Cloud Access Security Broker: Definition. CASBs are becoming increasingly important for businesses looking to secure their cloud environments. In this article, we’ll look at five key things you should consider before signing up for a CASB.
Best Practices for Using Cloud Access Security Brokers
Cloud access security brokers (CASBs) are becoming increasingly important for businesses looking to secure their cloud environments. In this article, we’ll look at five key things you should consider before signing up for a CASB.
Planning
Planning is the first step in any project. The more thought that goes into the planning phase, the easier it will be to implement and manage the CASB. This includes having a clear understanding of your organization’s current environment. Also,its requirements and security challenges, as well as a clear picture of what your ideal environment looks like.
It’s also important to understand how your organization intends to use cloud services and identify potential concerns about security. Finally, you need to factor in any regulatory or compliance mandates that will affect how you will use cloud services.
The goal of this phase is to identify your CASB needs and requirements, as well as the key challenges you face when attempting to secure your cloud environment. Once this work is done, you can start looking at specific solutions and vendors. We’ll discuss these solutions in the next section when we look at specific considerations when choosing a CASB solution.
Vendor Selection
Once you have planned out what you want from your CASB solution, it’s time to identify potential vendors that can help meet those needs. There are two main factors that should drive your decision: functionality and cost. Specifically, you’re looking for a vendor that provides the features that are right for you at a price that fits your budget.
While cost is always a consideration, don’t cut yourself short by choosing a cheap solution or one that doesn’t meet all of your needs just to save money. Spend some time researching different solutions and considering what they offer at different price points before making a decision.
Functionality
Functionality is another important factor in vendor selection because it directly impacts how much value you get out of your purchase. You want to make sure that the features provided are going to give you enough insight into what’s happening with cloud services in your environment as well as provide enough protection for sensitive data leaving your network and entering the cloud services.
For example, if you’re using Office 365 or Salesforce for sales force automation, email archiving should be included so data can be protected from accidental deletion or modification by anyone other than authorized users, which may be an issue if your organization has multiple salespeople.
Implemented, configured, managed and monitored
Once you’ve decided on a vendor and solution, you should look at how the product will fit in your environment. This will help you understand how the CASB will be implemented, configured, managed and monitored. For example, if you have a strict budget for implementing the product, you’ll need to make sure that the vendor offers a free trial period so you can test the product before making any commitments.
Also, think about how much effort it will take to install and configure the product. This is where having a clear understanding of your organization’s IT infrastructure will come in handy. If it’s a complex system, it may take more than a typical implementation to get the CASB up and running properly.
Ultimately, choosing a vendor should be based on whether or not the product meets all of your needs for security and compliance. Look for vendors that offer flexible pricing structures so you can get exactly what you need without overpaying.