Gone are times, when companies used to have their own large computer networks doing everything themselves. They had to buy all of their servers, all of their networking appliances. They needed the physical space on premises for all of their datacenters...
Now CLOUD has changed all that.
Today, except their LANs, companies can literally build everything else on cloud. Practically, more companies prefer the HYBRID approach, where they keep some essential parts of their infrastructure with themselves, and shift other parts to cloud. Trust me, cloud service providers such as AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, etc are doing fantastic job....
The agility and flexibility that cloud providers offer is great!
If you need to double the data capacity of your network as soon as possible, then you can do this very easily. You only need to change 'your plan' (subscription of services) and do some basic adjustments from your side. That's it!
The cloud services are game-changer, but your still need to know--
• How to manage your computing assets there on the cloud?
• How will you manage the cybersecurity of your cloud assets?
Cloud asset management is a special matter, and it’s absolutely vital for you to understand it right way...
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What is Cloud Asset Management (CAM)?Your company's IT assets are the hardware, software, and networking devices & entities, data & databases, etc.
When you choose to implement of cloud networks, these same IT assets become cloud assets too. For example, you may continue to have your MySQL databases entirely on your own premise servers, else you may shift those to your cloud-based server and data-storage capacity.
Shifting to cloud is relatively easier than making sure that all of your cloud-hosted assets works well. Now I come to the point and say that maintaining SECURITY of these assets, requires you to have a knowledge of 'Cloud Asset Management'.
Put simply, CAM keeps track of every aspect of your cloud estate, managing the maintenance, compliance, upgrading, and disposal of cloud assets.
Since it involves different challenges than managing on-premise assets, you need to know what all is at stake and what all is being offered by cloud service-provider. You need to know what security features are available to you from their side. Don't ever take it granted, because there has been numerous instances when developers and administrators did NOT use the security tools which were there for them to use.
Another big challenge involved in cloud asset management is VISIBILITY into your assets. It can be more difficult in the cloud.
You can’t secure what you can’t see!
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Benefits of Cloud Asset Management (CAM)
Accurate tracking of key applications delivered in the Cloud Overcome the limitations of Cloud portals, by providing access to a single centralized view Expanded access to data and improved analysis and reporting Granular insight into SaaS, IaaS and PaaS usage across your organization Combine Cloud and on-premise deployment data for a complete end-to-end view of your IT ecosystem Accurate, complete view of investments and their usage across the whole IT estate enables better cost control Access all the information needed to ensure a successful migration to the Cloud-
SOME BEST PRACTICESInitially most people find it overwhelming to manage assets on the cloud. But eventually you learn...
Here are few things you can consider:
1. Monitor your cloud as thoroughly as possible
As I afore-mentioned that visibility in cloud networks can be a special challenge. All will come down to one point, i.e., Monitoring your network. Of course, you no longer can walk-in the datacenter (of cloud providers), as you were doing habitually in your own. Thus, you do that only using NETWORKING MONITORING TOOLS.
Your monitoring will ensure that your cloud-provider honors your SLA. You can watch your bandwidth, to ensure that it is meeting your companies needs all the time.
You can watch down-time (or, up-time, better say) to ensure that your cloud assets have excellent availability all the time. Particularly if you could have 1000s of your users depending on your cloud at any given second. Monitor thoroughly and constantly to make sure that your cloud is always capable and reliable.
2. Redundancy and Automation are your friends
When it comes to keeping high-uptime and uninterrupted availability, then right redundancy measures helps you a great deal.
There should be as few single points of failure as possible, preferably ZERO. Redundancy can manifest in everything from having plenty of data backups, to having extra servers, to coding in redundancy. If your cloud provider can host your cloud in multiple sites, that’s great too.
Automation, when well implemented, helps to reduce the possibility of human error, saves labor costs, and also makes everything more efficient. Cloud management tasks are often tedious and repetitive, thus Automation is a help!
3. Have a Risk Management Plan
Got yourself on the cloud...Still you need to have a sound plan for managing your (company's) risks. In order to develop a risk management plan, you first have to figure out what your risks are. Take an inventory of all of your cloud assets and consider all of the applicable possibilities.
You need to have plans ready for natural disasters, cyber attacks, electrical outages, and any other issues which may occur. Have specific procedures for particular risks, and make sure your employees are trained in them.
4. Security Assurance
Furthermore, you have to keep track of your critical security measures with actionable assessments of potential risks and threats to your cloud infrastructure. Automated systems can fix vulnerabilities upon detection, without human intervention – ensuring your business is not left with critical security gaps.
Additionally, you should identify non-compliant cloud resources, and shift them back into compliance immediately. Considering cloud compliance is one of the most vital legal requirements of cloud technology, it's important for you to have rigorous security and compliance checkpoints in place. CAM enables this, by automatically processing regulatory reviews of your cloud estate.
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Cloud asset management delivers visibility and control of all the assets and infrastructure that make up your cloud environment. It's a crucial first step towards a better optimized, more secure cloud.
It enables you to effectively keep ‘track’ of your cloud estate while maintaining the smooth-running of your cloud infrastructure, for real-time visibility of your cloud inventory.
REMEMBER:
Your assets in the cloud deserve the same 
attention 
as assets behind your firewall. The biggest benefit is that it provides you a granular insight into the usage of SaaS, IaaS and PaaS services your company is using.
attention as assets behind your firewall. The biggest benefit is that it provides you a granular insight into the usage of SaaS, IaaS and PaaS services your company is using.Please let me know of what do you think about this post in the comment section. You can also share with all if the information shared here helps you in some manner.
Kindly write your comment on the posts or topics, because when you do that you help me greatly in designing new quality article/post on cybersecurity.This Article Was Written & published by Meena R, Senior Manager - IT, at Luminis Consulting Services Pvt. Ltd, India.
Over the past 16 years, Meena has built a following of IT professionals, particularly in Cybersecurity, Cisco Technologies, and Networking...
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