Point-in-Time Cloud Usage Data Can Be Deceiving

Posted by Lauren Ellis on September 22nd, 2014

A Telling Story
A customer recently shared an interesting story with us. They told us that they were monitoring the growth in cloud service usage over time and saw some interesting patterns that we could share with our readers. They reported on the number of cloud security services in use every quarter, starting with September last year.

March – 612

June – 773

September – 981

The most startling (and obvious) observation is that the number of services used increased by more than 50% in half a year. Mark this up as yet another data point showing that use of cloud services is rampant

Point-in-time cloud usage data can be deceiving
Running a one-time audit of cloud usage is, no doubt, better than never doing it at all, but as the example shows, usage evolves rapidly so information is quickly outdated.

The more effective approach is to continuously evaluate your cloud service usage, and to evaluate it across 3 dimensions: 1) Number of services and number of users per service, 2) Risk level of services used, and 3) Data movement to/from the cloud. Let me explain.

1 – Number of services and number of users per service
It’s important that IT continuously look at the services used so they can identify productive services to promote and identify high-risk services to avoid. It’s also useful to keep an eye out for the number of users for each service. E.g. which services are spreading like wildfire (this can be good or bad depending on the value and risk of the service). If 20% or 30% of your employees use a service – maybe it’s time to look at an enterprise license.

2 – Risk level of services used
The risk level of services can change for the better or the worse. For example, cloud services can implement new security features that reduce their data risk and make them more attentive for enterprise use, or they can experience a serious security breach that increases the risk level instantly. Constantly monitor the risk level for services your employees use – especially the ones housing corporate data.

3 – Data sent to or living in each service
When managing the risk of cloud usage it’s critical to regularly look at what type and what volume of data is going to and from cloud services. For confidential data, regular audits should be conducted to ensure DLP policies are being effectively enforced. Also, by maintaining a continuous view of usage over time you’ll be able to better detect anomalies and reduce false positives, which will help you identify malware or malicious activity.

A point-in-time perspective of cloud usage provides only a fraction of the data you’ll need to ensure secure use of cloud security services.

Author :
Lauren Ellis is a research analyst covering the technology industry’s top trends & topics, focusing on Cloud Security, Cloud Computing, Data Loss Prevention etc.,