Securing Cloud Data without VPNing, Hammer Pants, or Hairspray
Posted by skyhighnetworks on March 27th, 2014
One of the things that should definitely be on the “Please Never Make a Comeback” list is VPN. You remember “VPNing”, right? You want to send a quick email or check a document from home or an airport, so you have to dial into your VPN, wait forever for it to connect then access it, albeit at incredibly delayed speeds. But wait, [connection lost]…gotta dial back in… Yes that VPN! Pretty much the worst thing ever.
Thank goodness we live in the modern world where we have phones with TVs that can connect to anything, anywhere. And the Cloud to host all the data and services we could ever need.
Got to Be a Better Way
As they say, with great power comes great responsibility, which is exactly why companies are looking to secure their data within the cloud. They’re looking to encrypt data and control access for the awesome services that their employees love. Services like Evernote, Jive, Salesforce.com, Box, ServiceNow, Workday etc.
Unfortunately, there are vendors that think VPN is the answer to this securing your coveted cloud services. They ask their customers to force their employees to VPN or install agents on their BYOD devices in order to access and use the cloud securely. Honestly, I can’t believe that other companies would even think of proposing VPN or agents on their mobile devices but hey, some people think Hammer pants and hairspray are still cool – so live and let live.
Frictionless Cloud Security
What companies want is to secure their information within their cloud services and leverage capabilities like encryption, Data Loss Prevention Tools (DLP), and application auditing without requiring agents, downloads, or other footprint on the device, and without the need for VPN or backhaul of mobile traffic through the enterprise network!
In other words, they want to do this without introducing any friction into the process. Aside from the irritation the friction elicits, it also creates legitimate security vulnerability – users have proven time and again that they will try to find ways around security protocols that inconvenience them.
Scope your Requirements
When it comes to cloud data security, many IT and Security folks are in the process of building their requirements (aside from no VPN!). Our cloud security experts took the time to speak with dozens of leading enterprises, and found that they are pulling lessons from the banking industry in order to shore up their data security. To learn how and see the 5 key pillars of cloud data security they outline, check out our 15 min. webcast (who has time for an hr. long webinar anymore?) below.
Author:
Skyhigh Networks, the Cloud Security company, enables companies to embrace Cloud Services with appropriate levels of security, compliance, and governance while lowering overall risk and cost. With customers in financial services, healthcare, high technology, media, manufacturing, and legal verticals, the company was a finalist for the RSA Conference 2013 Most Innovative Company award and was recently named a "Cool Vendor" by Gartner, Inc. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Skyhigh Networks is led by an experienced team and is venture-backed by Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital. For more information, visit us at http://www.skyhighnetworks.com/cloud-data-loss-prevention/ or follow us on Twitter @skyhighnetworks.
