Cloud Security and Compliance Concerns and how to Overcome Them

Microsoft Azure is a public cloud computing platform that offers a wide range of cloud services for analytics, storage, computing, and networking.

Its massive success is reflected by the fact that revenue from Microsoft Azure grew exponentially over the last couple of years. This exponential growth is mainly because the platform offers a wide range of innovative abd productive solutions to solve everyday business problems.

While there are many cloud computing platforms, none are as effective at fulfilling business needs for integrated cloud solutions as Microsoft Azure. Azure offers an array of infrastructure and application services to help your organization overcome common challenges and meet performance and productivity goals.

Here are a few problems that you can solve with Azure:

Compliance Concerns

Insurance services, credit card data, and health-related information must be kept secure enough to meet the regulatory requirements for the Payment Card Industry (PCI) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance.

Implementing these security standards can be challenging for businesses as they deal with the various factors necessary to maintain the highest levels of information security.

Azure and Mobiz can help.

Mobiz specializes in Azure cloud deployments, network automation, security and migrations. We have extensive certifications in all things Azure including Expert certifications.

PCI Compliance with Azure

When trying to ensure PCI compliance, you must ensure that:

• The application used to collect, store and process credit card data is compliant
• The infrastructure (network, servers, etc.) where the app operates and transmits information is compliant

While using Azure doesn’t automatically make the app compliant, the platform can help enhance the security of the infrastructure.

The PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) governs the compliance needs of the infrastructure, covering components such as web servers, databases, routers, switches, firewalls, etc., along with any other element used to access cardholder data.

Azure is Level 1 compliant as per the PCI DSS standard. This means that when you host data in an Azure environment, there’s no need to worry about the networking or infrastructure aspects controlled by Azure.

HIPAA Compliance with Azure

Organizations are subject to HIPAA guidelines when collecting electronically protected health information from their clientele. Service providers must also supply written agreements and documentation that follow stringent security and privacy guidelines.

Microsoft facilitates HIPAA-compliant solutions via a contract addendum called a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement (BAA).

Mounting Security Challenges

Businesses are dealing with increasingly complicated cyber-attacks, hacks, data thefts, and other cybersecurity threats. This crisis will only get bigger with time, mandating the need to reinforce cyber defenses. Microsoft Azure offers reliable digital security resources that provide world-class protection.

Identity Control and Access Management with Azure

Modern security is only as dependable as people with access to your servers’ information. Azure Active Directory (AD) is an identity and access management tool that allows businesses to ensure that only authorized users get to access sensitive data. Use it to implement multi-factor authentication and single sign-on to make access management straightforward and airtight.

It also allows you to make access device or location-specific, limiting everyone else from getting their hands on your data.

Strong Storage Security

With Azure, you get several tools to encrypt data to keep it safe, whether in transit or secured in your database. A shared access signature allows users to delegate access and resources in storage. This makes it easy to allow access for a limited time to authorized individuals online.

Azure also offers Storage Analytics that lets you see access logs and provides in-depth data for your storage account. Use it to trace access requests, see usage trends and diagnose possible issues.

You also get to take advantage of a global incident response team that uses state-of-the-art resources to offer unified security management and advanced threat management solutions to all Azure users.

At Mobiz Inc., our goal is to help you do business more securely, and when you’re ready to take advantage of all the benefits the cloud offers, we’re here to help with expert services and advice tailored to your specific needs.

Aging and Inflexible Infrastructure

Technology is advancing by the minute, leaving you to deal with constant technical debt, legacy modernization and ongoing digital transformation projects. While this challenge may not hit you until later in the game, the time to prepare is now.

Setting up a new IT infrastructure or updating an old one comes with steep costs that are often too much for small businesses. But the alternative is lagging performance, risks of failure, and increasingly obsolete security measures.

Factor in the running costs, warranty issues, and possible downtime, and you’ve got an impending disaster on your hands.

You need innovative technology that grows with your business. While upgrades and replacements of physical components are inevitable, you can invest in evergreen tech that scales with the demands of your systems.

Azure is affordable and scalable, making it the right option for businesses. This means that you only pay for the services you use and to the extent you use them.

Moreover, it’s compatible and seamlessly integrates with the latest apps. This way, you don’t have to invest in periodic software upgrades to keep using the software that runs your business.

Additionally, as a cloud-based server or Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) provider, Azure offers cutting-edge security and tech solutions that get automatic updates and ongoing maintenance without needing much input. This way, you can rest assured that when you use Azure, it’s always the latest version with a 100% uptake.

Conclusion

With its architecture, software development, and platform as a service offering, Microsoft Azure Cloud has a lot to offer businesses of all sizes. You may be familiar with the challenges listed above from your own business experiences, or you might be curious to know how you will deal with them as you begin your journey with Azure.

Harness the full potential of Microsoft Azure with Mobiz Inc. With the help of our experts, you will be able to conduct effective cloud assessments, build a fully automated cloud foundation leveraging the Azure Landing Zone , perform successful migrations as well as implement a sound Cloud Ops and FinOps strategy to ensure your business maintains Operational Excellence and controls costs.

Get in touch with us for more details or speak with an expert.