The 2023 Cloud Security Report, sponsored by Fortinet, surveyed 752 cybersecurity professionals from around the globe and across all industries. Most respondents (90%) say having a single cloud security platform to configure and manage security consistently across their cloud deployments would be helpful. Do you think? This isn’t very surprising.

Security silos are a massive problem in cloud computing. Mostly they occur in specific cloud brands when companies only use the native security tools for that specific cloud. When you have three to five different cloud providers, as most multicloud deployments do, you have at least three to five security silos.

Security silos
I usually see even more silos since many enterprises create security domains around collections of applications, of which there can be many in a single cloud. Multiply that by the number of clouds you’re leveraging. It’s too complex, too inefficient, and too unsafe. Most breaches exploit this issue: Misconfigurations are the primary attack vector.

Rapid response means that centralized cloud security allows for faster detection and response to potential threats. When security events occur, centralized security tools can quickly identify and mitigate risks across the entire cloud infrastructure. Prompt responses to security incidents can minimize impacts.

Do you have what it takes to be a CIO in today's changing environment?
SponsoredPost Sponsored by Chrome Enterprise

Do you have what it takes to be a CIO in today's changing environment?

The CIO role continues to evolve. Staying on top of the technologies and trends driving digital business is one key to success. Take this quiz to see how in sync you are with your peers.

Reduced duplication and complexity are key to why you want a supercloud or metacloud to remove security silos. Centralized security eliminates the need for individual implementations for each application or service hosted on the cloud. This reduces duplication of efforts, simplifies security architectures, and leads to overall cost savings.

Scalability and agility mean that centralized cloud security solutions are designed to expand rapidly as needed. Organizations can scale their cloud infrastructure while maintaining consistent security. Also, they can more easily make changes since they’re likely only changing security systems on a single platform.


It isn’t easy
Now the bad news. For those of you with existing security solutions and silos (most of you), switching to centralized security is expensive, risky, and time-consuming. Although you can “cut over” one security silo at a time to a centralized platform, it won’t be as easy to select a single centralized platform. The likely scenario will be a collection of technologies for governance, finops, encryption, identity management, etc., to get to a more optimal solution.

Moreover, I’m not sure how many security pros understand how to do this. Perhaps they get what it is and the value it can bring (by reading this article), but can they handle the 30 to 40 steps it takes to get to a successful deployment? This is perhaps the biggest complaint of enterprises attempting to centralize their security services, cloud or not.


Rapid response means that centralized cloud security allows for faster detection and response to potential threats. When security events occur, centralized security tools can quickly identify and mitigate risks across the entire cloud infrastructure. Prompt responses to security incidents can minimize impacts.

Do you have what it takes to be a CIO in today's changing environment?
SponsoredPost Sponsored by Chrome Enterprise

Do you have what it takes to be a CIO in today's changing environment?

The CIO role continues to evolve. Staying on top of the technologies and trends driving digital business is one key to success. Take this quiz to see how in sync you are with your peers.

Reduced duplication and complexity are key to why you want a supercloud or metacloud to remove security silos. Centralized security eliminates the need for individual implementations for each application or service hosted on the cloud. This reduces duplication of efforts, simplifies security architectures, and leads to overall cost savings.

Scalability and agility mean that centralized cloud security solutions are designed to expand rapidly as needed. Organizations can scale their cloud infrastructure while maintaining consistent security. Also, they can more easily make changes since they’re likely only changing security systems on a single platform.


It isn’t easy
Now the bad news. For those of you with existing security solutions and silos (most of you), switching to centralized security is expensive, risky, and time-consuming. Although you can “cut over” one security silo at a time to a centralized platform, it won’t be as easy to select a single centralized platform. The likely scenario will be a collection of technologies for governance, finops, encryption, identity management, etc., to get to a more optimal solution.

Moreover, I’m not sure how many security pros understand how to do this. Perhaps they get what it is and the value it can bring (by reading this article), but can they handle the 30 to 40 steps it takes to get to a successful deployment? This is perhaps the biggest complaint of enterprises attempting to centralize their security services, cloud or not.