Why Privileged Identity Management (PIM) is Critical for Businesses Using the Cloud

"Privileged accounts are a prime target for cybercriminals..."

Privileged Identity Management (PIM) is an essential security practice for businesses using the cloud. It focuses on securing and managing privileged accounts and access rights within an organisation. In this blog post, we will explore the importance of PIM for businesses, particularly those using the cloud, and why every business should consider implementing it as part of their comprehensive cybersecurity strategy.

What is PIM?

PIM refers to the processes, policies, and technologies used to manage and secure privileged accounts and access rights within an organisation. Cybercriminals often target privileged accounts as a means of gaining access to sensitive information and systems. PIM aims to reduce the risks associated with privileged accounts by providing a central solution for managing and securing these accounts. It involves identifying, managing, controlling access, and monitoring privileged account activity.

Importance of PIM for Businesses

Privileged accounts are a prime target for cybercriminals, and a breach can result in severe consequences, including data theft, business disruption, and reputational damage. PIM is essential for businesses because it helps to mitigate the risks associated with privileged accounts. By implementing PIM, businesses can control who has access, monitor, detect and respond to suspicious behaviour, and reduce the impact of a breach if one occurs.

Why Every Business Using the Cloud Needs PIM

Cloud computing has transformed the way businesses operate, providing flexibility, scalability, and cost savings. However, the cloud also presents new security challenges, particularly when it comes to privileged accounts. Cloud environments typically have many privileged accounts that can access critical resources, making them attractive targets for cybercriminals. PIM is especially important for businesses using the cloud because it provides a central solution for managing and securing privileged accounts across all cloud services and platforms. With PIM, businesses can identify and manage privileged accounts, enforce access controls, and monitor activity. Implementing PIM in the cloud can also help businesses to meet compliance requirements.

Conclusion

PIM is a critical component of a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy, particularly for businesses using cloud computing. By implementing PIM, businesses can manage and secure privileged accounts, control access to critical resources, and monitor privileged activity. PIM can help to reduce the risk and mitigate the impact of a breach if one occurs. Every business using the cloud should consider implementing PIM as part of their cybersecurity strategy to protect against the growing threat of account breaches.

If you’d like a member of QuoStar’s consulting teams to assess your risks and advise on potential controls, without obligation, please contact us.

Cloud computing – How can companies maximise their investment?

Cloud computing investment

 

Many organisations have seen their cloud computing bills rise and rise – when many costs have gone down over the last 12 months, in both public and private platforms.

 

So, how should organisations be reviewing their cloud computing to ensure that they are paying the right price for the right cloud infrastructure?

 

Review licensing of your cloud computing regularly

It’s worth regularly reviewing licensing, particularly around the Microsoft stack. Microsoft makes regular changes to licensing, particularly around cloud-based services; some small adjustments can deliver significant savings within an estate. It’s worth noting that many organisations are doubling-up on licensing, particularly when using Azure and Microsoft licensing, i.e. Not using the Azure Hybrid Benefit program. If you bundle this program with reserved instances, then savings of up to 80% can be made.

 

Reserved Instances

Ensure that you are using reserved instances where appropriate. Many organisations are still using pay as you go billing and ultimately losing out versus locking in pricing for a year or more. In some scenarios you can save more than 70% with reserved instances.

 

Price matching between cloud computing providers

Most public and private cloud providers will match their direct competitors on price. If you are up for renewal on your cloud platform or not in contract it’s important to take this into account. Also, even if you are in contract it may be worth speaking to your provider about extending your contract term for a reduced monthly fee.

 

Look at containers

Cloud containers are lighter weight than virtual machines and thus cost less. Look at your applications. See which you can repackage into containers to reduce the VM footprint and also costs.

 

Testing environments

Many organisations are paying to host their development and testing environments. This is typically unnecessary, and most cloud providers will allow you to run these workloads and licenses at a significantly reduced cost.

 

Move from database virtual machines

Often, due to technical and operational familiarity, a lot of databases sit on VMs when they could sit in an elastic database. You can gain significant cost-savings, resiliency and often security, without a huge amount of work.

 

Look for redundant disks

So many cloud estates have idle disks lurking around with them. It’s important to identify where these are as they will be costing you every month. Most cloud providers, particularly within the public cloud arena make this easy, i.e. Look at the disk owner (or lack of) within the Azure portal’s disk screen.

 

Look at storage tiering

It’s easy overtime for data usage on disks to change. It’s important to ensure that the right data is stored on the right type of disk. That will ensure you are paying the right amount to store or process that data. Storage tiering, particularly automatic storage tiering, if not in use already should be evaluated to get the right balance for spend vs performance.

 

If you’d like an audit of your cloud platforms to validate that you have the right cloud infrastructure at the right price get in touch now.