Page 65 - Cyber Defense eMagazine - December 2017

“complex,” and only 34 percent said they have a high level of visibility into their IT
environment.

This complexity and lack of visibility puts agencies at a significant risk of a security

breach, the survey respondents said. More than half agreed that the complexity adds to
the risk, and nearly the same percentage said the same thing about the lack of visibility.

Still, many Federal IT managers see value in a move to the cloud, including a significant

security benefit. Seven out of ten said they believe a successful hybrid cloud adoption
will reduce their agencies’ security spending, and 69 percent said they believe it will

improve their overall security posture.

Even with the challenges of complexity and a lack of visibility, there is a path forward to
the cloud.

Take it slow: While there’s mounting pressure for agencies to move IT workloads to the

cloud, that doesn’t mean it needs to be an all-or-nothing transition. Agencies can – and

probably should – make a slow transition to the cloud by running a few select workloads
in a cloud service. By moving slow, agencies can test the applications on a cloud

service, while ensuring the proper security is in place.

Plan the journey to the cloud, don’t just jump in.

Some security products are now designed to enable a strategic migration to the cloud.

Careful planning and use of security tools that enforce security rules across hybrid cloud

environments allow agencies to avoid taking an all-at-once or an all-or-nothing
approach to migrations.

Increase the visibility first: Before moving to the cloud, agencies should get their IT

houses in order. With major concerns about visibility voiced by survey respondents, one
of the first steps should be to increase the visibility into their applications, using a

security information and event management (SIEM) or similar product.

65 Cyber Defense eMagazine – December 2017 Edition
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