As days go by, cloud computing becomes more and more effective at helping businesses overcome many of their everyday problems. With an increase in cloud adoption, it’s crucial that businesses are aware of and mitigate against potential risks, protecting their corporate data and applications by investing in a robust solution that offers unbeatable security capabilities.  

As a market leader in the business solution space, Microsoft Azure prides itself on offering unrivalled cyber security and threat management as standard, shielding businesses, their users - and their customers - and data from cyber threats. As such, many view Azure’s enterprise-level cloud security as one of the key reasons for adoption, as companies seek out an easy-to-deploy, all-in-one platform that makes cloud management simple and secure.  

The importance of cloud security  

According to Forbes, 2023 saw a rise in cyberattacks, with data breaches increasing by 71% between 2021 and 2023. With attacks continuing to get increasingly sophisticated, it’s vital to a business’ survival that they’re defending their data and addressing system vulnerabilities.  

Sophisticated attackers are taking advantage of the fact that many businesses are only just – or still are – at the beginning of their cloud journeys, which without security protocols and support in place, puts businesses at serious risk of attack. Attackers are taking advantage of misconfigurations and a lack of experience surrounding the cloud to target vulnerable data, with 80% of data breaches in 2023 involving data in the cloud.  

Unfortunately, this isn’t a mistake a business can afford to make, with cyber-attacks carrying hefty financial and reputational costs that could send a company into a downward spiral. Now more than ever, businesses need to be prioritising the optimisation of their cloud security. 

Exploring Azure’s security functionality 

As cybersecurity threats evolve and become more sophisticated, leveraging Azure's robust security capabilities can significantly enhance a business’ defence mechanisms, ensuring their data, applications, and infrastructure are well-protected.  

Identity and access management 

Microsoft Entra ID is a comprehensive identity and access management solution that significantly enhances organisational security. By integrating advanced features such as Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), Conditional Access, Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and Identity Protection, Microsoft Entra ID ensures robust protection against unauthorised access and potential security threats. 

Advanced threat protection 

Cloud Workload Protection Platform (CWPP). Defender for Cloud includes advanced threat protection for virtual machines, SQL databases, containers, web applications, your network, and more. Extended protection is provided via just-in-time access, file integrity monitoring, vulnerability assessment, adaptive application controls and run-time protection. Defender for Clouds integration with Microsoft Defender XDR allows you to investigate attacks across cloud resources, devices, and identities. 

Simplified compliance  

Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) is one of Microsoft Defender for Cloud's main pillars. CSPM provides detailed visibility into the security state of your assets and workloads and provides hardening guidance to help you efficiently and effectively improve your security posture. Defender for Cloud continually assesses your resources against the industry leading security standards, of your choice, and issues security recommendations based on these assessments. An aggregated secure score allows you to quickly assess your risk level. 

Additionally, Microsoft Azure runs in geographically dispersed datacentres that comply with key industry standards, such as ISO/IEC 27001:2013 and NIST SP 800-53, for security and reliability.  

Ongoing security updates 

Microsoft continuously monitors and updates the Azure Infrastructure with the latest security patches and enhancements. This proactive management includes updating the operating systems, hypervisors, and other components that constitute the Azure platform. For areas where the customer has responsibility, Microsoft provides a variety of comprehensive tools to ensure you can maintain a strong security posture. 

Access enhanced cloud security 

Take advantage of the security benefits that Azure has to offer and put your mind at ease by contacting our security experts today.