Choosing the Right Cloud Security

Choosing the right cloud security product for your firm is an important decision that requires careful consideration of your needs, goals, and budget. Cloud security solutions help you protect your data, workloads, and applications in the cloud from cyber threats and enable compliance with industry regulations. Each product has its own features, benefits, and limitations, depending on your cloud environment and security requirements.

Some of the factors that you should consider before choosing a cloud security product for your business are:

Your Cloud Security Needs: You should evaluate the sensitivity of your assets, the risks, potential threats, and the level of protection and compliance that you need in the cloud.? It helps if you are able to map your data flows and understand your data life cycle.

Your Cloud Security Budget: You should compare the costs and benefits of different cloud security products, and consider the upfront and ongoing expenses of hardware, software, and maintenance. Look for cloud security solutions that offer flexible and scalable pricing models that suit your business.

Your Cloud Security Provider: Select a security provider that has a good reputation, experience, and expertise in the field of cloud security.? Verify their credentials, certifications and accreditations; as well as their pricing, support, and service level agreements.

Considerations when selecting Cloud Security:

The Type of Data you want to Protect: Different businesses have different data needs. You will be responsible for protecting your clients’ data, your own internal business data, private information related to your employees, and various types of intellectual property.

Which Security Features are Important to Your Business: Not all security solutions offer the same protection and it’s important to decide what features are essential to your business (and clients). A good example is built-in threat intelligence which will improve your security posture;

Your Budget: Cloud security solutions can vary significantly in cost; with some products being out of reach for many smaller law firms. However, there are still affordable solutions which offer excellent protection for Azure and AWS cloud platforms.

Ease of Use: Choose a solution that you’re comfortable using, or if you are using a Cloud MSP, ensure that their solutions provide you with a good user experience and user support service levels. Without in house skills, a complex security platform may potentially leave you more exposed than you realise.

Skill Level: Another thing to consider is the skill level of your team. This doesn’t just mean the knowledge required to install and run security solutions, it also means your capability when handling a major incident or data breach. Solutions which offer Incident Management as a Service, can give you a level of specialist support that could prove critical.

Regular Updates: Cloud security platforms require regular updates to remain effective. A solution which is fully managed by a cloud MSP will ensure that this is done for you without any delays that could lead to temporary vulnerabilities.

Support: Look carefully at the kind of support that is offered. Ideally a solution which offers a Security Operations Centre service will give you the best experience.

Summary: Understand what you are trying to protect and why. If you are a smaller law firm, look for enterprise-level features like threat intelligence and integrated malware analysis at an affordable price. Seek providers that can offer flexible contracts and a level of support that will help you service your clients.