Multi-Cloud Environment Challenges for Government Agencies

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Hybrid and multi-cloud architectures can offer government agencies the flexibility, enhanced security and capacity needed to achieve what they need for modernizing now and into the future. Yet many questions remain surrounding the implementation of multi- and hybrid-cloud architectures. Adopting a cloud-smart approach across an agency’s infrastructure is a complex process with corresponding challenges for federal CISOs.

Between January and April of this year, the government sector saw a 45% increase in enterprise cloud use, and as the work-from-home norm continues, socially distanced teamwork will require even more cloud-based collaboration services.

Everyone agreed that although the technological infrastructure supporting hybrid and multi-cloud environments has made significant advancements in recent years, there is still much work ahead to ensure government agencies are operating with advanced security.

I recently had the opportunity to sit with several public and private sector leaders in cloud technology to discuss these issues at the Securing the Complex Ecosystem of Hybrid Cloud webinar, organized by the Center for Public Policy Innovation (CPPI) and Homeland Security Dialogue Forum (HSDF).

  1. There is no one-size-fits-all hybrid environment

Organizations have adopted various capabilities that have unique gaps that must be filled. A clear system for how organizations can successfully fill these gaps will take time to develop. That being said, there is no one-size-fits-all hybrid or multi-cloud environment technology for groups looking to implement a cloud approach across their infrastructure.

There are three key concepts for federal CISOs to consider as they develop multi- and hybrid-cloud implementation strategies:

  1. Strategies for data protection must have a cohesive enforcement policy

A consistent enforcement policy is key in maintaining an easily recognizable strategy for data protection and threat management. Conditional and contextual access to data is critical for organizations to fully accomplish cloud-based collaboration across teams.

  1. Zero-trust will continue to evolve in terms of its definition

Zero-trust has been around for quite some time and will continue to grow in terms of its definition. In concept, zero-trust is an approach that requires an organization to complete a thorough inspection of its existing architecture. It is not one specific technology; it is a capability set that must be applied to all areas of an organization’s infrastructure to achieve a hybrid or multi-cloud environment. 

At McAfee, we’ve been dedicating ourselves to solving these problems. We are excited that McAfee’s MVISION Cloud has been recognized as the first cloud access security broker (CASB) with FedRAMP High authorization. Additionally, we’ve been awarded an Other Transaction Authority by the Defense Innovation Unit to prototype a Secure Cloud Management Platform through McAfee’s MVISION Unified Cloud Edge (UCE) cybersecurity solution.

Successful integration of a multi-cloud environment poses real challenges for all sectors, particularly for enterprises as large and complex as the federal government. Managing security across different cloud environments can be overwhelmingly complicated for IT staff, which is why they need tools that can automate their tasks and provide continued protection of sensitive information wherever it goes inside or outside the cloud.

We look forward to engaging in more strategic discussions with our partners in the private and public sectors to not only discuss but also help solve the security challenges of federal cloud adoption.

This post was first first published on Enterprise – McAfee Blogs’s website by Ned Miller. You can view it by clicking here