You’re operating in a multi-cloud world. Security can seem complex with workloads and data spread across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. Where do you start? How do you even wrap your arms around it?

Going from on-prem to a single public cloud is already a big enough step. Now, many organizations have assets in four or maybe even five different clouds.

The complexity can be daunting, and the ramifications for security are significant. But here’s the good news – with the right approach, you can effectively secure your multi-cloud environment.

This post will outline seven key steps to locking down your security posture and keeping your data safe. Let’s dive in.

1. Gain Full Visibility

First things first – you need complete visibility. You can’t secure what you can’t see. So, take inventory of every cloud asset across your environment. Document what cloud platforms are in use, which apps, services, and data reside where, and who owns and manages each asset.

A CMDB can help track this information. Great cloud security tools can also help you auto-discover unmanaged assets.

It’s also crucial to document the data flows between cloud environments. Know exactly how your apps, services, and data share and interact across cloud boundaries. This visibility into data movement and permissions is key for locking down your cloud security later.

2. Define Consistent Security Policies

Here’s where things get messy in a multi-cloud setup. When every environment has its own disjointed user management, permissions, and policies, security gaps can easily emerge.

Define a consistent set of security, access, and compliance policies across your entire multi-cloud environment. This ensures all platforms and services adhere to the same baseline security standards. Unifying policies also make cloud governance and audit preparations WAY easier.

Use the full visibility from Step 1 to identify crucial policy differences that need to be addressed. Slowly start standardizing and strengthening policies across all your public cloud accounts, resource groups, etc. Striving for policy consistency is key.

3. Centralize Identity Management

Juggling distinct identities, credentials, and access permissions across multiple clouds is a recipe for confusion and oversight. Instead, push to centralize identity and access management into a single system.

Many organizations use Azure AD as a central IDP to handle identity and access management (IAM) for all their connected cloud platforms. This gives you a unified single pane of glass for provisioning, de-provisioning, and permission management. Although more complex, third-party tools can also help unite cloud identity security. Integrating Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management solutions can further enhance identity management by ensuring proper access controls and minimizing over-permissioned accounts, reducing the risk of unauthorized access.

The bottom line is to normalize cloud permissions, access controls, and admin rights with one overarching identity and access management layer.

4. Extend Network Security Everywhere

Here’s another area where consistency matters – network security architecture. The same network security controls need to extend across your entire multi-cloud environment.

Use the native firewall services each cloud provider offers as a first line of defense. Build in network segmentation by setting up VLANs, security groups, and access controls to restrict communication between resources and environments based on zero-trust principles.

Treat your multi-cloud deployment as an extension of your core corporate network, with the same network security perimeter enforced uniformly. Maintain uniform compliance with security frameworks like PCI DSS or HIPAA across all public cloud accounts, resource groups, subnets, and regions.

Review network security blueprints and document architecture decisions regularly to ensure consistency as new cloud resources are provisioned. Align policies and controls to prevent gaps or blindspots.

5. Protect Sensitive Data Everywhere

Data security is a whole different ballgame in a complex multi-cloud architecture. With sensitive data and workloads spread across various clouds – you need to rethink your data protection measures.

Find out exactly where regulated, sensitive data resides first. Then, systematically apply robust controls around it, irrespective of what cloud it’s in. Encrypt sensitive data comprehensively, whether at rest or in transit between environments.

Also, evaluate and pilot emerging data protection approaches like confidential computing and zero-trust access. These can help consistently safeguard data everywhere it travels across disparate clouds.

Workloads and data move rapidly between interconnected clouds, so your data security strategy needs to be agile and resilient enough to keep up.

6. Prep for Advanced Cloud Threats

It’s an uncomfortable truth, but expanding your attack surface with more clouds means even more exposure to advanced threats. Sophisticated hackers are absolutely targeting misconfigured multi-cloud environments rich with data.

You need to evaluate risks from an adversary’s point of view. Attack surface analysis and continuous penetration testing help uncover hidden weak spots spread across interconnected cloud attack vectors. To power up your investigation, build a proactive cloud threat detection program using third-party tools. 

Of course, you need to patch..patch..patch! Sign up for multi-cloud security bulletins for every platform in use. Prioritize vulnerability patching for known risks before hackers can exploit them.

7. Practice Effective Cloud Governance

Last but certainly not least, consistently integrate security governance across your multi-cloud environment. Schedule routine audits and risk analyses to validate that everyone adheres to baseline policies. Watch for dangerous unauthorized cloud adoption and lack of oversight (aka shadow IT).

Choose a central platform for managing governance across cloud platforms. These provide holistic visibility paired with automated policy enforcement. Lean on cloud management platforms (CMPs) to connect governance tasks.

Stay vigilant with governance across ALL clouds in use. It’s far too easy for configuration drift to occur as assets move across decentralized cloud environments. Govern early, govern often.

Final Word

As you can see, managing security across multiple clouds isn’t easy. But with the right strategy and tools, it IS possible. The key is consistency across policies, controls, and governance. Treat your multi-cloud environment as one extended enterprise infrastructure.

Don’t let complexity slow your cloud adoption, either. Break things down step-by-step rather than trying to overhaul everything at once. We leaned on partners to help identify the biggest security gaps and prioritize what to fix first.

Most importantly, stay vigilant. Continuously monitor for misconfigurations or policy violations. Adapt your security regimen as new risks emerge. Attendance is just as integral in the cloud as it is on-premises.