Security considerations for your cloud adoption strategy
- 10 minutes
A successful cloud adoption requires a well-designed security strategy. Evaluate your cloud expertise and focus on cloud security, especially if you're transitioning from on-premises environments.
To manage security in the cloud, you might need to restructure your security team and approach. Organizational changes can cause stress and conflict. Ensure that management supports and clearly communicates these changes to all teams.
Address common challenges
Cloud security requires organization-wide participation and a broader scope than on-premises security. Every resource in the cloud is a potential attack vector, so you need to adapt and expand your security approach.
Cloud security involves specialized roles. To avoid security management gaps, you might need to add or reorganize teams.
Recommendations
Engage stakeholders in security discussions early in the cloud adoption process to ensure organizational alignment.
Review the Cloud Adoption Framework for guidance about implementing end-to-end security, including security teams, roles, and functions.
Embrace the Cloud Adoption Framework Secure methodology. Apply Microsoft security best practices at each stage of cloud adoption, including security posture modernization, incident response, and the CIA Triad.
Understand the Microsoft Secure Future Initiative
As a global cloud provider, Microsoft prioritizes security to help prevent breaches. The Microsoft Secure Future Initiative outlines an approach to build and maintain secure products.
Your security priorities, such as reliability, performance, and costs, depend on various factors that you define in your adoption strategy. Understand the pillars of the Secure Future Initiative to help focus on key security areas to strengthen in your cloud estate.
Adopt a Zero Trust strategy
The Zero Trust principles form the foundation of the Microsoft security strategy. A Zero Trust strategy consists of three principles:
Verify explicitly. Always authenticate and authorize based on all data points.
Use least privilege. Limit access with just-in-time and just-enough access, adaptive policies, and data protection.
Assume breach. Minimize impact, segment access, ensure end-to-end encryption, and use analytics for visibility and threat detection.
These principles guide the design, implementation, and operation of a cloud estate. Use Microsoft Zero Trust guidance to integrate these principles into your security strategy, align with the Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure, and take advantage of the capabilities in Azure, Microsoft 365, and AI services.
Recommendation
- Adopt Zero Trust. Use the Microsoft Zero Trust guidance to implement Zero Trust principles, which help drive a security-first mindset.
Sign up for the CISO and MCRA workshops
Microsoft offers workshops to help decision-makers and architects apply best practices in cloud adoption:
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) workshop: Focuses on modernizing cybersecurity practices for CISOs and senior leaders
Microsoft Cybersecurity Reference Architecture (MCRA) workshop: Teaches architectural best practices for cloud environments
Both workshops are based on Zero Trust principles and align with the Cloud Adoption Framework, Azure Well-Architected Framework, and security recommendations.
Recommendation
- Consult with team leaders about the CISO and MCRA workshops. Consider investing in one or more Microsoft-led workshops. For more information, see Security adoption resources.