One of the reliable sources of cloud access security broker reports is Gartner. Gartner is one of the biggest companies that report about technologies today, especially the cloud access security broker.
What is the report? If you are interested, let’s find out below.
What Is The Gartner Reports About Cloud Access Security Broker?
In Gartner’s report, they share what cloud access security brokers are, how they work, and then the method to use them. You can also see some examples of how cloud access security brokers work.
How Does It Work?
Gartner’s report has three sections to help you understand it better. Here are the sections:
- Definition And Functionality
- How They Work
- Cases And Deployments
Let us tackle it in detail information below.
1. Definition And Functionality
The first section explains the definition and functionality of cloud access security brokers. The report mentions that cloud access security brokers are a vital part of a cloud computing strategy.
It is because access security brokers can help you manage users and data and prevent data loss. Gartner’s report also explains that cloud access security brokers are often deployed to meet compliance, regulations, and internal policies.
Here are other things about cloud access security brokers:
- It is a software layer between the applications and the cloud infrastructure.
- They can be installed on-premise or on the cloud side of your organization.
- They are a part of a hybrid cloud solution.
- Cloud users can access any application with a single login.
Cloud access security brokers can be integrated with other identity management services. Such as directory services, user provisioning, and so on.
They can help you maintain your existing security posture without changing your infrastructure or applications. They can also manage the risks of private clouds and hybrid clouds.
2. How Do They Work?
The second section explains how they work. The report mentions that it is very important to understand how cloud access security brokers work for you to get all the benefits that you want from them.
They work by abstracting the cloud infrastructure from application-related considerations such as:
- Authentication
- Authorization
- data protection
They support various authentication mechanisms. Such as username/password, multi-factor authentication, digital certificates, smart cards, and more.
Their mechanism for authorization or approval is very flexible and supports multiple methods like configurable roles. Also, fine-grained policies that define what users can do with which resources in what way, etc.
They also support various methods for policy enforcement like:
- encryption of data at rest or in transit
- token-based authentication (or two-factor authentication)
- role-based authorization
- transaction auditing
- etc.
These features make them much more flexible than traditional network perimeter firewalls or even virtual private networks (VPNs).
3. Cases And Deployments
The third section gives some examples of how cloud access security brokers work in real-life scenarios. It is by using different technologies like applications servers such as Windows Server 2008 R2 Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).
Along with Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS) technology. It is to deliver Windows applications and desktops on-demand to mobile users anywhere.
It is via a web browser anywhere over the Internet via Microsoft Office 365 in the public cloud. So this way they have added an extra layer of protection to protect their data.
Or by using web application firewalls (WAFs) such as Cloudflare and Akamai. It is to protect the application and its data.
It is by using a cloud access security broker, that it is possible to have a single sign-on solution across multiple cloud applications. And this can be done without changing your applications or your identity management infrastructure.