vast majority of last year’s most prominent data leaks and security issues — including the Equifax leak and the NotPetya ransomware attacks — could have been avoided if businesses had patched their software. Every day, companies have data stolen or their servers compromised because they fail to update internet-facing software like content management systems and eCommerce applications. Applying updates in a timely fashion should be a priority for every business.

Authentication and identity management: Controlling access to your cloud servers is key to ensuring they remain secure. Last year, many Linux servers were hacked by simple brute force attacks because administrators used easy-to-guess passwords. Steadfast’s cloud identity and access management tools make managing who has access to your resource much more straightforward, but you have to be careful to properly manage who you give access to and to withdraw access when it’s no longer required.

Backups: Business owners don’t often think of backups as a security issue, but a comprehensive off-site backup is the last line of defense against ransomware attacks and an essential component of disaster recovery and business continuity planning. Steadfast’s Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Services provide encrypted, up-to-date backups to dedicated backup servers.

There are two major causes of IT security disasters: businesses that don’t have the expertise to properly secure their cloud infrastructure and businesses that don’t make security a priority. Steadfast Simplicity Clouds and Sentinel Security Services provide a solution to both problems: we have the expertise to build secure cloud infrastructure platforms for businesses, and our low-cost managed security services provide comprehensive turnkey security solutions whatever your business’s needs.

Steadfast’s cloud security services are available for our full range of cloud platforms, including private cloud, public cloud, and custom hybrid clouds.